Car WIll Not Shift Into Gear

[bronsin]

My wife called me from her Camry saying the car wont go into Drive. By the time I got there my daughter read the owners manual. She found the little plastic cover and pryed it off. Under that is a button. You push the button and now the car goes into Drive.


I noticed my Yaris has a plastic civer near the auto gearshift too.


Now here is my theory.


There is a "safety" (heavy sarcasm) interlock that makes you press the brake pedal before you can put the car in Drive. Thats whats messed up right? Theres nothing wrong with the transmission right? The manual says "see your dealer as soon as possible" (so they can put a new transmission in it or charge you $2500 to fix it)

My wife can just keep on pressing the button to drive the car?


Note: one does NOT need a safety linerlock to apply the brake pedal before shifting into D or R.


We will see if rational minds get their way or if the car goes to the dealer so we can be fleeced.

[CTScott]

That is correct - It is just an electrical interlock.

On your Camry, check the ECU-IG, ECU-ACC, and STOP fuses

[bronsin]

Thanks so much!

[bronsin]

ECU IG and ACC are good

STOP blown 15 amp

Replaced it and it blew again. Car did not shift into D.

Any enhancement possible?

[CTScott]

Interesting - STOP is only supposed to be a 10A fuse. I wonder if the owner before you "upgraded" it to a 15A. With that fuse blown the brake lights won't light.

Does it blow as soon as you put the fuse in, or not until you step on the brakes?

[bronsin]

I think the cover over the fuse box identified it was 15 amp. We are the first and only owners. Dont have the car at this moment to check but pretty sure its ID'd as 15 amp....

Started the engine, stepped on the brakes, tried to shift into D.

Dont know at what point it blew.

Will do more tomorrow...

Car is 2005 model year.

If the fuse blows when you turn the ignition on, what does that tell you?

If it stays intect upon switching on the ignition, but blows after the brakes are pressed, whats that tell you?

Car has a trailer wiring harness.

[CTScott]

What year Camry is it?

[bronsin]

2005

[Lil Abner]

Trailer wiring harness? Can you check those wires to make sure there isn't corrosion, or exposed wires that are shorting out? Perhaps the person who installed it made lousy connections that came loose?

[bronsin]

Yeah I want to check that. Whatever is causing the fuse to blow it happened today when she went to Wawa. She was driving around before that and didnt have a problem with the car not shifting into drive.

The harness have been connected to a trailer like once in its life.

Possibly something is shorting out the trailer wiring connector Im thinking.

Have to believe the harness was installed INcorrectly

a) because I did it

b) its been fine for six years.

[CTScott]

Actually that's a good call on the trailer harness - I didn't realize it had one. The common failure there is a salt bridge or a wire that has disintegrated to the point that it falls loose and shorts. It happened to me once with my Subaru.

[Lil Abner]

Well, I personally consider myself very good at wiring and electrical stuff. But sometimes, I make stupid mistakes. Like, not crimping connectors enough. We're only human :-)

I'd say check the wiring, then start checking the bulbs. Pull the sockets out of the lights, and pull one STOP bulb out at a time, and check those. Perhaps a bulb is actually shorted out.

Sadly, blowing lots of fuses to check things gets expensive. It's a long shot, but do you have any 15-amp resettable circuit breakers? Do you have a voltmeter?

[bronsin]

CT you were right the brake lights dont work. But

Problem solved.

The wiring harness was shut in the trunk latch a long time ago judging by the dammage. The wires must just have shorted together.

I cut the dammaged section out and taped the wires.

The fuse IS 15 amp as id'd on the cover.

I put a 10 amp in. It didt blow on turning on the ignition. It didnt blow on starting the engine. It didnt blow stepping on the brakes.

Brake lights work and car shifts into D.

I put a 10 amp fuse in there as the spare 15 amp was tried and blew. Fuses look to be Toyota specific. Generic ones wont work? Im thinking.

Thanks all.

[CTScott]

The fuses are low profile mini fuses. You can buy Bussmann brand ones at auto part stores. I was looking at the 07 EWD. For the 05 it is 15A, whereas for the 07 it is 10A.

[Betrivent]

CT you're awesome.

[bronsin]

You know...thinking about this...disableing the transmission because the brake lights dont work is pretty nuts...

Cant there just be a warning light "Your brake lights are out." ?

[CTScott]

You know...thinking about this...disableing the transmission because the brake lights dont work is pretty nuts...

Cant there just be a warning light "Your brake lights are out." ?

Actually it was disabled because the fuse was blown. It wouldn't be disabled if a bulb was dead.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Scott to the rescue!

[bronsin]

Actually it was disabled because the fuse was blown. It wouldn't be disabled if a bulb was dead.

Right but...there was a short in the brake light circuit, the fuse blew (Im OK with that) and then because of problems with the brake light...you cant shift into drive. THAT I dont get. AND THE SYSTEM DOESNT EVEN TELL YOU THE REAL PROBLEM IE YOU DONT HAVE BRAKE LIGHTS!

I read a story about a BMW motorcycle once by its owner. It seems the bike tipped over and some brake fuild leaked out of the master cylinder. Because it detected a low brake fluid level, the computer SHUT OFF THE ABS! There was enough fluid for the brakes to work. This happened in a rainstorm. The rider saw the ABS light come on, got nervous because he now did not have his "safety" feature ABS, and had an accident!

Instead of telling the rider to add brake fluid, the computer shut off the ABS which would have worked otherwise.

[fnkngrv]

One day you might see cars with that have a diagnostic panel that provides data in real time...until then we could all have reasons to say that integrating something would be a great idea and we would all be right in most cases. It unfortunately is what it is. Perhaps in some odd way of thinking it could be construed as a "safety feature" I could think of arguments for it.