Yes, that's right...

So I get home this afternoon and park the car, then go to move it five hours later and the gear shift button is not engaging to allow me to actually move the shifter; i.e. I can't get the car out of park. I tried a few things and played around with it for a while, removed the shifter **** and just tried pushing down on the plunger but the plunger won't move downward either. So at this point, it's late and I'm done trying for now.

Before I dig into this more, has anyone else experienced this and is it something simple or am I in deep s***?

 

holy zhit, dude, that sucks, I can't imagine what you're going through.....I had an old column shift stuck in park before, it was a linkage issue with it. Not sure if that is your issue though. I know you know your way around cars, just keep playing with it and see what happens? Sleep on it, see what happens tomorrow, be patient also......

 

A friend of mine just went through this a few weeks ago on his G8. The shifter release bottom was jammed closed rendering that gear **** bottom useless but somehow after me and him fighting it for a few hours it finally released some how. The next day the problem returned forcing him to tow it to gm dealer for a new one. My opinion is if u can get it to shift drive straight to ur dealer and if that isn't possible right away then keep it in neutral and use the E brake to park it. It will start in N and can shift to D or R from N with out pressing the botton. Seen this problem happen often to people I know with GM cars newer than 2005, might me a recall on ur car?

 

I have heard of two things causing this:

The wiring to the solenoid has become frayed/broken.

Something (such as a coin) has fallen into the shifter and is preventing the shifter from seating completely in the park mode which jams the shifter.

Either scenario requires removal of the console to access the problem.

 

Thanks for the response guys.

Mike, I was actually thinking about the solenoid too. It's like pushing the brake pedal isn't releasing the shifter like it should so I'm having thoughts if it's something with the solenoid or a blown fuse for something in that system. I still get brake lights when compressing the pedal. I don't know, just trying to trouble shoot in my mind this morning so I'm going to try simple things like that first and hope that it's one of them. Fuse first, ripping apart the console second. I highly doubt something fell down and is jamming the release just because I keep an uncluttered interior and I would know if something made its way down there, mainly because you would have to literally, on purpose, make something get wedged and fall through the shift area.

 

My gut feeling is going with the frayed/broken wire at the solenoid. I've read of that happening several times because of the routing of the wire. Something jamming the shifter is along shot, but I have heard of it happening a couple of times. Usually a coin or something was dropped and managed to get into the console. Like I said though I have a feeling it's the solenoid wiring.

 

This is what I'm dealing with right now. Another issue I encountered is I can detach the top trim plate of the console fine but I can't pull it toward the rear to clear the center stack and up to remove it with the shift column stuck in the park position. Tried releasing the shifter again this morning and it's still not going. Checked some of the fuses I thought could possibly be the culprit and they all look fine.

DSC_5429_zps3efa1e43.jpg

 

Mike, do you know how/where the wiring to the solenoid is routed? Like I said in my post above, I can't get the console trim plate completely removed to have easy access to the area with the shifter stuck in park.

 

I do happen to see some coinage above the shifter?
Could this possibly be how a coin could have slipped down inside to jam your shifter Matt?

I just find it hard to believe... That you and others are haveing trouble with the shifter mechanism..
via solenoid..or mechanical failure...

 

No, I am sure of that. There's almost no gap in the arched portion of the shift actuator for anything that size to slip through into the shift mechanism itself. Something slipping through between the shift indicator piece and console trim plate, maybe, but like I said it would have to be forced through on purpose and it would end up inside the console, not the shift mechanism.