Sensor, Transmission Range: Operation

The Transmission Range Sensor (TRS) communicates shift lever position to the TCM as a combination of open and closed switches. Each shift lever position has an assigned combination of switch states (open/closed) that the TCM receives from four sense circuits. The TCM interprets this information and determines the appropriate transmission gear position and shift schedule.

There are many possible combinations of open and closed switches (codes). Five of these possible codes correspond to valid gear position, there are two codes for the neutral position and three are recognized as "between gear" codes. This results in many codes which should never occur  . These are called "invalid" codes. An invalid code will result in a DTC, and the TCM will then determine the shift lever position based on pressure switch data. This allows reasonably normal transmission operation with a TRS failure.