I stopped by a used car lot to look at an Aero Blue NA-automatic thats been sitting on an elevated iron rack at the corner of their lot for a couple of months. I asked them about the car and they said it was stuck in park and that the shift selector wouldn't move. I searched the forum on their behalf to try to find someone that has had the same or similar problem to no avail. It's a good looking car, a roadster, looked like it needed a new grill and the wing was in the up position. I didn't ask what they wanted for the car or how many miles were on it.
Any ideas on their transmission troubles? Obviously it was able to drive up onto the elevated rack on its own.

 

Buy it for a cheap price and then after you get it home stick a screw driver into the small hole on the shifter and it should enable it to shift. It is in the owner manual.

 

Poke a pen or screwdriver in the little hole covered by the flap just to the rear of the W/S switch, that is the emergency release.

 

Heck, buy it, then unlock the tranny and drive it home

 

Is it sitting level or on a steep slope rack ?
I know when being on a steep hill in "park" it can make shifting out of "park" a bit tighter than usual

 

tell me what used car dealer and maybe i can go by there and maybe buy it ,,,if u don;t want it. tell me what dealer maybe i can call them tell them u were checking it out for someone , I looked at the used dealers all around summerfield to Ocala very few have inventory on there website.

 

Does it start? Traction control relay on the RCM powers the TCM.

 

I'll stop by there on Monday and speak with the lot owner, he had a xfire in the past that we spoke about. This Aero blue Crossie I noticed has the wing in the up position, a sign of bad battery at first glance, unless they raised it before shutting it off. It probably needs a battery to allow the brake switch to disengage the shifter. I don't have garage space for a forth xfire or time to bring back another neglected crossfire.

 

Yea, I stopped in and looked it over pretty close, new top, bad battery, front grill piece is melted in a spot like it got too close to an exhaust pipe, it cranked, in neutral, 160, 000 mi..Transmission connector plug is all greased up. He put it in Drive and it wouldn't grab, like it was still in neutral. He threw out a stupid number and I couldn't pass it up, even if just for parts, I couldn't get one on Copart and get it home for the price, clean title too. I'll do some research on the forum and try to figure out whats up with it. No love bug marks, minimum scratches. There may be some grin factor left in the ol gal.

 

Finalized the paperwork and had a roll back type tow truck bring it home and popped the hood, pulled the battery, removed the battery mounting to access underneath to vacuum leaves out. Sanded a little rust off of the corner of the battery mount frame and repainted it. Removed air cleaner assembly and replaced the air intake filters. Used an air hose to remove debris that had accumulated and basically detailed the entire engine bay. Removed fine debris from the soft top and washed the nasty wheel wells and wheels and door jam and door sill.
~ Put in a good battery, turned the key to start position, after hearing the fuel pump, no start... used a tool to shift to neutral, turned the key and the car started. ..The brake lights do work, xcept 1/2 of the wing light..uggh....anyway...Released the trunk and inspected for evidence of water intrusion, same for passenger footwell..shes dry, or appears to be. I forgot to check the A/C while I had it running....
~ My symptoms are identical to at least 2 posts in 2018, stuck in park category, but I didn't want to reply to the old thread.
~Shifting to Park from neutral , does indeed lock the shifter and as Padget said in his reply to that post, it is stuck in 1st gear. I drove it down the street and she never did shift, nor did it shift using autostick. While in neutral, car running, shifting to Reverse or Drive, is a hard shift and the tranny, seems to act like it's in a bind. Similarly, with the foot on the brake and in either Drive or Reverse, the car seems to vibrate more than ...well...more than either of the 3 others that I have driven.
~ I bought the brake switch, a 6 pin switch and intend to try to change it out tomorrow after another wash and claybar and wax...
~ I feel that someone may have spilled a liquid as some of the posts allude to, I'll check that and put in a known working RCM...No, I won't turn the key while it is out.
~ I DID get Check Engine, code..606?..maybe?..communication error. I am thinking to inspect the cable underneath at the tranny.
~ At 135,000 miles, I am sure it needs a complete flush of the tranny...this is a service that I have allowed the st..er..dealer to peform on 2 of my crossies, the third only has 43,000, so it doesn't need that service. They are proud of the service and as I recall the tranny fluid as well.
~ Alternator light was on , but, it might have been my fault not tightening the cable tight enough. I will recheck that tomorrow.
~ TPM light is on, so that should be fun also.
~ I did NOT check out the function of the convertible top yet since the ALT light was on. I am told that it works properly. It appears to have been replaced as it is in great shape.

 

Sounds like you need a shifter.

Congrats on the good find. Don't be afraid of the mileage, I've seen them with way more miles and still drive great.

 

~ Shampooing the carpet showed evidence of a lot of coffee having been in the floorboard. Brown suds...probably took out the shifter.
~ Starts in Park after wiggling the shifter and working the brake pedal, but she wont shift without the manual over-ride and when it does shift into Drive or Reverse, the shifting is a Hard Shift with the tranny banging into gear. Since the Connector below is WET, I assume it is low. Adding the burnt smell of tranny fluid after only idling for 5 minutes makes me think it needs a complete tranny drain and flush,..at the dealer. I know...and I know the dealer Crossfire tech, so, I'm not worried.
~ The BAS ESP sometimes stays on after engine start, and sometimes it goes out like it is supposed to.
~ The battery indicator stays on, but I read 14V while engine is running.
~ A known good RCM was used during testing, but I put the old one in my SRT and it worked fine.

 

~ Found it..TIP: The one time use cap that covers the trans fill tube CAN be use over and over again. The trick is to snap off the rectangular piece on the top of the cap and then use a small screwdriver or whatever and push the remaining part of the “lock” down through the cap. Keep the “lock” part, yer gonna reuse it.

• Remove the trans filler lock cap from the filler tube.
• ...Thanks Tighed1....
• Oh and 180 for posting the Tip s page...

 

Wow, is the above post ever wrong! The cap IS reusable. There is a tiny slot to depress a plastic plunger which allows for the release of the latch holding the cap in place. This can be accomplished with a small pick tool.
~ Replaced the brake switch to try to solve the stuck in park issue,...no solve
~ Transmission fluid was OFF the Needswings dipstick...(Thanks Rob for the call on how to correctly use the stick)... Used the new Petrosin to bring it to the proper level.
~........actually we did this first before changing out the brake switch in the 92 degree direct Florida sun.
~ Connected battery and got a No Crank, No Start. Manually over-ride of shifter to crank in Neutral produced a no crank, no start...wiggled the shifter and it did start.
~ Shifted from reverse to neutral to drive several times to circulate the fluid....shifting is still HARD banging...dash shift indicator display is a solid block..
~ Folded passenger footwell carpet back to reveal the panel housing the TCM(?) and inspected all wiring for signs of tranny fluid wicking back or any squirrel damage...none found.
~ Did you remove the multi pin connector underneath and clean or replace it yet with a new one?...not yet..
It will probably need DRBiii reprogramming if the TCM has to be replaced , so I read. Theres one on ebay for 3400 bucks.
~ The BAS ESP light has not come back on, which is a good sign but it may be intermittent...speed sensor fault causing the shifter lockout perhaps?
~ The charging indicator ..the battery symbol...is lit...but the alternator is putting out...could it still be putting out even with bad diodes?
~ This car has apparently had several owners...I'll bet they've all had these issues which is why it was passed around like a ....well...like a ...
~ While replacing the brake switch we unplugged the seat relay and brightened up the contacts...Seat Works now...yaaay...
Oh Lord, We're Stuck in (PARK) Lodi Again...still !

 

as for the tcm,,, you said you had other crossfires swap the tcu/tcm to check it ,,,limited to limited and srt to srt they do not interchange so if this is a limited you can put in a tcu from a limited / and save your 3400. if you need a tcu i can get one for you for around 500 programed to your car's rear end.

 

It sounds like you are in the transmission safety (Limp) mode, I had happen in a Chrysler 300 which has a similar transmission. Severe changes of forward and reverse and it was hard to move the gear shift lever. The problem was the electric plate which had a bad solenoid in it.
The problem started intermittently and finally it was all the time. A new solenoid fixed the problem. It was a problem that occurred during the warranty period.
Limp Mode uses second gear I believe.

 

[QUOTE=onehundred80;941468The problem was the electric plate which had a bad solenoid in it.
[/QUOTE]
~ By electric plate, do you mean the conductor plate? Also, is the solenoid part of the conductor plate? I am about to order the one FCP euro has....thanks 180

 

Thanks for the reply, I am going to wait on swapping out those TCU units, thanks for the tip on how to swap them out....until after the fluid change and conductor plate and connector have been replaced if that doesn't fix the problem. ....new front grill on the way...woohoo.

 

I took a look at the fluid evacuator, Mityvac 7300...I also saw a manual (bicycle pump) type that removes fluid as well at HarborFreight for the removal of fluid from the torque converter. There may be a video up on Yu(censoring bas-tards)Tube, showing the way to perform this extraction, I'll have to look. I also remember reading about some TC's have a drain plug and some do not. The code that I got, which is NOT currently being displayed cause we've been disconnecting the battery, is a 0600 code...not communicating, which is what makes me think the conductor plate is faulty.

 

The 0600 makes me think the connector is faulty and leaking. This sometimes makes the fluid wick up all the way to the TCM in the passenger foot well.
But if it is the conductor plate, those are not too difficult to change either. Tons of utube videos on that.
As far as I know, none of the Crossfires have a converter drain plug, and you cannot access it to do any pumping.
I could be wrong, but that would be a first