Forgive me if this has been discussed in other threads. I searched but couldn't find a description of my issue. Similar ones, but none the same.

My is the car has gone into "limp home" mode where it's locked into 3rd, regardless of whether I keep it in full auto or I slide it over to the auto-stick. The first time, I thought my battery was so dead that it just messed up the computer. I replaced the battery and all was fine, or so I thought. A couple months later, it did it again. Because I was stuck out away from home, and I knew I had a fresh new battery, I got some tools, disconnected the battery, waited 10 minutes, and reconnected the battery. It "fixed" it and to be honest, I forgot all about it. Then last Friday, on the way to my new, much longer commute, it did it as I was running down the interstate at 80 mph. The other times, it did it on side roads and close to home where I could limp away from lights or stop signs taking forever to get to 30 mph not having any torque from a stop in 3rd. This time, running 80 mph, it seemed like it dropped to 4th but did not drop to 3rd, as the RPM's raised slightly at speed, but didn't really soar as I would expect it to in 3rd gear at 80 mph. Of course, once at my off ramp, it was the same, limp away in 3rd until I gathered enough speed to accelerate normally as you'd expect it to in 3rd. Each time it's done this, it's locked into 3rd gear, nothing else.

Here's the pic I took going down the road about 10 seconds after it happened

 

Did you try restarting the car and seeing if that resolved the issue? Did you get that engine light code read? I would look into the app sensor but it's hard to say author a definitive code.

 

From what I understand about these trans. is that when something fails it will automatically go to the cars mechanical gear which is 3rd. Sounds like the gear location sensor or maybe a bad solenoid or 2. The battery thing makes me think solenoid. A good code reader should be able to pinpoint your problem.