# 2003 GMC SIerra Parking Pawl Issue **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [December 3, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-gmc-sierra-parking-pawl-issue/153951 "2019-12-03T04:28:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brandonfinke03\_160492](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/brandonfinke03_160492/32/18539_2.png) [@brandonfinke03\_160492](https://community.cartalk.com/u/brandonfinke03_160492)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-gmc-sierra-parking-pawl-issue/153951/1 "2019-12-03T04:28:52Z")
I have a steep driveway. I put my truck in park today and didn’t pay attention to if it rolled back or not when I put it in park. It always does, so I don’t doubt that it did. I would use my parking brake on such a steep driveway, but the cable is loose and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet, so it doesn’t hold the truck at all. I walked away from my truck and about 30 seconds after I walked into my house, I heard a noise and saw that my truck had rolled back a little bit and stopped itself. I thought it sheared the parking pawl but it stopped itself. So that is where I am now. I started the truck again and it had a kind of ringing sound to it. Drive and reverse worked fine. Neutral worked fine. Park feels a little funny or maybe it’s just me. Does anyone have a clue why my truck would roll back again and stop itself? Please let me know any ideas. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-gmc-sierra-parking-pawl-issue/153951/2 "2019-12-03T04:47:05Z")
> [@brandonfinke03\_160492](#): > > why my truck would roll back again and stop itself? The pawl can usually engage at a dozen or so slots per revolution of the driveshaft, so every 30 degrees or so. It’s possible the first slot got damaged. But then it caught on another undamaged slot. That’s one possibility. Expand & look at the photo on the upper right of this web page > **[Parking pawl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking_pawl)** > > A parking pawl is a device fitted to a motor vehicle's automatic transmission that locks up the transmission when the transmission shift lever selector is placed in the Park position. "Park" is the first position of the lever (topmost on a column shift, frontmost on a floor shift) in all cars sold in the United States since 1965 (when the order was standardised by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)) through SAE J915, and in most other vehicles worldwide. > The parking pawl locks the transmi... ---
**Author:** ![brandonfinke03\_160492](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/brandonfinke03_160492/32/18539_2.png) [@brandonfinke03\_160492](https://community.cartalk.com/u/brandonfinke03_160492)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2003-gmc-sierra-parking-pawl-issue/153951/3 "2019-12-03T05:35:11Z")
Thank you much, I don’t know why I didn’t consider that possibility.