09 Lancer ES Automatic CVT

I was driving, about 15mph-20mph, messing with my Ipod and accidently shifted from D to L. Car made a sound like it was braking hard. What happened, is there any damage? Should I have it looked at?

What is L used for

God damnt

Thank you.

L is the low gear, most people never use it but if you were going downhill for a long time and you wanted to maintain a slow speed without using your brakes constantly, you can shift into L (aka 1st gear) and let the engine brake for you. It has other purposes as well.

Good thing you were going slow, though the lancer likes to get up to its max gear as fast as possible so it was probably already in 4th. Personally, if it still drives fine and isnt acting weird, it should be good. But I am no mechanic. When you shifted it, the wheels probably slowed down due to the engine and skidded a bit, just my guess. that noise you herd could just have been the engine going from low RPM(probably 1500-2000) to suddenly high RPM(5000-7000) which would make the engine roar like mad. You do have a warranty just in case though! So rest easy

Most modern day transmissions are really smart, and usually are electronically prevented from going over the maximum engine speed of the car. So if you were driving in L for a long time and went up to, lets say 40mph, it would automatically shift to 2nd gear to save its own butt from human error. I would have a mechanic check the transmission fluid to see if its burnt if you are truly paranoid. Hope this helps!

You should be fine. You basically just downshifted the car manually. L is low gear. It's like the same thing as if someone with a manual downshifted too low for the speed their going. The noise you heard was the low gear engaging and rpms going up. That would make a loud noise from the engine and the car probably jerked like you slammed on the brakes. Even if you red lined and hit the rev limiter, as long as it was only for a quick few seconds you'd still be fine. Since you were going 20mph you wouldn't hurt the tranny and the rev limiter is a safety mechanism so you don't get the rpm's too high. If the car is working fine, I wouldn't worry about it.

There is no need to fret the braking you felt was called engine braking and it occurs when you place the car in a low gear and is used when going up or down a hill when you shift it intentionally lol but on your case it was an accident

Mitsubishi plans for people to shift there car in low gear no matter the speed or rpms so you cannot damage it. Cars go through more tests then you know which ties into what duffmaster said about modern day transmissions being really smart.

None the less if you read the manual there is NO CAUTION WHAT SO EVER for damaging your car by putting your car at a lower gear. The only caution there is states that IF YOU DO PUT YOUR CAR in low gear unexpectedly or at the wrong time you can cause an accident because the car WILL SLOW DOWN unexpectedly due to the engine braking and your tires can skid and cause an accident. The page I am refering to is Section 3 Page 100 if you want to read it for yourself. So to answer your question no your car is not damaged at all. Just be careful not to do that if someone is following to close behind you cause your car WILL slow down unexpectedly and you could be in an accident.

lol, i used to intentionally do that with an old pickup i had. made the pipes rumble and pop. never had a problem with the tranny or engine. just a problem with the cops and my "defective muffler". it didn't have a muffler (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

i did the exact same thing and a rocker baering broke so i had to rebuild my engine. if u hear a clicking noise coming from deep in the engine thats what it is. then again my car had 180,000 miles on it u should be fine.

99%positive you did no damage.

ha, reminds me of my dumbass days. when i was 15 i drove an auto buick regal and used to rev it up in N then throw the lever to D and make the tires squeek.

and that car made it past 240K so i'm sure your fine. just don't make it a habbit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

Not to burst your bubble, but I don't recall a CVT having an "L" drive. I drive the GTS CVT and my car doesn't have one. Regardless of that you should be fine as everyone else has stated. The engine likes to run at around 2~2.5k on the revs so that is why when you run it in high revs the car will slow down if you are not stepping on the gas to keep the revs up. You essentially engine braked. Nothing to worry about.

no bubbles bursted here but yours (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) haha jk but the ES and DE CVTs do have L gear, its the gts that have the sportonic mode.

Oh I do this all the time when I need to accelerate quicker. I just give it a little less than half throttle and drop it down to L, its almost as fun as having a stick! Funny joke right? But no it hasn't made any effect on my engine or the way my car runs. It just add a little bit of fun to the lack of acceleration the ES Sport has.

I guess I was misinformed. Thank you for the clarification. Mitsubishi does weird stuff to their cars... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)