Hey guys...got a good one for y'all. 2003 Maxima that drives perfectly in "D" position, but when I move the shifter into 3rd gear it doesn't shift back out of 3rd even though I move the shifter out of 3rd back into "D". As a matter of fact, the green 3 on the dash stays on no matter which gear your in. I takes a long long time for the car to realize I guess that it's not in 3rd gear and the indicator light goes off and everything is normal again. I'm thinking it's my shifter assembly but any help would be eternally appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

Why not discontinue putting it into 3rd? Is there really a point to 'shifting' a stock automatic transmission? Leave it in D for all forward driving or trade up for a 6spd.

 

It's not that I really want to put the car in 3rd...sometimes when I shift to "D" I accidently move the shifter over into 3rd gear...long story lol

 

Sometimes you want to pass slowly moving car on 2- lane road so if you put it to 3rd and floor it it will go into 2nd and it really flies making the pass safer.

To OP: the car has so called '3rd position switch' which changes its state when you switch D<->3. It sounds it's either broken or mechanically disconnected from shifter so it doesn't change its state.

 

Thanks...I will look into that. Someone with low mechanical skills like myself should be able to tackle huh??

 

Any help would be appreciated. I have this exact issue with my 2002 maxima. My GF drove it and apparently accidentally shifted in to 3rd. Now it shows 3rd on the dash and stays in 3rd now even when shifted to drive. It will shift to 2nd and 1st and the light goes off. But it definitely stays in 3rd and will only go to about 45mph with normal rpms (2500) and any faster and it will not automatically shift into a higher gear. Of course the shifter is on the drive position. This happened before once and like the OP stated it does correct itself eventually after time but it has been like this for 4 days now and was wondering if anyone had any experience with this or suggestions