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There is a small solenoid under the shifter cover that holds the shifter in park until you step on the brake that's not working all the time. It could be the brake light switch on the brake pedal is bad. Check to see if your brake lights are working correctly when you step on the brakes. If they are working right then that's not the problem and you will have to take the cover off the shifter and check to see if the solenoid is working when you step on the brake. I have seen bad or corroded connections at the plug due to liquids being spilled on the shifter. Sometimes the mechanical linkage is bent up from something getting in there through the slot that the shifter moves in. There is a little hole in the shifter cover that says manual release or some such thing. Usually it has a little plug that you have to pry off to remove with a small screwdriver. Then you put the little screwdriver in the hole and push down. That will release the lock so you can shift it. (It's used to shift the car when the battery is dead or missing)
Your shift-lock solenoid is not working. The solenoid is controlled by your brake lamp circuits. The first thing to do is to check your brake lamps to see if they are working.
If the brake lamps are working, the solenoid is most likely defective. If the brake lamps are not working, then you need to diagnose your brake lamp circuits to get your shifter working. Most likely cause would be the brake lamp switch or a short in the system that has caused the brake lamp fuse to blow.
Park is locked unless the park interlock safety system senses you are stepping on the brake pedal, the lock out solenoid is powered by the brake light circuit, so the very first thing to do is check and see if you have working brake light.
Hello, If your moving the shifter, then trying to start it, make sure the shifter is in neutral because it will only start in park and neutral and no other position. The shift interlock operates off of the brake pedal switch and has nothing to do with the starting systems on these cars and will start without needing the brake pedal depressed which indicates to me that the problems are not related. If it is an alarm system issue and it's a Subaru dealer installed accessory, there should be a secret overide button located just behind the plastic trim to the left of the hood pop lever. If it's there it's very small and almost impossible to locate by feel alone. I hope this info helps...(subyguru)...
this is generally a failure in the hand brake assembly itself.Pulling the center console will reveal the mechanism that locks the brake cable in the unit.You probably will notice its inability to hold in this area which will necessitate replacement .
There are two switches that have to be activated before the park lock is released. The first is on the brake pedal, the second is the thumb button on the shifter. Most often the brake pedal switch is the problem, it can be pushed back and forth in its mount, sometimes it gets pushed to far and no longer switches when the pedal is depressed. You can also use the emergency release and shift out of park anytime. There is a plastic "ring" around the base of the shifter, in most cars it is black, in cars with wood grain trim pieces it is wood grain. The best way to get it out is to unscrew the center console and push it up from the back, you can pry it up buy you may break the tabs that hold it in. When this piece is out, look down at the front of the shifter base, there is a hole a pen will fit down into. If you push a pen, pencil, or any small round straight object down into that hole, it will mechanically release the shifter lock and allow you to get out of park. My daughter drove her 96 Legacy that way for months until I got around to fixing the brake switch.
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