Agrivated at myself (A classic RTFM story)

[Beaker]

So I am an idiot

I give anyone and everyone my permission to point and laugh at me and tell me to 'RTFM'

I have a '04 SE with the popular package. (The shifter is located in the center console, not on the steering colum) This is also my first automatic car I've owned. I dont know much about automatic transmissions.

So i was driving down the 405.....and i looked down and noticed my shifter was to the right, in the '4D' slot and I move it to the left. I noticed the motor jumped up 500 rpm's.....w...t...f...

So this whole time I've owned my tuck, I've assumed the slot for the '4D' is the same, no matter if its on the left or right. I just thought it was a notch to keep you from bumping it into nutral, I didnt know it was a slot for 'Drive' and when you move it to the left, its 4th gear (i just assumed this truck had 4 gears)

11,000 miles and roughly 840 gallons later, I figure out why I have such crappy gas mileage.

[TallTexan]

Been there , done that.

[Gig'em]

My dad did the same thing. I let him drive the truck when I got it and he commented on how smooth the tranny was. I looked down after ten miles to see that he had the thing in 4th the whole time. He liked the performance a lot more when we switched to D.

[azxr]

I did it myself for the first 100 miles. Not used to 5 speeds.

[phillipyang]

lol, you guys are just hilarious. 5 Gears are the reason why we have such a perfomance gap compared to other trucks. Having it in 4th gear is like a handicap!

[Vegas04]

that's pretty funny. i've done that in my wife's altima. (I have the column shifter in my titan) the engine noise at 75mph must have been pretty depressing, too!

[tnbowhunter]

tsk tsk,

[37L1]

Sorry, but I've got to wonder what your test drive was like. . . . .

[Tyltan]

Man, I thought I was the only one. It happened to me on my test drive of the Titan (not the one I bought). After 10 min. of test drive in 4D, the car engine got a very bad "burning" smell. I stopped the car and look around. Get back in and put the car back in drive and I realized that I just drive it in 4D. Lucky, I tested drive the car by myself.

[loufish]

the engine noise at 75mph must have been pretty depressing, too!

I traded in a 98' Ranger, w/ 32" tires & 4:10 gears, so when I left it(the Titans trans) in 4th, it sounded right to me.

[KL99SEA]

My wife thought 4D was 4 wheel drive so she left it in 3 for her 1st trip in the truck.

[VShortt]

There are LED's in the instrument cluster that show what gear the truck is in. Also, when shifting the truck first goes to D and you have to physically push to the left to make it go into 4. I guess you were always making that one additional push. What gets me is that when you push the gear selector to the left to go to 4, the LED on the cluster moves to the right. I realize that they were lining up the LED's in order but it just seems weird. Shift between the two (with the console shift style) and watch the LED's and you will see what I mean.
That's pretty funny but funnier yet was the guy that said his wife drove his truck in 3 because she thought 4D meant 4 wheel drive. Bless her heart.

[keiffers]

I've never put it into 4th gear....LOL I've only had problems when I've driven my mom's Altima....now that one I can see how easily it would be put between the OD slot and just a lower gear LOL

[Squid]

Hey Beaker don't feel to bad I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that there are a lot of people who have viewed this and went