troy400h

2006 400h suddenly would not start behaving as having battery. jump start no problems drove half hour to charge battery. Next day same issue left car in my garage. Car sat for 2 weeks jump started wanted to take her for a drive and realized shifter was harder to move through all gears and not engaging correctly. With gentle pressure I could get the car to stay in park, drive, or reverse. If no pressure car would suddenly not be in gear and roll down driveway and gear lights on dash will turn off also. Bought a new battery and installed. Shifter is still behaving same. Not sure how charged battery is but car starts as long as I have pressure on shifter to keep it in park. otherwise put car in park alert flashes. Any help greatly appreciated.

ukrkoz

I am presuming you are referring to the 12V battery? Not the traction battery? See, that battery is charged off traction battery. Hence, if your traction battery is dying, 12V will not get sufficient charge. As you basically have electronic gear shifter, sort of joystick device telling TCM what you want to do, it's sensitive to proper power supply. Yes, it does have short cable to go to PSD but there are no physical gears to shift through and car is packed with electronics for every function. Should it have been a simply mechanical failure, it'd likely build up over time, not directly coincide with power drop.
Hoping it's simple "take apart lubricate" thing but, after 2 hybrids and 8 yrs in hybrid forums, I have never seen mechanical shifter failure but all kinds of problems related to dying 12V or traction battery.

ukrkoz

Oh, and you have to drive around long enough for traction battery to charge, so sitting in garage for 2 weeks only depletes it=low 12V charge.

troy400h

FYI, Lexus dealer diagnosis "frayed shifter cable" needs replaced. Price of hybrid repairs is painful. Great car for 12.5 years so no real complaints.

jooksing82

I winder if this will be a common problem. This is about the 3-4 post about hard to shift into gear (I had it in the winter bu the problem went after after a car wash?)

jooksing82

Note I just found this TSB

TSB #LSB-0057-09

NHTSA ID #10030352

2006 Lexus Rx400h Electrical System Service Bulletin 257947

• Action Number: 10030352
  Service Bulletin Number: 257947
  
  Report Date: May 13, 2009
  Component: Electrical System
  
• Summary: Lexus: ig1 relay freezing. Some vehicles may experience multiple warning lights illuminated, vehicle not shifting from park to drive, and other accessories becoming inoperative after the vehicle has cold soaked in sub freezing (below 14 %f
  

jmbeam

yes there is a mechanical movement when moving the transmission selector cable, it is not only an electronic switch. What bothered me after removing this cable that the cable seemed to move and travel fine inside its housing. I thought why the heck did I have to spend $340 on this cable! Anyway I installed the new cable and finally the RX400hś ¨Ready"light turned on and my vehicle started! However now I have multiple dash lights that I cannot get off even after using the OBD trick. IN addition the vehicle drives as if there is a drag on the brakes and after 20 miles only getting 13mpg so I would venture to guess that something is creating this drag on this vehicle.

mnewxcv

Knowing which dash lights are on is necessary to begin speculating on what the problem may be. Having all the codes read from someone with Techstream or the dealer is essential as well.

jooksing82

Do you have any photos of the cable and the work when you did it?

myw

this is the typical problem. keep in mind you can still get extra life out of the shifter cable and still have it shift properly by spraying the crap out of the cable linkage joint underneath the car with automotive grease. make sure to do it once every oil change and you can still have the car shifting great for a few years without swapping the cable.