See if your brake lights are working when the problem occurs ... I bet its a bad brake light switch ...which also controls the lockout ...

 

Thank you very much for the information you posted. This happened to my 05 Forester after it had been sitting for two weeks. Just operated brake pedal repeatedly and the fault cleared, possibly bit of dust had settled between contacts. Thanks again.

 

^^Yep bad brake position sensor, and by sensor I mean button. It's just above your brake pedal. Push the brake, see the button.

 

@scubadoober and @NAEJ25 thanks for your reply.

when you mean button, do you mean that white slot next to the shifter?
I jam a key in there then shift the gear to get it out of park.

do you guys have pix where I should check?

thanks in advance.

 

^^No it's not next to the shifter. Look at your brake pedal, now follow the arm up under the dash. Below the pivot there is a sensor/button that when the pedal is pressed the button comes out. This tells the trans (and brake lights) the brake pedal is depressed. If this sensor/button is bad then the trans will think the brake isn't being pressed.

 

@scubadoober that's for the info. actually, my wife took the car to the mechanic today before i saw your email....it would have been exciting to find out the prob using your instructions...thank you anyway.

it cost $82 to get it fixed.

one thing i noticed was that the back brake lights were not working....

 

^
after the $82, the rear brake lights are not working?

 

sorry that was an after thought....the $82 remedy everything.

 

so my '07 is doing this now, do i need to replace the button?

 

@yerrow Check to see if you have brake lights, if not it is likely the brake switch under the dash. Otherwise pull the trim around the shifter console and do a thorough cleaning and check the connections.

 

the brake lights are intermittent and i looked under the dash by the brake pedal. i think i saw the button but realized after i was under there, that i didn't know what to do then

 

@yerrow take a look at this thread:

('06-'08) - 2007 - Auto stuck in park?

2007 auto xt 66k miles, not the wrx but the forester it just started recently, but many times throught out the day, when starting the car i can't seem to get from park to drive or reverse. foot on the brake, parking brake down, and stuck in park. usually after a few gentle tries it'll release...

www.subaruforester.org

 

Now my Wife's MY07 FSXT is doing the same. She called me from afar stating that she could not get the car outta park...

Brian

 

@bheinz5 On the upper RH of the shifter console, there is a little cover that can be pried off with a screwdriver or possibly in your wife's case, nail file. Once that small cover is off you can preferably stick a screw driver down and with the handbrake set and while stepping on the brake, move the shifter to neutral. The car can be started in neutral with your/her foot on the brake, make sure she does not put it back into park. Sometimes it is just the angle of the car when parked that makes shifting the transmission out of park difficult. On my 99 Forester I was told to try rocking it slightly before trying the screw driver release method, it was sometimes just binding from being on a slope that made it difficult. Keep us informed as to how it turns out.

 

Isn't there a cable running from shifter linkage to trans that might need some lubrication (assuming it's not the shifter or the brake interlock) ?

 

@Hazmat Usually that is indicated by stiff shifting when moving the shifter. And yes it would benefit from being lubed at the attachment and pivot points. The linkage needs to be dropped to lubricate the pivot pin that the cable attaches to closest to the shifter console. That pivot pin starts to seize up and can snap the cable. How do I know? My friend is driving my old 99 Forester and the cable snapped while we were out for breakfast. Luckily my mechanic lived about 5 minutes away and was able to pop over, remove the shifter from the console, remove the broken cable from the linkage at the base of the shifter and I then was able to shift by moving the cable housing forward and backwards (not as easy as it sounds). I let my friend drive my car (she wouldn't have been able to shift it). I drove the car for a week (part briefly back-ordered) with the console on the passenger floor and could watch the driveshaft rotate and the road go by underneath just a couple of feet away, made me think of the Flintstones. yabba-dabba-doo :icon_razz:

 

@good dog My 2005 is sometimes a little stiff....pisses me off that Subaru would not have lubed this during my recent 90K service.....any writeup w/diagrams about what needs to be done specifically ?

 

@Hazmat Rather than get off-topic, you have a PM :biggrin:

 

My fiancee's 03 Impreza Outback Sport did this today after we tried replacing a burnt out tail light with an equivalent LED. The car worked great until I parked it, replaced the light, then tried to move the car. Is it possible that since the LED uses less current, that the current coming back to the brake light sensor was too high and burned out the switch?

Update!
Turns out that I burned a fuse for the brake lights, a 20A fuse by the knee panel labeled STOP. The idea that the current was too high seems plausible. After I replaced the fuse and replaced the tail lights with LEDs everything was back to normal.

 

Yes, my Subaru Forester 2006 gear shift is rough when changing from Park to Drive. I recently learned from a guy on U-tube how to fix this problem. My problem is that a coin (dime) slipped into the console and I suspect that maybe that coin is moving around inside that gear box, because it grinds when ever I am shifting. It looks easy to get into that console, but if I mess up? Any suggestions from anyone who has experienced the problem?

 

I've been looking all over YouTube for a video. Have a link handy? Mine's an '07, just kinda old, maybe needs a new cable but in the meantime I'm trying to find out where to grease it / how to get at it.

 

G'day & Welcome @La Verne Note that the OP has not been seen here for 13 years.

Could you please complete your profile; vehicle details at least; thanks. For detail instructions pls refer: Your forum "Public Profile" - how to fill this...
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