SterlingMist00

Car has 175K miles on it....Drove from Whitestone to Commack NY in Long Island where my office is (37 miles away) and when i pulled into the parking lot and attempted to move the auto lever to P it wouldnt move up.. I then tried to move it down to 1 or 2 and it would go in those gears. Tried again to move it up past D to N, R, P and it wouldnt go. I then made the mistake of turning off the engine and tried to move it then and it DID go to N and then R BUT WITH A LOT OF DRAG on the shift lever and i also noticed that the position that the lever was in did not match what was showing on the instrument cluster.. meaning if the lever was in N it showed D and if it was in R it showed N-- always 1 gear lower...AND the car would not start now...even in neutral.

After moving it back and forth many times from R all the way down to 1 and back the shift lever freed up with no drag except from R to P.. I finally got it started in Neutral and the lever position now matches what is on the instrument cluster but it still drags going from R to P... also i hear an audible noise now when i shift from R to D and back again.. anyone have this happen to them and what in the tranny it could be??...I understand the car has a good deal of miles on it.

SterlingMist00

I am thinking it may be the lock links in the shifter or the solenoid in the shifter... so the shifter may need to be repaired/replaced.

Anybody have any insight?

realtor

Even though I live in Florida and we normally don't have issues with snow, it sounds to me like the linkage under the car and all the way to the tranny may have corrosion from the synthetic salt that the government uses to melt the snow. Try to lubricate it with liquid wrench or wd40. Also something so simple as a penny or a dime could've gotten inside the shifter and it's jamming the mechanism. Good luck.