My S80 suddenly would not shift into gear yesterday. The mechanical and electronic releases are working fine. When taken out of park I can pull the handle back but nothing happens, it stays in park. I took the cover off the shifter and can see the cable moving but there is a fair amount of resistance and it gets tighter the farther back I pull but there is no indication that anything is engaging. The light continues to stay on P and I cannot move the car.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Maybe the shifter cable is bad under the hood.

 

My wifes car did the same thing when she parked on a hill. I had to "shift" the weight of the car back and forth, then the shifter worked normally.

 

what was the out come ? My car is a 1999 doing the same thing ! shifts fine no go dash indicater stays on "p" ..

 

It's your shifter cable. The plastic coating on the cable housing has deteriorated and coming off so the housing gives & expands instead of moving the inner cable. You'll need to replace it.

 

Is this common in the S80's??

 

It's more of a age and the deterioration on plastic and rubber parts due to time and especially conditions in the hot area of the engine compartment. That affects all cars.

 

Fixed it last night New shifter cable and some adjustments it was like new. It took me about two hours not that hard just tedious when removing the console. and routing the new cable. thanks for the help.

 

Awesome! Glad to hear that it's fixed