“Stuck” in Park unless overridden ABS and TC dash light on too

[Do I in need to take the bottom plastic piece - the one under

the steering wheel- off before I will be able to see and get to the break sensor pictured below? (*not a picture of my truck*)

My husband’s truck (Tacoma 2011) has been “stuck” in park for about a month now - abs and traction control dash lights came on (and are still on) at the same time.

— he is able to use the truck by pushing the tiny override button to shift out of park (it’s an automatic) But knowing something must be causing the shifter to stay put, i came here for answers.

I’ve been searching about for the potential cause(s) for the shifter not wanting to move, and after reading through many of these awesomely informative threads, my first guess is that this break sensor thing has been knocked out or gone bad. but, when I look up under the break pedal as Far as I can see - I cannot see anything resembling what I see in the pictures (at the end of my post.) and the similar clip things I DO see I cant figure out how to get to to easily disconnect and replace.

*these are NoT my pictures but were posted on another thread by another user.

I think These pictures are too zoomed in for my beginners eyes though. having never looked under a truck’s break pedal before, I don’t quite know what I’m looking at or looking for.
When I look under our Tacoma ‘s break Their seems to be a few different harness clip things around the break pedal area? But I don’t want to cause more trouble for the truck (and my husband) than what already exists .

thank you in advance for any and all advise, instructions and/or photos .

I have already learned a lot from previous replies to other Similar posts, so thanks for being such a great resource.




Below are the pictures from original thread that I am referring to, not of my truck.

 

No need to remove dash panels.

Follow the brake pedal “shaft” from the foot piece up to its hinge.
Reach around the back, and you should feel a wire loom that goes to the brake pedal sensor.
Find the hard plastic body, give it a 1/4 turn to the left
It should drop out relatively easily

From there you can see the clip and remove it.

 

Where are y’all?

 

when this happened to me in my grand marquis it was a bad brake switch. It also caused my brake lights to not function. ford is sometimes dumb, so it was a pain to replace the correct way, and also has not since as easy auto canceled the cruise control. That was a fun ride the first time i found out.

 

@L.Strong If you ever come back to this thread, you should be aware that your husband is driving around with no brake lights.

Before you go digging around under the dash, check the stop fuse.

 

Thank you all so much!!
Update - Yes I told my husband his brakes wern’t workiNg and he wasent street legal.
His 10a fuse inside the car labeled “tail” was blown so I replaced it and now his breaks are stuck on.
I have located the break switch under petal and although it looks fine I ordered a new one which should be arriving tomorrow.
thank you all for you responses and support!!

 

Thank you for this diagram I will be checking this fuse as soon as he is home with the truck.
And yes I told him his breaks aren’t working- was surprised he hadn't realized this or been pulled over for it yet ! I did replace a blown 10a “tail” fuse inside the truck and no it didn’t fix the stuck in park problem and he said he noticed his break lights were on when he was scraping. Snow this morning. I do have a new break switch coming in the mail but will check this fuse under the hood as well. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

 

Thank you for this as it is exactly how I got it removed

 

Thank you for this very helpful diagram!

 

I will be receiving a new switch hopefully by tomorrow and will post an updated report of where the truck is at (fingers crossed it’s fixed!)
Again thank you everyone for Sharing Your your experience’s and knowledge and images with me- so very helpful!

 

Good! I’m glad we were able to help.

 

It could potentially be an ABS sensor on a wheel as well. I had the same thing happen in my 2009. Tech stream was able to diagnose it to a specific ABS sensor. See if there is anyone local to you with techstream, or take it to somewhere that might have it that won't charge you an arm and a leg.

 

@Muddinfun you fixed it!!!
The 10A fuse you pointed to under the hood was blown, I changed it , started the truck , it was still stuck in park, turned off truck and started it again and ABS and traction light were Off and came out of park no stress. Had my husband come out and check the rear lights and everything is all good. Thank you so much!! Spent 5$ total to fix the issue!

 

Mudinfun is definitely not a typical internet mechanic. Nice work - again.

 

Now to find the why...

 

Very good. But... If the fuse was blown, it had to have had a reason to blow. I suspect that it will probably blow again. Do you have a camper shell on the truck? If so, the wiring for the 3rd brake light is the most likely place for a brake light wiring problem.

 

I suspect that replacing the tail fuse actually made the tail lights come on and not the brake lights. The headlight switch was probably in the park light position.

 

Bad dual filament bulb?