Four problems related to transmission slip out of gear have been reported for the 2008 Toyota Prius. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Vehicle was off and in park. Vehicle was started and shifted into drive. In less then 1 second, vehicle slipped out of drive and into neutral as described in the technical service bulletin issued by Toyota (t-sb-0142-11). Problem as reoccurred multiple times since, including while driving at speeds above 45 mph.
1 - after being parked the car will go into reverse or drive, but when you let off of the brake, it will go into neutral. 2 - if left running in park, the car will go out of park and go into neutral. This will allow the car to roll, if it is not on exactly flat level ground. 3 - while driving, the car will jump out of drive and go into neutral. 4 - in all of these incidents, you can hold the shifter lever in the desired mode and the car will drive fine. 5 - talked to a Toyota repair facility and I was told that they have never heard of this. Did some research on the net and found many of these same incidents. 6 - this is definitely a safety issue, that apparently Toyota don't want to admit.
I am having a recurring transmission problem on a 2008 Prius that seems to be a very similar problem to one described by other Prius owners. When the car is warm (warm day, drive for longer than 15 minutes) the transmission can slip out of drive (or reverse) into neutral. It will do this repeatedly and not allow to proceed in gear until you turn off the ignition for some minutes. The car will operate if you manually push the gear shift lever into driver and hold it there continuously until you reach your destination. I will take it into Toyota for service but I do think it may be an engineering or design flaw with the transmission. . Read more...
Sep. 1st I was driving my 2008 Prius and it started shifting by itself from drive into neutral and one time even from drive into neutral into reverse. This happened after I pulled off the highway on an exit ramp and then slowed to a stop in order to get onto the local road. On the Prius, when you put the shift into the drive position, the shifting knob then returns to its starting position, but the car is supposed to remain in the drive gear. My car wouldn't do that. About 2 seconds after I put it in drive and then applied the gas, it would shift out of drive and into neutral. . The only way I could drive the vehicle was by manually holding the shifting knob in the drive position the entire trip home (25 miles). When I got home and tried to put it in park, it wouldn't do it. It did go into park however, when I powered off the vehicle. The next day I was able to drive the vehicle by hanging a heavy metal shop clamp around the shifting knob in order to hold it in the drive position. I called the nearest Toyota dealership, which is griffith motors in the dalles, oregon. They said they had never heard of this happening before and to bring it in. I also called a much larger (and farther) Toyota dealership in gresham, oregon. They said no one had ever heard of that happening either. I waited until the following day to taken the car into the closer dealership in the dalles (Sep rd), but the car was no longer doing its weird thing. They said they checked it out thoroughly with the computer diagnostic system and could find nothing wrong. They said there were no codes in the system indicating that anything was wrong. It drove fine until Sep 15th, when at approx. 4 pm it suddenly started shifting into neutral at a busy intersection in kennewick, wa, and I then had a collision with another vehicle. No one was hurt, but the car is now in a body shop. I googled this problem and found a person on consumeraffairs. Com who's Prius is doing the same thing. Suggestions.