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Shift to "reverse" but car went to "drive" instead

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by blizzardwhat, Apr 6, 2013.

  1. blizzardwhat

    blizzardwhat Junior Member

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    I shifted to "reverse" but the car went to "drive" instead.
    I've only had my Prius for 2 weeks. Today was the first time I encountered this problem, and it happened 3x.

    Has anybody else had this problem? Should I take this to a dealer to look at? It's still under warranty.
     
  2. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    YES! As long as you are sure you didn't make the mistake.
     
  3. blizzardwhat

    blizzardwhat Junior Member

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    Definitely not my mistake. It happened twice again today.
    I wonder if it's an indication of low 12v battery.

    The lack of beeps when I shifted to reverse was what initially alerted me that something wasn't right. It makes me wonder if Toyota is aware that this could happen and that's why the reverse beeps is there.
     
  4. retired4999

    retired4999 Prius driver since 2005

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    Take to your dealer as soon as you can! Don't want any incidents.! :)
     
  5. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Go see Toyota. They can pull the DTC codes to diagnose this and isolate the problem. There is a very good chapter covering this in their manual. You said still under warranty so this should be covered. This is a safety issue so it will get their attention.
     
  6. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Yes get to the dealer as soon as possible,,, in reverse if you have to! :)
     
  7. macman408

    macman408 Electron Guidance Counselor

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    Are you sure you're shifting it correctly? I know lots of people that have made the mistake of "I want to go in reverse, so I'll move the shift lever backwards." In fact, moving the lever towards you is drive, and moving it forward is reverse.

    Another possibility is that you're letting the lever snap back into position violently, and it's bouncing through N into D before returning to the normal position. If you can regularly get it to shift to D instead of R, I'd see if gently guiding the lever back into its rest position solves the issue. It shouldn't be bouncing into D, but it might give you an idea of where the problem lies (eg a flaky switch or a bad spring in the shift lever assembly).
     
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  8. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    ^^^
    Agreed completely w/both points. I don't think I've ever heard of the problem the OP claims to be having before.
     
  9. blizzardwhat

    blizzardwhat Junior Member

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    I'm positive I'm shifting correctly. When it first happened I thought I made a mistake and paid more attention to how I shifted, and it still happened. You might have a point about it bouncing through N into D, but I didn't know you could shift "violently" or "gently". I normally just shift to either "R" or "D" and release and let it bounce back. That's not the correct way?
     
  10. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    That's my initial hunch. You suddenly get a new member who suffers an issue that's not been reported here before and the cynic can think 'troll'.

    BUT we should also keep our eyes open. I remember reporting an issue and being told by many that I was mistaken, or that it didn't happen or I was wrong. I was none of those. The issue happened and now it is commonly reported - Rough idle on start up.

    I agree that the OP should get the car to the dealers for investigation- preferably NOT driving it.
     
  11. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    By positive you're shifting correctly, you are pushing up and to the left for R and down and to the left for D (as printed on the knob and on the multi-information display), correct?

    On a normally functioning shift lever, the bounce back into the dot position (for the lack of a better term) shouldn't be an issue when the knob's released. It's never been a problem on my Gen 2.

    I have no Gen 3 but have test driven them a bunch of times. Their shift lever mechanism feels different and flimsier (springs seem to have less tension as well). (I even noted this in 2009 at 2010 Prius Driving Impressions Thread | PriusChat, when I got to test drive a 2010 Prius months before they went on sale. We were prohibited from discussing our driving impressions, mileage observed, etc. until the media embargo was lifted on March 25, 2009.)

    What macman408's suggesting is the possibility of a defective mechanism in its bounce back behavior and trying to rule it out by "gently guiding the lever back into its rest position" (which I'd interpret as back to dot) instead of just releasing it and seeing if the problem is still there.
     
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  12. blizzardwhat

    blizzardwhat Junior Member

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    lol correct. :)

    I drove this thing for 2 weeks and no issues. It started happening last Friday, randomly. Anyways, I plan to take it to the dealer this week.
     
  13. blizzardwhat

    blizzardwhat Junior Member

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    Update:
    I took it to the dealer 3 weeks ago. They couldn't duplicate the problem and told me to record it on video the next time it happens and bring it back in. The very next day, it happened 3x and as luck would have it, I didn't have my camera with me. So for 2 weeks straight, I had my camera ready every time I reversed, and it hasn't happened since. Sometimes I think this car has a mind of it's own and play head games with it's owner. But I'm 100% sure I didn't imagine the problem or made a mistake. When it happened 3x the day after I took it to the dealer, I shifted to reverse gently and made sure it didn't glide over to drive. I'm also convince that this is the reason why Toyota installed the reverse beeps, is to alert the driver. The beeps are there for a reason and I found it annoying at first and was tempted to get it disabled, but I'm keeping now.

    In any case, I'm please that it hasn't happened since and I hope it was a fluke and I won't have to deal with this problem again. Going to the dealer is like a dentist appt. Not something I look forward to and want to do with my free time.
     
  14. Shannoncali

    Shannoncali New Member

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  15. Mike500

    Mike500 Senior Member

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    It could be that there is an intermittent "short" circuit in the shifter switch.

    I haven't disassembled one, but it could be a switch with one incoming wire and three others; one goes to DRIVE , a second goes to REVERSE and the third goes to the B or engine BRAKING mode.

    Since the switch returns to the NEUTRAL position, it would be likely that it's make once and break signal for each position.


    If this is such, those wanting the forward position to be DRIVE and the backward position to be REVERSE could easily make the modification by switching the wires. This could easily be done by disconnecting the connector block, releasing the connector from the black and reinserting them in the desired position.


    In your case, it's most likely a wire or "whisker" strand that does it. I'm not sure that the Toyota technician is able to disassemble it to find out. They would probably replace the shifter.