2001 - cant take out of Park to Drive..Auto

[matsayz]

having problems bringing the car from Park to any other gear. its an Automatic trans, '01 with 103k miles. beyond this shes a beaut! but recently started giving problems.

i guess its been quite cold in the mornings, but only way I've found to bring it out of Park is wiggle it around or just wait and wait and try to sweet talk her out of Park. works fine after driving and then putting it in park and bringing it back out. any thoughts? shes off to the dealer for some other things Thursday but they want to charge me $88 just to clean it out, i talked to the guy over the phone and said he cant even guarantee that it will be fine after they clean it.

any ideas? been google-ing the net since i got off work. thanks! matt

[nametakennow]

I'd check the transmission fluid for starters.

[NSR_s30]

Maybe theres something wrong with the leakage or the computer?

[nametakennow]

It seems more mechanical than electrical to me. I figure the transmission fluid is very low, very dirty, or both. If not, have the dealer check the transmission computer.

[FrontierMan63]

what happens often is that things get spilled on shifter area & go down onto SHift Lock Solinoid-mechanism.What U need 2 do is take shifter trim,& Indicator Assembly off and Clean the lever that actuates the Shift lock .(white plastic lever) DONT use carb cleaner or other Harsh Cleaners! Somthing like a Citris based solvent-cleaner may work. Ive used Brake Cleaner & Electrical Contact Cleaner (radio shack) Just dnt go crazy with it & use a light grease 2 Lubricate after. That Should Fix It Good Luck

[matsayz]

well had took the car in last Thursday like i said. had a Trans flush and whatnot and had them look at the shifter. they took it apart and he said yes it was alittle sticky and whatnot but cleaned it up and seemed fine run it for a few days and tell me how it goes.

well that Night it started sticking again. and has been all weekend and this week. he also mentioned that if it keeps on sticking then it might not be the shifter it might be the "do dad" that when you press the break sends the signal to the shifter that it can release and whatnot. do-dad is my words i cant remember what he called it. but he said of course it was very expensive, if i must replace that then i would ask you guys where the cheapest place is and then i'd prolly take it to the shop on base here where im stationed. any new thoughts? thanks guys big help!

***update***just got off the phone with the original Nissan dealership dude i was with and my so called "do-dad" is the Stop Plate which like i said lets it know to release it right? so a Stop Plate, gettin back to me with a price+labor...but im sure its more than i wanna pay. currently crawling google.
Modified by matsayz at 3:44 PM 2/6/2007

[matsayz]

alrighty....so the part i need is a Stop Light Switch... goes for bout 20bucks and the dealership wants to charge me $88 for the "hour of labor" ha! i say. plus i found a way to override the damn thing, that little shift lock button that im missing and never knew. seems it always was missing it and the previous owner had just mushed some tiny stick in there. im doing the same til i wanna pay for a real fix.

[BealeAss]

I'm having the same problem with mine at 101k. Just picked the car up last week and have been trying to figure out wtf is going on. I even tried releasing the lock like the manual had said to no avail.

Looks like I'll be giving this a shot.

Sorry to bring the thread back from the dead!