Cruise wouldn't engage and immediate downshift?

[scurvycapn]

I had a weird experience with my 09 Camry hybrid yesterday. I pulled out of the garage and noticed that the car was responding a little differently. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but it seemed like any time I left off of the gas pedal, the car would immediately downshift.

I'd let go of the gas, the MPG-meter would immediately go to 60 and the car's speed would start dropping. It felt like it was downshifting or that I had just tapped the brakes or something. You'd feel a little nudge or something like you'd feel when taking off from the stop and the engine could come back on (the engine wasn't shutting off).

Then when I got on the highway, the cruise wouldn't work. The cruise light was on. I'd press the lever to set it. If I let off the gas, it would just drop and drop and drop.

We arrived at our destination a few minutes later and had dinner. When we got back into the car two hours later, it was fine. No funky feeling when letting off the pedal and the cruise worked just fine.

I'm hoping it doesn't happen again. Perhaps all I had to do was shut the car off and back on and it would have been fine. Before it was fine on the trip home I was planning on dropping it off at the shop first thing in the morning.

Do you guys think it would be worth taking it in or should I just let it go? I'm only at 32k miles, so I'll well within warranty. I'm just not sure if "Hey, it did this one time, but hasn't done it since, can you check it out?" would fall under warranty if there appears to be no problem anymore.

[andym1978]

Strange. Except for the cruise control malfunction, that sounded like the car was in "B" mode instead of "D" for some reason. I wonder if cruise control is disabled in "B" mode? I may try this out.

[AML]

Sounds like you shifted it into engine braking mode (B) instead of drive (D). That'll do it.

[scurvycapn]

Thanks, guys. The idea that I accidentally shifted into B popped into my head last evening, but it was late and I didn't feel like hopping into the car to test out the theory.