Kizashi Club

I had noticed the shifter (CVT) was giving a little resistance pulling it from Park, and I attributed it to sudden very cold outdoor temperatures. A couple of days later, putting it in Park felt something crack in the shifter, under the console. This was when I had pulled the car into the parking lot near work. Well, I was unable to start it later, with the dash warning indicating the gear was not in Park. Roadside assistance had the car flatbedded to the dealership (an experience for another time to tell). The broken part was the shifter interlock, but the service department replaced the whole shifter assembly.

Not sure if this was a freak occurrence, but if any of you with a CVT feel a new found resistance in or out of Park, get it checked, or you might get stranded.

You can manually override the shift lock. There should be a little tab near the shifter. If you pry that with a key or flat screw driver, there should be a button down there you can push down with a tool like a pen or a screw driver. This allows you to shift the transmission out of the current gear. This is how tow truck drivers get your car into Neutral from Park when they tow your car. You don't need the key to shift this way.
The shift lock override button cover tab is that thing above the P indicator. All automatics have this. Possibly this could have saved you a tow.


Regardless, nice of the dealer to replace the whole assembly and resolve the issue.

So the shifter was physically positioned in Park, but actually wasn't?

Sounds like it may have physically been in Park but the Neutral Safety (Park) switch wasn't informing the ECM that it was in Park and clear for Start. Curious if the OP tried to start the car w/ the lever in the Neutral position. It's not likely the manual shifter interlock override would have made a difference in this situation since it's purpose is to allow the vehicle to be removed from Park to Neutral for towing. Pictures of what was broken would have been interesting to see. Lock solenoid and feedback switch as one unit? and messed up?

Yeah - the car was physically in Park (brakes engaged, lever fully forward) and I did not see the broken part but would guess a plastic part on the solenoid's connection to the shifter assembly broke. (It felt like plastic breaking). So the ignition system was not sensing the car was in Park. That also set warning lights and sounds when I opened the door to get out.
Not sure if I tried starting in Neutral.

Not sure if it's just me but I can't even shift out of park unless I start the engine...

bootymac wrote:Not sure if it's just me but I can't even shift out of park unless I start the engine...

I think that's normal?

I have a lot of problem shifting INTO park. 9 out of 10 times it feels like it's grinding against something unnaturally when I try to push the level into park. Nowadays instead of shifting into park I always shift into neutral first, always apply the parking brake, let go off the foot brake completely to let the car settle on the parking brake, then push the level from neutral to park, and this way it's smooth without any of the rough grindiness. I don't know if there is anything wrong with the shifter, and I am not sure whether the current way of shifting into park is a good practice or not. Can someone chime in

ipaqxman wrote:Nowadays instead of shifting into park I always shift into neutral first, always apply the parking brake, let go off the foot brake completely to let the car settle on the parking brake, then push the level from neutral to park, and this way it's smooth without any of the rough grindiness.

That's good practice with any auto trans. You're essentially taking the load of the vehicle off the internal locking mechanism within the trans. I've been told (by an advanced driving instructor) that there's not much to the transmission locks and they can be broken.

ipaqxman wrote:I have a lot of problem shifting INTO park. 9 out of 10 times it feels like it's grinding against something unnaturally when I try to push the level into park.

I would get it checked out...
With me there was resistance pulling out of park, then a couple of days later pushing into park as well.
You don't want that thing to crack when you are not in a convenient place.