Auto gear stick stuck in park and ignores reverse

[Big Load]

hi
after a long break I find myself in a problem which i cannot understand. two actually i think. they both maybe related not sure.

car comes back from a gearbox overhaul..drives fine i'm happy. it went in to the garage due to it making a loud whinning sound when i change/ shift from drive to reverse or into park.

I leave it parked up for 4 days and now the car will not start...I first thought battery so i took it out and charged it and she fires up...cool I take her for a spin come back home turn it off try immediately to start it again but nothing. she won't even turn over

battery is only 5 months old so not sure??? I had a new battery sitting aside so i put it in and she fires up ....BUT the gear stick is stuck in park but on the dash its saying neutral (ie neutral light on)?????

with a hard pull on the shifter she grinds through from park to reverse (but no light on bash showing reverse) then into drive (drive light on dash is ok ). she drives ok as long as i go straight. if i try putting her in reverse she will not move an inch.

If i try to force her () through reverse into park im scared.

so basically she drives forward but not in reverse (gears 2 &3 work). gets stuck in park and I have to force her to change to drive. she slips past reverse. As for the battery issue have I got a par acidic drain ???not sure unless i check it. I did think because the car was not registering park or reverse maybe not properly grounded or something draining the battery due to it.

any ideas before i ring the garage and they tell me its something totally different from the gearbox and want to charge me for extra work. thanks in advance

[Niles]

Surprised no one has responded to your post yet. It sounds like the shift cable is bound up somehow. For parasitic drain, the interior lights are a common cause. If your multi-meter has an amperage setting, you can use it to find the system that is using up your battery. There are Youtube videos showing how to check. Others have suggested using an infrared temperature gun for spotting the hot fuse.

[Sapientoni]

Sounds like another unqualified shop rebuild to me, but you can crawl under and disconnect the cable and see if it shifts smoothly disconnected, or just take it back to the shop and start the unhappy dealings with getting what they messed up straightened out under "guaranteed work", if there is such a thing outside my garage.

[Big Load]

hi and thanks for the replies

yep i will take it back to them, my only concern would be them saying its due to something they did not touch hence more money to be spent which i don't have right now. I hope they are qualified as they only deal with Porsche's. anyone else more qualified are to far for me to travel to.

http://www.parr-uk.co.uk/

is this true:
i notice on the dash when i started it up a bulb warning light on right rear brake light was on. however after inspection they seem fine and all come on. I've heard if the rear lights don't work properly it will not allow you to shift gears.... is this true??? this maybe the cause of my drain as well. maybe an old wife's tail

[Niles]

Originally Posted by Big Load

is this true:
i notice on the dash when i started it up a bulb warning light on right rear brake light was on. however after inspection they seem fine and all come on. I've heard if the rear lights don't work properly it will not allow you to shift gears.... is this true??? this maybe the cause of my drain as well. maybe an old wife's tail

I've never heard that. I cannot imagine such a design, but I have a 5-spd. That would not cause the battery drain unless the warning light was always lit up even when the ignition is off. On my car there is a bulb warning light that comes on until I hit the brake pedal. You should probably check your bulb and sockets for corrosion and clean them up as needed. Don't forget to look at your front bulbs as well.

Do your interior lights go out when you close the doors? If they stay on, it may indicate a problem with a door switch or hatch switch. There are also red lights in the doors that will turn on with a faulty switch or inadvertent ground of the lights. Do you have a govebox light? If so, does it stay on?

You really need to look at this more systematically. Disconnect the battery ground and then use an amp meter to check the amperage from the battery negative terminal to the disconnected ground. Check out this article: How to Find and Stop Car Battery Drains

[Big Load]

cool and thanks
i will try this today

I know it was a wife's tail

[Big Load]

took the car to the garage yesterday. wasn't sure if i was going to make it in case the battery died whilst driving (I had spare in the car just in case) . it was actually very embarrassing as whilst driving the alarm went off I thought the new battery must surely be draining fast.

I didn't want to stop in case the immobilizer kicked in or worse the battery died so for 3 miles i drove it with the alarm blaring. I was praying the police didn't stop me. normally people would look as my car as wow not seen one of those for ages but this was more of a ...what the hell!!!

when i got to the garage I didn't need to to to the reception they could hear me and came out. luckily the alarm was activated because i hadn't closed the boot properly.

anyway they showed me that the selector cable had come loose/ off. they will fix this but will look into the battery drain afterwards. I could have done the test to see what was draining it but thought best just let them deal with it. thanks for the advise though. interesting driving experience