Gear Stuck in Parking; How to Fix?

[JohnHarlin]

I've got a 1993 Toyota Corolla automatic.The only way I have been able to drive lately is with a screw driver because when I put the car in Park it gets stuck there and won't start. I can't even get the car key out of the ignition because of it. I then use the screw driver to poke the override button so I can shift to neutral and start the car. But I can't do that forever.

How can I fix this problem. Should I disassemble the gear panel, the one between the two front seats and see if something is broken. But I don't even know how to open that up.

[TheNightWolf]

Originally Posted by JohnHarlin

I've got a 1993 Toyota Corolla automatic.The only way I have been able to drive lately is with a screw driver because when I put the car in Park it gets stuck there and won't start. I can't even get the car key out of the ignition because of it. I then use the screw driver to poke the override button so I can shift to neutral and start the car. But I can't do that forever.

How can I fix this problem. Should I disassemble the gear panel, the one between the two front seats and see if something is broken. But I don't even know how to open that up.

Maybe its the lockout?
If they had them in the 1993, I have no idea, but that could be gone bad.
So even when you press the brake, its not letting you shift at all.

It shifts all the others fine?
Do you get a click or a noise when you press the brake in park, like in my Cougar, I could press the brake and I'd get a thump out of the transmission hump and that was the lockout unlocking.

[JohnHarlin]

Thank you for your reply.

I get no click whatsoever when I press the brake. And my parking brake lights work so it is not a fuse. All the other gears shift fine but I can tell that something is wrong when I shift it into Park. Sometimes it is even difficult to shift into Park. I sometimes feel resistance.

I have a strong feeling, though I could be wrong, that the problem is something mechanical, some kind of broken spring or something. I need to open up the gear panel but I am not sure how to do it. If someone can tell me how to do that or point me to some info that tells me exactly how to open it up, that would help. The gear handle lever gets fat at the top so I can't just slip it through the thinner hole of the panel. I've checked my Toyota car manual, car dummies book and reader's digest auto book and nothing says how to open up this panel.

[TheNightWolf]

Maybe the linkage to the transmission?


I wouldn't know how to disassemble it, never done it on an auto.

Something could have fallen in their and screwed stuff up.
Good luck though, sorry I don't know more.