Transmission Jump from Drive to Reverse?

[Steven111]

I did a search and, while I found tons of Explorer tranny problems, I did not see this one.

2006 Eddie Bauer V6, 220k miles

My Daughter says a few weeks ago while backing from a parking spot she shifted to drive and hit the gas and it was still in reverse. Fast forward to....

Today, she said she was driving forward normally on a secondary road, came to a stop behind another car who was turning left, let off the brake, hit the gas to resume going forward, and the car rapidly went backwards in reverse -- not drifted back like it was in neutral, but rapidly like it was in reverse. Like it went from "D" to "R" all by itself but the shifter never moved from "D".

I am still wondering if she somehow accidentally knocked it into reverse while waiting for the car in front of her, but just in case she didn't, has anyone heard of this phenomenon in Explorers, and if so what might it be.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[Tech By Trade]

Never heard of that one before. Your daughter know that R does not stand for radio?

 

[Steven111]

Yes, she knows, LOL. She has driven this car for 2 years, so she knows it well, and swears it did this on its own......

 

[Steven111]

I drove it myself, tried many times to replicate it, it worked perfectly every time. I gotta put it down to operator error -- maybe waiting on oncoming traffic bumped the shifter, etc.

I can't find another case of this happening and can't duplicate it and can't imagine it -- it is a 2 position shift from D to R!