This is in regard to a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with the 4.8L engine and automatic transmission. It currently has 210,163 miles on it.
Today, I drove my truck to Costco to buy groceries, and when I got there, I pulled into a parking space, moved the transmission shifter until the “P” was highlighted, and turned the engine off. When I took my foot off the brake, the truck started to roll backward. I thought this was strange, because the park interlock has always worked for me. Anyways, I restarted the engine, moved the shifter to “D”, pulled forward, back into “P”, and this time it locked properly.
After Costco, I stopped at a gas station for fuel, and then when I attempted to start the engine again, nothing happened–no noise or anything, and the battery gauge showed about 12-13 volts, which is normal, and the headlights are still normal brightness.
I assumed the battery had gone bad, so I had my wife come in her car with the jumper cables and attempted to jump start it, and the same thing happened. So I had a tow truck come, the tow truck driver attempted to jump start it with a jump starting pack. Same result, though the battery gauge showed about 14 volts this time, so I had it towed home.
Once at home, I started playing around with it, and eventually discovered that while the shifter should be in “P”, none of the gear selections are highlighted on the display. I can cycle through all of the gears: “R”, “N”, “D”, “3”, “2”, “1” can be selected, but not “P”. When I shifted into “N”, the engine was able to start.
So the problem is that when I move the shifter from “R” to “P”, it feels different, like something is not engaging properly. It could be my imagination, though. I have no idea if the gear selector position is sensed at the steering column or inside the transmission on this model. Any ideas would be appreciated.
