I'm going to see if any of the local dealers offer anything in regards to related TSBs (given the car has lower than average miles) ... otherwise I did find a guy who replaced the shifter console as a whole in this video for anyone experiencing the same issue:
Right now my car is driveable (albeit one can't open the rear hatch while in neutral -
so we just fold down the rear seats to access it for now - I just unhook the negative battery terminal so the active shift-to-park warning system doesn't drain the battery overnight.
Adding my notes after following Fix It Garage's video. Youtube wouldn't allow me to post these because were too long, I suppose:
Hey Daniel - just finished this job - your video helped quite a bit. It took me ~5 hours - but I saved me $640 on dealer labor costs. Thank you! I do wish more B-roll footage had come through on some of the trickier bits that your buddy was filming. With that, I didn't have time to shoot my own video (our TourX is my wife's car, and she need to get on the road ASAP since she's helping care for her elderly mother) ... I'm going to include my observations from doing this job. I think I could do this job in under 2 hours now that I know WHASSUP.
Briefly, here's what happened to mine: I was testing out some new plugs and coil packs - put the car in manual mode - shifted through the gears, then tried to go back into D(rive). STUCK! I pulled off the road, and forced the lever back into drive. The car drove fine, but once I parked it - I couldn't put it in park (and the rear hatch wouldn't open as a result). I drove around for a while with just R, N and D (using the parking brake while in neutral when I wanted to shut the car off). I'd pull the negative terminal on the battery so the constant "Place into Park" warning wouldn't drain the battery.
1 I would recommend disconnecting the battery - however you will wind up reconnecting it several times to unlock the vehicle and move the power seats back and forth during the job.
2 The shifter cover and console trim came out pretty easily with plastic trim tools
- There is a piece of grey, fuzzy insulation surrounding the shifter assembly on some cars (make note of how it comes out, so you can put it back without guesswork)
3 The shifter knob was a little bit of a challenge - so I referenced this video: (easy peasy once you know)
4 Be gentle with the electronics connectors - with patience you can either work them loose (but some have locking mechanisms - so just be mindful)
- The rear cupholder clips are a bit counter-intuitive - you have to pull the little tabs out towards the sides, instead of pushing them in (otherwise they bite in like a fishhook).
5 Remove the three visible 7mm screws
- _It took me a while to figure out what one of the posters was talking about_ - there a four (4) hidden 7mm screws in FRONT OF the front cup holder assembly.
6 To take the front cup holders out - you have to take the left side trim "plastic sliver" from the footwell area (~easily slides back and out at this point)
- BUT you also have to at partially peel back the inner trim from the right side of the front of the console (the one flexible plastic that goes under the air-con buttons). It peels out easily with a plastic trim tool and then you have to work it at least half way under the air con buttons in order to work the two piece cup holder/sliding cover assemblies out (kind of working them back and to the left).
7 Once there, undo the (4) 7mm screws.
8 You can now unhook some of the hidden electrical connections - the BIG one has a really cool, 'Cray Computer' style CPU socket connection... (push in the red release tab, and then use the built-in lever to separate the male from the female end of the connector). This should not require a lot of force, it's very smooth - if it feels jammed, something is wrong.
9 At this point, you can move to the back of the car, and undo the two 10mm screws holding the left and right back side of the console to the frame bracket. You can (although I don't think it's necessary) remove the rear vent assembly using trim tools (see additional notes below). As I found out, you shouldn't need to remove the rear vent duct clips - the duct can probably stay with the whole console.
10 With all the electronics disconnected - the entire console should now slide backwards as you've shown. Keep in mind that the whole center console is not just bolted to the frame brackets in the back, but is also hooked by a couple largish plastic hooks that stick out from under the console in the back. This will be important when you're putting things back, as you don't want to put everything back, only to find that the console isn't hooked underneath, and you can put back the 10mm bolts holding it in.
11 I can't remember now if I had to take out the HVAC duct that splits around the shifter assembly before or after removing the entire center console (you'll figure it out when you get there 🙂 but there is a central plastic trim tab behind the shifter assembly that you need to take out before removing this duct splitter.
12 *Now you're ready to move forward with replacing the shifter assembly ...*
Some additional notes of things that caused me headaches ...
Because my shifter wouldn't go into Park ... the tab on the shifter cable now partially inside the shifter assembly wasn't exposed enough to pop it out without trashing the bright blue bushing inside. I thought about using a Dremel tool to cut away the plastic surround it, in order to separate it cleanly - BUT - I was able to temporarily remount the old shifter assembly (with the still cable attached) and FORCE the shift lever into Park. I didn't care about trashing an already broken shifter 🙂 Then it came out just like yours.
During re-assembly, I would up having to undo and and reinstall the main center console body four (4!) different times ... here's why:
- first time ... because I had removed the rubber liner of the front cup holder - I found it wouldn't simply snap back in ... you have to make sure the rubber cup holder piece is already seated inside its little plastic tub before reassembly
- second time... while kinda mand-handling the console assembly - trying to get all the tabs and inserts to line back up, I let that big honkin electronics connector drop down in between the console and carpet. I didn't want to tug on it, so I had to detach the front 7mm screws to have enough room to feed that big connector back inside the console.
- third time ... as I mentioned above - I didn't realize the back of the console had the two hooks underneath. These allow you to align the console with the 10mm screws in the back side of the console. This will happen smoothly if everything is ~aligned in the front, and you just slide the main console body forward towards the dash.
- fourth time ... Since I wasn't sure, I wound up removing the rear vent assembly and undid the rear duct trim tabs before sliding the console body towards the back seat (like in the video). This caused the duct to fall out. It turns out, you can't put the duct back in without lifting the back of the console body up, to slide the duct underneath to mate with the duct splitter.
Anyway - it's all working ... all the console lights work ... shifting is buttery smooth. One last side-note ... if you happen to unhook your negative battery terminal to reduce risk of frying your electronics ...when you plug your battery back in - you will see a "CAL" in the lower left corner of your dashboard. This is nothing to worry about ... it simply means your cars GPS needs you to drive it for a bit, so the GPS and the cars internal compass can reCALibrate where it is and which direction its pointing.
Cheers! (hoping Youtube doesn't delete this post for violating some algorithmic rules)...
PS:
IMO, this should have been a GM safety RECALL ... our 2018 TourX only has 48K miles and is pretty much babied by my wife ... I just can't think what would have happened had my wife, or her 80 year old mother! been driving the car when this broke while in traffic or a busy parking lot. I've had several VAG products with Tiptronic/Autostick and never had an automatic shifter assembly break like this - blows my mind this assembly has "AISIN" molded on the side (does Toyota have this issue?)... Thanks Toyota Jan 😆
