Trouble shifting into gear

[Kat219]

I have a 2013 YARIS I bought last year with 65k miles on it. Currently it has 71k. I moved from Minnesota to Texas and the drive went fine but now I'm having trouble with it having a hard time shifting into gear. Going up hills seems like it would be faster if I pushed the car up! I have to push on the accelerator hard to get it to go into gear. Today I was using my cruise going 55 miles an hour going up a hill and it suddenly shifted into gear and accelerated.

I drive over 75 miles one way to work each day and I have to press on the accelerator so hard to keep it going 70 miles an hour that my leg is beginning to hurt to press the pedal. I know it's not a high performance car but I don't think it should be struggling to maintain 70-80 and even at 60 it's struggling.

I want to take it in to get looked at but I'm afraid to take it to the dealer and just tell them somethings wrong because I don't want to end up with a huge bill trying to figure out what is wrong.

Anyone have any idea what it could be? I just had the oil changed but it was doing it before that. Someone said it could be fuel injectors? Help! I don't want to make it worse by driving it if it would make it worse. :frown:

[Bluevitz-rs]

I'll assume its an Automatic...

It could be a dirty MAF sensor. (Mass Air Flow) It reads the air going into the engine. If it gets dirty you need push the gas harder to get the same power out of the engine as it won't be sending the proper amount of fuel.

[B.B._07]

Are you getting a check engine light and if so what's the code? Sounds like you have low power situation rather than the transmission not going into gear. Also it's normal for an automatic to downshift when going up a hill with cruise control on to maintain the desired speed.

[Kat219]

No check engine light. This was a significant acceleration, as if it wasnt in gear.

[LTHatch]

Kat219 have you looked beneath the gas pedal to see if your carpet is blocking its full travel?

[Kat219]

Took it to Goodyear and they said it was a startibility malfunction and gave me the code. Said i had to take it to Toyota as it would take them too long to diagnose. Not having trouble starting it though. Toyota dealer doesnt have appts till next week but he said driving it wont do any harm just to my patience. Does this sound right?