I had the shift solenoid replaced on my F56 JCW, and since then, shifting from D to R no longer requires me to press the button on the shifter. It's as if the physical lock that used to sit there is gone. I can feel something clicking when i press the brake pedal, but it only seems to work for P->R, but not D->R. I can just flick the shifter from D to R and back without any safeguards (earlier, only R->D used to work). Anyone experienced this? Two questions:

1) there _is_ an inhibitor in the transmission in case I ever shift while driving, right? I'm not going to money shift an auto, right?
2) what would have caused this? Do I blame the dealer for messing something up during the solenoid swap, or is this something unrelated?

Thanks!

 

I can't imagine that that is expected behavior after a shift solenoid replacement. What does the shop that did the replacement have to say about this?

 

Sadly, it's the stealer, so they're trying to blame it on the digital speedo retrofit, claiming that the digital speedo does not reflect gears "the same way" :D i'm going there next week anyway to see if they can do something, though. It's a bit silly. It's also odd that it has a more specific pattern than I thought:

- Park -> needs brake to move
- R-N-D -> no brake (I think this is expected behaviour though)
- D-N-R -> no brake (this is not normal)
- go into N, release brake - need brake to subsequently shift to D or R, will not move out of N by itself. (I don't think this is expected behaviour. I think it's supposed to be N->D without brake, N->R with brake).

 

Your comments about expected behaviour are correct. Behaviour should indeed be:

- Shift out of Park: should not be possible without foot on brake
- R->N->D: should be possible without foot on brake
- D->N->R: D to N should be possible without foot on brake, but N to R should not be possible without foot on brake
- N->D: should be possible without foot on brake

Written another way:

- Shouldn't be able to shift into or out of P without foot on brake, period
- Shouldn't be able to shift into R without foot on brake, period
- Should be able to shift into N without foot on brake, period
- Should be able to shift into D (only physically possible from N or M/S positions, so this only applies if moving from one of those) without foot on brake

Normal behavior is documented (although in a pretty long-winded way) in the Owner's Manual as being the above. So yeah, something is up.