Stiff gear shift/lurch

[Disgruntled]

I have a new 2023 Yaris Cross Excel low mileage.

The auto box gear selector seems very stiff going from park into drive, is this a common occurrence? 

Also, when the car is parked but the engine is still active, it starts when it has to but you get the impression that it would lurch forward if the brake was off, it is also quite noisy when it starts.

Any thoughts?

[Bernard Foy]

Yes it can be a little stiff but for me it's not a problem. Yes it will move forward that's why we keep the foot on the brake when selecting any position. The 3 pot engine can be noisy on start up but soon settles. You will soon get used to its little foibles. 

[Cyker]

Yarp, mine is the same.

The P<->Anything movement involves a mechanical linkage to engage/disengage the parking pawl, so it will require more force, as all the other gear positions are essentially just fancy switches.

I know what you mean about the lurch; My theory is it's either lag from MG1 switching from starter-mode to generator mode letting some torque through to the front wheels, or MG1 is starting the engine so hard the engine mounts aren't quite absorbing the kick.

And when the car isn't moving but the engine is running to e.g. charge, it is just very shaky and noisy and that just seems to be a natural thing with this engine. I suspect it's because there is no balancer shaft in the engine, but we'll know for sure if the 130hp version coming out next year has the same level of vibration and noise, as they HAVE put a balancer shaft in that, allegedly.

[MikeSh]

18 minutes ago, Cyker said:

letting some torque through to the front wheels

This, but not for the reason you give.

To turn the ICE (which is connected to the spider/planet gears) MG1 (connected to the sun gear) motors. In doing so it turns the planet gears which, because the ICE resists, try to turn the ring gear (the big thing on the outside) which is connected to the wheels. The wheels resist (due to parking brake & P pawl) but the reaction produces some movement of the drivetrain (there is likely to be a little slack in the P pawl so the car moves a little against the parking brake, which being on the back wheels produces that slight nose-up effect - like you get taking off without having fully disengaged the parking brake.) Once brake and P have got their way all the torque goes to spinning the ICE which then starts (hopefully).

All that happens in milliseconds of course.

[MikeSh]

Incidentally, the above is (probably) why it won't start the ICE to charge the traction Battery when it's in Neutral.

You can probably work out why.