Stuck in Park

If you just mean the small cover giving you access to the release override, I don't remember
any trick to it. It's a small plastic piece that just popped in, so it needs no more than to be
popped out. Maybe get a thin screwdriver / coin / handle of nail clipper / etc. under the edge
if you need to.

That said, I think I only popped mine out once, out of curiosity when I first got the car.
Once I knew where the release lever was, I figured out I can just stick my pinky in
through the slot where the steering tilt lock lever comes through, curl the finger around
so it's pointing back at me inside the column, which puts my fingertip right under the
lever, and push it up that way. Not that popping the cover out is much trouble, but
not popping it out is even less trouble.

-Chap

 

Thank you. I managed to get the little cover off but for some reason even popping the lever didn't help me to shift it out of park so now I am at a loss for what to do since I cannot afford to take it to a dealership to have it fixe for the second time in 6 months for another $1200 :/

 

You can use a pocket knife or very tiny screwdriver. The cover panel is about the size of a small postage stamp, just pry it off then stick your finger in the hole to release the gearshift.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Say, this sounds a whole lot like the OP's experience earlier in this thread, so maybe you could collect the same information that could help us determine what's going on.

First, the button at the end of the shift lever. Can you push it in at all? With the key off (and no pinkies on the override release), the button should feel solidly blocked (no more than 1 mm travel, maybe). That's what's normal.

Then with the ignition on and the brake pedal pressed, you should definitely be able to push this button. There shouldn't be any question, it should push much farther in than when it's blocked. If you take your foot off the brake, it should feel blocked again. That's the interlock circuit working normally.

Or, if you push up the override under the column, then you should also be able to push the button on the end of the shifter.

Notice I haven't said anything yet about moving the shifter. We just want to collect all the information we can about when you can push the button and when you can't.

Then, if you find a combination of conditions where you can push the button, it's time to see if you can hold the button pressed and move the shifter out of Park. So we'll end up with one of two basic stories: (a) I can't move the shifter because the button won't even press, or (b) under {x,y,z} conditions I can press the button, but even with it pressed, the shifter still won't move.

From there we can look at what's next. Story (a) would be more to do with the interlock mechanism, story (b) would be more to do with the shifter itself and its linkage to the transmission. None of it is terribly complicated so you might not end up spending $1200.

-Chap

 

Thank you for your help. I currently can only push the button on the end of the shifter when the brake is pressed and I am holding the override button other than that it feels blocked and will not move. Earlier in the day I got pushed the override button and moved the car out of park and it read that I was going 24 mph when I was in reverse going probably only 2 or 3 mph and it still read 24 mph when I was in park. Then, when I moved the car the steering wheel felt very stiff and was impossibly hard to move even slightly. Also, not sure if this is helpful information, but, I also get the triangle with the exclamation point in the middle next to the speed along with a car with an exclamation point in it, a battery, and PS displayed on the LCD screen that typically displays audio and such.

Your help is very much appreciated

 

Ed,

This is the spirit I love to see in all of my hobbies. Folks to don't just go by the manual or theory but take tools to part and find out what works and doesn't work:

Merry Christmas as your posting is what gives hope for the New Year(s). <grins>

Bob Wilson

 

.

 

Agreed Bob, these forums are only hidden little gifts of hope when somebody is going through trying to fix something by themselves and do a search and come up with a thread that finally leads to an end posting of what actually fixed the problem. It is clear that each and everyone of us are not people that when an issue occurs just drives to the dealer. These threads are only valuable when an original poster continues to follow up and posts the FIX!
Merry Christmas.
TomK

 

Laura,

Sorry I didn't check back sooner - holiday traveling and all. So you can't ever press the button unless you hold the override lever up, but when you press the button, you can move the shift lever out of Park and to the different shift positions?

The other symptoms sound as if something is interfering with how the car's various computers talk with each other. For example, the speed shown on your speedometer is a signal that gets forwarded a couple times over networks ultimately from the brake computer (which is responsible for the wheel speed sensors). Somehow the right speed signal isn't getting through. The steering computer also looks at that signal, because it's programmed to give you the most steering assist at low speeds when steering is hardest, and taper the assist away as your speed picks up. If it's getting the signal that you're doing 24 mph it won't be assisting you much. (I assume by "impossibly hard" you mean the wheel was really stiff but you could still tell a difference from when the key is out and it's actually locked, right? The Prius has a mighty heavy front end for a car, so when the steering computer isn't assisting, it does put upper-body strength at a premium.)

The Gen 1 was built before CAN took off as the within-car network of choice, so Gen 1 has kind of a mishmash of different network technologies getting information from one place to another. In your case, at least one of those seems to be suffering from something possibly as simple as an unplugged or bad connection, or something else added on the network that isn't playing well with others. Can you remember any recent work on the car? Perhaps (but not limited to) anything behind the dash, new audio accessories, etc.?

Do you have an easy way to test the voltage of your 12-volt battery (i.e. the normal, car-battery-shaped one in the trunk)? If you don't, no need to rush out and buy anything, there's a test for that built into the car, just read on. If that voltage is extra low, you can get all the same symptoms of computers not communicating or sending each other bogus info, and that would be an easy fix.

Otherwise, we'll need to get codes from the various computers to figure out where the communication breakdown is happening. The usual way to do this is with a 'prius-aware scanner'. If you search for those words on this forum you should find a lot of posts that give the best choices and some of them won't cost much (i.e. < $200, and for a tool that will be ever-useful for as long as you have your Prius).

Since you might have to order and wait for one of those, the Gen 1 also has a way you can get codes from most of the computers by making them blink different dash lights, and counting the blinks. You can do this with no more than a short length of wire or a paper clip, being very careful to put the ends in the correct two holes of the multi-pin diagnostic connector under your dash). Search this forum for a word combination like "tc cg blink" for details on that. A benefit of this approach is the computers may be able to blink their designated dash lights even with a network problem that might block the normal scanner. Since there might be a network problem in your case, this is good. There are a few computers in the car that you won't hear from using the light blink technique, but enough information to track down the communication problem might come from the rest anyway.

There is one more diagnostic feature the car has, which is built into the multifunction display (the screen that normally shows audio info etc.). Sometimes people discover it and think they've found universal diagnostics for the whole car, and I'm usually posting that no, sorry, it mostly pertains only to trouble with the audio system. But there are two checks it does that might be useful here. One is that on the network status screen it can show the status of the "gateway ECU" which is a component responsible for forwarding information between some different networks in the car. You definitely want it to show up in the list, and show up as OK.

Also, on the 'vehicle signal check' screen is a built-in voltmeter for your 12-volt battery, handy if you don't have another way to test (and with no need to take out any trim in the trunk and get to the battery). Searching this forum for "mfd diagnostics" should find you posts about that.

If you're the sort who'd rather find everything in one place than search a bunch of forum posts, a cheap subscription on techinfo.toyota.com will get you (among many other things) the service manual Volume I (Diagnostics) with all the details of everything I've talked about here. The only forum searching you'd still have to do would be for cheap prius-aware scanners (since of course the manual will only say to buy the Toyota one).

Cheers,
-Chap