Hello,

Recently my 2003 s-type began difficult to get into drive. It would go down to D but wouldn’t engage the gear without a little extra nudge/fiddle down. Then it got to the point I had to use a screw driver on the ball joint to get it to move the last bit into drive. I figured it was the nylon part XR817754R but today it acted a little more strange.

I went to drive but it only displayed being in N. I nudged it a bit back and forth but it would only display that it was in reverse or neutral. I disengaged the shifter from XR817754R and manually moved it but it would not go into park or drive, even when it seemed to be positioned there. Part of me thinks it’s because the electronics were out of sync and still thought it was in neutral/reverse.

I finally managed to get it into drive and went home. I took apart the assembly. Once it was completely apart, I was able to manually sync up what the gear selector displayed and what gear it was in and get it into park. Besides a healthy amount of dog hair and dirt, I couldn’t really find anything mechanically wrong.

I am thinking to replace the selector and XR817754R (since it’s cheap) but the selector isn’t cheap and I am kind of worried it may not be the root problem. Are there any function tests I can do on it to verify it’s operation?

Thanks

 

Have you checked that the bracket on the side of the trans is tight? (its a common problem for them to get loose)

 

Can you please confirm the model year of your car? The thread title says 2003 but the XR... part number is only applicable to 1999-2002.

The quickest way to tell is to look at the base of the shifter:

Early cars have a 5-speed transmission, so 4 is at the aft left corner. (D=5)

Later cars have a 6-speed transmission, so 5 is at the aft left corner. (D=6)

The reason I ask is because the logic is different to illuminate the selected gear.

 

That was it! Was missing one bolt and the other was loose. Fixed em up with some thread lock and it feels and works much better.

Thanks, I was down the wrong rabbit hole.

For the other reply, I’m not sure if that’s the exact part, my car was manufactured in 02 but first registered in 03 so it takes careful check of the vin to find the right part sometimes.

Thanks again.