By Tarlachia - 15/08/2015 17:42 - United States - Apopka
Tarlachia tells us more.
OP here. A little backstory... The vehicle I was driving is my work vehicle- a professional carpet cleaning van. I had driven the van to a job, realized there were no available parking spots to back it into and was thus forced to park it in the street and blocking two vehicles. I pulled the cleaning hoses and supplies to clean the apartment, finished the job, wrapped up and got back into the van. Only then when I shifted to 'drive' did the problem make itself known. Yes, it is an automatic. Not sure as to what was happening mechanically, I called our company's mechanic and it took him over an hour to get to me with the necessary part- a tiny little pin that pulls the shifter between gears and only takes a few minutes to replace without having to take it to a dealership or repair shop. So, in that hour long wait, an old lady came out to drive her vehicle to a store. As luck would have it, her vehicle was one of two that my van was blocking. She asked me to move the van, to which I replied that I couldn't as it was stuck in park. I explained I couldn't even shift it to neutral to push the vehicle out of the way. I explained I was waiting on someone to come help me. That made her day, and she started screaming at me for several minutes. Logic has failed to defuse the situation and since I am not a Vulcan and cannot sleep hold a bitch, I, treasuring the security of this job to provide for my family, chose to then get back into my van, roll up the window, and said "**** it. Time to FML." She left to go back inside after a few minutes. About 20 minutes later, the mechanic showed up, fixed my van, and I was back up and running to finish the day's work.
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did you turn on your hazard blinkers?
After reading the follow up, I felt that you kinda deserve it. You shouldn't have parked on the street in the first place. I would be pissed if someone blocked my car in for an hour when I'm planning to go out. The person you've blocked in might have an important appointment. You're lucky the lady didn't call the police. You could've gotten a ticket.
your shifter cable or shifter cable linkage is broken. when this happened to me, it turned out to be a little plastic clip on the transmission. the parts shouldn't be that expensive and there are youtube videos that show you the process. good luck, op.
You're right. It was a plastic piece. Or as I like to call it: job security for mechanics. The company mechanic installed a metal clip. Apparently, a lot of the company vans have lately been having the same exact issue so he's stocked up on the necessary parts.
I was going to vote FYL until I read the followup. Now it's a full on YDI. Don't park like a douche, man.
And that is why in my eyes manuals shall always remain the safer option
You probably could have gone in the engine bay and just manually shifted it into gear
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I'd be pissed too if someone illegally parked me in and then broke down.
If this has just started happening, as in whilst in the car then that's just really bad luck, but if you've been driving around with it like this for some time then you deserve it because it sounds like the car shouldn't be on the road.