I've spent about the last hour looking through the posts here, trying to find someone that had the same problem as I have had. My black 97 3.0 has about 68k miles on her, and two days ago I couldn't pull it out of park, at least without using the shiftlock release. Now I'm assuming this means my transmission is starting to go bad. I haven't had any problems with jerky shifting, and I've gone through 2 transmissions on other vehicles, so I know what to expect when transmission problems are on horizon. On a "normal" acceleration, I find that it shifts between 2 and 2.5k rpms, so I am having a hard time believing that the tranny is about to die. Anything else it could be?

 

its the brake release thing......i forget what its exactly called

 

try testing the brake switch i just had to replace mine on my 97 it wouldnt let me shift out of park especially after sitting over night.

 

Sounds like your brake switch is broken or stuck, check it first, it's the switch behind the brake pedal

 

Have someone stand behind car and confirm whether brake lights are coming on when you press the brakes. If not, you know the brake switch is not closing. I had this issue on my 2.5TL recently and was able to fix by simply spraying the brake light switch liberally w/ WD40. That's been several months ago and problem has not returned. I don't know about CL, but on the TL the brake switch is practically inaccessible w/o disassembly dash partially.

good luck

 

Did you figure out what the problem was?

 

Welcome to the forums.

This is a 3 year old thread and the original poster is long gone, so you probably won't get a reply from him.