The past few months, I will occasionally experience the shifter unwilling to move out of park. Usually I'll restart the car without my foot on the brake, then press the brake and shift. Today, after a quick trip to the hardware store, after a week in the mountains with no issues, we were stuck for 45 minutes, restarted 15 times, survived 1o minutes when the engine wouldn't even engage, then restart and it self healed. We arrived back in Sacramento (2 hr drive), shifted into park and it's back to not shifting out of park! As we are frequent visitors to the mechanic, I'm curious about how bad (expensive) this newest ailment will be. It seems like the issue is connected to the brake. The pedal seems to decompress a bit after start and then the shifter works.
02 DiscoII - trouble shifting out of park
- Thread starter SKM22
- Start date
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Disco Mike
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When that happens, have someone look and see if your brake lights are working, if not, you have a bad brake switch.
Disco Mike
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That is not the problem. If none of the lights were working, you would have a failed brake light switch and have found your shifting problem. In your case a burned out bulb will not be the problem.
Let me know if you track down the problem.
Let me know if you track down the problem.
So, yes. all proud of myself that I could change a bulb... worked for a day. Today, none of the lights come on. Bringing her in tomorrow - mechanic said it was probably a bad brake switch and an easy fix. Nice to get confirmation here... not that I don't trust them, but geez - if I get out for under a grand I'm actually happy.
Disco Mike
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Why don't you go buy and install one, only takes about 5 minutes to install and the switch is under $30 at most part stores.
I'd definitely love to fix it myself. Would you happen to have some step by step directions for the non-mechanically inclined? I was pretty proud of myself for dealing with the bulbs... but I'd rather put my own kid through college and not Stewarts! Thanks for any help Mike!
Disco Mike
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Just crawl under your steering column, look at the brake pedal and with your eyes follow the brake pedal arm up to where it pivots. You should see 2 switches, the one with out the hose is your brake switch and just snaps off.
