2005 Avensis 2.0 Vvti Automatic Transmission Issue

[Avensis Avenger]

Dear Comrades,

I ride a 2005 Avensis Tourer 2.0 VVT-i T4 5dr Seq Auto with 100k on the clock. Slowly over the last few months I have felt a weakening in the robustness of gear selection when I move from DRIVE to NEUTRAL, as though there is much less of a barrier to break through to change from DRIVE to NEUTRAL - less of a clunk. Mechanically it feels like there has slowly been less resistance. Over the last couple of days moving from DRIVE into NEUTRAL has become difficult as moving the gear stick forward seems not to disengage drive unless you firmly push the stick fully forward a few times. The dash display accordingly has trouble putting the indicator box round 'N' so no indicator box appears around any gear when this problem occurs. Feels as though there is very little resistance and that NEUTRAL is having trouble being engaged. I can always get into it though with a bot of jiggling.

This weakness or gear location issue doesn't occur when moving from NEUTRAL to DRIVE as there is a clear 'clunk' and the gear stick locates itself. The movment from all other gears (i.e. P>N, R>D, N>D 1,2,3,4 on S) appears to be absolutely flawless.

Has anyone had this issue themselves and can anyone suggest what this problem could be?

Many thanks

Avenger.

[Avensis Avenger]

Update!

Checked the Auto Transmission Fluid which appears to be a little on the dirty side. Brownish - so I will get this changed.

Can this cause stickiness in changes just from D>N (and not any other gear change as they are all perfect other than this)?

[Dave Williams]

Update!

Checked the Auto Transmission Fluid which appears to be a little on the dirty side. Brownish - so I will get this changed.

Can this cause stickiness in changes just from D>N (and not any other gear change as they are all perfect other than this)?

I was in a minor head on collision last week in my 2006 1.8 semi auto avensis and since then when i have drove it does not light up N when going from D to N but if i push it up to R then back down to N it lights up and as you said there seems to be a lot less resistance when selecting N from D when at traffic lights etc did your oil change make a differance or did you find a solution i was going to run mine into toyota and get them to do a check and tell me whats up as its annoying me having this issue

[Mariantudor]

Hi

I have the same issue with changing from frive to neutral.

I am wondering if you found any easy solution for this.

Cheers,

Marian