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Cadillac Repair/2000 cadillac sts wont get out of park

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Expert: - 2/5/2011


Question
hi i have a 2000 Cadillac sts, and today i drove to work everything was fine. got off of work got back in my car started it up and let it run for about 10 minutes tried to put it in park and it wouldn't go. my trans is not slipping, and never had a problem nor a warning. any suggestions?

Answer
Hello,

These cars employ a Park cable which is plastic cased on the outside and has braided steel cable that slides back and forth when moving in and out of Park. Cables go without warning. All you need is one steel strand that comes loose when moving the shifter to drive and it will bend and bind causing not to go back into park, or if it jams up the other way, the transmission won't come out of park.
The car is old enough for the cable to fail, and winter seems to  make the issue more common.

This is not something you want to do on your own. I have replaced many park cables and even with my experience (of course not physically able to now) I would pay someone to do one. Labor on them was only like an hour or hour and a half and was far too much work for that rate.

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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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