Autoshifting to Neutral

hold it then.. holding doesn't matter...

it's designed to do this when only up to speed.. so.. it shouldn't do it while sitting.

if it is.. you need to replace that gear shifter. it's one of the very few problems with the car. i hear the inside sensors go out.. causing confusion to the car.

when the car is confused about what gear to be in.. it drops it into N to help keep people from destroying the car while in motion. but it's supposed to be in motion.. and you're not.

 

My guess is that when the shifter knob snaps back to it's rest position, the switch for the "N" position is still closed. Therefore after a few seconds, it switches into neutral.

If it were operating normally, the following would happen... Upon shifting into "D" and releasing the knob, it would stay in "D". Then, if you pushed the knob to the "N" position and held it there for a couple of seconds, it would shift from "D" to "N".

Since your's stays in "D" for a couple of seconds and then shifts into "N", it would appear that it thinks you are holding it in the "N" position even when the knob is at it's rest position.

Does it shift from park to neutral on it's own if you sit there with your foot on the brake?

 

I had this happen today on my 2004 Prius. I had previously gone through a car wash 2 miles before a gas station, and just filled with gas(topped off with 3 gallons), drove about a mile to a stoplight. After which couldn't move more than 10-40 feet before the car switched itself to Neutral automatically. Was able to keep switching to Drive to pull into a very close parking space. Afterwards, need to keep shutting the car off to get it to switch into Park. No errors showed up on either display at any time.

Basic troubleshooting included tightening gas cap - it was loose, then testing "flooring" engine while in park. Sounded very weak. Checked engine air filter - very dirty. Pulled it off temporarily, until getting new one at dealer. Still had weak engine sound with about 5 feet of movement before automatic shift to Neutral. Also, because I only topped off with 3 gallons the gas guage did not register a full tank, which is common enough for me. It's winter here in Chicago and I fill up daily because I don't know how many miles I need to drive for the day and gas is cheaper close to where I live.

FINAL STEP THAT WORKED: I disconnected power to the battery and reconnected it 10 seconds later (I have a battery disconnect swich on top of my battery and easy access without having to take apart the trunk holder) Put the car into Ready Mode and the gas guage went to full, "flooring" the engine sounded loud/normal and was able to drive several miles home with the car acting normally.

My guess is that a combination of the gas cap not tightened, the gas guage not reading correctly, and a "bad" fuel pump at BP which kept registering tank full and had me "clicking" the gas in for the entire 3 gallons, possibly overfilling gas, but not spilling any gas. (I had guessed to put in three gallons because I drove 114 miles today since last fill-up and mpg on the screen was just under 40 mpg) For whatever reason,it seems to have needed a "reset" to the electrical system which force resets the gas guage - and who knows what other sensors - everything was fine again.

Got home to pull DTCs after two restarts(the 2nd being stopping at dealer briefly to find out $100 charge to read DTCs, which I did not have them do) The only one on there was DTC P2A32. (Yes, there's an "A" in it) Can't find anything on this error code.

Erased code then restarted car - DTC P1010, erased code then DTC P0052

Erased code then restarted car - DTC P1010

Erased code then restarted car - No DTCs found. Car seems to be fine driving again.

Speaking of no DTCs found, could not find these DTC codes for a Prius on Priuschat or anywhere through Google. Any ideas???

 

My 05 does the same thing occasionally. Problem is in the shifter. There are plastic vanes that act as dust shields. Sometimes the one that goes back and forth gets stuck. When you move the shifter over, down, and let go it pops up to N, but doesn't move back to center. The result is you get N. You can guide the shifter back to center if need be.

 

what are you using to read the codes?