Foofga

Hello everyone, I recently bought my 2001 IS300. The gear limiter was only going down to 2 when I bought the car, meaning I could never limit to 1st gear even when stopped; I didn't think much of it until after some recent suspension repair work (by an ASE certified shop that I have some level of trust in). Now I can only limit to 3rd gear. Even at a stand still I cannot shift below 3.

The car shifts perfectly fine and does not seem to have a problem changing to any gear. I usually use the limiter for downshifting and the occasional highway entry and the limiter seems to work fine other than not letting me limit down below 3.

The shop did not work on the transmission, plus I expect I should have been able to limit to 1st gear to begin with. I am hoping the transmission is not a problem...

Any insight as to what may be the problem, or better yet, how to fix it?

Thanks for any feedback!

pierre2jz

When my transmission is cold it sometimes also limits the manual shifting to third, and when warm to second gear.
Never to first, if you want that you need to shift the stick to L

Foofga

Thanks, I'll leave it until we thaw out here (-17 or so today with wind chill around -45). I'll see if it lets me shift to 2nd once it warms up. If not I'll likely have to take it to a shop, transmissions are not something I want to tear into myself.

Any other thoughts would be welcome!

Foofga

That seems to have been it! We thawed out a little here and now I'm able to limit to 2nd again. I'm not so worried about it now but I am interested in the mechanical/electrical components that affects this when it gets cold. I'll dig around a little when I have some time and if I learn anything new I'll share it here.