'97 suburban hanging in park

I have a 97 suburban, that will not come out of park when it is cold. I first tried the brake light switch on a recommendation from a parts guy, that didn't do it ..... then I replaced the park/neutral switch cause that just seemed to make sense, I thought I had it , but no such luck. Has anyone heard of this? Even a local mechanic was baffled......

I have a 97 suburban, that will not come out of park when it is cold. I first tried the brake light switch on a recommendation from a parts guy, that didn't do it ..... then I replaced the park/neutral switch cause that just seemed to make sense, I thought I had it , but no such luck. Has anyone heard of this? Even a local mechanic was baffled......

there is a solenoid locking mechanism...locate this and spray with wd-40...lube dries out then when cold the lock sticks...usually rocking the shift lever will get it to unstick ...does that sound correct?

Try this. Put the key in the ign sw and turn it one click towards the on position. The tranny shift selector in the I/P should light up and you should be able to shift the tranny out of park and into neutral.

If you can easily shift to N then the "Brake/Tranny interlock solenoid" is bad.

Post back!!

Try this. Put the key in the ign sw and turn it one click towards the on position. The tranny shift selector in the I/P should light up and you should be able to shift the tranny out of park and into neutral.

If you can easily shift to N then the "Brake/Tranny interlock solenoid" is bad.

Post back!!
Thanx, I tried this and it worked the first time...
but, not every time. The next day that method would not work..
But when all else fails, it still works correctly after it warms up...
I did some more checking and I found the btsi solenoid at my local gm dealer.(in stock, go figure!) I appreciate all the input from everyone....I'll let you know if that fixes the problem..

Thanx, I tried this and it worked the first time...
but, not every time. The next day that method would not work..
But when all else fails, it still works correctly after it warms up...
I did some more checking and I found the btsi solenoid at my local gm dealer.(in stock, go figure!) I appreciate all the input from everyone....I'll let you know if that fixes the problem..


since you brought this issue up , I remembered how my 96 impala would do this when cold...like recently its been 0deg f...it would stick in the morning before the sun would warm the interior...

So I located the solenoid and linkage and sprayed with lube ...It's working now....this I have done on my other vehicles especially when they get to the 10year mark....

dust and other debris does cause this as well...

Try this. Put the key in the ign sw and turn it one click towards the on position. The tranny shift selector in the I/P should light up and you should be able to shift the tranny out of park and into neutral.

If you can easily shift to N then the "Brake/Tranny interlock solenoid" is bad.

Post back!!

I need to correct and clarify my previous post. The procedure mentioned above does not indicate a bad BTSI and my apologies for saying that it does.

Two things lock the tranny selector. #1, the ign sw in the lock position(when you can take the key out) and #2, with the key in the run position, selector in park and foot off the brake pedal.

#2 supplies power to the BTSI from the "Turn-B/U" fuse thru the "Park/Neutral sw", thru the "Stop Sw" then to the BTSI and energizes the solenoid. When you step on the brake pedal power is lost at the "Stop Sw" to the BTSI and it releases the lock for the gear selector. Also with the tranny in anything but "park" power is lost to the BTSI.

So, the procedure is simply a means to get the tranny into neutral to start the motor and get where going and to give you time to diagnose the problem.

Hope this helps and again sorry for the mis-representation...........Steve

I had a similar issue about a year ago I had a local Uhaul install a trailer brake & 6-pin trailer plug. The tech somehow shorted a wire back there (near trailer plug) and it caused my brake lights to be intermittent and when they lights wouldn't come on it caused my transmission to think the brake was not engaged and would not release the trans from Park.