2004 V70 Shiftlock stuck in Neutral/Drive

[fight on]

Hi,
I've searched the forum, and found a lot of issues relayed to shiftlock stuck in Park. I was not able to find a thread related to P2 models that is stuck in Neutral/Drive. The car will not shift into Park nor Reverse, hence, the ignition cannot be turned to the last position to remove the key. We discovered the issue when we pulled into our driveway, but could not move the shift level forward beyond Neutral. When I step on the brake pedal, I could not hear the clicking sound of the solenoid (while in D or N). I had to disconnect the battery to prevent it from draining. Waiting for the weekend to tear into center console/shifter.

I had the problem of shiftlock stuck in Park a couple of months ago when it was cold in the morning. I was able to hear the clicking of the solenoid during the times that the shiftlock is stuck in P. Is it true that the P2's do not have a override button ?

Would someone post a link on how the remove center console on a P2 ?

Thanks.

[jimmy57]

The shiftlock system on P2 works by blocking R. That serves two purposes as it stops you from getting it out of Park and also keeps you from going into reverse at a speed where it would disastrous.

The panel around the gear lever with the gear position LEDs is also the gear selector module and it controls the solenoid. The solenoid is built into the gear shifter and is to the left side of that shifter assembly somewhat accessible with the console side cover slid off.
The side piece slides off after the retainer button is twisted and removed. Maybe someone has the procedure in a file to share.

Fuse 21 on the end of the dash needs to be checked to be sure it hasn't blown.

[fight on]

Thanks Jimmy.

I was able start working on the problem this afternoon. I read from another site that to remove the shift knob, all you need to do is pull up hard on the shift knob. When I did that, the shift knob, boot, and the cover with the gear position indicator all came off.

After reconnecting the battery, and looking inside the console, I was able to understand how the lockout mechanism that is cable connected to the ignition works. Everything in that area seems working correctly. In addition, by putting rearward pressure on the shift lever while turning the ignition to position 1, I was able to reproduce the situation that the cable actuated shift lock would get stuck in a half way position to not allow the shift lever to move away from Park. I had to turn the key all the way back to the first position, making sure there are no rearward pressure on the shift lever, then turn the key On again for the shift lock to move completely out of the way.

The next area to investigate was the shift lock solenoid. Everything seems to be working correctly in that area also. The solenoid would disengage whenever the brake pedal was pressed. I did noticed that the solenoid do not actuate when the shift lever is in the N or D or any other numbered positions.

When I tried to re-install the shift knob, and press it all the way down, the shift lever would get stuck again even when I push as hard as I could on the square button on the front of the shift knob. When I pull the shift knob up a bit, the shift lever would move freely. That lead me to examine the shift knob more closely. I discovered that a piece had broken off from the back of the square button. Even when the button is pressed all the way down, the mechanism failed to disengage to allow movement of the shift lever.

As a temporary workaround, I removed the nylon/plastic rod that extends inside the steel shift lever, and put everything back together. The only problem is the shift lever can now easily bumped to other gear positions without any mechanism to stop it.

I basically have 3 options. 1) leave it as is. 2) order a replacement shift knob/shift lock rod assembly. (I recall seeing it online for $97). 3) look for a used one at a junk yard or on Craigslist, hopefully for much less than $97.

I hope this write-up would help others having the same issue.

[fight on]

One more option: IPD sells just the button for $25. Just need to select the correct one. My car is not Geartronic, but the picture of the replacement button that seems most similar is the one for Geartronic with pin.

[vorbosh]

I had the same exact problem with the shifter locking in Neutral and Drive. Disassembled the knob. Found the pin had separated from the button and epoxied it back into position. it's tedious. There are youtube videos on how to replace the knob. Once you get it detached from the shift post, remove the hinge pin from the button by pushing it out with a thin allen wrench. The rest is pretting intuitive, just be patient. I repaired the plastic shaft the pin fits in and reassembled everything. Note that the button fits in a housing that can be removed from the knob. When reassembling everything. the housing should be partially replaced in the knob when you feed the cable back into it before you replace the spring, hingepin and button. i'll go ahead and buy the replacement to be safe but at least I know why the shift lock wasn't working. The whole process took an hour and it works fine. For now