2004 Honda Odyssey gears won't engage

LAURA G

MEMBER
2004 HONDA ODYSSEY
178,000 MILES

My 2004 honda Odyssey gears won't engage. The gear shift moves easily and smoothly but stays in "park", won't engage any gear. Car has been working fine. I parked car to pick up my son after school; 5 minutes later when I started car the gear shift would move but no gears would engage. Car is stuck at school. Is there a cable or some other sort of connector that could have snapped or disconncted to cause this to happen so out of the blue? Looking like I need to tow it somewhere unless there is a way to get under car and see if anything is needing to be re-connected. This is our only family car. Any ideas?

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,870 POSTS

The cable is a likely suspect but it's more common for them to become disconnected than it is for them to break. Look under the hood to see if you can see the end of the cable moving when a helper moves the shift lever.

If the lever on the transmission doesn't move, you can get by, again, with a helper, by moving that lever by hand. You'll need to start the engine first, hold the brakes applied, then the helper has to move the lever by hand to place it in "drive". At that point you can drive normally, but only forward. The helper will have to shift it under the hood to use "reverse", and once you stop the engine you'll have to shift it back to "park" or "neutral" to start the engine again.