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Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:56 am

I have a 1991 Vanagon that' been sitting for some months, and it used to shift out of Park ok. Now, it will not. It's an automatic.
Could it just be that I need to lubricate something? Any help would be great.

Ran ok back before it was parked.

Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:54 am

I guess to make sure the thumb button is engaging/disengaging ok..
underneath in the spare tire clamshell is the shifterbox, it could have a cRusty pivot.
the cable 'could' be bound but very unlikely.. and the Trans shift input is fairly reliable. are yo uon a hill? with a bunch of driveline tension?

the T of the shifter handle is held on with a 3mm set screw.. don't break it

Dan in NY

Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:59 am

If the shifter checks out fine.....
I have had a an automatic Carat do the same thing.
All I could figure out was that when parked and the trans in Park, someone must have bumped into it and the cracked the internal lock in the transmission from the stress.
When I took the trans apart, what I would describe as a shift fork looking piece that engages and disengages the unit from part was broken and lodged itself so the trans could not be shifted.
I hope this in not what has happened to your van.
Just my experience.

dylan

Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:17 am

Thanks for the input.

The Van was parked on flat ground, and before I parked it for a while it shifted a bit rough. Then it would not shift at all.

Is it possible to spray or lube that pivot? anything else I should look for?

Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:43 am

Maybe this is too obvious, but have you checked the ATF fluid level?

Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:07 pm

Disconnect the cable at the trans.
See if you can shift it manually from the transmission.
If so it is the linkage, if not trans internals.

Please DO NOT do this with the van running and you under it.

Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:35 pm

I am out of my area of expertise, but after the runaway Audi's we had a recall to install a shift lock on all pre 86 Audis. After that in production, all Automatic Audi's had the shift lock that required depressing the brake pedal to shift out of park. Did VW follow suit on the later Automatic Vanagons? If so the easy test is to see if you can shift the transmission out of park with the engine off. Again, this guess is from way out in right field.

Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:41 pm

rsxsr wrote: I am out of my area of expertise, but after the runaway Audi's we had a recall to install a shift lock on all pre 86 Audis. After that in production, all Automatic Audi's had the shift lock that required depressing the brake pedal to shift out of park. Did VW follow suit on the later Automatic Vanagons? If so the easy test is to see if you can shift the transmission out of park with the engine off. Again, this guess is from way out in right field.

My'85 Westy has no such shift lock. Besides, I think that the shift lock was put into Audi's because of fears of the drive-by-wire setup. If I remember right Audi pioneered that, mostly because Detroit was afraid of a product liability lawsuit, like Audi got. But this may be from Left Field... :)

Fri Apr 03, 2009 5:24 am

The 88 and earlier audis still had accelerator cables not fly by wire. The shift lock was to train people how to find the brake pedal. The cars "took off" because the owners believed they were pressing the brake not the gas pedal. In most cases, the drivers were new to the vehicle, short women, and backing up. Many other accidents were blamed on runaway Audi's when in fact they were trying to dodge responsiblity. 60 minutes did a bogus expose where they rigged a hydraulic pump to activate the accelerator pedal via the transmission relay lever. The Audi has a similar setup to the vanagon automatic where the accel pedal is routed through the transmission relay. The poster stated his was a 91, I thought by then most all cars had this feature. It was just an idea. :cry: