S60 Won't Shift Out of Park
 

Hello!

I've read a ton of threads on this, but none of them seem to address exactly what I have going on.

I have a 2005 S60 2.5T AWD. It's current on it's maintenence schedule (Ok, maybe a week or two past the last scheduled maintenence, but nothing outrageous). It's occasionally had an issue where it wouldn't shift out of park. If I just checked my email on my phone for a minute or two, it would decide to behave, and I would be on my way. Today was different.

I got home from work, was in the house for maybe 30 minutes, and had to run out to a town meeting. When I got to the car, it wouldn't shift. Ok.. not ideal, but I'll wait. I did a lot of waiting, and it still wouldn't shift. I had to go back inside and begrudgingly ask my fiancee if I could borrow her 9-3.

I got home from the meeting, and have been trying to figure out what's up. I read a lot about the solenoid and the brake light sensor - but I believe that those are working. When I hit the brake, I feel a little "thunk" through the shifter, and if I pop the cover off, I do see a little piece that moves back and forth when I hit the brake. I also don't think it's the ignition lock, because when I turn the car on with the shifter cover popped off, I see a piece of whitish plastic that assume to be the ignition lock moving out of the way.

If the solenoid does appear to be firing, and the ignition lock does appear to be working, what could cause the car to be unable to shift? It definitley feels like there's still some sort of locking mechanism blocking it up, but with the shifter cover popped off, I don't see anything that looks like it's the culprit.

Oh! One final piece, which is probably important.. right now, when I hit the button on the shifter, it's very hit or miss. I'll go to push it 6 times, and it will work maybe 2 - 3 of the times, and other times it will not push in. I'm guessing that this is the key to the puzzle..

Normally, this wouldn't be a huge issue, as I have junky old Saab 900 in the garage that I could take to work, but the Volvo is in the driveway, blocking the garage that the spare car is in, so if I don't have a way of fixing this tomorrow morning, I'm stuck calling out of work, which is a *very* bad thing for me to do tomorrow.

Any ideas that anyone has would be most appreciated.

Thanks!!

I headed back out to the car after the previous post, and just now, after a half hour or so of turning the car off and on, pressing and depressing the brake, jiggling the shifter and jamming on the shifter knob, it's decided to start working again. I tried for a few minutes, and do now seem to be able to reliably shift between gears.

Since I've had small bouts with this issue before, and now it's much worse, I'm guessing there's something wrong that I still ought to be fixing. I'm not the best mechanic in the world, but when I looked under the shifter cover, it didn't seem that complicated (Providing that's where the problem is..), and I'd really prefer not to have to pay a mechanic. I'm still paying off the bills from my old Saab's last trip to the doctor.

If anyone can think of where I ought to be looking, it would really help me out. I'm still thinking that it must have something to do with the shifter button, but I heard replacements for those at the dealer are nearly $400, and I don't have any idea how that particular part works to try and troubleshoot/fix it on my own.

Thanks in advance!

There seems to some sort of rod connected to the button on the stick. I don't know how it works, but Ipd has a break-down of the shifter:

Gear Shifter Knob Button P2 V70 S60 XC70 with Geartronic

Open the PDF document for the illustrations. I hope this helps!

I'll check it out - thanks for the tip!

I have an 04 XC90 with exactly the same issue...turn the car on and it won't shift out of park straight away. If I wait about 5 minutes, wiggle the lever and press/depress the brake pedal it eventually shifts. Seems to be worse when the car is not warmed up.

Was also having problems after turning engine off, the key wouldn't come out of the ignition straight away.

Taken it into the shop, and am having it fixed tomorrow. The center console shifter solenoid needs replacing for just over $400 including labor.

Will post again if it does not fix the problem!

I have a 2004 Volvo S60 2.5T AWD and it started giving me this problem on July but it has gotten WORSE! Now I have to at least warm up the car for at least 20 min and sometimes I'm unable to shift it out of PARK sometimes changing keys helps but that's sometimes. And yes I've heard about the $400 shifter button repair but the people that have gotten it changed have said that it doesn't fix the problem for longer than 2 months. I'm just curious as to see if you have fixed the problem because I don't want to spend $400. I love my Volvo and this is getting so annoying, so if you found what problem was, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd reply.

Thanks! And good luck!

Well, funny you should say that maradona2, my "fix" lasted all of a week and a half! Back to square one and spent $400. The repair shop that I went to did guarantee their work though, so I'm taking it back in this week (if I can get it out of park!)

I've been lucky so far. After jiggling it out of park back when I initially posted, the problem hasn't happened again. It happened pretty frequently last Winter, so I am getting a bit nervous though.