The shifter

[icefishing08]

I have a ford aspire and this morning i went and started my car. Then i put my foot on the brake and pushed in the butten on the shifter and i couldnt get the shifter to move from park to drive. i tried everything i could think of, but i still couldnt get it to move. can anyone help me?

[eippermx]

Welcome to AF!

I don't know if I can help much. Some trannys have a solenoid that is actuated when you press the button on the shifter to signal the tranny to shift out of park. Its also set up so that you have to have your foot on the brake to allow you to shift out of park. You might want to do something as simple as check your fuses.

[aspirechic]

Greetings,

I am presently having the same problem. In my case it's nothing mechanical. Rather, I accidentally spilt some orange soda into the shifter "slot" and given I'm in Minnesota, the shifter froze. It does this every winter. This may be the cause of your problem especially if it only happens in cold weather.

If you start the car and let it sit and warm up (about an hour) the shifter ice may defrost. I've found several ways of handling the freeze up situation.

1. to get rid of the problem obviously you have to remove the fluid. However, if this isn't possible I've used a hand held bottle of spreay de-icer which has a lower freezing point than the water, which will melt the ice and hopefully keep it from freezing again.

2. Wait for the car to warm up... this takes a while and is annoying. Keep working the button and brake while waiting.

I've had to pry up the shifter rubber cover/indicator in #1 to see what the problem was, It can be replaced once pried out, but since it's a chronic thing I leave mine out of it's spot.

Hope this helps,
Aspirrchic