Will not shift out of park

[lrl1990]

I have a 2008 legacy 2.5i limited and it will not shift out of park. I have been driving through the slush all day I do not know if this is the problem. This has never happened before to me. If I push the buton in to the left of the shifter colum like the owners manual suggests... the car will shift out of park and work completely fine. Is it just froze up or do I need to take this to the dealer? Is it ok to drive? Does it just need to sit in a warm shop to warm up? Help please.

[ShadowImg]

My mom's old Impreza L used to do this, the cause was that she had gotten some liquid (soda or something) from a fast food in the shift mechanism, and there is an electronic 'lock' that prevents you from putting it in/out of park in whatever situation. Anyhow, it had caused that lock to short, and the only way to get it in/out was using the override button like you describe.

 

With an 08, would definitely say take it to the dealer -- but it may be something as simple as a few drops of soda spilled that caused it.

[lrl1990]

Ok so it should be ok to drive for now though until I am able to bring it to a dealer. It will not cause any further damage? Thanks for the help

[BDII]

as long as you didn't cause the damage, like spill a drink or try to mod the tranny you will be fine, even if the tranny shits the bed on your ride home.

[ebpda9]

it's the shift interlock solenoid. It could be a bad contact at the brake pedal or ignition switch, or it could be the solenoid itself. this will just prevent te car from getting out of park without the car being started or putting the foot on the brake.

[lrl1990]

Thanks a bunch guys! I really appreciate all of the responses. I read in the owners manual how to overide this so I take it that the problem occurs frequently being that it is in the manual. I have no idea what happened. Must be just some fluke deal. I live no where near a subaru dealer so it will be a while until I am able to get there but atleast it should be fine until I get there... Until then I will just feel like I'm driving a stolen vehicle or something... haha.

[OBieXT]

Just a thought...have you checked your fuses? Some cars use power from the brake light circuit to run the shift interlock. Not sure if the Subie does, but it's worth a look.

[pillboy]

It is not a fluke deal. Something is broken. Every automatic Japanese car I have been in has had this override feature "just in case".

[lrl1990]

Well I took it in. They fixed it free of charge. They told me it was a sensor that told the brake was pushed in. They also mentioned that this was a service bulletin on the car already and that they were suppose to fix it if owners complained.

 

I think I have a car with all the crap parts on it or something... I had to have the radio replaced already because it would lose all the presets and I had to have the passenger leather seat replaced because it was wrinkling prematurely. O well... they fixed all for free so it really doesn't matter to me.

[zzztech13]

I had a similar issue with mine over the past winter. I was driving through alot of slush and when I got home it didn't want to go into park. Kinda felt like it was stuck in between gears (even though it's a 5eat) when I left home about 1 hour later it didn't want to go into reverse (required more pressure than normal to shift from P to R) after that it was fine.

 

Is there any specific info on the sevrice bulletin?

[lrl1990]

I had a similar issue with mine over the past winter. I was driving through alot of slush and when I got home it didn't want to go into park. Kinda felt like it was stuck in between gears (even though it's a 5eat) when I left home about 1 hour later it didn't want to go into reverse (required more pressure than normal to shift from P to R) after that it was fine.

 

Is there any specific info on the sevrice bulletin?

 

All they told me was there was a service bulletin and if customers complained they would fix the brake sensor (telling that the brake is on and ok to shift out of park). I was driving in the same conditions when it happened to me.