Got stuck in 3rd gear on the highway

Bad_Influence

Bad_Influence

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Wondering if this has happened to anybody else... I have a 2011 LE, I was driving on the highway the other day, after a little bit of stop and go traffic the highway finally fully cleared up and allowed me to travel at normal highway speeds. As I was accelerating on a zero incline highway I noticed that as i was increasing my speed from about 35 to 55 mph the truck wouldn't drop into 4th gear and the rpm's kept climbing very unusually.

First thing i did was take my foot off of the gas pedal and slowed down a bit hoping the rpms would drop, they didn't much. I gently put my foot back on the gas and it was still in 3rd gear, with the rpm's still very high at about 50 mph in a 65 mph zone. I couldn't pull over being in the left lane of a 4 lane highway. After about 5-10 seconds of this I put the car into "sport mode" aka the 4runner's version of a manual shifter, I did this on the fly. Wasn't sure if that was bad for the transmission or not, but I needed to do something. So i put it in sport mode and shifted it up to 4th gear and then 5th and everything seemed fine right away. I pulled over at the next exit, shut her down, restarted and put the truck back into "D" and accelerated back onto the highway and everything was fine. Tested it many times since and everything is normal, all shift timing seems great and it was just a one time thing.

Wondering if this has happened to any of you and also am wondering If something might be wrong or was it just a fluke? Thanks for any help offered!
 
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Sound's like your truck has had some bad influence from some jeeps. :biggrin1:

But really, that sucks.. never happened to me.
 
Own an '04 Land Rover Discovery for a while; this is nothing as at least once a month they do something wacky like this and you need to pull over, shut down and restart or delete with a portable analyzer......OBD2 scanner.

Many of the things electronic on a 4Runner; Land Rover did it first. Then Toyota grabbed it up after the bugs were gone.

Oh - Read your owners manual cover to cover some time. When and how to shift stuff is well explained.
 
That's pretty odd behavior.

How many miles on the truck?

This would trouble me. I'd certainly check the tranny fluid level, probably even get it changed. Personally, I believe a thing like this happens for a reason, not a Gremlin.
 
sounds like you hit it into sport shift mode and it was waiting for you to upshift/downshift, so when you thought you were putting in sport you were actually already there
 
This happened to me twice while driving in the mountains during my April trip. On both occasions moving into S mode and manually shifting it up did the trick. I had considered getting a dealer to look at it, but it hasn't happened since.
 
Sometimes the transmission tries to hold a gear in the speed range your talking about. Especially on slight downhills when warming up.
 
Mine does this in 4th sometimes if I'm driving somewhat aggressively (when aren't I ?!!?). Shifting to "S" mode and back to "D" always gets it to shift back into 5th in short order (literally a few seconds).

Mine will eventually shift back into 5th on its own, but can take 15-20 seconds or so.

There is no harm in shifting into "S" at speed (way too many nanny functions to allow a redline RPM condition, and you are not actually shifting "gears" - it's all electronic through the ECM/BCM - whatever one controls the transmission)...

:cool:
 
DEERUNNER said:
There we go with the "Sport" mode talk again. It is "Sequential."
Note: Sequential shift mode can be fun!
Click to expand...

No it isn't, its called "S mode", :rtfm: :biggrin1: I will add to the contention, if anything it is "Shift" mode. :banana:

2-1. Driving procedures Automatic transmission pg179


I have had my dog bump the shift lever with his head sleeping in the front seat, I didn't notice it until I came to a stop.
 
Oversize tires + stock gearing along with an Auto trans and this is can be the norm with a grade or head wind....
 
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Taco04 said:
Oversize tires + stock gearing along with an Auto trans and this is can be the norm with a grade or head wind....
Click to expand...
Never had what he described when I had stock gearing and 33s. Holding 4th would happen, but flat ground and 3rd at those speeds is rather odd. I'm guessing accidental flip to S mode in some way..

I would not worry much about it. Absolutely no harm in switching to S mode on the fly... It's just a hint of what you want to do.. very much like pressing the throttle. It takes your input, but does what it feels is best ;-)
 
wfo9 said:
Never had what he described when I had stock gearing and 33s. Holding 4th would happen, but flat ground and 3rd at those speeds is rather odd. I'm guessing accidental flip to S mode in some way..

I would not worry much about it. Absolutely no harm in switching to S mode on the fly... It's just a hint of what you want to do.. very much like pressing the throttle. It takes your input, but does what it feels is best ;-)
Click to expand...

I have had this more than a few times on the coast with a big head winds.... Plus with front's rolling south more wind than normal for most folks...
 
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thank you to the people who had opinions and legitimate concerns, but a couple things here... one: I didn't accidentally put the shifter in to "S" mode and that was the reason it was stuck in 3rd gear, and it wasn't a head wind either. I find it humorous that a few of you think I made an honest mistake and that is the likely culprit.

I went out of my way to post this because it seems like it could be a serious issue, instead many of you think my incompetence and unawareness caused this issue. The toyota transmission had a mishap here, but it seems many of you are not wanting to hear that and blame the issue on me not knowing what i accidentally could have done. Thanks but no thanks guys.
 
Bad_Influence said:
thank you to the people who had opinions and legitimate concerns, but a couple things here... one: I didn't accidentally put the shifter in to "S" mode and that was the reason it was stuck in 3rd gear, and it wasn't a head wind either. I find it humorous that a few of you think I made an honest mistake and that is the likely culprit.

I went out of my way to post this because it seems like it could be a serious issue, instead many of you think my incompetence and unawareness caused this issue. The toyota transmission had a mishap here, but it seems many of you are not wanting to hear that and blame the issue on me not knowing what i accidentally could have done. Thanks but no thanks guys.
Click to expand...

There is no known issue like you described with this transmission, so folks were just making a suggestion as to what might be going on. Nobody called you incompetent.

Maybe a trip to the dealer is in order if it is a recurring issue. You're welcome.
 
Bad_Influence said:
Wondering if this has happened to anybody else... I have a 2011 LE, I was driving on the highway the other day, after a little bit of stop and go traffic the highway finally fully cleared up and allowed me to travel at normal highway speeds. As I was accelerating on a zero incline highway I noticed that as i was increasing my speed from about 35 to 55 mph the truck wouldn't drop into 4th gear and the rpm's kept climbing very unusually.

First thing i did was take my foot off of the gas pedal and slowed down a bit hoping the rpms would drop, they didn't much. I gently put my foot back on the gas and it was still in 3rd gear, with the rpm's still very high at about 50 mph in a 65 mph zone. I couldn't pull over being in the left lane of a 4 lane highway. After about 5-10 seconds of this I put the car into "sport mode" aka the 4runner's version of a manual shifter, I did this on the fly. Wasn't sure if that was bad for the transmission or not, but I needed to do something. So i put it in sport mode and shifted it up to 4th gear and then 5th and everything seemed fine right away. I pulled over at the next exit, shut her down, restarted and put the truck back into "D" and accelerated back onto the highway and everything was fine. Tested it many times since and everything is normal, all shift timing seems great and it was just a one time thing.

Wondering if this has happened to any of you and also am wondering If something might be wrong or was it just a fluke? Thanks for any help offered!
Click to expand...

3wbdriver said:
This happened to me twice while driving in the mountains during my April trip. On both occasions moving into S mode and manually shifting it up did the trick. I had considered getting a dealer to look at it, but it hasn't happened since.
Click to expand...

As I said. It hasn't happened since. But I understand your concern. I was 5 states away from home when it happened to me. I would just keep an eye out for it happening again. But in my case roughly 4,000 miles and 5 months later it hasn't repeated itself.
 
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