audijim113

Overheating problem taken care of, check.... Honking vent taken care of, check. Car is running great, everything works. Ran to the store for milk and it won't go into park. All other gears fine. It shifts into and out of reverse by holding button fine. Other than at a shop, the key is never in the ignition. I use the start and stop buttons all the time. I put the key in with the idea or wiggling it but still won't go into park. Car starts in neutral and drives fine, no warning lights. Now, unable to put it into park, the key won't come out of the ignition switch. Didn't get the milk because I couldn't lock car with it not in park and didn't want to walk away without locking.

Was low on gas and stopped to fill up on the way home. Still no park. Stopped in neutral but slight downgrade. It would have rolled away if not for putting E-brake on.

Any thought?

Any ideas?

dvs_dave

Have you tried the manual override? It's detailed in the user manual. You need to unscrew the ashtray and it's behind there.

Giovanni Giovino 6.0+6.0TT

Hello Dave,
Jim is trying to put it in park, not take it out of, and as the manual override is for shifting out of park, that will not help him into park, as the electromagnet release mechanism only catches for coming out of park, there is no resistance or locking of going into park.

Jim,
If R,N,D etc. all line up as they should, I would rule out a cable adjustment locking nut coming loose, you most likely have a problem in the shifter, I have seen two that in their past someone forced the shift lever at a yard which in turn broke some of the plastic pieces in the shifter assembly itself, resulting in it not going into either R, or P, next would be a problem in the transmission itself..... But lets hope not !

audijim113

Thanks, It goes into R and RNDS all line up. It also starts (in neutral) and drives fine. Are you saying something (plastic, etc) could be broken that only prohibits it from going into park, but reverse is ok? The button works too as it is necessary to get into R.

If feels like something mechanical is stopping the shift lever from moving into P. I know of no one who ever drove this car other than me for the last two years and I don't recall forcing anything. It does have a lot of miles though (253K) There was no indication, crunch, bang, clunk or anything between leaving my house, driving 6 mile to store, pulling into parking spot and attempting to put it into park when stopped..

richard-tx

I wonder if the plastic sliding gear shift cover broke and a piece of it is jammed preventing it from going into park.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

This is all the shifter info for your 05 A8
It will be there for 2 days. The whole document on how to remove the cover to checking the cable to replacing everything.
I don't think any can block the shifter from going into park by looking at the diagram,
when you push the button to select gear, did you try not pushing the button and still going to gears, may be the button doesn't actually releasing, therefore it goes into park but can't lock?
I think it may be the shift lock solenoid N110

richard-tx

Item #2 in the first photo is what I am referring to. They usually fail and start breaking up. I am thinking that part of it fell inside and is preventing the selector from going all the way into park.

MP4.2+6.0

Try scan w/ VCDS and see if anything is reported in transmission module? May show nothing, but it takes little time if you have the tool. Not like check engine light set up either where a whole range of issues are mandated by government rules to turn that light on.

Cable linkage attachment where it connects to the transmission/ Servotronic/valve body could also be suspect, though it seems odd for that scenario to just happen out of left field as opposed to a service/assembly error. Major pain to check that one, since attachment is inside and trans. pan has to be dropped. BTDT when I had to pull the valve body replace the seal above it.

audijim113

Thanks so much to Giovani, Richard and especially Itooz. Visual is very helpful.

As an FYI, the only thing that preceded it not going into park was I cleaned out the AC drains a couple days ago. It's hard for me to fathom pulling back the carpet to expose and disconnect the rubber drain tubes could have any connection to this problem.

Now that I have the "how to", I can remove the selector cover to see if anything is obvious such as the part Richard mentioned is broken, jammed, etc. I was stumped on removeing the handle but I found out how and will start now and post back what I find.

chokboywonda

It's been a long time so I can't remember properly but when I did my shifter mod and installed a shorter shifter upon finshing the install my car would not go into park. I had to take it apart again but I found that something was not seated properly which made the throw shorter and would not go into park.