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Cadillac Repair/Wont shift to park

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Expert: - 9/7/2010


Question
I have a cadillac 96 sts. All of a sudden yesterday i had
problems shifting to park from drive and today it stopped at
all. i can shift down frm reverse to 1 and up to reverse again
but cannot shift to park at all and the keys wont come out
unitill its in park. can u help me??

Answer
Hello,

I do believe I can help you.  You are going to need the car towed to not a dealer, but a local service center.
GM uses what is known as a "park" cable that leads from the shifter to the steering column. Its purpose is that the car has to be in park before the ignition key can be removed.

Over time, this cable will fray preventing it from going back into the housing and not letting the car shift through the gears.

If you have never replaced one, you don't want to. The labor rate is no more than an hour. This cable must be purchased by GM though.

If my answer assisted you, please rate it.
Thanks.

Cadillac Repair

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Rob Painter

Expertise

Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet. My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine. This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle: Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?

Experience

Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.

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