I have an intermittent failure and need help trying to diagnose the problem.

I have an 07 Outlander 4x4 XLS. For two days - when placed into the Park position - the car would begin to roll. The key could be releases from the ignition and the vehicle can still start plus the P showed up in the console display. Meaning the automatic lever engaged the electronics in park, but the car would not brake and instead acted as though it was in neutral. The emergency parking braking was required to stop the vehicle.

I took the car into the dealer, still under warranty, and the failure did not repeat itself. It engaged to Park appropriately. Of course right?

This failure scares me - because I don't need my vehicle rolling down a hill one day. I do some light offroading in the mountains - and I also don't trust the emergency brake will properly hold the vehicle at all times if it occurs again.

The dealership won't repair the vehicle cause the failure is not diagnosed. Any help or guidance of the cause would help.

 

you should ALWAYS be using your parking brake. Thats what its for.
Then you dont have to worry about it.

ALL cars have always been designed to have the parking brake as the primary holder when stopped.

 

Agree!
Some people say, you dont need your parking brake when park at a normal flat surface. Not true. Always use your parking brake.
I don't get why wont you trust your parking brake. Try this, brake at a hill, and put on car in neutral, and put on your parking brake. Let go of your normal brake, and you will see the parking brake do the work of stopping it.
It is so much cheaper to replace brake pads for parking brakes then to replace a transmission. If you keep on letting your transmission do the stopping, it will fail, and after warranty, replacing a transmission would cost so much!!!

There are some people who really cares about their car, what they do is when they are about to park, they put it in neutral with the parking brake on, and wait till the car is stopped. When stopped, then put it in P, and now all the stopping is done by parking brake.

 

Most likely your shift interlock cable (from the ignition) is improperly adjusted at the shifter. It needs to be dead on the factory spec. The tech needs to pull out the console and check it. Not just attempt duplication.

It's also possible the shifter isn't synced to the trans. Do the other gears seem to center properly on their indicated letter?

There is a recall for the interlock linkage on Galants and Endeavors. Although not exactly the same mechanism it could have a similar problem. In which case an adjustment might not help.

This is a safety issue, you need both E-brake and park position to be fully safe.

 

A transmission will last well into the 300,000km mark using it at your parking brake if its well built. Not worth the hassle to use the ebrake IMHO unless you drive standard, where I still apply the ebrake and put the car into 1st.

If multiple people drive your car, its even worse to apply the parking brake as most people never bother to check and will drag your pads against your rotors for 2 blocks before they figure out what the drag is.

 

use it every time you park.
Period.

Thats what its for.

 

One good reason why the wife don't get to drive my Outlander that much