Okay, this is one of those things that a mechanical minded person might find obvious, but I'm stumped. As I've mentioned, I just replaced my 1989 240 wagon with a 1992 240 wagon I purchased from a dealer in New Jersey via eBay. I had the car delivered to my sister's house in Michigan, where it sat in their driveway for a few weeks. I drove my 89 wagon to Michigan, left that wagon with them, and drove me "new" car home to Chicago. The car drove great the whole way home, with many stops along the way and no trouble at all starting it up again each time. Air conditioner was wonderful, stereo fabulous, seats comfy, ride smooth. I got home Sunday night without incident, and parked the car in my garage. Monday morning I get in the car to go to work, start it up, and I can't get the gearshift to move. I tried everything I could think of, but the button on top seemed frozen, and the stick wouldn't budge. I called my mechanic (I go to Rolf's in Evanston, IL) and Rolf himself drove out to my house. While I was waiting for him, I called the dealer in New Jersey, and he had me feel from some button inside the gearshift housing (that's probably not the correct name for it, but hopefully you know where I mean). Rolf came up about then, so I just handed the phone to him and waited wile they talked. Long story short, Rolf was able to put the car in drive and get it out of the car no problem. He said it wasn't anything important, and I kind of let it go at that, as, to be quite honest, his accent is so heavy I have a hard time following him. Car drove with no problem at all the rest of the day. This morning -- same scenario. Car's parked in the garage overnight, start it up this morning, gearshift won't move. This time I knew to feel for that button inside the housing, and that solved the problem. But here are the questions: 1) Why does it do this? 2) Why has it only done this when it's been parked in my garage overnight? It was parked in my sister's driveway for weeks and didn't do this; I had it parked overnight in the hotel parking lot in Michigan and it didn't do this. Why only when it's been parked overnight in my garage? 3) Is there some way to prevent this so I'm not constantly sticking my finger inside the gearshift housing every morning? I never had this situation with any of my older 240 wagons. I would be really, really interested if someone could provide some insight. By the way, I am taking the car to Rolf's tomorrow morning for a thorough used car inspection. Just FYI, FWIW. Thanks much, Patricia P.S. Barring some horrific finding by the guys at Rolf, other than this little mystery, the car seems to be jim dandy.
Bad shift interlock solenoid. Solenoids become temperature sensitive as they go bad, and the weather in Michigan must have been different than that in Chicago. Two hours of labor. The part itself is pretty cheap.
