Hi there,
Had an oil change on my 92 maxima (automatic). Drove home and parked the car. Tried to drive it out later that afternoon and reversed out of the garage. I was not able to move the shift lever into neutral or drive. It only moves between park and reverse. Transmission is engaging fine in reverse. I did not have any issues with transmission before the oil change

Using the mechanical shift lock release I am able to move the lever but only into park and reverse. Does not go to neutral or drive

Opened up cover to expose shift lever and I dont see anything broken.

From other threads I checked the brake light (fine), other fuses (shift release etc) are all fine.

Totally confused. Can you give me any pointers? Is it something the oil change guy did? I cant imagine what he could have done.

Thanks for any help

 

Also to add - when I press the brake with ignition on, I hear the click, so I assume the relay or solenoid mechanism is fine

 

Is there any way for me to manually get it into neutral or drive?

From what I have read - the shift release enables you out of park when your battery is dead, but is it supposed to enable you to cycle through all gears ?

I don't see anything in the shifter assembly broken beneath the lever (spring, plastic etc).

Pressing the shift release lets me move freely between park and reverse, but there is resistance moving it down another notch to neutral. I am afraid to apply excessive force lest I break something.

What is odd is that I cant go to neutral. Anyone have a diagram or explanation on how the lever mechanism works?

Anyone?

 

Possible solinoid gone bad at the 'D' mark? Im not sure. But it sounds like somethign came loose or broke off and wont let it come into N/D/etc. You may have to get it opened up if you can't do it yourself.

 

open the hood...on the driver's side close to the firewall is your transmission linkage. that's what moves when you move your shifter. disconnect the cable and with a help of a friend while keeping their foot on the brake move the lever on the transmission. so it's PRND...4th notch should get you into fwd gear. if it doesn't move when you try and move the lever by hand your transmission is probably due for some major over haul.

 

thanks for the responses. I'll see if I can try out your suggestion.

 

yes, the red override button should let you get into any gear

if its not any of the above, it might be your shifter bushing. ive never seen the shifter bushing go bad enough to not let someone go past reverse, sounds like a linkage issue

 

Thank you all. I found the problem. It was the case of the missing OIL CAP!

I had mentioned I did an oil change and when I got home the car lever would only shift between Park and Reverse. No further!

I opened the hood and noticed the oil cap was missing. I could not tell how that could cause the problem with the shifter. I went back to the mechanic and he said there was no way and he bought me a new oil cap.

When Danny suggested checking the shift linkage, I looked closely and guess what, I saw the missing oil cap had lodged itself between the gap and was blocking the linkage from moving.

What probably happened is the guy did not replace the oil cap and when I parked the car after driving home from the oil change is that the oil cap somehow slipped into the gap.

I was able to remove it after a little effort and all is good. Needless to say I didnt imagine a simple oil change could do this. Thanks again to all

 

Wow, what a weird thing to happen. Glad you found the problem though!

 

every so often i get these right...glad it worked out.

 

Thank you DanNY!!