Gear won't leave Park. Help please!

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averageguy

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I guess I can understand that, but I feel like the purpose of a forum like this is to share information and experiences to help other people. We've all screwed up before but if you say "I did this and this is what happened" maybe it will prevent another guy from making the same mistake. Just my .02 cents.
 
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OP
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Chilcoat22

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Sorry for the delay on the update. Sure did screw up the oil pan location and the transmission fluid location. So for those of you that don't know, I found out the hard way, the transmission fluid location is directly behind the oil pan as you make your way back from the front of the vehicle. It is very deceptive because it is labeled saying "open only for oil drain". As stated before I am not even close to a mechanic or an expert so even though I had my 1/2in socket on the proper oil pan plug initially, I felt it was necessary to give one more once over to ensure it was the proper place to drain the oil. This is where I came across the transmission fluid drain plug and thought that since it was labeled as such, it had to be engine oil not transmission oil. What's even worse is that the OEM MOPAR 8&9 transmission oil, which is $40 a quart, is dark green almost brownish black, very similar to engine oil so in lowlight conditions, it is very easy to take the transmission fluid for engine oil. That being said, I drained nearly 5 quarts of transmission fluid and needed to replace it all. For those of you that know how difficult it is to get transmission fluid into the 3.6 engine, which does not have a fill point in the engine bay, you can imagine how time consuming and annoying it was to get this squared away. That being said, I replaced all of the transmission fluid, drained the 12 quarts of bad oil, and did a proper oil change and the truck seems to be running fine now. I will be taking it in for service to ensure that it is healthy. I apologize for leaving you guys hanging. Thank you all for your help, never would have got it out of my driveway without you guys. Let me know if I missed anything or if anyone has any more questions. Thanks a bunch all!
 

averageguy

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Glad to hear you got it going! And thanks for the closure! It sounds like an easy mistake to make, it should say transmission oil. I'm sure your truck is fine since you didn't/couldn't drive it. I wouldn't take it to the dealer and bring it up since no harm was done and all fluids are at the proper level.
 

whetrick1

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Always remember everyone makes mistakes. Don't let it bum you out. Anyone saying that they have never made a mistake has never tried to do anything. I'm just glad everything worked out for you.


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freefallin

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Glad you fixed her, brotha. Chalk this down as one of life's many f'd up lessons.
 

crash68

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Your not the first to make this mistake. Another member posted on here about a similar situation. Surprising part about that scenario, it was an EcoDiesel and the engine ran with 21 quarts of oil in crank case.
 

Rado

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Sorry for the delay on the update. Sure did screw up the oil pan location and the transmission fluid location. So for those of you that don't know, I found out the hard way, the transmission fluid location is directly behind the oil pan as you make your way back from the front of the vehicle. It is very deceptive because it is labeled saying "open only for oil drain". As stated before I am not even close to a mechanic or an expert so even though I had my 1/2in socket on the proper oil pan plug initially, I felt it was necessary to give one more once over to ensure it was the proper place to drain the oil. This is where I came across the transmission fluid drain plug and thought that since it was labeled as such, it had to be engine oil not transmission oil. What's even worse is that the OEM MOPAR 8&9 transmission oil, which is $40 a quart, is dark green almost brownish black, very similar to engine oil so in lowlight conditions, it is very easy to take the transmission fluid for engine oil. That being said, I drained nearly 5 quarts of transmission fluid and needed to replace it all. For those of you that know how difficult it is to get transmission fluid into the 3.6 engine, which does not have a fill point in the engine bay, you can imagine how time consuming and annoying it was to get this squared away. That being said, I replaced all of the transmission fluid, drained the 12 quarts of bad oil, and did a proper oil change and the truck seems to be running fine now. I will be taking it in for service to ensure that it is healthy. I apologize for leaving you guys hanging. Thank you all for your help, never would have got it out of my driveway without you guys. Let me know if I missed anything or if anyone has any more questions. Thanks a bunch all!

Glad you got her fixed and no damage to the transmission :) We all make mistakes and it takes a BIG Man to admit he made one and share it! :) The reason I do not work on my truck is I do not trust myself lol.. I respect those that do work on their own trucks/cars :)
 

Richard3030

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Minus the oil level problems, my 2014 Ram 1500 SLT 4x4 is also stuck in Park. As usual, I started my truck with foot on brake pedal and moved the rotary shifter from P to D. On the dash, I received an error message "Shift to P then Desired Gear". Both PRND displays flashed as I shifted to each gear and back again. I repeated the P to D to P many times. The transmission didn't engage at all. I also noticed that the engine light was on. Later, I disconnected the battery terminal for 20 seconds. There was no change. Tomorrow, I'll take it out of park with the 8 speed transmission manual park override and I'll read the engine light code for more clues.
 
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Burla

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**** happens, we all been there, live and learn. But, if you do it again, we will have to pull your card. I had to stop hanging with one of my friends for this very reason, the cat never learned, would make the same mistake like 2 or even 3 times, I kid you not. I was dumb enough to get him a job, man he screwed me over and over, I had to say enough. Not a bad dude, just stupid.
 

Richard3030

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Minus the oil level problems, my 2014 Ram 1500 SLT 4x4 is also stuck in Park. As usual, I started my truck with foot on brake pedal and moved the rotary shifter from P to D. On the dash, I received an error message "Shift to P then Desired Gear". Both PRND displays flashed as I shifted to each gear and back again. I repeated the P to D to P many times. The transmission didn't engage at all. I also noticed that the engine light was on. Later, I disconnected the battery terminal for 20 seconds. There was no change. Tomorrow, I'll take it out of park with the 8 speed transmission manual park override and I'll read the engine light code for more clues.
With the parking brake on, I popped the trim plate under the light switches, slid the locking plate to the right and pulled the park override strap until it clicked into position. I released the parking bake to roll the truck forward a foot. Then, I started the truck and after some warning messages, I was able to use the dial shifter to engage the transmission into D and R.

All seems well now except there is a long warning message "Service Transmission; shut off engine to put transmission in park" on start up and shut down.

The engine light was still on so I ran my code reader and it didn't pick up any codes. Next step is to check for dial shifter recalls and take it to my mechanic to check transmission levels, etc.

So far, it seems that I might have triggered the park override safety system possibly by getting out of the truck when it was still in D.
 
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