Hi all,
I am having major troubles with my 90 Acura Legend LS (has about 180,000 miles on it).
1) Transmission stuck in Park: I start the engine and then can't move the automatic transmission out of Park. I press the brakes down fully, press the silver "trigger" on the gear shift lever, try to press in the button on the left side of the gear shift lever, and still can't get it out of Park.
The steering wheel ISN'T locked, meaning once I start the engine, I can turn the steering wheel and then the tires from side to side. Just the transmission is stuck in park.
I CAN move the gear shift lever if (before I start the engine) I put the key in the transmission release slot that is immediately behind the gear shift lever, put it into neutral, tkae the key out of the slot and then start the engine while in neutral.
I can't say exactly when this started. I loaned my car to my dad for about
6 weeks, and just got it back from him. He said that the problem developed "sometime" in those 6 weeks. I hadn't had this problem before loaning it to my dad.
Before that, I had just taken it into a service shop to have an oil change / 15,000 mile tune up (replace / fill transmission and other fluids). So it couldn't be more than a couple hundred miles since the last time the Automatic Transmission Fluid was changed / filled.
2) Rear Brake Lights
/ Reverse Lights Not Working:
Also sometime while my dad had the car, the rear tail lights / brake lights / reverse lights stopped working. The front lights and turn signals seem to be okay.
I tried changing around the fuses and that didn't make a difference. I have also had some weired electrical stuff in the past (bizzare static from the radio, starter engine not cranking the first time you turn the key). Plus my dad said that he had to disconnect the battery over night otherwise it would drain and be hard to start in the morning (I think my dad might have disconnected the battery simply because he is almost 80 and likes to tinker with stuff, since I have noticed this at all in the last few days since he returned the car to me).
One other thing happened while my dad had the car. When he was parked at the supermarket, somebody hit the car just behind the front wheel well / driver side door. It must have been low speed, because it is a wide dent (about 16 inches) but very shallow. The front of the rubber trim on the drivers side is now loose. But I don't think that this could have caused any of the above problems, could it?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. ANY HELP you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark