Engine on, car in park, rolled forward as I tried to turn engine off

Last night the engine of my new Tacoma 2021 was left on as I went to close the gate. When I tried to turn the engine key off from outside the truck withour reaching the gearshift; the gear shifted to a midpoint between P and R and the car rolled forward hitting the fence post. Toyota estimate to repair damages over $3900.
Has this happened to anyone before? Without touching the gearshift but turning the key off the truck gets to a midpoint, apparently a neutral point, between P and R and moves if not on level ground.
Help me; Do I have a malfunctioning claim? My insurance will go way higher otherwise.
Thanks, JohnTally

 

Okay, let me get this straight. The truck was running, it was in park, and when you turned off the ignition, the transmission jumped into neutral. Is that what you’re saying?

 

Possibly. Did the truck yell at you as soon as you opened the door? If it wasnt displaying the "put me in park", then likely it was a malfunction.


The real question is, can you prove it? Transmission gremlins are nasty things.

 

The truck was quite possibly not fully engaged in park, or not even in park at all, when you jostled the truck it rolled backwards, correct? That's not the trucks fault at all........

 

Which models are pushbutton start? I thought it was just the MT that had a key?

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Certain Fords of the late 70's had automatics that jumped from park to reverse. I had a Hornet that got smacked in the side by one. Being the Ford was a corporate vehicle, and my Hornet was hard to color match, I wound up getting a full paint job out of that mishap for pocket change.

Anyway, maybe you have a Ford transmission since there is a parts shortage going on?

However, I'm more inclined to think it wasn't really in park and certainly the ebrake wasn't applied. But $3,900? That's a pretty good smack.

PS. The Hornet was a great car. Really. But style wise it was ugly. However, I had sold a fairly style homely '67 Comet sedan with no AC to buy the Hornet, which had AC.

 

Heres the rub.


In order for you to claim its a malfunction, the shop is going to have to be able to duplicate the problem. I would just pay the deductible for now, then take it to the dealer and say that it popped out of gear and hope that they can find something.

 

Sounds like an unfortunate accident.
It's a long straight and a bump between P and R, pretty sure it's spring loaded to pull it into P once it gets around the gate;

 

It is. The truck also screams at you if you open the drivers door with it still in gear.


Thats what puzzles me about the thread.

 

I would've bet on it being in R and rolling backwards through, wonder how steep we're talking here.. also rolled forward hitting fence post for $3900 sounds pretty steep.

 

I would think any vehicle would drift in reverse if it would roll at all in a situation like this.

 

Manual Transmissions are the best.....

 

Nothing more than operator error.

 

I actually had this happen once a few months ago and I noticed it right away before I turned the truck off. It made a horrible noise but nothing broke and it’s still fine.


I always pull the parking brake before getting out anyway

 

Driver malfunction

 

Are u talking about the truck rolling a foot into the parking pawl? Or like full on rolled 10' kinda thing?

 

For the love of God, always engage the parking brake when exiting your vehicle

 

I hate to dump on the new guy but I'm calling BS...As far as I know the only Taco's which use a key are MT's. Also you might want to get in the habit of setting the brake when you get out of a running vehicle.