So, ive had this car for years, put foot on brake, start car,, cant press the button on the auto shifter,, its locked?,,, press and release the brake, press, try,, nope.....wtf? anyone have this problem.. i need to pick up my kids in 3 hours.. btw, no ses light or od light blinking....214,000 miles I30t.

 

Turn the key one click, hold brake & shift to neutral.

Hold brake pedal and start the car, shift to drive and go.

The brake sensor in your pedal is probably broken and not letting you shift into gear.

 

hmmm,thats strange,try what Dragon said, sound like it may be a fix for now.

 

It's called a brake switch.

I think it's the brown one. Blue is for cruise control.

 

cant push the button still, even with engine off and key turned as said..ive read in the 3rd gen forums about a override button,, does the I30 have one?

 

I'm pretty sure it's 1 click and hold the brake before trying to shift.

 

try to disconnect and reconnect the plug shown above. as mentioned already, sensor isnt sending signal that brakes are applied so the tranny is still locked.

chalk one more reason up for 5spd swap

 

yeah, depending on how much a 5 spd conversion vs a rebuilt tranny,, but i wanted to wait till original tranny dies completely... ive just replaced, starter, alternator, battery, evap purge valve and canister, tires and major tune up.... now this..i wont trash the car tho, great shape body interior and engine....anyway i will try to disconect the plug, nothing else has worked so far. thanks for help so far

 

ooo man i had this same problem when i had my auto its the shift lock for sure or something like that. I went to go move the car i and i couldn't my friends fixed it for me. you have to open up the panel were you change gears i don't really know in detail but i do know that your transmission is not messed up. Also they told me that mine broke because i have a habit to put my car in nutural at lights. But for sure it is your park shift lock.

 

What he said^^^^^

It's called a shift interlock solenoid. The way to find out if that's actually the problem is to step on the brake while in park and listen very carefully for a click coming from inside the shifter. If there is no click then it's either the solenoid(most common) or another part such as the switch on the pedal. I am very doubtfull it's the brakelight switch considering when I had a bad switch once and it still functioned properly. So it's probally the cruise control switch that also functions as the switch that tells the solenoid that the brake is being pushed. You'll more than likely have to remove the center console to replace it. I don't know however considering I've never done one on a Max but only on Chevys...

 

anyone have experience with changing shift interlock solenoid? where is it..how hard to replace..?lots of info for 3rd gen,, how bout 4th gen???

 

What if its something such as the button on the shifter, I broke mine once and studied it from the inside when I replaced it (it cracked from inside), if the plastic shift buttons internal isnt contacting with teh cable it will also give you a hard time to shift, its 2 screws 5 mins to check.

 

well, i somehow found a sweetspot, that will allow me to get the button pressed...i have to firmly press the whole shifter towards the 9oclock position and then gently press the button.. has worked 10 times now.. this leads me to believe its mechanical.. i will check the button like maximafrenzy said, and ill look around in the shifter area for debris, corrosion, etc... what a dumb thing..lol

 

I would change out the shift lever if I were you. I just replaced mine with 150K miles after the O/D switch started to short out. The new one came with an ungreased button, so I made sure to grease it up like the original one I had removed, and greased all the rest of the main wear points. The shifter works much better now...it made a big difference to swap it out. Cost me around $65 with dealer discount. It's not that hard of a swap...just pull off the console and take apart and re-wire the new stalk. If you think it's mechanical, try that route before someone tries to do something drastic like swap the transmission.

 

If it is the shifter like I suggested, see the for sale forums I paid $15 shipped from a member last year. Forget the dealer prices!!

 

same thing happened to me. it ended up being the shift lock soleniod. i think i had spilled one too many pops on my shifter. when i looked in where the thingy is, there was a lot of sticky, coagulated syrup down there. anyway, i took out the sls and since i couldn't find anyone selling another one (before i found the org and pinnicle nissan), i just left it out......... works fine without. what happens is that the soleniod is like a magnet that is activated when the brake is pressed. it pulls a rod which unlocks the shifter. its a safety feature that won't allow you to shift out of park without having the brake on first.........i didnt need it cause i do that anyway. so get in there and remove that if you have anymore problems. its just a harness and two little screws. mine started off as a small prob then it just wouldn't shift anymore.

 

yep,,, sometimes you gotta keep it simple,, thanks for all the advice,, solution was so simple,,, clean the metal rod and plastic part......doh works fine now..very little pull on that rod,, little spillage is enough to keep it from moving apparently.

 

So the real question is...did you ever pick up your kids?

 

On My auto shift 96 max-In the winter I go out to the car start it step on the brake and go to shift. But the shift wont move out of park. The button on top of the shift gos down but I can't shift it.I know there is a safty switch on the brake but don't know where it is..Might be called (shift lock solenoid.) Its only does this in the winter. All summer it shifts easy. Does anyone have a photo of where the shift lock solenoid is ? Is that the brown one in the brake pedel ?

 

no the shift solinoid is on the passenger side of the shifter. it should be an anidiozed yellow color. i had to disconect mine because i spilled coffee in it and it no longer worked. all it takes to disconect is a paire of needle nose plyers and a few seconds. its only held on to the shifter by a codder pin. the only downside is that if you have kids they can easily put it into gear while there sitting in it and your under the hood fixxing something else. not fun it happened to me. luckily my impala was right behind it so it just left a little scuff that i could buff out. if you dont want to go that root take it out and clean it if it only does it in the winter it has moisure in it and is freezing with the weather. get a remote start and heat your car up befor you get in it. works for me

 

Could it be the brake switch as in the photo above ? I will try Joepino's fix first.As I feel the brake switch in the photo just puts the brake lights on. Thanks for the help.

 

Post 17 is what fixedthis issue for me.

 

Transmission flushed and looked under the shifting panel the solenoid is working good. So I'm now thinking its the Brown switch on the brake peddle.I hope its a easy fix.

 

I know this is an ancient thread but I wanted to add one piece of information.

I've read that for a lot of people the above didn't work, and for me as well it didn't seem to.

Then I figured out that if I turned the key to ACC as directed, but then GENTLY pressed the button, it worked, every time. Pressing it at a normal speed though always resulted in it locking and not depressing.

Hopefully that enables someone in the future to unlock their transmission. This was for a 1996 GLE Auto.