95 Discover Range Rover stuck in park. Please help
BabyShamu
01-09-2008, 02:46 PM
First time owner of a Range Rover. Love it but don't understand it.
Friend took it out the other day and couldn't move the gear shift out of park postion though car otherwise fine. As he was in the middle of no where called the dealership and was walked through by-passing the brake lock..if that sounds right? Told the brake switch had to be replaced, maybe $20 part, but would be ok so long as the car stayed on neutral when parked and though the brake lights don't work it was good enough to get it home and to the garage. All good but habit put the car into park upon arriving home and not a chance of moving it as I looked at the part to replace and found a mess of charcoal plastic and seemingly fused wires. Surely that's not so good.
So assuming everything has a release switch somewhere and taking into account I do not have a manual, and bearing in mind I am not mechanical I have removed the entire centre console looking for something that might indicate the lock can be released..Frankly, without a manual I am mildly apprehensive to go much further without some sort of direction as to what I am looking for...but I do understand there are two wires which should come from the rear of the gear shift box which could be powered by the cigarette lighter in order to bypass the brake swich lock. I cannot find anything other than a cluster af approx 6/7 wires, and I also cannot get the gear shift head off to remove the plastic casing to look in further. I cannot imagine that it is impossible - the damn thing is supposed to be an safari vehicle right?
ANYONE with ideas or suggestions please get in touch! Thanks much.
Friend took it out the other day and couldn't move the gear shift out of park postion though car otherwise fine. As he was in the middle of no where called the dealership and was walked through by-passing the brake lock..if that sounds right? Told the brake switch had to be replaced, maybe $20 part, but would be ok so long as the car stayed on neutral when parked and though the brake lights don't work it was good enough to get it home and to the garage. All good but habit put the car into park upon arriving home and not a chance of moving it as I looked at the part to replace and found a mess of charcoal plastic and seemingly fused wires. Surely that's not so good.
So assuming everything has a release switch somewhere and taking into account I do not have a manual, and bearing in mind I am not mechanical I have removed the entire centre console looking for something that might indicate the lock can be released..Frankly, without a manual I am mildly apprehensive to go much further without some sort of direction as to what I am looking for...but I do understand there are two wires which should come from the rear of the gear shift box which could be powered by the cigarette lighter in order to bypass the brake swich lock. I cannot find anything other than a cluster af approx 6/7 wires, and I also cannot get the gear shift head off to remove the plastic casing to look in further. I cannot imagine that it is impossible - the damn thing is supposed to be an safari vehicle right?
ANYONE with ideas or suggestions please get in touch! Thanks much.
___Brandon
01-10-2008, 12:07 PM
On the shifter you should have two wires to power an indicator light, two wires that go to a park switch that tells the vehicle computer that the shifter is or isn't in park, and two wires going to some sort of electro-mechanical device used as a brake interlock.
If you get down in there where you can see into the shifter and repeatedly press the release button on the knob you should be able to see a lock pin moving up and down near the bottom of the shift tube. Once you find the lock pin you should be able to see what device is keeping it from coming out of park, this will be your brake interlock.
Most vehicles have some sort of small (quarter sized) removable acces panel on the shifter thru which you can override the brake interlock system with something like a key or screw driver, I don't know if Land Rover have this or not.
Watch the polarity on things if you start applying power to the shifter. You can definitely start smoking things in a hurry!!!
It seems like it would be easier to just replace the brake switch. It should be somewhere around the brake pedal, and most of the time it is just a matter of unplug the old switch and plugging in the new one.
Good Luck!
Brandon
If you get down in there where you can see into the shifter and repeatedly press the release button on the knob you should be able to see a lock pin moving up and down near the bottom of the shift tube. Once you find the lock pin you should be able to see what device is keeping it from coming out of park, this will be your brake interlock.
Most vehicles have some sort of small (quarter sized) removable acces panel on the shifter thru which you can override the brake interlock system with something like a key or screw driver, I don't know if Land Rover have this or not.
Watch the polarity on things if you start applying power to the shifter. You can definitely start smoking things in a hurry!!!
It seems like it would be easier to just replace the brake switch. It should be somewhere around the brake pedal, and most of the time it is just a matter of unplug the old switch and plugging in the new one.
Good Luck!
Brandon
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