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My car's little rampage while I was at dinner.

1K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  Leon 
#1 ·
So its been a while since I've posted. Car's been pretty well behaved. But I had an awkward occurance this past weekend. I went out to dinner with some friends the other night. My car was parked on the side of a street. I didn't drive but we came back around 11:15 to find two police cars blocking the street that my car was on because a car was perpendicular to the flow of traffic and up against a car. Well guess whose car it was. MINE! So at that point it was a mystery to me how my car ended up going down 40 feet of a hill and then decided to turn and hit another car. The officer in charge of the report (who my friend knows, but turns out to be a know-it-all) tells me that a buddy of his had an automatic transmission Saab and had the same problem. Apparently the Aisin-Warner trans are known to pop themselves out of park? So before I move the car out of the road we try rolling it to see if its still in neutral, but of course it's not. Its in park and not wiling to move on it's own anymore. So I parked my car at the bottom of the hill and left it for the night. Well, I didn't look when I left because I was busy digging my car out of a snow drift, but when I got home, the front of my car had been hit my another vehicle, dented my hood in and left a circular 'cut' mark on my bumper above the license plate, and misaligned my headlight. So now the chain of events is that someone backed into the front end of my car, popped my car out of park, it rolled down the hill and then went into another car. All the while, the jerk who hit my car must have seen this happening! Now I'm probably stuck with the bill. And now I have to get the report amended. Oh the fun!

So now the questions I have: Are the NG900 tranmissions known to pop themselves out of park on their own? I know it was fully engaged when I was getting out because the car rolled back and I heard the click. Like I said, the officer was adament that these transmissions are notorious for doing that. Thats BS, I've never read before about this happening. And then obviously, are auto trans known to pop themselves out of park when impacted? And if so, what kind of speed is required to pop it out?
 
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#2 ·
Slaab4life said:
So its been a while since I've posted. Car's been pretty well behaved. But I had an awkward occurance this past weekend. I went out to dinner with some friends the other night. My car was parked on the side of a street. I didn't drive but we came back around 11:15 to find two police cars blocking the street that my car was on because a car was perpendicular to the flow of traffic and up against a car. Well guess whose car it was. MINE! So at that point it was a mystery to me how my car ended up going down 40 feet of a hill and then decided to turn and hit another car. The officer in charge of the report (who my friend knows, but turns out to be a know-it-all) tells me that a buddy of his had an automatic transmission Saab and had the same problem. Apparently the Aisin-Warner trans are known to pop themselves out of park? So before I move the car out of the road we try rolling it to see if its still in neutral, but of course it's not. Its in park and not wiling to move on it's own anymore. So I parked my car at the bottom of the hill and left it for the night. Well, I didn't look when I left because I was busy digging my car out of a snow drift, but when I got home, the front of my car had been hit my another vehicle, dented my hood in and left a circular 'cut' mark on my bumper above the license plate, and misaligned my headlight. So now the chain of events is that someone backed into the front end of my car, popped my car out of park, it rolled down the hill and then went into another car. All the while, the jerk who hit my car must have seen this happening! Now I'm probably stuck with the bill. And now I have to get the report amended. Oh the fun!

So now the questions I have: Are the NG900 tranmissions known to pop themselves out of park on their own? I know it was fully engaged when I was getting out because the car rolled back and I heard the click. Like I said, the officer was adament that these transmissions are notorious for doing that. Thats BS, I've never read before about this happening. And then obviously, are auto trans known to pop themselves out of park when impacted? And if so, what kind of speed is required to pop it out?

I heard this same story twice before with parked cars; 1 down a hill and the other in a sloped garage entrance. Not too common though so you can't say it's a common issue or SAAB would've had a recall.
 
#3 ·
Upon being hit, if the automatic transmission does not "pop" itself out of park and run thru a cycle, it could be destroyed.. This is what I think..

Hit and run accidents are far more common than this occurance.. And some will forget and not use the handbrake and leave the car in neutral and then lie about it - blaming the automatic transmission.
The "know-it-all" cop should keep his opinions to himself.
Fear and human error are the problems.
 
#4 ·
Well I got my hands on the report, besides the usual blah blah blah he added:

"It is possible that an internal problem in the transmission caused the vehicle to disengage from park and roll backward down the street."

I'm dissapointed he didn't notice the big fresh dent in my hood (since he was the one with a flashlight). Now I need to catch him somehow during his night shift.
 
#7 ·
I don't mean to hyjack this thread, but have a manual transmission and the e-brake only works when I have the car in reverse. I park on a hill, so if I park and put the car in N and engage the e-brake, my car still rolls back. If I put it in R and put the brake on, it doesn't budge.
Why is that?
 
#9 ·
KaMiKaZi_t0M said:
I don't mean to hyjack this thread, but have a manual transmission and the e-brake only works when I have the car in reverse. I park on a hill, so if I park and put the car in N and engage the e-brake, my car still rolls back. If I put it in R and put the brake on, it doesn't budge.
Why is that?
The E-brake isn't working in either case; you are just taking the weight of the car on the transmission instead.
 
#10 ·
Weather you have a stick shift or an automatic and want to park down a hill, the trick is to turn the wheels toward the curb. If the car gets out of gear it wouldn't be able to move much more than a few inches before the turned wheel touches the curb and stop the car from moving further.
 
#12 ·
Umm, yea, if the transmission "POP" out of Park, something sure as hell got damaged in the casing and more than likely would never again go into Park, ever! Man I hate ****ing cops.
 
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