Greetings,

I have a '98 disco that has given me pure hell over the years. I recently paid a ton to have some work done hoping this would be the end of repairs for awhile, of course I was wrong. Now I have a new issue that has popped up.

No matter what the surface/incline/etc. when the car is put into park, it will not stay in park! It will roll all over the place and I'm not talking a little. I have used the hand brake to stop this. I had a tow driver take a look at it and he "jiggled/moved" the gears around and got it to "engage" in park again. A fluke I thought. Then it did it again a day later. I did the same thing (moving the gears around) and finally got it to stay in park. There are no other transmission issues at all and a new transmission was put in the car at 40k (now it's at 70k and barely gets driven). Sounds like a park pawl problem?
I called my mechanic and they need to rip out the transmission to diagnosis anything, which of course I don't want to pay for after just spending a ton. Yet I am concerned that this is not only not safe (don't want the hand brake to fail and roll into a house/car), but perhaps taxing my transmission by using the hand brake instead of the park gear. They told me the pawl would simply be broken thus I would have no way to be able to get it into park, yet I can. I wasn't sure if this part could be "worn" down and that is why it's giving me trouble, but they said no- it would just break. Any ideas as to why this is happening and why it won't stay in park? Is it possible it's just not "meshing" into park and it's not a mechanical issue (doesn't sound possible). It seems like I'm going to have to end up having them take out the transmission to figure this out, yet I really can't afford that right now. Does it sound like a parking pawl or could it be something else? I'm not sure if I should be using the car either for safety concerns and possible creating further damage. Again, never had any trouble with the transmission.

Kind thanks

 

park is over rated...most vehicles just have a little lever in there preventing them from rolling (not sure about a HP22) just make sure the e-brake is tight and always use it.

 

I have been using the ebrake as the only way to make the car stop! I am concerned if it goes out or if it's taxing the car since it's not fully in park. I am highly concerned about safety, etc. and don't know if this is something I need to fix or if not ever using park could mess with my transmission or other things. Like I said I dropped a ton on repairs recently so I don't want to have to fix something else if I can get by, it just seems shady that the car won't stay in park. They can't tell me what is wrong either unless they lift out the transmission which they want to charge a ton for. Curious if anyone has heard of this or had this issue.

Thanks for your time

 

What was done to it? often times the last thing done is the most likely culprit when something strange suddenly happens!

 

hmm you don't have brakes?

 

Head gaskets replaced, new radiator. I don't know how they can all be connected. ?

 

Sorry to be unclear, yes I have breaks, but I mean when I am parking the car the only way to secure it from moving is using the ebrake. It will not stay put in park alone, it moves all over.

 

Using the e-brake to hold it in place is not gonna kill anything. Still need to figure out the problem but using the e-brake should be fine. How is it different from using the e-brake on a manual transmission when you are sitting with it out of gear? So I would stop worrying about the e-brake and figure out the problem. If you are worried about the e-brake failing then chock the wheels. Good luck!

 

Is the shift cable not moving the selector on the transmission all the way into park? With a friends help (to apply the brakes and keep it from rolling over you), have him put it in park, then disconnect the shift cable from the shifter mechanism on the transmisison under the vehicle. Se if you can move the mechanism any further (into park, if it isn't already).

 

you do know that rovers have an e-brake that stops the drive shaft not the wheel right? thats the best kind of e-brake you can have, it does the stopping before the gearing in the diff.