We have a '93 Ford Escort Wagon LX with an automatic transmission. My wife says she had to pull with all her strength to get the car out of “park”. After that, it was fine. I thought it might be related to the recent cold snap (and first of the season) to hit the Mid-Atlantic, but she says it’s done it before, but not as bad.
What causes this? And, is it an expensive fix? FYI: She says the car shifted normally once driven, so the transmission fluid is ok. (But, I haven’t checked the dip stick.)
I should add that her foot was on the brake, and the emergency brake was released. In some cars, you cannot shift until these things are in order… - Jinx
If it happens again tell her to try moving it out of park and turning the steering wheel back and forth at the same time. There’s an interlock in there to (help) prevent theft. Sometimes it makes it difficut to get it out of park.
In addition to the steering interlock mentioned above …
If the emergency brake is off and the car is on a slight slope, the car will often roll forward an inch or two after the transmission is parked. That will put a heavy load on the parking pawl & make it difficult to shift out of Park later. Literally, the weight of the car is resting against the mechansm the shift lever is trying to move.
She should park by coming to a stop, setting the emergency brake, shift into neutral, take her foot ff the regular brake, let the car move the couple of inches it may until the emergency brake holds, THEN shift into park. The extra step takes only a second, but it will save strain on the transmission and ease shifintg out of park later. If the emergency brake will not hold the car’s weight on the slopes she commonly parks on, it’s waay past time to get it fixed.
Yes most likely the stearing wheel has to be moved. But I did have a car w/ a fraying shifter cable. I lost 1, then 2, then the big one ‘D’ went, with only R to get my car home (short distance). I guess depending on the design you could loose P first (or make it really hard to get out of P…
No help here, just chiming in to say that it happened to me yesterday. At the time my best guess was that it was related to the cold - in our area it was 10 degrees yesterday morning, with a windchill of 10 below. In my case, I couldn’t move it out of park no matter how hard I tried. I let the car warm up about 10 minutes, and it was fine. That’s the only time it’s ever happened. My car is a 98 Saturn automatic.
There are three likely causes. One, driveline pressure against the park pawl, has been well addressed by LSLGuy. The second is failure of the steering column shifter interlock to release fully, which Joey P mentioned. This is a mechanical device which could have some wear, causing it to act up now and then. The third is failure of the brake pedal shifter interlock to release fully. This is an electro-mechanical system, requiring an electrical signal from pressing the brake pedal (generally the same one that activates the brake lights) to energize a solenoid at the shifter. This can fail electrically (the signal doesn’t make it to the solenoid) or mechanically (the solenoid gets the signal, but doesn’t operate).
The first one is “fixed” by the driver being careful not to park in such a way that there is strain on the transmission. The latter two are not terribly expensive to fix, but might get into a couple hundred or so (each) to rectify. First, however, it would be necessary to diagnose the problem, which usually means testing it while it’s acting up.
I’ve heard this mentioned on a talk show, perhaps, about car advice. It sounded silly at the time, at it is an unnatural sequence to me, so it’s hard to put into practice. But, I’ll mention it to her… - Jinx