My friend's 96-Infiniti-I30 has this problem: moving the gear shift from park to reverse is getting very hard day by day. It goes into drive, neutral, and etc just fine. But it's just tough from park to reverse. In the home garage, he is just pulling the handbrake leaving the car in Neutral.

Is it something expensive to fix or could it be just the cable problem?

I looked thru the recent 12 or 13 pages for a related question but didn't find, but I guess sbdy must hv faced similar problem and created a thread b4 .. any pointers appreciated. thanks

 

Is it parked on an incline/decline? If so that's why, just have him put the handbrake on before putting it in park, That's what I do in my driveway and problem gone there's no more strain on trans instead its on the handbrake.

 

It happens even when parked on the plain surface ...

 

Still have him do what I suggested and see if it helps.

 

Yeah I park on a hill and even sometimes on flat surfaces your car will still roll and cause the transmission lock to engage really tightly if that makes sense.

What I do is when I am ready to park I put it in N, and pull the E-brake and release the foot brake and if that car is steady and not rolling backwards, I then put the gear to P.

 

Seems there is a TSB on this issue ..

A/T Shift lever - Cannot be moved from park (vq30de)
Technical Service Bulletin classification: AT95-005
Reference: ITB95-053

Seems like the A/T Key interlock cable (Part# 34908-40u00) needs to be replaced .. any idea how much it'd cost part + labor ?

 

I have the same problem, but I don't think that is necessary because the cable doesn't seem to be the problem.

It is movable, but there is a gear-like resistance to it.

 

Yes .. it's movable but there is lot of resistance ... but the closest issue found in a TSB was that ...

@spyguy: if u happen to find the solution, please let me know ..

 

The part itself is $40 on courtesynissan but as far as the labor, that may be another story in itself. As you can see the part is cheap so I would suggest you download the FSM and DIY!

 

i had this problem, my mechanic told me it is because of years of grime (soda and stuff) build up on the shifter. i took apart my console and took apart and cleaned and greased everything. works fine now.