mike96sc2

New fun problem with my '99 RX

Occasionally / often, when driving my '99 RX300 I find the car will not downshift. I appear to be in 4th gear (but it doesn't feel like it because the RPMs sit way low for the gear and speed).

Example - this morning driving to work going about 60/65mph on the hwy (at about 2000 rpms even).

I stop at a stop sign and go to pull away but the car just barely moves. Foot to the floor, still about 2000 rpms and slowly getting up to speed. Downshifting the automatic into 2 or 1 did nothing as did hitting the O/D button.

I just found out my knock sensor is bad and it's on the radar to get fixed this month. Could this be a cause of the problem? I know the knock sensor can throw the ECU into a safe mode, but would this part of that as well?

This beauty has 246k miles on it so I don't really want to do anything that might help or might hinder it, just trying to get it to live out it's life for another year or so.

Thanks