My 2008 Toyota had known drive shift gear issues where it would shift on its own to Neutral if you were in Reverse or Drive. The issue was "I though" resolved in 7/3/2013 by replacing the drive shift gear.

6/18/2019 after taking the car in for new tires, alignment and oil change the car started to exhibit the symptoms of automatically shifting to neutral again. The car was taken to the dealership however they couldn't diagnose the issue. After telling them about the replacement in 2013 the dealership recommended to replace yet another drive shift gear. 6/20/2019 the shift gear was not replaced.

This happened once before, about a year ago and I thought it was just a fluke. It happened again yesterday. I called the Dealership and they did have a Technical Service Bulletin 014211 on this, and the woman I spoke with thought it would be covered even if it was out of warranty. She then called back to say it wasn't and that it would cost $585 to replace the Trans-axle Shift lever assembly. She gave me the phone number for the manufacturer Toyota, to call them directly to see if they would cover it. I was told by Toyota that my car was past the warranty and this hasn't happened enough for this to be a recall, and was apologized to. I do have a case number, and will call back each time it happens as long as I am able.

My family will be made aware of this, as I am sure they will want to know. It is unfortunate that they couldn't pay for the parts being I was told by the dealership the labor cost was $44 for .4 of an hour, so you can't tell me their cost for the parts is $441.00?!

After the car has been sitting the hot sun it won't stay in gear. If you put it in drive it pops back into neutral, same with reverse or park. If you let the car sit with the A/C running for about an hour it will stay in gear. This has happened numerous times. Dealer of course say's they never heard of it, however there is a Toyota Service Bulletin number T-SB-0142-11 that mentions the problem. The supposed remedy is to replace the shift lever. My car is at the dealer right now, waiting to hear if they figured it out.

Update from Jul 17, 2016: After all day at the dealer, they couldn't find a problem. Sigh, the run around.

This has occurred three times within the past 2 years, but it happened twice in the past month. Both times it was a hot day and I had been running the AC for a while. Then, I turned off the car for a few minutes. When I went to turn the car on again and put it into D, it went to N as soon as I tried to move. This happened repeatedly with both D and R. I could keep the car in D by holding the lever there, but as soon as I let go it would go back to N. I finally turned the car off, then back on, turned off the AC, and it was fine.