stubborn automatic shift in protege 2000

[vishalcharles]

I have a protege 2000, 50k miles down. lately i'm facing the problem of the automatic shift lever getting stuck at park position. i have to struggle with it for some time every time i start my car before it moves to D or R. after that its a smooth ride. the release lever on the shift doesnt go all the way in when it's stuck....after i press the brake several times while puching the release button, it suddenly goes in and i can move the stick.
HELP!!!!
thanks in advance

[95protege]

I actually got on the web today for the same exact problem. Only I have a 95 Mazda Protege with 121,000 miles on it. I am eager for responses - but I thought I would try to clarify what the problem is (to the best of my knowledge) so that we BOTH can hopefully get some HELP. Unfortunately - I may just muddy the waters more and confuse matters. But lets see. If you get a private response with a solution - PLEASE email me at [email protected] with any helpful info. I will absolutely do the same. I am desperate!

What is happening is that there is a safety feature that keeps the the car from getting knocked out of park by children or dogs in the car. It is a mandatory feature. And something is wrong with THIS (according to what I have been told by four different mechanics) and not the transmission.

My car gets stuck in park - and you could have arms of steel and not get that little button on the gear shift to click in. When it first started happening a couple years ago -- I could giggle it and play with it (for someimes a good while) to get it to slip into D, R, N.... (If it was winter -- letting the car heat up helped too) But, now I have to park it on an incline and then have help pushing the car forward (to unlock the mechanism) and then press the break when you are far enough forward -- and the gearshift usually slipped out of park fairly quickly. After a week or so - it has gone away for 6 months or so in the past. but the problem is now sticking (no pun intended) around and I don't have a usable vehicle.

What I understand is that the transmission gets locked up in a jam -- and you have to rock the car out of this range of motion, push on the breaks and the gear shift should slip out of park. But - its not that simple once you are actually doing this. you have to find the exact forward or back ward movement of the car (parking on an incline helps b/c you know its locked all the way in one direction - so you only have to push one way) and pressure on the break combo to get it out of gear.
Whatever you do (and believe me -- it's tempting) - don't take a hammer to the button. It won't make that little button on the gearshift go in -- and you'll probably break the overdrive switch in the process (a friend has done exactly this). And you won't be any closer to the solution.

No one seems willing to fix this. My trusted mechanic (the service department at the Mazda dealership here can only BREAK more than they fix and are the WORST frauds I have ever had to deal with) tells me to bear with it (he explained that it is the safety feature) -- that there isn't anything to do and it will go away on its own (which it eventually has in the past -- but in the meantime I am SCREWED!). I've talked to two other mechanics and they just groaned like this is a nightmare and told me to go to forums online. I went to the Mazda dealership (you KNOW I'm desperate to talk to them) and they told me they could replace the transmission but it probably won't fix the solution. They just don't know. All they could do was start to replace the major components of the vehicle and hope that one replacement or another would stop the issue. (I told you they were dolts and frauds). They have never heard of a safety feature that locks the gearbox.

My point is -- if there is a way to disable the safety mechanism (which isn't an option if you have children) - no one seems willing to do it. If there is a jimmy-fix, no one will tell me. And no one has had an actual solution for me. I need help. My life depends on my commuting -- and I am without a working vehicle now and have no alternative transport. PLEASE PLEASE help!

[vishalcharles]

looks like your problem could be more complex. I had to take my car to a mechanic and it turmed out to be a mix of coke and coffee, which had formed a thick sludge and was blocking the shift lever, specially on cold mornings. the car is running fine since the cleaning - had to shell out 100 bucks for nothing my mechanic told me that the problem could also have been with the catch mechanism inside, which can be easily replaced...that part costs about 60-70 bucks. I wish i knew a little more about cars to help you out. good luck.