Hello everyone. I recently experienced an issue with my '08s transmission and I was wondering if any of my fellow Smarties had experienced the same. I recently parked my smart to run in to my work and I left it running as I had a passenger in the car with the A/C on. As I was halfway out of the car and my foot came off the brake, the car began to move while it was in park!! I was dragged a couple of feet then my ankle and foot were run over as I fell out of the car which stopped only after hitting a tree. Again the shifter was in park the whole time as verified not only by myself, but by my passenger.
Smart said they thoroughly inspected the transmission and found no issue. The same thing they said the first time I took it in for the now infamous "it won't go into reverse issue" that many of us have had.
Has any one else had a similar experience? If so, did the Smart center find the underlying issue? Thanks for the help.
It's a huge software problem if the creep mode is applying itself while the dash reads P!
As a side note, if you actually used your parking brake the creep mode would be disabled right off the bat. It shouldn't have enabled in park, but the parking brake is there for a reason.
While an automated manual transmission should never engage a clutch when in park, you shouldn't experience this problem again if you use the parking brake.
I hope the damage wasn't much to either your foot or the car!
My Dad had a Ford Wagon that would do the same thing. Put it in park and it would jump into reverse. He had to repair the drivers door twice from hitting things after he put it in park and got out with the motor running. Ford's "fix" was to put a sticker on the steering column saying to engage the parking brake and to shut off the motor before exiting the vehicle.
When I get out of my car, the keys are in my hand.
The parking prawl is a mechanical link that locks the transmission in P like an regular car with an automatic.. if that linkage has popped off or not connected... it would just roll... but if the emergency brakes are on it shouldn't move neither.
Note:
Nothing is mentioned in the OP about a parking brake...
Page 125 of the Operations Manual in a gray box:
Warning!
Getting out of your vehicle with the
transmission not fully engaged in park
position P is dangerous. When the engine
is shut off and the brakes are released,
the vehicle can be moved freely with the
gear selector lever in all positions ex-
cept park position P. Also, when parked
on an incline, park position P alone may
not prevent your vehicle from moving,
possibly hitting people or objects. Always set the parking brake in addition
to shifting to park position P.
When parked on an incline, always turn
the front wheels towards the road curb.
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