I can’t get the H2 out of park!

Park Problem – emergency procedure

This is a more serious problem as the truck is totally immobilized. You will have to do something if you want to get to where you are going. Fortunately, the solution is very easy. Note that The park problem can occur at the same time as the key problem so you may have to do both to get out of a bind . The repair of the shifter as described below will fix both problems. Also you may just have a dead battery, so jump your H2 or charge your battery then you can turn and remove the key.

Here's what you do.

Open the center console glove box and using the Phillips screw driver, remove the 4 screws that hold the center console "glove box" in place. The box is the tub right under the flip up door. (See picture 1 below)


Center console Remove the tub then stick you hand into the hole toward the shifter. While jiggling the shifter feel where the bottom of the shifter is. Somewhere near the bottom, you will feel a round mushroom shaped thing, with the round part facing the PASSENGER SIDE. If you press on this, the shifter can now be shifted out of park using the regular method. You need to hold the button down when you want to shift out of park. The lock is only for park so all other gears are ok from this point on. Remember- every time you go to park position, the shifter will lock and you need to access the “button” each time to get out of park. (See picture 2 below)


What causes the problem?

One frequent cause is a broken wire that goes to the shifter (the break is located in the center console). These wires control both the key removal and the parking lock. If you have either of these problems then have the cable checked or you can fix it your self as indicated below:

Put the parking brake on

Make sure the engine is off

Put the shifter into 1 (farthest back position)

Remove the shifter handle. To do this you need to loosen the torx screw (it is actually a torx screw but an allan wrench works. (See picture 3 below)



Loosen the screw on the front of the shifter.

Pop the shifter console off the center console. There are 4 very hard to release metal clips that hold the shifter cover on. To release, you need to pull straight up on the shifter cover. Beware, you might break the plastic around the clips so be careful. The cover does come off with a lot of effort. If you are worried about breaking it go to a dealer for the repair.



Once the cover is off you will see a cable and connector near a mushroom shaped button. This button is the one you pressed to release the shifter from park. Either the connector is off or the wires to the connector are broken due to the flex back and forth that occurs during movement of the shift lever. (See picture 4 & 5 below)



Find which wire is broken and fix it. It is preferable to use a small gauge, highly flexible wire to extend the harness to connector cable length. It is also preferable to use butt splices rather then solder joints.

Test it and then put everything back together.

My H2 is now fixed. I found a broken wire to the shift solenoid and repaired it. All back together again and it works like it's suppose.

pic 1, pic 2, pic 3, pic 4, pic 5

 

Great write up.

 

I just installed some front off road LED lights, I used a tap-in type of fuse w/ power feed wire in the back up light fuse position, it didn’t like that, locked me into park, I put the original fuse in and everything was fine again. Just saying check your fuse too if you are stuck in park, don’t use those tap in wire fuses, H2’s don’t like them, things go haywire quick !

 

Thanks for the detailed process. Helped out tremendously, was locked in park at the gas station. Followed your thread and worked out perfectly!

 

Revisiting an old thread here, but I finally got around to fixing my stuck key issue (have to depress the button by the ignition switch every time) and have discovered the broken wires by the shift lever. In my case all 5 wires are broken off and I can't tell which order they go back into the plug.
Does anyone wave the wiring schematic, or know which order they go in, for that plug?

Thanks in advance.

 

Pic....

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

 

Awesome, thanks!!

 

You seem knowledgeable and I'm not mechanical, suffered a stoke. The shifter button on my 08 broke and fell off. Found replacement on Amazon, yet don't know how to install. Found nothing on You Tube. Thanks in advance for assistance.