I have a 1998 Ford Escort Wagon with an auto transmission. Today, I attempted to drive the thing and discovered that the transmission is locked in Park. The brake lights work, so the brake switch is fine, but the transmission absolutely won't budge from park. Any ideas?

how many miles?

Is it parked on a hill? If so try pushing it up hill slightly to take pressure off the park lock inside the trsnsmission.

There is a little tab near the shift lever (its top left on my 99) pry it up with a screwdriver, and stick the screwdriver down into the hole. Be sure your foot is on the brake and you sould be able to feel something move inside there. While your holding the screwdriver and pressing down on, you should be able to move the shift lever.

The wagon has about 140k miles and, mostly, it's in great shape. It was parked in my garage when this happened. I couldn't find that tab and I couldn't find anything about the auto transmission interlock in the Ford Escort service manual, so I pulled the console off and found a white lever that releases the transmission. That's nice, but not exactly fixed.

Like I mentioned in the original post, the brake lights work, but the shifter button is locked and appears to be trapped in position until I trip this white plastic lever under the console. Then, it shifts fine until I return it to Park, when it locks itself again.

Sorry, I forgot to metion, It's only a temporary fix, to get you driving again.

Turned out, it was the shit interrupt solenoid.

Ah, I see. Because you have power to the switch and the switch works (brake lights work), it was the solenoid not working to push "this white plastic lever under the console" and unlock the shifter.

I also realized that, I had said the tab that covers the little hole for the shift locker was near the shifter, left-top, but in fact its the right-top.

Turned out, it was the shit interrupt solenoid.

Guess that should be SHIFT interrupt solenoid :wink:

I have a 1997 Escort LX auto, I opened the console and found that the white plastic tab is held up with a cable tie. Is this dangerous? How much was the solenoid?