Automatic, will not manually go down to gear 1 with shifter?

[IS300E30]

I just noticed last night that the gear shifter will not go down to first gear on the automatic transmission. Its like its stuck, I put a little force to push it down to one and still nothing.

I then drove it around and drove the car to work (its not my everyday car) and it seems to drive fine. Its just the shifter will not manually go down to one. Odd? Frozen or something?

A question: What could be causing this?

Question 2: If the automatic gear shifter will not manually go down to one for some reason, does that mean the actual transmission when I have the car in the traditional "D" Drive mode that it won't automatically go to first gear? Or one thing doesn't have to do with the other?

[jeffnhiscars]

Context matters. If its been behaving perfectly for months and this started after you launched it, thats not the same as if you just bought it and it came that way so more detail helps us help you.

The gear selector sets the highest gear the transmission can shift to so D gives you 1,2,3, D; setting it to 3 gives you 1,2,3; 2 gives you 1,2 etc. If its only a 3spd subtract one. If it was not shifting down to 1 you would absolutely know it when you accelerated from a stop

It sounds like everything is working as it should in D so assuming you can still shift thru N, R & P, it sounds like it could be a bad spring in the lever or something jammed in the detents. The mechanism is serviceable from inside the car. GL

[IS300E30]

Context matters. If its been behaving perfectly for months and this started after you launched it, thats not the same as if you just bought it and it came that way so more detail helps us help you.

The gear selector sets the highest gear the transmission can shift to so D gives you 1,2,3, D; setting it to 3 gives you 1,2,3; 2 gives you 1,2 etc. If its only a 3spd subtract one. If it was not shifting down to 1 you would absolutely know it when you accelerated from a stop

It sounds like everything is working as it should in D so assuming you can still shift thru N, R & P, it sounds like it could be a bad spring in the lever or something jammed in the detents. The mechanism is serviceable from inside the car. GL

I believe something must be jammed in there as well. What is "detents?" And how can I get to it? To get whatever is jammed in there out.

[IS300E30]

Definitely something jammed in there. I took off the plastic surrounding that says "P, R, N, D, 3, 2, 1 and used a air blower (one that you would use on your keyboard) AND my attempt to get the jammed item out actually pushed it forward. Now, It will not go to 2nd or 1st. So, it is now also jamming second gear on the gear shifter.