http://www…p6clZg-QLk
The above link is a video my wife took of me in my 2004 Toyota 4 Runner (83k miles) on Monday 10/11/10. The other week my 4Runner started rolling down my driveway while in PARK and while the car was off! So I had her video this so I could show the dealership service department. In this video I am parked in my driveway, car is in PARK, parking break is engaged, and the engine is off. It starts to roll and you can hear the awful sound. The only reason it stops is because I put my foot on the brake. If I didn’t, it would continue to roll. I took it to the dealership in town and showed them the video. We couldn’t replicate it yet they suggested to replace the transmission. I have yet been shown how that will prevent this and the car works fine otherwise!!! I have never heard of a bad transmission causing vehicles to roll down hills while in PARK! Anyone have thoughts on how to fix this??? Has anyone seen this? This is FAR FROM NORMAL and is a major safety issue!!!
Unless the car is under warranty, stay away from the dealer. This should not be brain surgery for anyone who is familiar with automatic transmissions. I would avoid chain transmission shops.
It’s not under warranty but figured I would take it there first to figure out why it’s doing it. Do you have any ideas? They checked the “parking pawl” and said it looked ok. What else would cause it to roll while in Park??? This is more scary to me than the sticking gas pedal issue Toyota had!
You have two problems, and you should get both fixed.
- There is some issue with the parking pawl in your transmission. Fixing this does not require replacement of the transmission. It should be a fairly minor problem to fix.
- Your parking brakes aren’t working. It could be just an adjustment, or there could be more to it. Either way, it shouldn’t be very expensive to fix.
Clearly, you now know at least one shop not to use. Find a good independent or a better dealer. (The independent will be less expensive most of the time.)