Knowing the inexperience of a new driver my son (just got his license) was parked in our Montero. I was gonna let him drive home from the school and we swapped sides. He must have thought the ignition was still on and he shifted to reverse. Inadvertently, we started rolling backwards and he shifted back to park while the car was still moving but heard a terrible grinding noise. We didn't stop until we hit the curb. The car also hesitated to start after the ordeal but got it going again after a few minutes.

So my question is would this grinding cause damage or be of concern?

 

Probabaly the parking pawl grinding, does it roll in park?

 

literally no, but it sometimes eases back to a certain extent. I'm just hoping nothing major happened

 

been doing some research and found this

How exactly could I check if anything was wrong? Should I take it to the shop immediately?

 

Its gonna move a little bit when you put the car in park and release the brake. As long as its not rolling in park your fine.

 

X2 what the prior poster said. Stop on a (really) slight rise, put it in park without the handbrake on and ease up on the brake pedal. If it starts to roll and/or makes the same grinding noise you've got pawl trouble. If not, then you should be fine.

But this may be important - I'm not sure if the pawl mechanism is inside the transmission case or at the flywheel. If it's inside the case (experts please jump in) then you should consider having the transmission fluid flushed to get rid of any metal shavings. It's not a bad idea to have it done anyway if the truck is high mileage. Mitsu dealers have a special flushing service for about $160. Not sure I'd trust the drive through folks.

 

The parking pwal is inside the trans, I wouldn't suggesut flushing b/c it happen once.