Its stuck in park. What do i do!!!!!!!!!!!!

My car started fine at home this morning, I drove about 60 miles today,
stopped by a Starbucks got out and when i came back, the car will not
shift into Drive. That Car starts fine, only when i depress the thumb
thing to move it into drive, nothing happens. Its hard and will not
depress.Its stuck in park. What do i do!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have about 120k. It worked fine till today.

help!!!!!!

 

You learn how modern cars work.

There is a switch under your brake pedal. When you depress the brake
and hit that switch, it releases the shift lock so that you may shift
the car.

The shift lock mechanism is broken somewhere. You need manually to
release it using the system the auto mfr included for that. This entire
system has been on cars for 20 years now, and every car has some way of
manually unlocking the shift lever.

 

I assume you have a Honda, by your screen name.

The brake switch underneath the brake pedal is probably disconnected or
broken. Your foot may have kicked the switch behind the brake pedal by
accident, and over time, the switch becomes loose and eventually
becomes disconnected.

The shifter locks as a precaution, because if the brake switch becomes
disconnected, NONE of your brake lights will work when you step on the
brake pedal. You need to get down with your head near the driver's
side floor and look up and behind the brake pedal to see if you can
reattach the switch.

The same thing happened to me in my Mercury when the odo was close to
100k miles.

 

I assume you have a Honda, by your screen name.

The brake switch underneath the brake pedal is probably disconnected or
broken. Your foot may have kicked the switch behind the brake pedal by
accident, and over time, the switch becomes loose and eventually
becomes disconnected.

The shifter locks as a precaution, because if the brake switch becomes
disconnected, NONE of your brake lights will work when you step on the
brake pedal. You need to get down with your head near the driver's
side floor and look up and behind the brake pedal to see if you can
reattach the switch.

The same thing happened to me in my Mercury when the odo was close to
100k miles.

 

Close, but no cigar.

There are TWO switches: brake lights, and shift interlock.

The shift interlock came about as a result of the Audi "unintended
acceleration" debacle whereby stupid Americans (who can vote! and be on
juries!) were buying into this idea that cars can just suddenly LEAP
forward without the driver doing anything. One way the automakers try
to work around this is to force the driver to have his foot on the brake
before moving the transmission lever out of park. This ensures that the
driver is engaged in the process, and is doing so in a way such that the
car CANNOT move, period. (No car can overcome its brakes like that, so
the chances of the car "running away" are about zero.)

 

Thanks for the info. I just responded to this guy in the other group with
almost the same explanation that Paul gave. I was not aware of the Audi
"issue"...

I like learning new things... ;-)

 

Not sure where the override button is exactly, but in order to drive it
to a shop or something you should look for a "shiftlock override"
button. On my Volvo it's right near the shifter, but on my Pilot I
can't remember (the wife has it at the moment). It should mention it in
the owner's manual.

 

On my accord it's to the right of the shifter on the console, and is
labeled. I've never had to use it yet, or read the instructions, but
from the looks of it, you stick a key end, small screwdriver, etc
into that slot, and it releases the shifter.
MK

 

Make, Model, Year might help.

 

You're a bit younger than I am, then.

In the mid-'80s, a couple of women drove over their kids while driving Audi
vehicles. Of course, Audi was blamed for something called "sudden
acceleration", which was alleged to be a defect in Audi automobiles. It
turned out in court that these women had had their feet on the gas the
whole time, and didn't realize it. In their panic, they were convinced thay
had their feet on the brake, so simply pressed even harder on the pedal,
turning Junior into a pancake in the process.

Much investigation ensued, with various testing labs and the governments of
several countries coming to the conclusion that it was entirely driver
error and that Audi was blameless. The US NHTSA called it "pedal
misapplication". It further came out that this "pedal misapplication"
phenomenon was pretty much spread out among ALL automakers, with Audi cars
not being any more prone to it than anyone else's.

Audi was eventually cleared of negligence or wrongdoing, but by then the
damage was done. Audi lost millions of dollars in sales and was in
financial trouble for a while. It took years for them to claw their way
back.

The experience, and the threat of emormous lawsuits, was so frightening
that all the automakers were installing brake interlocks by about 1990.

During the fiasco, the TV show "60 Minutes" produced a horribly twisted,
biased and mean-spirited program on the issue. It was essentially a smear-
job on Audi, empty of facts or objectivity, and packed with hate. This
episode colored many peoples' attitudes towards Audi and was a significant
factor in lost sales. To this day I refuse to watch that left-wing,
Naderite, Communist program.

 

It was the 'Alar' hoax that drove me away from that unprincipled show, and
from the CBS news department in general.

But the "sudden acceleration" reports continue to mount. The common thread
is that all the cars have automatic trannies and in every case the brakes do
nothing while the car rockets forward. In alt.autos.volvo a while back a
poster complained his Volvo 140 did that. We pointed out to him that the
engine is incapable of overcoming the parking brake, much less the service
brake. The unfortunate chap got his pedals confused.

I have heard of one convincing story of sudden acceleration, in late model
Volvos. They have a known problem with the throttle control module. A poster
reported he was stopped at a traffic light when the engine went to full
power and dragged the car, rear brakes locked, into the intersection. The
engine redlined when he shifted out of gear and stopped when he turned the
ignition. Continuing on, the symptoms repeated at the next traffic light but
the car behaved the rest of the trip.

Mike

 

Perhaps... 35.

In the mid-80's, I was thoroughly enjoying my teenage years... ;-)

I'll agree on that. There are so many examples of their slanted, and
sometimes fabricated, reporting that I just can't bear to deal with them...