96 Taurus GL wagon, 3.0L Vulcan, auto trans. Daughter reports via cellphone the gear shift lever will not move out of the park position. She is reluctant to force it, and is unsure if that would work or cause further damage. She has the brake pedal pressed as she is supposed to. The steering wheel is not locked, it turns freely. She has shut engine down and re-tried several times. Still the gear shift will not move out of the Park position so the car is stuck. Any ideas?
You may have a problem with the interlock switch, please read this: http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl071h.htm
and try this to bypass it: “turn the key to the run position ( the position right before crank) then turn the key back one notch ,now you can shift the car into nutrial and start the car up ,then shift into drive” (http://www.justanswer.com/questions/1mmds-ford-taurus-1996-gl-giving). Good luck.
have her check and see if there is a saftey switch on the brake pedal. they started doing this on the 86;s and newer models because of audi. Audi did this to stop people from just throwing it in reverse and letting the engine high rev.