Clunks into gear when car is uphill

[Silver-Aurion]

When I park my car on the slightest incline like a driveway, and I engage the footbrake (at least three clicks) when I go to disengage the footbrake and change into gear the gear stays stuck in Park and I need to apply a bit of force to change into reverce and then the car severely clunks into gear.

Why is it doing this? It is normal or not, it only happens when the car is parked on a slight incline.

My procedure to get into reverce is, 1; press brake. 2; disengage footbrake; 3; Change gear to reverce. (I keep my foot on the brake the whole time). Number 3 is were it clunks into gear.

Also when parked on a incline, when I chuck the car into Park, and then apply the foot brake then I turn off the car, the gear stick sounds like it clicks in.

Whats going on here? It just severely clunked into gear before and it freaked me out because it was really bad this time.

Edited April 13, 2010 by unique

[Dave89]

the park gear has a bit of free movement in it, maybe about an inch of movement on the wheels either way, you can test this by parking on a flat surface, putting it in park (no footbrake) then getting out and pushing the car forwards untill it stops, then backwards, and you can see the free play that the park gear has.

when you are engaging the park gear and the footbrake on an incline, you aren't putting the footbrake in enough, and the only thing stopping your car from rolling is the "locking" action of the park gear. so the gears are all jammed together, that is why they clunk out/in to/from gear when on an incline, because it has to force the gears to "unlock"

suggest putting the footbrake on more firmly, i think 3 clicks is not enough, the normal is about 5-7 clicks (check car manual, should be written in there).

Dave

[Zerko]

When in Park, the transmission engages a pin (or something like that) which holds the gears stationary, effectively locking the drive wheels. If you are on an incline and the weight of the car is on the "pin" there will be more friction on the pin as it disengages. Clunk.

I think the best procedure to follow is:

To Park

stop

engage park/foot brake

Shift to Park

turn off

To go

turn on

shift to drive/rev

disengage park/foot brake

go

Unless your car is brokened or I've misread your post.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Zerko

[DJKOR]

Exactly what Zerko said with respect to a locking pin. It's not actually the effect of any form of gear jamming up as has also been mentioned but its the locking mechanism that all the weight is put on. If you would like to learn more, have a read here:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission11.htm

Anyways, in posts in the past as well, it has been said by others as well that the Aurion does tend to roll a little backwards after the park brake is applied. This is primarily due to the park brake design. My recommendation when parking on an incline would be as follows:

1) Come to a complete stop.

2) Put car in neutral

3) Engage park brake fully

4) Release normal brake slowly

5) Let car roll back/forward a little. If it rolls too much, you definitely have to get your park brake adjusted.

6) Once your foot is fully off the brake and your car is stopped completely by the park brake, put the shifter into Park.

[Dave89]

eh, locking pin. thats what i meant by gear jamming.... poor choice of words i guess

Dave

[Silver-Aurion]

the park gear has a bit of free movement in it, maybe about an inch of movement on the wheels either way, you can test this by parking on a flat surface, putting it in park (no footbrake) then getting out and pushing the car forwards untill it stops, then backwards, and you can see the free play that the park gear has.

when you are engaging the park gear and the footbrake on an incline, you aren't putting the footbrake in enough, and the only thing stopping your car from rolling is the "locking" action of the park gear. so the gears are all jammed together, that is why they clunk out/in to/from gear when on an incline, because it has to force the gears to "unlock"

suggest putting the footbrake on more firmly, i think 3 clicks is not enough, the normal is about 5-7 clicks (check car manual, should be written in there).

Dave

Are you sure 5-7 clicks? In my Aurion the footbrake is very tight. After 3 clicks its very hard to get any more out of it because it becomes very tight.

Thanks for the post though, it made a lot of sense and I understand why it could be doing this. I'm pretty sure everything in the car is in perfect working order, but I'm the one doing it wrong.

Will try your suggestion though.

[Silver-Aurion]

When in Park, the transmission engages a pin (or something like that) which holds the gears stationary, effectively locking the drive wheels. If you are on an incline and the weight of the car is on the "pin" there will be more friction on the pin as it disengages. Clunk.

I think the best procedure to follow is:

To Park

stop

engage park/foot brake

Shift to Park

turn off

To go

turn on

shift to drive/rev

disengage park/foot brake

go

Unless your car is brokened or I've misread your post.

Thanks Zerko and DJK, two great posts.

"To park", you said to first engage foot brake then Shift to park, I do opposite. I first put into Park then engage park brake.

"To go" that is the exact procedure I take.

I will try all suggestions here and see what is the best to stop it from clunking. Seriously, as LONG as I'm not killing my transmission with the huge clunks thats okay. I thought that the gears were about to break, lol.

Edit: Your right DJK, mine does roll back a bit on a incline. But very little.

Edited April 13, 2010 by unique

[DJKOR]

eh, locking pin. thats what i meant by gear jamming.... poor choice of words i guess

All good. Just don't want those without knowledge on the subject to panic that their gears are getting destroyed when they aren't.

Are you sure 5-7 clicks? In my Aurion the footbrake is very tight. After 3 clicks its very hard to get any more out of it because it becomes very tight.

A freshly adjusted foot brake from Toyota tends to be around 3 clicks till tight. They always seem to do it up like this for me, despite the manual stating 5-7 clicks. Over time though, things start to stretch/loosen so it will eventually get to 5-7 clicks though. But yeah, it's normal to have 3 clicks till tight depending on who at Toyota adjusts your brakes.

Edit: LOL, I knew I said something before:

clunk in my gearbox clunks when changing from park to reverse

This is not a problem that is specific to the Aurion. This issue can occur on ANY automatic transmission. Due to the way the 'park' selector works on the transmission, you can then experience this clunk if the car is let to roll a little once park is selected. In most cases, if you select park but don't let the car roll at all, moving out of park should be smooth. The park brake on the Aurion is partly to blame for this occurring more often than it should mainly because it lets the car roll a little before fully engaging. A good page to read would be this:

HowStuffWorks "Putting a Car in Park"

[CONROD]

Exactly what Zerko said with respect to a locking pin. It's not actually the effect of any form of gear jamming up as has also been mentioned but its the locking mechanism that all the weight is put on. If you would like to learn more, have a read here:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission11.htm

Anyways, in posts in the past as well, it has been said by others as well that the Aurion does tend to roll a little backwards after the park brake is applied. This is primarily due to the park brake design. My recommendation when parking on an incline would be as follows:

1) Come to a complete stop.

2) Put car in neutral

3) Engage park brake fully

4) Release normal brake slowly

5) Let car roll back/forward a little. If it rolls too much, you definitely have to get your park brake adjusted.

6) Once your foot is fully off the brake and your car is stopped completely by the park brake, put the shifter into Park.

[Silver-Aurion]

eh, locking pin. thats what i meant by gear jamming.... poor choice of words i guess

All good. Just don't want those without knowledge on the subject to panic that their gears are getting destroyed when they aren't.

Are you sure 5-7 clicks? In my Aurion the footbrake is very tight. After 3 clicks its very hard to get any more out of it because it becomes very tight.

A freshly adjusted foot brake from Toyota tends to be around 3 clicks till tight. They always seem to do it up like this for me, despite the manual stating 5-7 clicks. Over time though, things start to stretch/loosen so it will eventually get to 5-7 clicks though. But yeah, it's normal to have 3 clicks till tight depending on who at Toyota adjusts your brakes.

Edit: LOL, I knew I said something before:

clunk in my gearbox clunks when changing from park to reverse

This is not a problem that is specific to the Aurion. This issue can occur on ANY automatic transmission. Due to the way the 'park' selector works on the transmission, you can then experience this clunk if the car is let to roll a little once park is selected. In most cases, if you select park but don't let the car roll at all, moving out of park should be smooth. The park brake on the Aurion is partly to blame for this occurring more often than it should mainly because it lets the car roll a little before fully engaging. A good page to read would be this:

HowStuffWorks "Putting a Car in Park"

Awesome thanks. By the way, I don't think my footbrake has been freshly adjusted by Toyota. It's done 61K and I doubt its ever been adjusted.

This car was a fleet vehicle for a company here in Melbourne so I doubt the past owner gave a **** about maintenance, but they did keep a service log where all services were done by Toyota.

Many thanks for the helps guys. It made me feel much happier

[CONROD]

Exactly what Zerko said with respect to a locking pin. It's not actually the effect of any form of gear jamming up as has also been mentioned but its the locking mechanism that all the weight is put on. If you would like to learn more, have a read here:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission11.htm

Anyways, in posts in the past as well, it has been said by others as well that the Aurion does tend to roll a little backwards after the park brake is applied. This is primarily due to the park brake design. My recommendation when parking on an incline would be as follows:

1) Come to a complete stop.

2) Put car in neutral

3) Engage park brake fully

4) Release normal brake slowly

5) Let car roll back/forward a little. If it rolls too much, you definitely have to get your park brake adjusted.

6) Once your foot is fully off the brake and your car is stopped completely by the park brake, put the shifter into Park.

Thats exactly the way the wife and I park on an incline DJKOR, that way all the weight is not on the Parking-Pawl inside the Automatic transmission.Any car with an automatic transmission will make the noise if it is parked soley using it as a means of holding the vehicle,

Good advice mate;;;;;

Cheers

[Zerko]

Yeah, I think DJKOR's technique for parking works. Just noticed the park brake does allow the car to roll a bit after engaging (only had the car about 3 weeks and it's the wifey's).