GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have a 2009 1.8l vibe with original automatic transmission. Car has about 170,000 miles on it. Car will not go into park. All other gears work fine, and car drives perfectly. Has had proper maintenance most of its life. I have disconnected the shifter cable at the transmission end from the lever arm on the transmission. The shifter moves into park just fine. The cable moves smoothly, no rust, kinks or broken sheath. When I attempt to move by hand the lever arm on the transmission, it will not go into the park position but will go into all other positions.

Any thoughts on what the problem is and how big of a job it may be to repair? I cannot find anyone else reporting this issue.

That is definitely a rare issue. You pretty much determined that the problem is inside the transmission. I am thinking that the peg that goes into a slot to block the transmission has sheared off. I don't know if it is necessary to pull the transmission to fix this. I think it is likely though.

I hope someone more experienced than me chimes in.

This is above my knowledge, unfortunately. Best of luck, and please keep us updated as to the solution.

You may get a better view of some of the linkage if you pull the pan off, drop the valve body out, and then you may be able to see some of the linkage better. If you do not want to do this then take it to transmission shop as they may be able to see if the problem is deeper inside transmission.

From the info I have on hand, you will need to pull the transmission depending on which part of the linkage or parking pawl assembly is broken. For the 5 speed auto, some of the linkage is in by the valve body. It then is feed to the parking pawl that is located inside the differential gear assembly. Any work in there is going to require splitting the transmission case. Most of these parts are not available so a replacement transmission would be needed.

Cost will factor in and is the car worth the expense? A cheaper way to deal with this would be to use the emergency brake and some wheel chocks. Of coarse if something is broken in the parking pawl assembly, it could get bad to the point of locking the trans and blowing the case apart on the transmission. You are not going to know whats is bad until you start looking in the transmission to see how bad it is.

Here is a break down of the parking pawl location in the 4 speed. There is some internal linkage that can be seen when the valve body is removed, but you can not see the pawl assembly. If the valve body is removed, be very careful as the info I have shows a couple of pistons and springs that will fall out of the transmission case when the valve body is removed. This would be best done on a bench. I will see if I can get breakdowns on the linkage inside for you.

Here are more pic's. Also note that there are two different models of four speed transmissions used in the second gen Vibes; the MVA model 4 speed and the MVB model 4 speed. You have stated which 4 speed you have. The above or first pic I posted is for the MVA 4 speed. The pic's I post below are for the the MVB model 4 speed. The info posted is part of the disassembly of the transmission when the transmission is removed from vehicle and is being worked on on a bench.

One more for the MVB:

jolt - excellent information

You-da-man ... Jolt! Way to go over and above the call of duty here to help out a fellow GV member