Pressed shift paddle down while driving automatic in 2013 acura mdx?

[tmacfan1121]

While I was driving my acura mdx on automatic transmission, I pressed the shift paddle down by accident. I noticed the car slowed down immediately. Then i accelerated and its speed was back to normal. Will this cause any damage to the engine? I am worried because I heard that using manual transmission incorrectly can damage the engine.

[Roger]

No you will not hurt the engine or transmission in this case. It is easy to do things by accident until you get used to what every button does. The engineers who built the car have programmed a certain amount of abuse that is considered normal and in this case it sounds like you downshifted and when you lifted your foot and put it back down everything was fine. You do not want to do this if you decided to get in a drag race or something or had your foot to the floor trying to see how fast it would go. You will keep that little mistake in your minds eye now forever so don't worry you now know what NOT TO DO so congratulations. As long as your car starts up normal and drives like normal in the morning it should be just fine. As a general rule of thumb when I do something similar and the car seems to be running fine I wait until the car cools down overnight because I know that when a car is cold after sitting overnight any potential problems will be more likely to show up first thing in the morning.
This is true when test driving used cars as well. A good used car will start up cold and after a few minutes warm up should be able to get up to 55 miles per hour easily. Some worn out engines and transmissions may make loud noises and smoke rattle and bang. or refuse to even move until they are warmed up for 5 to 10 minutes. The owner may try to dump the crap car on someone else by warming it up really good before someone comes to test drive it. I insist on a cold start test drive and plan on driven a used car for up to 40 minutes to an hour in necessary. Then if I am still interested I will have a mechanic do a 100 dollar inspection

[Tiko]

no it wont cause any problems, what you did is called downshifting which just slowed down your car because you went into a lower gear. dont worry