Recently my shifter will get stuck in Park. The brake will be fully depressed, and the engine on but the button on the shifter doesnt engage and the shifter wont move.
after a couple of minutes, the shifter will let me move into gear.

I read in the owners manual that the shifter can get stuck in park if the battery charge is low, but i dont have a battery light coming on.. I also tried shoving a flathead screw driver into the shift lock button, but it wouldnt unlock the shifter on the first go.

any ideas?

There is a thread on this somewhere but it's impossible to find right now. Your shift lock solenoid may be failing. If you slowly pump the brakes in park can you hear the shift lock solenoid disengaging and re-engaging? If it's working intermittently then you may need to replace the solenoid. You should have no problems shifting out of park using the shift lock button, so that's pretty unusual.

thx for the quick response.
yeah, i tried doing a search so i wouldnt have to post, but couldnt find anything..
i'll try listening for the solenoid next time i drive the Pathfinder, but is there a way to see the solenoid without removing the WHOLE center console? maybe like the plastic thing over the shifter?

Yep, the plastic trim that surrounds the shifter base and the ash tray pulls up pretty easily. Once you have that pulled up you should be able to see the shift lock solenoid on the side of the shifter base.

Another important thing that I personally found out.

If the fuse for the rear tail lights blows the shifter will not move out of park.

body80 wrote:Another important thing that I personally found out.

If the fuse for the rear tail lights blows the shifter will not move out of park.

where was the fuse? I'll check that out later and report back.

A half-assed repair job can be done by removing the cover surrounding the shifter. On the passenger side of the shifter, you will see a white plastic assy. with a metal pin in the back of it. This is where your shifter unlocks. When you press the brake pedal, you should see the pin slide in and the top of the assy. pulls down to unlock the shifter. With the switch in this position, you can insert a 1/2" long piece of 3/8" vacuum hose between the switch and the shifter plate to lock the assy. in the open position. No more brake pedal needed to unlock the shifter. Disclaimer:Do not do this if you have children riding with you on a regular basis.

If I get a chance, I'll put up some pics.

Pathfound49 wrote:A half-assed repair job can be done by removing the cover surrounding the shifter. On the passenger side of the shifter, you will see a white plastic assy. with a metal pin in the back of it. This is where your shifter unlocks. When you press the brake pedal, you should see the pin slide in and the top of the assy. pulls down to unlock the shifter. With the switch in this position, you can insert a 1/2" long piece of 3/8" vacuum hose between the switch and the shifter plate to lock the assy. in the open position. No more brake pedal needed to unlock the shifter. Disclaimer:Do not do this if you have children riding with you on a regular basis.

If I get a chance, I'll put up some pics.

yeah.. im not doing that..
just tested the tail and brake lights, they all work properly
and to clarify, i remove the silver plastic around the base of the shifter right?

D13_R50 wrote: yeah.. im not doing that..
just tested the tail and brake lights, they all work properly
and to clarify, i remove the silver plastic around the base of the shifter right?

Nope, the silver trim stays in place. You are going to remove the wood-grain trim around the silver shifter base plastic. It should just pull right up.

Pwnin O'Brien wrote:Nope, the silver trim stays in place. You are going to remove the wood-grain trim around the silver shifter base plastic. It should just pull right up.

So pulled off really easy . I tried applying the brake slowly, listening for some sort of sound, and didnt hear anything come from there. So where exactly is the solenoid? I dont think i saw it just removing the trim piece though

Also, would this be something i can replace myself?

If you look at the passenger side of the shifter base you will see a linkage, when you press the brakes it should move the linkage, unlocking the shifter. Here's a better look at the shift lock solenoid location as well as the linkage...


(Click on above image to enlarge)

The layout of my shifter is different from the one in the pic, my shift lock hole is on the driver's side.
ill get a pic up later

D13_R50 wrote:The layout of my shifter is different from the one in the pic, my shift lock hole is on the driver's side.
ill get a pic up later

Sorry about that, didn't realize it was an LE. Here's what yours looks like...


(Click on above image to enlarge)

Pwnin O'Brien wrote:Sorry about that, didn't realize it was an LE. Here's what yours looks like...

Ohh there we go. Okay, so when I push down on the brake, there isn't any movement coming from any of the parts. Does that mean I've got to replace that solenoid or the relay?

My dads got a screwdriver jammed in the shift lock to allow the shifter to move "properly"..

D13_R50 wrote:Ohh there we go. Okay, so when I push down on the brake, there isn't any movement coming from any of the parts. Does that mean I've got to replace that solenoid or the relay?

My dads got a screwdriver jammed in the shift lock to allow the shifter to move "properly"..

You removed the screwdriver before pressing on the brakes to test the solenoid, right? You could start by testing/replacing the relay that powers the solenoid; as you probably already know it's the relay in my image above. If that doesn't work then you may need to replace the solenoid. Without a multimeter there really isn't an accurate way to test parts. However, if you can't hear the relay clicking when you press on the brakes then the likely culprit is the relay. If you can hear the relay click when you press on the brake pedal then your issue the the solenoid.

Pwnin O'Brien wrote:You removed the screwdriver before pressing on the brakes to test the solenoid, right? You could start by testing/replacing the relay that powers the solenoid; as you probably already know it's the relay in my image above. If that doesn't work then you may need to replace the solenoid. Without a multimeter there really isn't an accurate way to test parts. However, if you can't hear the relay clicking when you press on the brakes then the likely culprit is the relay. If you can hear the relay click when you press on the brake pedal then your issue the the solenoid.

Yeah, I removed the screwdriver. Is it a constant clicking, or just one? When I was testing yesterday, there wasn't any click or any noise when I pushed on the brake.

It will be just one click right when you start pressing the brake pedal and another click when you release the brake pedal.

So this morning i slowly pumped the brake, there wasnt a click noise coming from the shifter. That means its the relay right?

That doesn't mean it's 100% guaranteed to be the relay but with no audible click sound coming from the relay then I would start by replacing that. You may want to just pull an unimportant relay from the relay box in the engine compartment and plugging it into the shift lock solenoid relay socket and try it to see if it works (turning the vehicle to ON without starting the vehicle). If it works then we know the relay is the issue, if not then further testing is necessary.

How do I get to that shift lock relay? I don't think its visible in the pics I took. Also, which relay would be an unimportant one to pull and test?

The relay isn't in your pics, it's on the passenger side of the shifter. If you can find a relay in the relay box in the engine compartment that is the same color then it should work. See if you can find a fuse for something like the headlights or the A/C compressor or something along those lines. You don't want to pull the relay for anything like the ECU or anything that is crucial for the operation of the vehicle.

You can see the shift solenoid relay in the diagram I posted above.

Do I need to remove other trim piece or something? I can't see any conponents on the passenger side cause of the base of the center console..

still havent figured out how to get to that relay

Well there are two ways you could get to the relay. The first (and ideal) way is to remove the center console. Now this isn't a simple job and I don't really recommend this method unless you have done it before. The second way is to just shine a flashlight down into the little crevice between the center console and the shifter base. It's hard to tell from your pictures how much space there is but you may be able to just get a couple fingers down there to unplug the relay. Try shining a flashlight down in the crevice and see if you can see the top of the relay. It should unplug fairly easily. The relay shouldn't be that far down in the crevice. I don't recommend using any sort of pliers or anything of the sort as it could damage the relay housing.

So there's almost no room between the shifter base and console




but it looks like there are only these 3 bolts that hold the console to the floor in the front




and a couple in the back..

Well it's not super difficult, but it can be a pain. Basically you have to remove all those screws in your pictures as well as the one under the ash tray and on each side of the console (kinda hidden by the front seats, if you move them forward you'll see what I'm talking about). Then you need to pull the e-brake, remove the the little plastic trim piece under the e-brake and there should be another bolt under that. Then you just kinda pull up the center console from the rear and unplug any wiring harnesses connected to it. It's a little difficult to pull out since it's so awkward shaped, it's best with two people. You may have some trouble freeing it from the front of the console (up near the 4WD selector, etc) and you may want to remove the small plastic trim pieces on each side before pulling the center console free.

Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, you can get a better idea on how to remove it in the FSM.

First of all, thanks for this forum. It solved the problem I has having described here. My shifter suddenly became stuck stuck in park. I replaced the stop light switch by the break pedal as pictured here and the problem was solved. However, the brake light bulbs were still not working. After checking those, they were burnt out as well. Possiby what ever caused the switch to go bad, also blew the bulbs. Thanks again for this forum. Solved my problem.

Welcome to NICO! I'm glad you were able to find a fix, hope you stick around!

Nice info, I have been having an issue with my shifter that will randomly get stuck in park for maybe thirty seconds or so. I press down on the brake a couple times and it then works. Only happens once or twice a month.

Pwnin O'Brien wrote:It will be just one click right when you start pressing the brake pedal and another click when you release the brake pedal.

i have this problem where i can't get out of park but when i press the brake i get the clicking sound so does that mean i just need to replace the solenoid? or can i just replace the stop light switch like rommel2011 did?