Drove home today, everything was normal - backed up into my space, put the truck in PARK and started to take my foot off the brake and noticed I was still going in reverse. Moved the shifter back and forth from park to drive and back a few times and nothing seems like its catching.

I turned off the truck and now cannot start it. I'm guessing cause the truck is not in park. With the key in the off position, it's locked in PARK but when I turn on the key, I can really freely move the gear selector back and forth from park to drive and back.

I actually think I might be in nuetral, as I'm on a slight incline and had to put on my parking break to get the truck to stay.

Hoping this is something simple but a quick search didn't find anything. 2004 Limited, 2WD, about 170k miles.

thanks in advance!

Sounds like the shifter cable has either slipped of the shifter or has broken, the only way to know is to remove the shifter cover.

My educated guess might point me to your A/T Gear Selection Sensor aka Neutral Safety Switch (NSS).

You don't mention any warning lights on the dash, but I'd be checking for error codes.

Nutural position safety switch 2004 SR5

Where is the nutural position safety switch?

Bossman, I would have to disagree on this...because it's not shifting into park nor drive, a bad neutral safety switch would not cause this to happen.

@AuSeeker here is my logic behind my "educated guess" - I am by no means an expert, and welcome your difference of opinion.

Over time, the transmission range sensor may begin to fail or wear out. If the transmission range sensor fails or suffers a malfunction, there are a number of symptoms that could appear.

1. Vehicle does not start or cannot move

Without a proper Park/Neutral position input from the transmission range sensor, the PCM will not be able to crank the engine over for starting. This will leave your vehicle in a situation where it cannot be started. In addition, if the transmission range sensor has completely failed, the PCM will not see any gear command input at all. This means that your vehicle will not be able to move at all.

2. Transmission goes into different gear than selected

There could potentially be a mismatch between the gear selector lever and the sensor input signal. This would cause the transmission to be in a different gear (controlled by the PCM) than the one selected by the driver using the shift lever. This could lead to unsafe operation of the vehicle and could likely become a traffic hazard.

While I understand your thought process, I still disagree on it being the neutral safety switch because of it's intended function, now you may actually have a valid point but IMHO it would the the TR (transmission range) sensor that would cause the computer to not be getting a signal to send any voltage to the starting circuit.

Neutral Safety Switch/Transmission Range Sensor Troubleshooting Test

That all being said I'm still betting on the shifter cable mainly because it's more a common failure than an electrical issue, the cable failure is usually the little retainer/ball/barrel on the shifter end of the cable becoming dislodged or more commonly breaks and needs to be replaced, which it can be replaced without replacing the entire cable.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Give me something to go on.

Now that you mention it, it does feel like it could possibly be the cable. The shifter is moving way too easily. Seems like i just need to get the center console out and should be able to take a look pretty easy. I can handle that.

The switch on the transmission looks a little more complicated.

This topic is about what I think your issue is.

2003 Shift Cable Problem

The bushing kit you need if that's the issue.

Toyota 4Runner Transmission Shift Cable Repair Kit w/ bushing - Bing

I'm not taking that bet! ;)

The lack of warning lights on the dash (or a potential error code showing up on an OBDII code reader) would certainly lead to your diagnosis being more reasonable than a NSS failure.

And for the OP perhaps a little easier to diagnosis and less costly to repair.

@AuSeeker beat me to it. Came here to say the shifter cable. I've seen the same complaint/fix a handful of times on the forum over the years. Good luck!

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Search for "Floppy Shifter" on here. OP's issue sounds worse than mine, where I just had an issue not being able to keep it in 4th for towing. You need to pull the plastic surrounds on top of the shifter and investigate. BTW, you can start it in Neutral if you're able to get it there.

Glad I came across this, I was wondering why the shifter felt so sloppy with not quite as much resistance as I am used to. Going to go ahead and order the bushing kit and see if I can tear into it on the weekend while I'm getting the rest of the interior work done.

OP, hopefully the slipped cable is your issue. If you can get to the cable you should be able to shift it by hand to get where you need it to go at least for the time being.

yup the floppy shifter issue is pretty well documented. it starts out getting a little hard to shift for a while, then it goes floppy. i don't think there is a specific part you can easily replace - i'd just replace the whole gear shifter as you can find them on ebay for less than 100. mine started to go stiff last year and i was reading all about this - i started using it very gently and it went back to normal so i'm good for now. but a few people of varying degrees of ingenuity came up with some diy solutions too.

The "floppy shifter" is a totally different issue than the OP here has, his issue I'm pretty sure is shift cable related, if the cable has become disconnected you will not feel any resistance from the cable.

The floppy shifter issue is caused by a spring loaded steel pin that follows a groove with "indents" at each gear position in the shifter assembly's plastic top plate, that groove w/indents is in the shape of the shift pattern of the "gate" that you see on the shifter cover, what happens over time is the steel pin wears the groove/indents such a way that the pin has a hard time following the groove smoothly which put sideways pressure on the steel pin because of the shift pattern, the steel pin and spring is housed in a plastic tube and the grooved top plate keeps it in place, when worn and with the sideways pressure over time and repeated shifts breaks or cracks the side wall of the tube and the pin comes out and falls down inside the shifter assembly, so there nothing to keep the shifter in the indents so the shifter can easily flop left and right and also front to back to a lesser degree.

That issue is a much harder fix and usually ends up with having to buy a new or in good condition used complete shifter assembly.

Hey guys, thanks again, I did finally confirm the shifter cable came off. I've got the bushing ordered. I think they are like an hour away, so hopefully if it ships today, it'll be here tomorrow.

Anyway, what else do I need to disassemble to get down underneath this thing? I took the top silver cover off but that didn't get me anywhere.


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