Anbody else have an issue with shifter sticking in drive?

It's mechanically pretty simple; probably the old grease is a bit gummy, and some newer grease would be nicer.

 

On the rare occasions when I need to do such things, sometimes I go a bit further: more disassembly of the mechanism, more removal (with some alcohol) of the old gummy grease, then replacement with new non-gummy grease.

If you take the thing apart, you see it is just a few pivoting levers that slide magnets past a couple of Hall sensors. It's greased in all of the places you'd think.

If the spraying approach worked, then that was a quick fix. If it's still gummy, you don't have to give up; might just take a little more work.

 

Having seen many Prius, including that of the Prius v disassembled to it's individual elements, every one has been lubricated with silicone grease similar to silicone dielectric grease used in spark plug boots and anti corrosion grease on electrical contacts.

Silicone dielectric grease does not readily attract dust and dirt, white lithium grease does.

Actually, the shifter is over greased. I have disassembled mine and actually remove grease from non-contact surfaces.

 

I didn't put mine into a spectrometer, but its grease was something whitish as I recall. All the silicone dielectric greases I have known have been clear/colorless. That might not be universal, so in truth I just don't know what the stuff is.

Because the shifter's magic all happens through waving small permanent magnets around near Hall sensors, there aren't any particular electrical properties at all needed of the grease.

 

I've disassembled Gen 2, Gen 3, v and Gen 4 shifters with my friend's father who was commission by Toyota to design an ergonomic shifter prior to the introduction of the Gen 4 in 2016. All the grease were either translucent or white just like silicone grease, maybe white Teflon or a brand called Superlube.

I have one of his designed "short" shifters on my own Prius v like the ones he built and submitted to Toyota. It shifts with a flip of the index finger to all positions without the need to grab the knob or to visually look for it.

Unfortunately, it was not adopted, because it did not fancy enough and did not look like a traditional shift knob. He's a retired aerospace engineer, who took his inspiration form the navigation controller in The Apollo Command Module.

 

When in doubt about a grease make-up, a lot of times you can just "redistribute" the grease that's there, from the factory.

 

Luckily. I own three extra Prius v shifters. They were new, when they were given to me by my husband"s father, who was commissioned by the Toyota supplier to design future Gen 4 shifters in 2014. They supplied him with Prius v shifters, because the shifter for the Gen 4 shifter would be dash mounted instead of console mounted as it was on most Gen 3 Prius models.

Two were modified as "short shifters" and one was unmodified.

I have one of the "short shifters" mounted in my Prius v. It is much easier and quicker to operate than the off centered Pius v oem shifter . b is centered Basically, shifting into all positions require only the flick of the right index finger. Since the knob is centered, it was also easy to find and shift only by feel.

Unfortunately, for my husband's dad, Toyota did not adopt it, choosing one that looked like a conventional shift knob with a longer shaft instead. Being a "fly by wire" shifter, the longer shift lever with higher leverage has no functional advantage. Image won over substance.

 

These shifters are sold as new replacements for around $600 at Toyota dealers. They stopped making them for the Prius v in 2017 or 2018. Used ones in the wrecking yards are getting old and may have the same issue as the OP's. While good functional regular Prius Gen 3 shifters are plentiful, that may not be the case for Prius v ones.

So, unless one has a spare that is nearly new and/or lightly used, one should be careful in disassembling and cleaning or re-lubricating it.

 

I still think of it as mechanically pretty simple. I think if mine were sticking or binding, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to take it apart, clean it up, and put slippy stuff on it.

Sure, maybe it's a bet where one outcome is you spend $0 and have a happy functioning shifter again, and the other outcome is you break it and spend $600 to replace it. But unless you're very prone to breaking things, the odds are really long.

 

It's been a while. since I've seen each of the three generations of Prius electronic shifters disassembled.

The Gen 2 shifter design was carried over to the Gen 3 and the Prius v. The c shifter is conventional and mechanical.

There are two Hall Effect actuators in the shifter; a horizontal sliding magnet holds the spring in the "at rest" or "home" position. Moving the shift lever horizontally against a compression spring moves the slider magnet form 0 to 5 volts on the Hall Effect sensor. This sensor slides into a track and is held by a "ratcheting" lock tab on each side.

The vertical movement is against a coiled rotary clock like spring. As the magnet rotates, the voltage on the Hall Effect sensor moves form 0-5 volts. This sensor is on the side and held in place bt two Phillips screws.

In the Gen 4 shifter, the two components are integrated into one unit and the end of the shifter's shaft.

These uploaded .pdf files explains how the shifter works.