Can a Missed Shift Damage a Transmission?

Not much damage to a stick unless you are stupid enough to try grinding it into gear. However it would be REAL easy to grenade the engine.

Steve W.

Depends on what you mean by a "missed shift," but potentially you could have broken either some synchronizers or even main gear teeth. I'd be more worried about the ENGINE unless it has a rev limiter....

As noted below the worst damage a full power shift could do would be to destroy synchronizers and gear teeth and crash valves into pistons and throw a loose timing belt or chain and loosen up some bearings and destroy a clutch. It's a long list but you wanted the worst possible. Ultimately the worstest damage will be to your pocketbook.

What do you mean by "missed shift"? The worst would be an exploding flywheel, pressure plate, and bell housing that sends hot metal fragments through the car, through you, and out the roof.

Actually, I should have phrased the question differently.

The other day, I was accelerating out of a turn, and when I tried to upshift, the car suddenly lost power. I thought it might be a transmission problem, and I was preparing myself for the possibility that the dealer might try to deny warranty coverage by saying that I had somehow caused the damage. I wanted to get an idea of the worst case scenario so I could better evaluate any such claim by the dealer.

Turns out it was not the transmission at all - it was a broken half-shaft.

I once bought a used small International walk in van.One night I was at a movie theater.When the movie was over and I got back to my van and started driving, (slant four cylinder engine, basically, the right hand side of an International V8 engine) on my way to work, (I worked the grave yard shift at a cotton oil plant) the engine started making a loud knocking noise.I drove that old van around like that for a few days.When I finally got around to removing the oil pan to take a look, I discovered the crank shaft was broken between the rear connecting rod and the connecting rod next to the rear connecting rod. cuhulin