I have a 2001 LS430 with 81,000 miles that twice during the last week would not engauge in drive without going back to park and back down to drive. It would go into reverse fine but when put into drive it felt like it was in neutral. When put back into park twice and back to drive it worked fine and engauged like it was supposed to. Transmission fluid is clean and smells like it is supposed to. It shifts normal and smooth through all gears after it engauges. Has anyone else experienced this problem and any suggestions....I would like to also add that the shift linkage rubber bushings are ok and the indicator says D..........Thanks

 

Its possible that the linkage could be just slightly out of adjustment. The switch that changes the dash indicator is on the shifter itself, while the linkage continues on to the transmission. So it could be out of adjustment at the transmission. Otherwise, it sounds like it is working properly. Next time this happens, keep it in D, and try to wiggle the shifter back and forth, without actually moving out of D.

 

Thanks for the reply. It hasn"t happened again yet but when it does I will even try to drop it down into a lower gear. Next week I am going to get the transmission shop to check to see if their is a code in memory even though no lights came on. If their is none I am going to reset the computer by unpluging the battery.