Can't get vehicle out of park...(sometimes)

Hi.

I am wondering if anyone has had this problem:

I cannot get the vehicle out of park on occasion when depressing the
brake pedal. Someone told me its a sensor or something like that that
may be dying. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone and the
costs involved of repairing this? It seems like a sensor or
*something* because if I repeatedly push the brake in, sometimes very
far in, it will pop out of park.

For now i'm parking on flat ground in Neutral with the parking brake on


Thanks for all info,
Alex

Sorry forgot to tell you what make/model.

Its a 2002 FE V8.

On Fri, 13 May 2005 09:20:15 -0700, Some Dude wrote:

> Hi.
>
> I am wondering if anyone has had this problem:
>
> I cannot get the vehicle out of park on occasion when depressing the
> brake pedal. Someone told me its a sensor or something like that that
> may be dying. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone and the
> costs involved of repairing this? It seems like a sensor or
> *something* because if I repeatedly push the brake in, sometimes very
> far in, it will pop out of park.
>
> For now i'm parking on flat ground in Neutral with the parking brake on
>
>
> Thanks for all info,
> Alex

Yes, this happened to my parent's 1995 explorer and we kicked ourselves
when we found out what was wrong, having gone through a couple of such
incidents in very hostile places, such as out in the middle of the forest
(camping) or in a very bad urban neighborhood (don't ask what we were
doing there...)

It turns out there was nothing physically wrong with the brakes, just with
the fuse that detects if the brakes are depressed.

We noticed we could shift the lever out of park with the vehicle turned
off, I believe we might have turned the key into acc or something. Can you
do this? So we believed it was a problem with the key system. We asked
our mechanic about this and he agreed and went ahead and replaced the
key ignition system. Then, when the problem persisted, only later did he
start his own troubleshooting.

He ended up looking for blown fuses in the fuse box, and when he found it,
he replaced it with the extra one which is provided in the fuse
compartment. The entire procedure took about 5 mins.

Of course, he insisted that it was us who had asked him to replace
the key ignition system, and that is why he is now our *former* mechanic.

So if you haven't checked your fuses, that's a good place to start.

Great idea. I checked the fuses and they were all good. I looked
under the brake pedal and noticed a electric connector that was loose.
I tightened it (its still comes loose) and the car immediately went
into gear!! Yay!! So all it was was a loose connector that $.01 of
duct tape fixed to keep it from getting loose!!

Thank GOD it was that easy!! The first time I've ever had something so
easy that I could fix...that and the PCV valve

Thanks