2002 Rendezvous- Shifter slides... Stuck in park.

[TSaldana]

I replaced my thermostat several months ago due to it over heating. Then, about a month ago, i topped off my radiator fluid, and forgot to put on the cap, resulting in all my fluid escaping and over heating my car. i added fluids and the worked fine, no over heating issues. Howeer, it the temp guage would never go above cool. So, i replaced the tstat again, thinking this was the issue. Now my car seems to want to over heat. goes all the war to 3/4 hot. What do i do now?

[carriedi]

first thing is, when does it overheat? Will it overheat if you just sit and let the engine idle? Does it only overheat if you are driving? Or does it over heat no matter what the engine is doing?

normal operation is to have the gauge at right around 210 degrees. If the engine starts to exceed the halfway and reach 223 degrees your low speed fan should come on. It should bring the temperature back down to below 210 (sometimes down to the 190's). If the low speed fan does not bring the temp down and the temperature gets to 230 degrees the high speed fan should come on. If the engine still does not cool down there will be a light that comes on at 262 degrees and an audible warning.

You need to see if the gauge is accurate. If your fans are working at the right temperatures. If the only change is the thermostats, I would wonder about the quality of the parts if on is too cold and another is to hot. I can't tell if it is a part problem or if you have another problem with your cooling system. I can tell you this though, if you have overheated your engine, even if it has only happened one time, you may have damaged the head gasket. It may be a few months before it shows up as excessive steam out the tailpipe, or rough running when you first start the engine after sitting overnight, or you notice that you are loosing coolant over time but don't see any external coolant leaks. Not saying this is your problem but just a warning that it does happen.

I would verify the temperature with an infrared temp gun and see if it matches your gauge. If it does, try another thermostat, just to make sure it isn't another defective one. Maybe even put the one that ran cool just to make sure you don't have a cooling system problem. If you put the one that ran too cool and it goes back to running cool, that would pretty much you're dealing with defective products. If it still runs too warm you're going to need to do some cooling system diagnostics.

[jsand100]

The shifter on my 2002 Rendezvous slides but does not shift any gears. It is stuck in park.
First... Is there a button or something that I can do as a quick fix? I need to be able to move it out of the street.

Second... What is the issue and solution?

Thank you in advance.

[carriedi]

have someone move the shifter inside the vehicle while you watch the shift cable on the trans and see if the cable is moving. The cable or the end of the cable where it connects to the shift lever may be broken. If the cable does not move while the shift lever does then you are going to have to take the cover off the shifter and see what is broken.

If you have to move the vehicle (for emergency purposes) you can have someone sit in the vehicle and hold the brake on while someone else manually shifts the trans by moving the shifter at the trans. Just remember to make sure you PUT IT BACK INTO PARK when you are done moving it so it doesn't roll away after you move the vehicle. USE YOUR PARKING BRAKE when you are done moving also. I can't stress enough to make sure you have the trans in park when you are done. Test to make sure you are in park on the trans before you leave the vehicle. And put the parking brake on as a secondary back up. If you leave the vehicle and it rolls away later you will liable for whatever damage happens or if someone gets hurt. (IT DOES HAPPEN, BE SAFE NOT SORRY)

Or just have a tow truck that can dolly the vehicle to a repair facility.

[jsand100]

Thank you for the response.

How do I remove the shift cover?
Where exactly is the shift cable?

[carriedi]

do you have a column shifter or a console shifter?