My X350 has broken down and I need to move it into my garage however, I can't get the gearshift into neutral and the electronic handbrake wont release. Is it possible to get the car into neutral without the engine running?

 

There is a section in the manual about towing Section 6-13, but on reviewing it there is no mention about "How" to get the vehicle into neutral with no key in the ignition.
I have just done some experimenting and found the following:

1. You cannot shift to neutral without the key in, even whilst applying the foot brake.
2. The key has to be at ignition setting (position II) to allow you to move to Neutral and then you cannot turn off or remove the key once in Neutral. Basically leaving all your electrical items running whilst under tow!
3. The parking brake switch only seems to work when the key is in the ignition and switched to position II.

I know this doesn't help you, but hopefully someone will pipe up with how to do it.

 

Thanks for your reply. I have the key at position II and it just won't move from parking mode. It must have something to do with the ECM which I suspect is damaged from water.

I just managed to get the brake off despite all the error messages on the dashboard. You need to keep it pressed down when turning off the car to stop it engaging.

I don't mind leaving the key in while moving it however, there's something preventing it from coming out of park.

 

ed- all is not lost.

First- try doing a search, there's others here that have asked the same question but spell it 'brake' and not 'break'.

The car should not be towed with the rear wheels on the ground, so releasing the EPB and putting the car in neutral is not required. If you're going to just push it a short distance, then applying electrical power to the car and using the key is the easiest method.

 

I just need to push it a short distance so lifting the back of it isn't an option.

The brake is not the issue anymore and on later models there seems to be an emergency option to put the car into neutral. Other searches come up with results relating to a wing type nut that stops the stick moving back, although I can't see this on my one.

If there isn't an option would that mean they have to drag the car up onto recovery truck?

 

I found this image in another thread and it worked for me so I can now move it Just pop off the trimming and get a small screwdriver and either press down or push up on the wing type nut so it turns a quarter anticlockwise.