shifter stuck in park and no brake lights help

[jza80king]

Hello everyone, as the title states my car is stuck in park and my brake lights are not working. it is a 92 auto, before I get smart ass responses no I'm not doing a 5 speed swap. I did search on here as well as other online resources and I checked the fuses underneath the steering wheel in the panel as well as the fuse box in the engine bay and the fuses and relays look fine. I thought my brake switch which engages and disengages when you press the brake pedal was bad so I replaced it with a new switch but I still have no brake lights and my car will not move out of park still. I removed the center console and looked closely at the shifter lever and noticed that something isn't engaging in the shifting mechanism so this prohibits the shifter to be moved. I am able to manually move the mechanism and at that point I can move the lever from park to reverse to neutral to drive as normal however only when I manually move the mechanism at the bottom of the shift lever. At this point I'm stumped, can anyone help me out?

[bmaddock]

Change your brake light switch.

This literally just happened on my dad's TL. Pop your head under the dash and look up at the brake pedal. You should see this:


They're like $30 from Advanced Auto or $15 from RockAuto if you can wait a few days. Takes no longer than 10 minutes to repair.

EDIT:
Didn't read lol. Check the bottom left hand side of the image. Make sure the switch stopper is intact. I've had issues with this before. Other than that it sounds like the actual gear selector may be broken so perhaps someone has one for sale from a 5 speed swap. Good luck!.... really though you should do a 5 speed swap, it really isn't bad at all. I've done a few at this point and might actually have an old auto gear selector.....I will get back to you if I do.

[jza80king]

Switch was already changed, no I'm not doing a 5 speed swap to remedy a problem that's not an option. Anyone else?

[bmaddock]

I would replace your fuse connected to the brake light switch just to be sure. The fact that the brake lights don't work should be telling you that the switch is not operating correctly. Fuses can appear to be in operating condition but actually be bad. Use a multimeter to verify your switch is working.

[jza80king]

^good idea, gonna try that and will report back.

[jza80king]

Fuses changed and nothing. Checked the bulbs and they also look good. One of the issues, when i hit the brake it no longer clicks like it used to and I do not see the locking mechanism at the base of the shifter engage/disengage. I am thinking the shift lock control unit might be the issue? part # is 28540 40F02 and it is about $93 but I want to confirm before I buy anything.

[Flicktitty]

May be the shift lock unit, could also be a junk switch, i had this issue on a sc300 a few year back the shitty autozone ones would last a few days, even got a couple that were junk out of the box.

[jza80king]

Well i haven't changed the shift lock control unit, I only tried the brake stop switch which didn't work. Hopefully I can diagnose the issue soon, I will update the thread in case others have the same issue.

[bmaddock]

I'm still betting its brake light switch. If the brake lights arent lighting... then there's still an issue.

[jza80king]

I bought an OEM compatible brake switch, you really think that new unit was also bad?

[jza80king]

Originally Posted by bmaddock

Fuses can appear to be in operating condition but actually be bad.

This. So re-checked fuses and got the brake lights working after the fuse was replaced. Thank you for the advice, even though a fuse doesn't appear to be blown do yourself a favor and try a new one any way. Gonna try another brake switch tomorrow, maybe the one bought was faulty? i will update tomorrow.

[Boosted_Gearhead]

Is the rubber stopper in place that pushes the brake switch sensor In?

[Ilya]

There is also a shifter release mechanism right next to the shifter. I think its a pull up or push down contraption right next to the shifter. Try that to see if that will even move your shifter.

http://s256.photobucket.com/user/nis...ifter.jpg.html

its that little pin at the base of the shifter, like a clitoris

[jza80king]

ok, so after more testing I think I have pin pointed the issue. The rubber stopper is in place on the brake switch that was fine. The OEM brake switch also was fine, that wasn't it either. I did remove the center console and looked closely at the shift lever and noticed the shift solenoid (part # 34970-75L10 in case anyone is wondering) wasn't engaging, thus it wouldn't allow shifting out of park. Problem was a damn fuse but I checked everyone of them. What happened though, was a fuse was blown but it wasn't showing any physical signs of it being blown so I assumed the fuses were fine. I swapped the bad 15a fuse for the tail lights and put a new one in and it worked. Thank god the shift lock control unit (part # 28540-40F02) and shift solenoid were ok. Car is up and running like normal again so i will keep an eye on the fuses and hopefully I don't have anymore fuses go out. If that happens I will have to take the car in somewhere to have the tail light wiring checked, possibly grounding issues? Car has been a pain in the ass lately, it had a bhg and I rebuilt the motor along with head/valve work, OEM headbolts, Felpro HG, new radiator, cleaned iacv and EGR vave, new oem thermostat, radiator, upper/lower hoses, all new vacuum lines, diff fluid change, and is running strong again and ready for winter. Thanks everyone for the suggestions hopefully this helps others in the future with the same issue.

[bmaddock]

Sorry to hear the car's been such a headache for you. Sometimes that happens with these 20 year old cars. Glad to hear it's back in action

[jza80king]

Originally Posted by bmaddock

Sorry to hear the car's been such a headache for you. Sometimes that happens with these 20 year old cars. Glad to hear it's back in action

Yeah I hear that.... I still love it though.

[jza80king]

god dammit, I seem to have some sort of short or grounding issue with the brake lights. I keep blowing the 15amp fuse but it is completely random. Drove just fine for about 1 week and then all of a sudden the fuse blew and I could not move outta park. I keep a set of spare fuses so I was able to swap it out and drive again but I am going to try to find the break in the wire or see where it's exposed and make sure the grounds are all good as well as check bulbs again. Every time I brake, my rear defrost button light comes on as well. fucking electrical gremlins

[jr_ss]

Is the car low? Have you checked the wiring around the brake pedal or tail lights. You have s high amp draw(short) somewhere that'll continue to eat fuses. Time to dig in and look at your wiring.

[jza80king]

Originally Posted by jr_ss

Is the car low? Have you checked the wiring around the brake pedal or tail lights. You have s high amp draw(short) somewhere that'll continue to eat fuses. Time to dig in and look at your wiring.

Low? The car is not lowered if you meant like coilovers or springs. I'm gonna start at the tail lights and see if I can see any exposed wires or anything.

[jza80king]

so I removed the back panels to get to the tail lights. I went ahead and replaced all the bulbs with new 1157 or 1156 as it indicates. I added a little coat of di-electric grease to each bulb as well. I think I may have found the problem. The rear side marker on the passenger side looks like it has a good amount of corrosion and the wire seemed a little loose. I bought some electric cleaner spray specifically for connections and took a small brush and cleaned off the corrosion. I also cut the wire that seemed loose on the butt-connector and re-spliced it and then put a heat shrink cover on the wire to protect it better as well. Finished the job off with electric tape around the wires and put everything back together. The 15AMP fuse doesn't immediately blow, it happens randomly so I'll keep an eye on it and will provide updates.

Also guys I have a harness in the drivers side rear panel inside that compartment where you access the car stereo antenna that is not plugged into to anything. Can anyone help me in figuring out where this goes? I only have this female plug and no male plugs to connect to, I ended up taping it up with electric tape and it's tucked away. Please see my pics

What the hell are these and where do they plug into?


another of the dangling harness/plug. What is it for and where does it go?





Here are some pics of the side marker w/corrosion from BEFORE I cleaned everything up.



Female part of the plug with corrosion


Male part of plug with corrosion

[Rustys14]

Do you have a aftermarket radio installed in the car? I have had problems with the taillight fuse in several S chassis that I have owned and it is usually due to the orange wire on the radio harness (I think its for the factory dimmer but I'm too lazy to look it up lol) grounding against the radio bracket or dash bar. The wire is not used in most aftermarket radio installations and is usually just cut and left hanging by DIY installers which leads to problems with the taillight fuse blowing out intermittently.

[jza80king]

I do have an aftermarket radio.I will look tomorrow for this orange wire, do you just ground it or what? I will also check what grounds I do have to make sure I have a solid ground. Any idea on that harness I listed above?

[Rustys14]

Just tape it up. Even if it looks to be cleanly cut you should still tape up the end of the wire. If it comes into contact with any metal under the dash it will blow the fuse. As for the harness you posted above, I'm not sure what its for. I would check for you but I'm away from my cars right now lol.

[jza80king]

OK will do. If you get a chance to look please lemme know. I will send good car-ma your way.