Yesterday after making a stop at the end of my street, I began to turn and accelerate onto the highway.

The car got up to about 30mph and suddenly began coasting as if it had been kicked into neutral. I was able to pull off to the side with the momentum I had. No loud bangs or crunching/grinding sounds or anything. Letting off the brakes and giving it a little gas there was a kind of soft whirring sound but no forward movement. In fact, the car began to coast backward a little due to the incline we were on.

I tried to shift to Park and found I couldn't move the shifter forward. I pulled the e-brake and turned the ignition off. Then I was able to move the lever up to Park but it never engaged -- when I release the e-brake the car moves freely as if it's in Neutral. Later I started the car and everything sounded normal so I pushed it home since it wasn't far and downhill the whole way. There were no puddles or trails of fluid, and no codes thrown on the screen. (I had an intercooler problem in 2017 but when I lost power it immediately threw codes.) I haven't tried to shift it out of Park since I got it there.

For perspective, it's a 2007 with 160,000 miles but the seats are shot and there's a slow leak in the A/C system so a transmission rebuild/replace is not something I'd pursue. So I'd rather not pay to have it towed to my mechanic and looked at just to find out the transmission is shot and then pay to have it towed back home.

So I thought I would ask: has anyone encountered this? Part of me wonders whether this could be something like a shifter or linkage problem which might not break the bank to fix.

 

I forgot to mention, in case it's not clear from the context -- the transmission is the 6 speed automatic.

 

If the transmission in park doesn't hold the car, you have a mechanical failure in the drive line. Most likely culprit is a broken axle.

It is possible something else is going on, but start by inspecting both front axles.

 

It's a 5-speed auto. What color is the fluid?

 

the 007-08 TL trans were not the glass ones of the 99-06 era so it shouldn't be the transmission.. +1 on axles breaking, that's much more plausible.

 

+1 Check. Yo. Axles.

 

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I checked and yes, the left front axle has snapped. That whirring sound was indeed the broken axle spinning freely.