Why does my car downshifts instantly from 5th to 3rd and locks in 3rd??

Question

I have a 2001 Hyundai Xg300L at around 65,000 miles on it, it's a good car and no problems with it until now but im not sure what it is. One day i was driving above 50mph. the car was driving normal when all of sudden it "jumped" and i saw that the gears automatically shifted from 5th to 3rd gear when I switched to the "shift-tronic" and the engine light turned also. When i pressed on the gas it just reved loud but did not get out of 3rd gear. I had to pull over and put it in neutral and I even tried to manually shift from the "shift-tronic" but it was just stuck in third no matter what. I had to turn it off and the car/transmission was back to normal starting from 1st when I turned it on again. But now my engine light is still on and it jumped from 5th to 3rd again about a week later. It looks like the problem is going to get worse if I don't do something about it. Sounds to me like a computer thing or something connected to the transmission, but im not sure. Do you know? Thank you

Answer 1

This is called the "limp home" system. Your car's computer thinks that there's something wrong with the transmission. It locks the car in third so you can "limp" to the dealer to have it fixed without doing more damage to whatever it thinks the problem is. Take your car to the dealer immediately.

Answer 2

This is what happens when you buy a modern plastic supercar.
I have never had "anything"like this happen in my 1957 Ford
pick up.
Just because something is new it does'nt mean it's better.

About your trans,sounds like a crossed circuit or short.
Did you go thru any water or jump someones car with yours?

Answer 3

maybe the clutch is f'd up...oh tip-tronic??? take it to your local huydia dealer and get it checked out....proly your tip-tronics chip is messed up...drive safetly

Answer 4

time to get a new car heh?

Answer 5

you drive a peice of **** get over it