Is it possible for RAV 4 to drive forward while in park?

[hawkeye1956]

If there are any transmission experts out there, I would like any feedback on whether this scenario is even remotely possible. My wife backed her 2010 RAV 4 out of our driveway which is nearly flat but slopes slightly to the street. She stopped, placed it in park to go get the mail. As she walked away, she noticed it moving forward back to the garage (slight uphill, no snow or ice). As she tried to jump in to stop it, she missed, fell to the pavement and broke her arm as the vehicle continued through the closed garage door and stopped as it hit the front of the garage. Obvoiusly she was in severe pain, grabbed her purse and cell phone from the passenger side, called for help and got to the hospital. About 6 hours later when I was straightening out the mess, I was surprised to see that the shift lever was in PARK!! I asked her when she moved it back as I assumed I would find it in drive, and she swears she did not touch a thing in the car as it died on its own which is also hard to understand. None of this seems possible to me and if someone was telling it to me I would think they were nuts. Air bags did not go off but I wondered if the impact would kill the engine or cause the shifter to be thrown back into Park as there is no extrenal switch on the shift lever. I suppose that someone could have wandered into the garage while we were gone and moved something but that also makes no sense as we live in an area where it is unlikely -- and nothing stolen from the garage during this time. This has nothing to do with any documented Toyota issues that I have been able to research. Any feedback on possibilities would be appreciated.

[RIP]

What a nightmare. It could have been worse but that's more than bad enough. Hope things get back to normal soon.

I'm not a transmission expert so I can't help with that. I've never heard of one "slipping" out of park but it's sure not impossible. Something could have broken in the transmission or shift linkage. I would imagine you're getting lawyers involved so this will most likely turn into a legal mess. If it hasn't been impounded by the insurance company or whoever, someone will have to try to duplicate the "slipping" and investigate why it happened. Have you already tried or aren't you at that point? If your wife did accidentally leave it in drive were there fire or police on the scene who could have shifted it into park?

[DeltaP]

Strange and unfortunate story indeed. Hope your wife mends well and isn't in too much pain.
Just where were the keys throughout all of this. Would it have to be in park or neutral to remove them... and when were they removed?

[hawkeye1956]

Thank you both for your responses. This vehicle has a keyless push button ignition so to start it, the keyfob must be on you or in the vehicle (in my wifes purse) in order to start it. To shut it off, you only need to depress the button. No police or fire was called --never even occurred to me because I met her at the hospital and did not return to the scene for about 5 hours. At that point, the garage and car were the least of my concerns. To follow up, here is what I have done to further test the RAV4. I tried endlessly to duplicate the problem and so far have been unable to. However, I decided to place the car where she had it at the end of the driveway, place it in drive, and see if there is any conceivable way that one could step out of the car while in drive. I would challenge anyone to try. I am convinced it is impossible because it starts moving forward immediately when I release the brake. I cannot even place my left foot on the ground before it starts moving, let alone get out. I am 5' 11" while my wife is just under 5'2" so she has to scoot to the side before even trying to step down. She says it did not start forward till she was at the back corner of the vehicle. I called an independent transmission shop who I trust and who has done good work for me and posed all this to him. His response was that in the days of the old mechanical linkage he would say this is virtually impossible. However, with the newer vehicles like this, it is simply an electronic signal that tells the transmission what to do and this needs to be thoroughly investigated. But by who? Toyota? The same company that was not all that forthcoming with their acceleration problems?
I have contacted my local dealer in Iowa City, Iowa and of course they want me to bring it in which I will do after I get it back from the body shop. I have posted all this detail on the Toyota corporate web site as well as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration web site. My auto and homeowners insurance is through Nationwide so I am waiting to see what they might do before pursuing any legal on my own. My challenge is that I cannot prove anything on my own, especially if nobody else has reported anything like this. Regardless how this turns out for me, my advice to anyone driving any vehicle with an automatic transmission is to never get out of it without either shutting it off or setting the parking brake, regardless of slope. Thanks to all who respond.

[RIP]

Luckily we have a habit of setting the parking brake regardless. Glad to see you've posted your details with the NHTSA. If they get enough similar reports they may investigate. Understand your challenge. Sure hope you get some kind of action on this. Please keep us posted. You might consider copy/pasting your story at www.Rav4world.com. I'm sure they'll be all over this. They are without a doubt the most comprehensive forum for RAV4s out there.

[hawkeye1956]

The only update that I have on this is that Toyota Corporate did contact me and arranged for a specialist to travel to my local dealership and perform an evaluation of the vehicle. They kept it for 2 days. They have a way to read an event recorder that operates similar to a black box on an airplane to investigate crash data. Unfortunately, the vehicle impact was not strong enough to trigger any activity so nothing was found when reading this data storage area. Nonetheless, they spent a good amount of time investigating related systems and I had a good conversation with the Toyota rep when completed. Bottom line is that no defects were found. I have heard nothing from the NHTSA but I didn't really expect to unless others should start to have this problem. At this point, I can't prove anything so it seems my best option is to drive with care, do not park and leave the vehicle run when not in the car unless I set the parking brake; again good advice for any car. I would give anything to know exactly what occurred but may never know. Thanks to all who responded.

[fourwd1]

If you don't set the parking brake, the only thing that holds the vehicle in place in Park is a mechanical lever in the trans called the "parking pawl". If the vehicle is on an incline and it failed, the vehicle would drift downhill like it was in Neutral. Doesn't matter if engine is Off or On.
But it won't drift uphill
When you put a trans in gear, it's a mechanical thing, plus there is a switch on the shifter that tells the trans ECM what gear has been selected. The trans does not use the switch to "command" the trans to shift gears.
So bottom line, I don't think it can happen on it's own.

[veedubmechanic]

2010 rav has mechanical linkage for the shift lever. It is not possible for it to move from park to drive on its own and then just stall

[cjandcj]

Would like to talk to you the same thing happened to my mother.The car ran over her

[hawkeye1956]

CJ,
So sorry to hear that this happened to your mother. I hope she is ok but it sounds like her injuries are possibly more severe than what happened to my wife. I will contact you through my email.

I am curious as to your certainty that the vehicle shift lever was in park when this happened as well as the rest of your circumstances. We are coming up on one year since our incident and have driven the Rav4 with no further problems. Of course we never get out and leave any car running unattended any more either.

I know that others had asked about legal action but given my lack of evidence, I never pursued that. I am not the ambulance chaser type by nature but if I had evidence of malfunction I would certainly pursue. I think the lack of other reported incidents like this would seem to be in Toyota's favor and not mine.

[kjs54321]

It happened today, my wife got out of her Rav 4, put in in park. Left car running walked into to house through the open garage door and ....bam. The car rolled up the drive and hit the inside wall...straight in. If my wife said she put in in park than she put it in park. I am a former professional valet parker been there done that , yes got a out of an idling car in drive and ran it down and jumped in...funny. Got my tip and nobody knew$$. My wife said she left car in middle of driveway with a good incline and walked in front of car and into the house for few seconds and heard it hit the wall....Car acting funny with super low idle prior to all this. sitting at red light foot on brake car goes low to 500 RPM wanting to stall.....Idle a little higher at 700 to 800 RPM. Same story to previous people....never had issues but today could have been really bad....We have a busy household lots of kids in and out......Oh well. Thanks for all that spoke up here.

[Bklein]

This happened to me today with our 2010 RAV4. Going 70mph in carpool lane on the 405 at like 8pm/dark. Just a wall on the left, 5 lanes of cars on the left... my yellow lab decides she wants to sit on my wife's lap (not good) and she shifts the trans into park. The car goes out of gear but stuck in park - I couldn't change it as or speed was dropping. No place on the left to pull over or I'd kill someone so on with the turn signal and cross the 5 lanes to the side luckily everyone safe. Bad dog and stupid shifter design.