The One who must be Obeyed, was out and about at her Job as a PSW this morning, got to clients house, did her things there, went out and started the car and the Transmission would not change into any gears, it is frozen. She cannot move the shifter either forward or backward.

this is 2005 Ford Escape XLT 3.0 ltr engine

Anybody know what could be the issue here?

 

I could not log in under my original log in, so here is an update - she now has to put the Escape in Neutral, start the car and roll. She says it is locked in park.

So after She who Must be Obeyed got home, I went out to the Escape, and when started, there is no way to move the shifter out of park. You need to insert a key or screwdriver into the little slot beside the shift lever, push down a button then move it to neutral, start the vehicle and move from there.

 

Are the brake lights working?

 

Good question, right now she is back to work. I will check that when she gets home.

 

The shift lever actuator works off of the brake lamp circuit...

 

She just got home, I went out and checked, no brake lights at all with the car running. Could this be caused by a bad fuse and where would I find this fuse. I have a Pkg of various fuses to replace anything.

 

I went and got my Haynes book, it was not much help, then I went and got my Owners Manual, it tells me where the fuses are and what they do, I figured out which ones had anything to do with the tail lights, then replaced them all. Had The One who Must Be Obeyed come out and start the car (she was already in bed, has to get up at 4 AM) By God, it works, She got Tails lights and can move the shifter out of Park. After changing all 3 fuses, I inspected them with my Multimeter and the 15 Amp fuse was toast. The other two were OK, but i tossed them anyway.
Hayapower, I do want to thank you for the hint and help. You saved us about 45 bucks or more

To the Moderators here, you can move this whole post to Escape section of the forum, it is solved.

 

Glad it was a simple fix, but generally fuses blow for a reason.

 

I will monitor this, she will be sure to tell me if something goes wrong again. If it blows again, I will do more research on the issues. That was a learning curve for me, that is for sure.

 

It blows fuses now more often than the bus goes by the house here. We have had it in several shops for various fixes last week, in one of them we told them what it was doing and he thought he found the problem, an old trailer wiring part that was burnt and wires around it were singed. He removed it and that did not solve our Problem
Where should I look next?