Ok, y'all, with the advent of cold weather, the release on the gear shifter doesn't want to work well. When I start it up, if it's cold out, I'm having difficulty getting it out of park.

Now, I did go lurk around and someone had this problem with an L series, sw2cam said it was probably the solenoid in the console by the shift lever. Would this be (as logic dictates to me) the same configuration before I start whining to DH about fixing it? Another forum said these solenoids and mechanisms are bad to get dirty/rusty and not want to slide freely.

Tonight I did let the car warm up a bit in park before trying to shift to neutral and let it finish warming up. In a few minutes the lever did release. I was taught that when you warm up a car prior to driving in cold weather, you ALWAYS do it in neutral so the transmission rotates/lubes/warms up as well. Is this still the case? Growing up in MN, that was SOP.

 

I'm not a fan of warming up a car, I start them and go, unless I have to scrape ice off the windshield.

I'd recommend the cleaning and lubrication first, but until the weather warms up enough and you have the time, I'd suggest starting the car in neutral. There should be a procedure to move the lever to neutral in your owners manual. Then start it and go, slow and easy until it warms up, but the whole vehicle should be warmed up together, not just the engine and transmission.

 

I tried to get the lever out of park with the key in the acc position like the manual said, but it wouldn't move. So, what I'm going to do is make sure the parking brake works/releases well, and then I'll park it in neutral with the brake set so I don't have to fight with it. When it gets cold I usually have to warm it up to defrost everything, I just like for it to be in neutral - old habit. Since this is the first automatic I've driven regularly in decades, I'm drawing on the old school ways from the frozen tundra where I grew up. We'll work all the kinks out of it soon enough, finding all the little stuff we need to do to the car is part of buying older stuff

 

On some cars, you can't get the key out until the AT is in park. There should be a slot or something near the shift lever that you stick your key into to mechanically release the shifter. The procedure will be in your owners manual. My Saturn had a 5 speed so I don't know the procedure myself.

 

How many miles are on that car, again, Ginny? You may want to change the fluid and filter for starters.

 

Hey Rube, it's a '95 with 84K on it, and the filter/fluid change for starters isn't until you grease the muffler bearings at 95K. DH already checked the manifold tie-downs too. So glad it's fuel injected, back in the day those carburetor gears used to give us fits on GM products.

DH did solve the problem, he did some online research and extracted the solenoid as many chose to do. Button pushes fine now (still necessary to get it out of park) and we all are happy.

Now if he could figure out why the fan doesn't want to kick in when the car warms up... replaced that sensor thingy that is the usual culprit but the fan won't run unless you turn on the a/c, then it runs until the car cools down.

 

Which fan are you referring to, Ginny? The fan for your heat/ac, or the engine cooling fans? I'm not clear on this and if anyone else is honest, I'm betting most of them aren't either.

 

she means engine cooling fan

 

Yep, engine cooling fan. Once that's figured out, I'll have to find him something else to fuss over LOL!

 

Are you overheating?