04 LJ 4 speed auto trans 4.0
It has been pretty cold for about a month. As it’s been consistently cold my transmission got harder and harder to shift out of park.
Yesterday it completely went crazy. After work I was trying to start it in park but it wouldn’t start(no crank,no clicks ), after being mad for 15 minutes I tried it in reverse and it cranked. I got my girlfriend to check the brake lights as I shifted through and the p was now reverse. R was neutral. N was drive.
I chalked it up as being cold, drove home and couldn’t get the key out. I looked it up , tried the chopstick method, my freaky white beads weren’t broke and really hard to get out. I finally got it to do some sort of park after going back/forth, using the e brake and luck I think.
I drove to the gym and made a big mistake of parking facing a wall. I checked that I had reverse before I got out and it worked. When I got back to the car it couldn’t reverse, all positions on the selector are drive and again couldn’t get the key out. After many hours I got it in park( which was sort of neutral) and got the key out.
Once I was able to get the key out I couldn’t restart it. Now it is stuck by a wall, at the gym, cannot start and even if I could start it there’s no reverse.
It’s now the following day, I called out of work and I’m trying to figure out how to at least move it to get it towed to a shop. Should I just call a tow truck instead of trying to get it to move and driving it there? I’d like to save the money on a tow but if I cannot get it into any other position than drive I’m out of luck.
I have minimal mechanical know-how but can read and listen to advice.
Chopstick in the shifter handle didn’t work because my beads are hole.
My shift linkage bushing is intact.
Shifting between positions is still really hard as if something is bound up.
I can attach photos if needed.
Thank you for the help. This is my first post.
It has been pretty cold for about a month. As it’s been consistently cold my transmission got harder and harder to shift out of park.
Yesterday it completely went crazy. After work I was trying to start it in park but it wouldn’t start(no crank,no clicks ), after being mad for 15 minutes I tried it in reverse and it cranked. I got my girlfriend to check the brake lights as I shifted through and the p was now reverse. R was neutral. N was drive.
I chalked it up as being cold, drove home and couldn’t get the key out. I looked it up , tried the chopstick method, my freaky white beads weren’t broke and really hard to get out. I finally got it to do some sort of park after going back/forth, using the e brake and luck I think.
I drove to the gym and made a big mistake of parking facing a wall. I checked that I had reverse before I got out and it worked. When I got back to the car it couldn’t reverse, all positions on the selector are drive and again couldn’t get the key out. After many hours I got it in park( which was sort of neutral) and got the key out.
Once I was able to get the key out I couldn’t restart it. Now it is stuck by a wall, at the gym, cannot start and even if I could start it there’s no reverse.
It’s now the following day, I called out of work and I’m trying to figure out how to at least move it to get it towed to a shop. Should I just call a tow truck instead of trying to get it to move and driving it there? I’d like to save the money on a tow but if I cannot get it into any other position than drive I’m out of luck.
I have minimal mechanical know-how but can read and listen to advice.
Chopstick in the shifter handle didn’t work because my beads are hole.
My shift linkage bushing is intact.
Shifting between positions is still really hard as if something is bound up.
I can attach photos if needed.
Thank you for the help. This is my first post.
