Stranded with faulty locked Trans shifter lever with 2015 Ram 1500 ?

For the past few weeks about one in every four or five times I get into the truck and go it takes me 12 or 15 tries to move the shifter lever ( automatic ) from Park to reverse in the driveway. I place my foot on the brake as required but there is some locking mechanism that is supposed to unlock the shifter and let me shift.
I have to try it many times and it finally lets me shift into reverse to back out of driveway. From reverse to drive is no problem ..... It is when I park the truck and put in PARK that I have the problem when later I want to go somewhere. When I go to pull slightly the shift lever I can hear what sounds like some pins
being shifted around to unlock the shift mechanism. After fifteen tries all of a sudden it works like intended.
HOWEVER TODAY I was in the vehicle for thirty minutes trying hundreds of times trying to jiggle the shifter lever just right and finally it worked. What is causing this ? I could be stranded for hours next time
as it is getting worse and may not shift at all in the future. Can anyone explain this and what is required to
repair ? BTW, I have the V8 Hemi engine on the 1500 Ram truck with only 45K miles.

Stranded with faulty locked Trans shifter lever with 2015 Ram 1500 ?

Sound like you have a column shifter? It sounds like the brake shift interlock isn't disengaging...

Yeah park interlock mech is not releasing I have not fooled with ram's yet but have had this happen to many other vehicles the grease they used gets harder with age plus dirt get into the grease and just makes it not work right. easy thing to clean it up but how hard it is to access I do not know yet my 2014 is doing this but mostly in colder weather right now so I have not tore into mine yet.

It sounds like a mechanical problem as the guys above have described, so this may be a long shot... i had a similar problem on another vehicle and it turned out the brake switch was faulty. The car needs a "brakes depressed" indication to allow the shift to unlock. A new brake switch and my problem was solved. Make sure your brakes lights are coming on when you have your foot on the brake.

Good luck with resolving your issue - gotta be frustrating...

aces-n-eights said:

It sounds like a mechanical problem as the guys above have described, so this may be a long shot... i had a similar problem on another vehicle and it turned out the brake switch was faulty. The car needs a "brakes depressed" indication to allow the shift to unlock. A new brake switch and my problem was solved. Make sure your brakes lights are coming on when you have your foot on the brake.

Good luck with resolving your issue - gotta be frustrating...

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I had this problem with a Mazda. The switch was attached to the arm of the break pedal, and was easy to replace. The tuck had a shifter on the transmission hump, and there was a slot I could put a screw driver in to mechanically over ride the lock. Not sure if the Ram has one?

I am leaving my Truck in Neutral when parked and using my emergency brake
to keep the truck from rolling away because if I put it in PARK I cannot get it back into
drive or reverse. The problem is I cannot remove my key from the ignition switch.

mb33458 said:

I had this problem with a Mazda. The switch was attached to the arm or the break pedal, and was easy to replace. The tuck had a shifter on the transmission hump, and there was a slot I could put a screw driver in to mechanically over ride the lock. Not sure if the Ram has one?

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My shifter lever is on the steering column so I have no idea how to override ? ? ?

Like 2 other guys said, I've had to replace the switch on the brake pedal pushrod. The switch has multifunctions including interlock, cruise control, brake lights, ect.

There was a recall on the BTSI. See URL Does sound like an interlock problem. You can over ride it, search youtube, a lot of info o how to over ride, though my take is, get it replaced. It was a recall described in the text of the URL. Thought the interlock problem was for failure to lock, that switch does serve multiple purposes, so Something U need to get fixed. OP, if for some reason U R driving and hit brake and it does not disengage CRUISE, do not panic, manually turn off the system using steering wheel controls.

Posts #3 and #4 does look like an area to check as ACES in 8 said, they R probably spot on. ALL IMHO...

18CrewDually said:

Like 2 other guys said, I've had to replace the switch on the brake pedal pushrod. The switch has multifunctions including interlock, cruise control, brake lights, ect.

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I have had them move/not mounted correctly-aligned properly, or just loosened up over time and moved, and have to either replace them/or readjust. The early Military Humvee's were notorious for this and also the fan relays being bad, but has nothing to do with OP's problem, just put in for conversation.

Also to add to my other post above, if you have AlphaOBD you can actuate it and see if it works. If it does work you know it is ok and more likely the switch or wiring from the switch.

I have not seen a column shift automatic 1500 since way back when

THIS MAY BE YOUR ANSWER
Look at your steering column on the bottom

If i recall correctly, there should be 3 or 4 holes
1 of those holes should have a spring loaded pin in it
use a 6" screw driver or rod to push up
I believe you can feel it in the shifter

It may be, that your Ignition is going bad

I think there's a switch too on the steering column shifter mechanism. Maybe that switch??

I think that the Multifunction Switch & the Shift Lever & Ignition are more or less integrated

I believe that the Motorcity Mechanic has one or two videos that cover these parts

Are you seeing a 'check engine' light? That would point to a likely brake sw issue.

Do this: Key-on, Engine-off, put your foot on the brake, you should hear a faint 'click' up on the top of the steering column/lower dash area. When you remove your foot, you should hear another 'click' ...about a 2-3 second delay. That must be the shift lever 'lock/unlock' solenoid locking and unlocking. Do you hear that consistently? Are you hearing that 'click' and it's still NOT allowing the lever to move? If you're not hearing it, remove the column plastic covers and check the wires to the shifter solenoid ..or the shifter mechanism.

If you ARE hearing that 'click', the first thing I'd do is crawl under the truck and inspect the cable where it mounts and attaches to the the transmission. Just observe that everything looks 'good' ...see if there are any broken plastic retainers or something out of 'adjustment'.

If things look good under the truck, pull the lower plastic cover off on the lower dash below the steering column (two screws). I've had mine off a couple times. Then you should be able to look up into where the cable attaches to the collumn. Look way up towards the column where the cable attaches, see what that looks like. If things look good there, the next step would be to remove the plastic steering column covers and inspect the mechanism and cable attachments/adjustment, per the videos above. Could be a bad or damaged cable, or the mechanism itself ..or like some guys suggested, maybe it needs to be greased better. You'll need a Torx screwdriver (because of it's longer shaft than a bit) to reach the hard-to-get-at recessed screw that holds the lower plastic cover on.

Looks pretty straight forward. If you're not a DIY guy, the dealer should be able to handle it pretty quick. But if you have the knack, doesn't look too difficult to de-bug. Let us know what it turns out to be.

This is not your problem if this is happening all the time, But on the wife's Honda CRV , if you park and there any side pressure on the tire, it will lock up the shifter till you wiggle the steering wheel to remove the pressure on the pin.