J Gate stuck in park with cruise control unavailable
 

Happy New Year everyone,

I have been searching through many posts regarding a stuck J Gate and have found so much repetition. Mine is slightly different insofar as it is paired with a disabling of cruise control. I do not have the 5 speed stuck for being on an incline, and the linkage feels and operates nicely once released from park. My park lock solenoid is just sometimes not activating, today was the third time. It then returns to normal, but only by happenstance. Today, I again used the override release to allow me to drive home, but this time I noticed that the warning information center stated that cruise control was disabled. I've used the left side of the J Gate to operate all gears and all was good, and gear indicator illumination is accurate. I did not think to test the sport switch.

Other posts mention that stepping on the brake pulls in the solenoid. While nearly true, my 2004 model needs the brake pedal depressed AND slight leftward pressure on the stick and the lock ordinarily will retract. This leftward move activates a micro-switch that I can hear it when the shifter is working as well as when malfunctioning. It is the same switch that initiates rapid beeping if you try to shift a non-running car out of park. The brake lights also continue to operate normally while the shifter malfunctions. JTIS shows that the brake pedal has two switches, one for the lights and one for cancelling cruise control. Does anyone out there feel that the solenoid needs agreement with both of these switches to send the green light to the interlock solenoid? Is it possibly that it is not the brake light switch but the cruise control switch that signals the interlock. I know that the pedal position is not hardwired to the interlock and the interlock sees such status via CANBUS. The coincidental timing of a cruise control fault and then clearing of it is too much to dismiss.

Sure enough, once I got home this evening I was going to check the status of these switches with my iCarsoft scanner, but it is now working properly again. I dislike the thought of tooling around in a Jag with trim pulled off and shifting gears with a screwdriver.

Thanks,
Steve

I think you have 2 separate faults.

I had a similar problem...mine was tied into a park brake fault...I solved the park brake issue by replacing the worn pads and lubing all moving parts.... cured it for 9 months...it came back again as a park brake fault, this time as a communication issue with the pcm.. and by that time I had my sdd setup and reflashed some modules and fixed it for good I think...funny thing is I had an audio module code that said module lost configuration before the reflash....come to find out that the audio module is a network gateway according to the schematics and is very important

As always, make sure the battery is fully charged and is capable of having 12.6 volts across the terminals when measured with a voltmeter. Measure the voltage after the vehicle has been shut off for at least ten minutes.