2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

Hi everyone, I have been scanning the net looking for answers on this. My FEH is stuck in park and I dont have brake lights. We did the quick and easy thing and replaced the brake light switch on under the dash, it didnt fix it. The small battery was just replaced two weeks ago as well. I used engineer mode and the battery reads 13.8. So this is what its doing right now,

When trying to enter engineer mode when the car is doing this, the engineer mode wont go past the first display of "engineer mode" and start the guage sweep and subsequent checks. I read the codes with a cheap code scanner and cleared a code, (i am sorry i dont remember the exact code but it was for an evap issue) I also kept trying the engineering mode and hitting the three buttons on the dash and the engineering mode went past the first screen and worked correctly. I was able to get the DTC's C140 E013. The FEH worked normally after all this and it would shift out of park and the brake lights worked again. Also during this event prior to displaying engineer mode, the "service brake soon" message appeared. That went away as well.

I am assuming I have a CAN BUS issue or maybe a part of the brake monitoring system is glitching. The car is with my daughter out of state and its doing this again. She can get it to the dealer, but I am trying to figure out what is happening before that so we dont just throw parts at it so the dealership can make money and not fix it. I have three FEHs and for my kids and they love them, We just bought this one 3 weeks ago and dont have a history on it, It currently has 131000 miles. Anyone experience anything like this with thier FEH? Thanks for the help

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

The stuck in Park problem is covered in the owner's manual under Driving -> Automatic Transmission Operation -> Brake-shift interlock. Even the brake lights being out is covered as part of that same issue. Did you try what is recommended there?

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

The owners manual tells you how to bypass the interlock. I Want to repair the FEH or at least know what could possible be causing the issue.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

2009 owner's manual must be different. The 2007 manual covers causes and repair.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

What page is that on, I can look it up in my 06 FEH owners manual or online....

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

It's on page 210 of the 2007 manual. I can send you a scan if you don't have it. Sounds like a blown fuse or a brake light out can cause it to be stuck in Park. Let us know how you fixed it.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

Like I said, That is the description on how to bypass the park interlock solenoid. I have also checked the fuses, and replaced the brake switch that activates the brake lights on the pedal arm. I need to go deeper into troubleshooting now. I am trying to figure out what else would cause an intermittent (no brake light wont shift out of park on start up) condition. Or if anyone has any experience with this type of issue, what they did to correct it. I have seen that replacing the brake light switch like i did has correcte the problem as well as cleaning up the wire splices from a removed remote start system and cleaning up a trailer wire harness that was killing the fuse on the brake light. My FEH has none of those issues. I almost think it is a ground wire issue, as grounds can cause this type of havoc. I am picking the car up from my daughter tommorrow and giving her the 08 FEH back as a loaner, so I will have time to trouble shoot it. just looking for possible avenues to take prior to going to the dealership.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

Have you had any problems with the shifter release button? Just read in a while back in a FE forum of somebody that had button issues and finally broke the plastic rod altogether.

IIRC, there has been some that had an issue with the shifter locking solenoid sticking.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

No it's not the shift release button, the brake light circuit works sometimes and I'm going to have to chase wires on the whole system. When the lights don't work the shift interlock doesn't either.

Re: 2009 FEH AWD stuck in park, no brake lights!!!
 

juggie, I think checking grounds is the smart thing, especially because of the intermittancy. You probably realize that ALL other years manuals would be different than 08, and some quite different.