I have the exact same issue as you. My shifter worked great, one day i tried one of the lower gears it was stiff, so i applied a little pressure and it gave way and its been floppy ever since. I took the shifter assy apart a few times and the problem lies in a small steel spring loaded pin that sits in a small plastic hole. That small plastic hole is most likely cracked or broken which means your pin has probably dislodged and fallen out like mine. I tried to doctor up a few different things but it would never work. Without a proper hole that is deep enough for the pin to stay inside, it will never work. I don't tow anything, so i don't use 4L. My 4L works if i hold it to the side myself, so i have gotten used to it.

No, it stays in D normally, and does not flop around.

That's precisely how I broke mine. Going down a fire road, wanting to shift from D to 3 at 25mph. Felt resistance, so pulled a bit harder and something snapped.

Disassembled the shifter. Once I got to the part where I took out the shift lever lock pin on pg 40-34, then removed the top of Floor Shift Assembly. The underside of this top has a shaped plastic track with detents for holding the shift lever in a particular gear position. Beneath the top, I found the inch-long metal pin laying on the floorboard, and a plastic framework attached to the left of the shift lever. This black and beige plastic frame moves with the shift lever, and in its hole was its spring. This is the location for the floating detent pin. The pin is flat on one end and hemispherical on the other (the rounded end rides the plastic guide that comes off the top of Floor Shift Assembly when the shift lever lock pin is removed. The lip of the plastic hole was fractured. Placed the pin back in its hole, reassembled and tried to run through the gears. That pin popped right back out (with resistance). Note that there is the mechanical cable linkage for all gears EXCEPT between D and 3. That appears to be an electronic switch to disengage overdrive (D). So this little nightmare pin in plastic is my issue for my '03 automatic.

I'm trying to see how I might secure a nut or guide for the pin and spring, because I can't imagine Toyota will sell me the plastic bit that the pin and spring seat into. I also wonder if I could trim the spring to create less detent force -- enough to keep the pin in place without causing it to be so stiff as to press against the fractured side of the plastic housing (and just pop right back out).

Seems like a very weak design, but maybe there is something odd about trying to downshift while in motion with the design. I can't imagine what that is -- looking at the engineering of the parts, the pin should simply float as it presses on that top lid track.

Maybe I can take pictures to depict my description. I would be reluctant to purchase a replacement at a junkyard -- whats to say the replacement doesn't have the same aging effects.

My dealer's parts guy, who I know somewhat, said it's the whole assembly or nothing. So good luck!

reviving this thread. anyone find a solution? It seems like this is a common problem. I have an 03 and several years ago the shifter was tough to shift between 4-3 and downward... or something like that. I would have to give it a nice tap to get it to downshift. Finally i heard a snap and VOILA... floppiness galore. ive dealt w/ it over the years but I'm cleaning up my 03 4R so my wife can drive it around town and i can take the prius for my long drives for work. im going to take it apart in the next few days to poke around....

This is exactly what happened to me yesterday. So I'm doing regular driving and not towing, occationally i need passing power and shift down from D to 4 which I will just pull it to the left and down to 3rd.

My question is other than the annoyingness of the hand held or washer with rubber band solution, is there any hard to the transmission at all?

I haven't fixed mine, but the plastic holder is the little black object in which I'm holding the pin that rides in the selector track. The bottom of the pin has a spring, and that black plastic is the tube in which the metal pin rides. Seems that a small machined holder that could be properly clamped would solve our common issue. Someday, I'll get around to it.

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Badna, I now have this exact same problem. I don't suppose you've come up with machined metal replacement part have you? It seems like this is now a somewhat common, yet very expensive problem.

Would you mind explaining how to remove the top of the black plastic shifter box in the picture you posted? Do you just gently pry upwards and forward the back of it with a screw driver?

3D printer help? Someone on here has one. Also, is there a way to prevent this problem from happening in the beginning? Trimming the spring? Or lubricating something?

Yes, a 3D printer could most likely fix this problem. I'm going to strip it down even further this weekend to have a better look at it. As far as prevention, pro-active lubrication may very well be the answer. I'm anxious to have a look at the underside of the shifter box top plate. In order to remove the top plate, you have to remove a 4" pin at the rear of the black shifter box, held in place by a small push nut. I hope new push nuts of that size (quite small...about 5mm) are easy to find!

Same issue overhere after pulling a friends landcruiser in 4lo.
Took the assembly apart cleaned and checked eveything was tight... floppiness is gone... sort of

I can shift between gears with no issues and Shifter stays in the the gear I place it without moving.

It's been a while. I took a look at pgs 2081-2 of the manual -- some of the plastic parts snap off (carefully), removed the console box (screws), and worked my way to it. There is a long bolt at the front of that top of the shifter -- it holds the top half on (the part with the channels that the pin rides in of keeping the shifter in place normally).

I have not engineered a solution. I tried the simple stuff -- superglued the plastic back together, relubed the pin with lithium grease. It broke again in short order. I tried cutting the spring in half to reduce the pressure of the pin against the selector channels -- no joy. It is unfortunately low on my priority list until I go to sell or trade in the vehicle. As I just got new tires, I'm 50000 miles away from that.

Just be careful with the old nut -- you won't deform it and it can be reused (or even reformed back into shape with pliers). The nut just keeps the bolt in place -- there is no mechanical stress there normally. If it's snug, it won't work out of place. Oh, and don't drop it into the guts… fishing it out with a magnet is a pain. Just saying'


I LOVE the 3D printer idea. If we can get the original CAD drawings of the part, it would be cake.

3d printer? @TiN ?

If someone could send me the part or a CAD file, I could definitely figure something out and may be able to print a solution.