This is bazaar. My sister has a problem with her 06 Trail Blaze automatic trans. She will start up and put in Drive and go to the store and after shopping come out and can not get out of Park. She had to have it towed. Took it to the dealer. Worked fine. Could not recreate the problem. This is intermitant. No patterns so far can be detected. Any ideas?
Yep.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say she does NOT use the PARKING BRAKE and now the PARKING PAWL which locks the tranny when parked is bent and is going to get worse, AND/OR the solenoid switch (Shifter release) at the brake pedal arm is not making a proper contact or needs replacing.
It’s ‘funny’ this subject and me showed up today as I had to question my long time independent tech of the use of the PARKING BRAKE just this morning.
I took my van in to get some suspension work done prior to having a safety cert done and as he drove (or rather, TRIED to drive) out of his parking area,
the van wouldn’t move.
“What? Oh yeah, the parking brake’s on”.
I said, “ya think?”. I know he has a LOT on his mind, but I reminded him I use that brake consistently and also have one of his guys service the brakes twice a year.
(I don’t carry an anchor with a tied off rope in case of an emergency stop)
During the ensuing conversation, he agreed that up to 97% of drivers do NOT use the PARKING BRAKE.
Only ONE good thing about that is it gives him a very healthy business, but mostly he sends them down the road to an independently owned tranny shop. He’s way too busy to mess with trannies. (This is a small (lake) town of about 27,000)
Roadrunner beat me to it. I second his hypothesis.
Thanks Roadrunner, this is really helpful. I am sorry it took so long to reply to your comment but it was read and considered. She doesn’t use her PB much. And it turns out that it only shows up after the car is warm which seems like a faulty switch or solenoid once getting hot. I will try to let you know the outcome when I find out.