2003 Toyota RAV4: stuck in gear or won't shift

Filed Feb 15, 2020 · Engine · 84,100 miles · CA

This car has been maintained and preserved and only 84000 miles on it. And the car wont shift. It jolts me or revs extremely high and also almost caused me an accident as it almost shut down on power while making a left turn in intersection. The check engine light comes on and off. It's only while going from 2nd to 3rd or shifting down from 2 to 1st. I had my mechanic look at it and he said it's a common issue with the ecu to take it to dealership to replace for free and they want to charge me 150 just to examine it.

Filed Feb 8, 2017 · Transmission · 12,000 miles · WA

What I have a 2003 rav4 that doesn't shift properly as a slow acceleration and between first and second it'll slip and rev high on the RPM then talk into gear and same between 2nd and 3rd and 3rd to drive

Filed Sep 9, 2016 · Transmission · CA · crash

We were on a family vacation on labor day weekend, when we merged on the freeway and my toyota rav 4 would not shift over. We almost were hit by oncoming cars from the freeway. I swerved to avoid a crash and crashed into the ditch. I checked on line to get toyota phone number when I noticed there was a recall and extended warranty on this part on toyota rav 4 2001 2002 and 2003. I purchased the car in oct 2010 from dealership carmax, they told me they were not aware of the problem. If I was aware I would have taken it to get it fixed. This is a safety issue with this problem. I might have lost my family and myself. I contacted toyota, they stated to me they had contacted you guys and it's not under a safety issue on these cars, it was a problematic issues. My question to you is somebody has to die first to be considered safety? Toyota will not honor any repairs because it's passed the 10 year and 150 thousand mile mark. Are you kidding me? ! My car acted up at 163 miles, so my family and any other rav4 are not safe do to a expired extension? ! That is not good. I'm very upset about this situation. My priority is my family like every ones else's family. The gov should make it a lifetime extended warranty so if we didn't hear about it after the fact, it should be honored and have toyota and gov fixed this issue. Thank you [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Jun 21, 2016 · Transmission · 95,500 miles · NC

My 2003 rav 4 starting shifting gears erratically, starting in 3rd intead of 1st gear, very sluggish to get moving after stopping. Toyota issued a warning regarding a faulty ECM in this model and extended the warranty to 10 years/150000miles. Unfortuantetly my car is 13 years old and 95,000 miles and toyota would not fix. On the way to the dealership to have this fixed my car was turning left into 2 lanes of traffic and stalled and would not go into gear, a car nearly t-boned me but he was able to swerve into another lane. I could have been killed because of this problem. Toyota needs to take responsibility for this issue and correct all cars on the road today.

Filed Apr 19, 2016 · Electrical, Transmission · 103,000 miles · IA

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota rav4. While driving approximately 30 MPH, the accelerator pedal was depressed and the vehicle jerked. As a result, the vehicle became stuck in second and third gear. The failure recurred intermittently. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the failure was undetermined; however, the technician discovered that the computer damaged the transmission. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 103,000.

Filed Oct 21, 2014 · Transmission · 140,433 miles · WV

Part 2 of 3 this was at my cost and at that time I expressed my concern that it was an older car and with all these problems occurring, what was his opinion on trading. He didn't show any real interest but did state some have had great longevity and others not so much. After leaving that visit my car still did not shift properly and was still harsh in reverse.within a month or so my check engine light came back on again. While I was extremely reluctant to take it back to love lexus I did. I expressed my complaint once again about it not being quite right and requested they take it out on the four lane so that it could be driven up past 55mph. He diagnostics ran again and informed me that my fuel cap wasn''t on tight enough. I left embarrassed; however, my car still was not driving right.I continued to drive this car with the same issues for the next year and in october 2013 my check engine light came back on. I took my car to a & e service center.they checked my transmission fluid and stated in smelled burnt, their diagnostics stated it was my transmission and the only thing they could recommend in lieu of replacing my transmission was to flush it and replace the filter and fluid. They stated that with the amount of metal shavings they found which they showed me, this was the equivalent of putting a bandaid on a broken bone.this only lasted about a month and on 11-12-13 I had it towed to aamco. The estimate was $2767.19. Due to me being in a financial hardship my parents gave me their 2002 4-runner and purchased a new car for themselves.we originally was trading the rav. .

Filed Jun 8, 2012 · Engine · 210,000 miles · VA

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota rav4. The contact stated that the vehicle did not shift properly. The contact also stated that there was an increams in the engine rpms and the vehicle would hesitate before accelerating. The contact spoke with a dealer and was informed that the engine control unit was failing and would cause the transmission to fail. The failure mileage was 210,000 and the current mileage was 215,000.

Filed Jun 30, 2010 · Transmission · 74,450 miles · FL

Car jerks, harsh shifting, stays stuck in gear, will not go back into first gear. Have done oil change, transmission fluid flush, left and right 02 sensors, still shifting harsh conditions, feels very unsafe.

Filed Feb 24, 2010 · Transmission · 84,000 miles · CA

We have a 2003 toyota rav4 that obviously has a defective part and safety issues. We bought this vehicle for our teenage daughter approximately 1 1/2 yrs ago from a dealer and it had 74,000 miles. Thankfully we did get a extended warranty, but not one that will cover this problem. This last november our daughter was driving the car and was stuck going up a hill as the car would not shift into the right gear. She was stranded on the mountain highway until we could come get her. Thankfully she did get off the road, but it scared us to think that this car could of done this if she was at a high speed or couldn't have got off the road in the dark mountain terrain. We had the vehicle towed to a local shop and they concluded that it needed a new transmission. We had only put maybe 10,000 miles on it since purchase. The warranty covered the $4000 replacement cost of a new transmission. After picking up the vehicle it seemed to run ok but still had shifting problems at the speed of 20-30. A harsh jerking. Our daughter was driving the car and again it stopped working in a business district. So back to the shop. Well now we are stumped on what could be wrong. Even had 2 sensors replaced and still the same problem. So we have a toyota, which we bought for our teenage daughters because of their reputation of being a great vehicle, but now worried what it will do as they are driving it. So the latest is I did some of my own research on this year vehicle. Came across a website called rav4world. There are pages off complaints on transmission failures for rav4 2001-2003. I guess toyota didn't do a recall for a supposedly defective ECM that is the main computer in car and it is leading to transmission failure. Toyota did put out an extended warranty on replacement which is 96months or 80,000 miles. Our car is at 84k. The problem with this is how many people are driving this car and have no idea that this defective ECM is destroying the transmission??? Also it is a safety issue!

Filed Feb 23, 2010 · Transmission · MD

Car wouldn't shift properly. Toyota dealer said I needed a new transmission due to a problem with the solenoid. After internet searching the problem, I asked that the local repair shop replace the computer (much less costly) and the car started working again. An internal memo to dealers stated that this was a common problem on the make/model but the local dealer did not mention such a memo. I only found it after searching online.

Filed Feb 19, 2010 · Electrical, Transmission · 102,000 miles · CA

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 toyota rav4. She noticed that when she stopped the gear will fail it will stay in drive. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the diagnosis indicated that the failure was caused by the electronic control unit. The dealer replaced the ecu and the failure was corrected. The failure mileage was 102,000 and the current mileage was 104,236. Updated 03/30/10. *lj the consumer stated when she made a stop, the vehicle would not go into gear and the engine revved, then slipped into gear and lurched forward. The consumer was told it was a computer problem and sending faulty signals to the transmission. The consumer stated there have been no other problems since. Updated 07/15/10

Filed Feb 5, 2010 · Transmission · 100,000 miles · CA

Around 12/1/2009, I noticed that the automatic transmission seemed to have problems shifting, for example when you would think that the car would shift from 1st to 2nd gear, it would not, or when you were at a stop light and tried to accelerate, car would not move. It was as if the car was in neutral so stepping on the accelerator did nothing but cause a loud "revving" sound. In most cases within a few seconds, it did get into gear and the car did accelerate however when this happened, the car would jerk sharply. Within a few days the problem was occurring alot (at every stop, every time the car needed to shift between 1st and 2nd gear or 2nd and 3rd) so I stopped driving it since I did not feel it was safe, for example, when the car was moving in traffic but then would not shift from 1st to 2nd gear, I could not accelerate and go the posted speed limit. I researched the problem online and spoke to my mechanic and we agreed the car seemed to be exhibiting problems described in a toyota service bulletin tc002-06 (a problem with the engine control module). As my car had just over 100000 miles, toyota refused to consider this as covered by warranty so I had to pay to get it done (ended up going to a private shop). Car is better now, though it may also need get the transmission rebuilt as there are still some issues when the car shifts from 1st to 2nd gear or 2nd to 3rd gear.