By
bhp, April 29, 2015
today, by accident, while going 40 km per hour, I knocked it into N from D,
withoug pushing the button, I noticed that this is fairly easy to do...
from D to N, its easy, too easy, is this normal ??
I noticed from N to P, its locked and cannot go in while in motion...
And is it safe to push it back into D from N, which I did while car was going
with the traffic ??
Is this normal operation ??
Perfectly normal - you are good to go.
Now dropping into D from N, depends on the revs, might notice a slight shock as it engages drive. But from D to N, supposed to be easy as there is little chance of engine powertrain damage.
Though inadvertent engagement could be problematic (merging with traffic, entering an intersection, etc.) - so lots of the newer cars have gated shifters to prevent it from easily sliding out of drive.
Dan{T.O.O}
I heard it was deliberately made that way. If your brakes fail then you can bang it into N and then apply the hand brakes to slow down to a stop... don't know if that's true or not.
Dan_H
In that case, it would probably be better to leave it in gear, or downshift, for the engine braking.