shifter stuck in park

make sure the brake light switch is working , that sends currant to a solenoid on the shifter to release a latch, or take it apart and remove the latch

this is on the back of the break pedal?

Hey, or what else you can do not to have that problem, is when you arived to your destanation and ready to park or living the car overnite, is live the car in Drive, put your foot on the breakes, apply your hand breake, relise your foot of the break pedal, let the car settle( it most probably roll back or forfard an inch or less) and after that, push your shifter in to Park,, done, in the morning or when you ready to use the car again, after you start it , your shifter will slide out of park, as if it was smagaled in Butter!!! :)) hope it helps. Tony.

I agree with 7jimmy, brake safety switch, and yes that is by the brake pedal, it's to force you to have your foot on the brake pedal to shift a car out of park. (of course the problem might be elsewhere, but the first logical place to look is the brake safety switch.)

can the break safety switch be bypassed?

Yes but not a good idea, it's to keep you from shifting into gear without brakes being applied, to prevent the inevitable accident. It's a cheap part and not at all hard to swap out, I'm getting ready to do one on my nieces 98 Bravada. The amount of work you would put into bypassing the switch is as much as it would take to just replace it.

Ok if that doesn't fix it what would be the next step?

where is the solenoid and how hard is it to get to and replace if the break pedal is not the problem?

MOST of the time, it's just a faulty brake pedal position switch. If not, then you'll have to do a little troubleshooting, if the BPP switch is okay it could be a faulty shift solenoid, which in most cases is located in the console along the shift selector lever. However, when it goes it goes, because you have an intermittent problem I would think its the brake switch.

Yes KenF, sometimes the break lights come one, and sometimes they don't. When they do I can shift out of park. So I am going to assume its the break pedal switch. Thanks for all the help!

I just had this issue with my escape hybrid and after a while of forcing it, it became to easy to shift and when in park, the transmission wouldn't lock the wheels from rolling. The issue was started when my wife bumped into a large Rock with the front of the car. After pulling the plastic cover shield off the bottom of the car, I noticed a cable running up to the engine and then the shifter. It had a plate covering it, and the plate was bent in, preventing the cable to move the component under the plate firm moving. I bent this back, and the component was able to shift into the settings again. I then took apart my canter console and saw the cable, after teaching it, was no longer connected to the shifter. After reconnecting it, my transmission shifted normal again. Hope this may help.

Heres a Great Funny Tutorial Video that I think might be helpful, I have already done this myself and helped quite a few others, this seems to work well on a majority of vehicles take a look and see if this might work. thanks copy and paste below https://youtu.be/fgUn1TuHu-0

This problem just happen to me today .. I could not shift out of park .. Take the cover off the fuse box .. On the back of the cover, look for the location of the brake light fuse .. it probably says STOP on the bottom right .. see if that fuse is blown and replace it .. I was stuck in a gas station and had no extra fuses, so I just switched it with the horn fuse and was back on the road again :)

I had the same problem getting my 2008 Ford Escape out of park. Switched out the brake light switch, and it hasn't been a problem since. Small note: if you're looking for the 2008 brake switch, it's probably the 2009 at most auto parts stores.

I had the problem with shifter stuck in park gear, after trying all the tips from online unsuccessfully, I tried to look under the steering just below the shifter its a small hole which I suppose will lead to the shift switch, I tried to push it with a screw driver and off it goes now the shifting is very smooth, hope this may find helpful to some of you overthere.

Which fuse is for the brake light

My 2003 ford escape gear want come out of Park why n HW do you fix it

My 2016 Ford Escape won’t get out of park. The shifter will move but the letter is stuck on park. What do you guys think it could be?

The shifter assembly cable probably fell off. There is a little rubber bushing that deteriorated in our 2001 escape and the rod fell off. Take apart the housing behind your steering wheel and you will see it disconnected.

I had the same issue. Although when I was driving I smelt a burning smell which was odd, we changed the brake light switch and the fuse #2 in the center console kept blowing... shifter wouldn't get out of park... so then we figured that every time I touched the breaks when the car was on the fuse would blow, so we decided it had to be some wire shorting out when we touched the breaks... turns out the burning smell was the top break light attached to the hatch on the back of the vehicle which also dispenses washer fluid... on the left side it connects to the light, the switch for the light was completely corroded and was fried (what the burning smell was)... we just cut the wire and clamped them with wire connectors and this solved the problem.. PLEASE CHECK THIS BEFORE BRINGING TO THE SHOP, VERY EASY FIX, just took some time to figure out.... hope this helps

Can a blown fuse affect the brake safety switch?

take off the bottom of the steering panel and see if anything is disattached if it isn't try the emergency shift and if there is put it back in place

I started having an issue getting my 2009 ford focus out of park when starting the car. One day I start the car and it has all these error lights lit up on the dash, including the e brake (when e brake is not engaged) and the OD light and it won't shift out of park. I try using the little emergency override tab next to the shift stick, to no luck. I start the car and put a concrete block on the brake pedal to depress it and go to the back to check if brake lights are working - they are. I checked the brake and shifter fuses, they both seem to be fine and after removing and inserting the shift fuse - the car starts and shifts out of park again. I have been having this problem about 30% of the time I try to shift out of park for 4 months now. My original Ford dealer still doesn't know what the problem is. I leave it in neutral sometimes when parked when I can, to avoid the whole debacle upon starting the car, but this is not ideal. I would like to get it fixed quickly before something else gets ruined with this ongoing malfunction. Do I need to replace the entire gear shift assembly?

remove center console (about 8 screws ) pop trim off shifter remove center console (took me approx 15 min. tools needed 7mm socket/or nut driver 10mm socket or nut driver remove 4 10mm bolts from shifter assembly remove wire harness remove shift cable flip up and locate solenoid pull back on center of solenoid tape it off in open position. reassemble in reverse problem solved forever lockout cured only problem is you can always shift from park which I dont consider a problem.Quick way remove cap beside shifter (small tab use small screwdriver or knife) then push tab in hole down forces unlock shift to whichever you want no brake necessary but would advise if you dont want car to move

Could be this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bQt1xYyoI8

Here's a video for later year models (like the 2015 ford fusion or escape) where the linkage bushing is in the engine compartment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKPaFZeGfG8