I was getting into my car with 2 cups of coffee and spilled a little right in the OGS Electronic shifter. Cleaned it right off and went on my way. Drove off and 10 minutes later, the car goes into neutral while on the highway. Maybe I hit it, pushed drive and kept going. It did it again, and the at a light it went into reverse. Oh boy. Drove a little further and it went into neutral and stayed. Rolled to the side and that was it. Once it was in P, it wouldnt shift at all, plus it was not lit either. I took it apart, tried to clean it, blew on it but nothing. Checked the fuse, there is one for the shfter, but it was good. I was just about to call to get picked up, when I hit it face down on my leg a few times and that did it. Works fine again. Scary. Learned 2 things. 1-dont drip on it. 2-keep the old shifter in the back in case 1 doesnt happen
I am glad you are ok. I was never too convinced about that mod, in my opinion they are a bit dangerous. I am the kind that likes "torquing" down the car when going too fast into a curve (like exiting the parkways). So, without having to look from D to B with just a light tap to my normal shifter. But that mod does look awesome! Cheers!
The stick shifter may or may not be any better in the event of a spill that could be shorting switch contacts. It depends on how it works. If it's just micro-switches that the stick is hitting when you push it, then it may not be much better. If the stick actually moves a gnd or 12V rail over to a contact than it might be more tolerant since you have more distance between the two.
Not only that, if you happen to get into an accident and into a dazed and confused state, you can't shift intuitively without having to look.
The stock shifter is using hall elements, no micro switches or so. Also it encapsulated and therefore it is not that sensible to any type of coffee I lately drove another Prius without an ESS and it was strange to me now not pushing buttons. But I will never ever go back to the shifter due to the fact that I don't have the problem with jackets anymore. It's cold winter and I always moved or even touched teh shifter with the arm of my winter jacket when operating the NAV unit. I had at least two situations before the ESS and wthout the stock shifter I feel much safer.
