1998 A4 1.8 Quatro, I physically can't shift out of park with motor running or not. It just happened today???? What should my plan of attack be? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Are you parked on a hill? Shifter can be hard to move due to the internal parking brake in the transmission. When you do finally get it out in that situation, you often hear a nice loud clunk as it disengages. You will be able to push the button in, but not actually move the shifter arm.

Not to be rediculously obvious, but you are pushing on the brake pedal right? It won't move unless you are.

 

I will be obnoxious, press the brake.

 

I have noticed the nice, loud, CLUNK that you speak of, when trying to get out of Park sometimes! I thought my transmission was going! LOL

 

No hill and a light is staying on as if the brake has not been depressed. Nothing is too obvious for me.
Also, my Tiptronic has not worked in about a year if that makes any difference.
My battery is starting to go out and yesterday I had to jump it. Was planning on getting a new battery this weekend. Could it be a computer thing affected by the battery going ??

 

Check the connection to your brake pedal, there's a micro switch on them that can go, and also check your tranny fluid level. Reset the computer by disconnecting the battery for about 10 minutes and see if that helps.

 

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I have noticed the nice, loud, CLUNK that you speak of, when trying to get out of Park sometimes! I thought my transmission was going! LOL
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lol, it is a horrible sound. Glad to help.


I love when a post goes from simple to totally screwed. What light is staying on? As Cyber said, there is a sensor for the brake that could be faulty. Yes, your tiptronic not working should be mentioned. It takes us from the realm of normal problem to any number of transmission related issues that could be causing your problem. A transmission on its last leg can do all kinds of unusual things. Maybe its something simple. Maybe your crappy tranny is finally calling it quits.

Yes a bad battery will do strange things to the car. Mine crapped out last weekend. All of a sudden my windows worked, but the auto up / auto down feature didn't work. My key FOB didn't work at all. Etc etc etc. Actually, I think before you do anything at all, you should get the battery replaced. Run the car for a little while. You may find that one of the sensors isn't getting enough juice or something and is throwing a bad signal to the ECU telling it that all conditions are not met for you to be allowed to move the shifter (such as foot not on brake etc).

 

Some newer audi's/VW's won't let you shift out of park when it's too cold.

This happend to me and my sister at mamoth mountain in her golf.

We had to wait 10 min before the locking pin would disingage.

Germans and there safety features.

 

And the winner is.......... Cyberlogic!
It was the brake microswitch. Please look for my next message posted under Audi A-4 sleuths needed.
More problems....

 

Hey guys,
I'm having this problem with my '98 A6 Quattro. It starts just fine, but won't shift out of Park no matter what I do. Not on a hill, transmission fluid just fine, etc, etc. Worked fine before this happened.

I'd like to check the brake micro-switch because that makes a lot of sense to me given what I'm experiencing with the car...but I can't find any online resources on where it is or how to check it.

Does anyone know of a good place to check or should I go grab a Haynes manual and look there? Are there good ways to test if it's the problem or not?

Thanks a ton in advance!