Shift lock solenoid stuck...related to backup camera wiring?

Hi everyone,

Hopped in my '06 Tacoma the other day and realized I couldn't shift out of park. Looks like the shift lock solenoid is stuck open (if I hit the override switch I can switch gears). Reverse lights don't work all of a sudden, so that tells me that it's most likely the backup camera I recently installed. Weird thing is the camera and the lights were working last week but just went kaput one day.

I looked at the fuse on the camera and it was a little loose, but tightening it up doesn't help. Even if I hold the fuse in there with mega force and crank the engine, the transmission light doesn't come on and the shifter is still locked.

Anyone ever experienced this before have any ideas?

 

It's going to be a problem in the brake light circuit. Check the 10A stop fuse in the under hood fuse box.

 

Brake light circuit is almost certainly the problem, thought the 10A fuse under the hood is intact as far as I can tell.

In testing the brakes the right rear light comes on, nothing from the left or center brake lights. I took out left rear light and found a little metal clip on the brake light hot signal line. It was leftover from when I tried to T-tap that line on a different project. I'm 99% sure that made contact with the body (why did I leave it on there?!?!) and shorted the line.

 

Good question.

 

Brake light switch may be bad. Seen it mentioned here several times.

 

I'm having a similar problem in my Tacoma. I installed some bed stiffiners and removed the drivers side taillight to see the previous owner's attempt to splice some wires off (poorly i might add) for some other lights i assume, and now the gear shift selector is stuck in park... I was able to bypass it, by removing the clip and pressing the button down near the gear shift selector, but now im not quite sure what to do next? what did you do? jshould i just replace the 10A stop fuse?

 

There's a brake light wire shorted to ground in that janky tail light wiring. Fix the short and replace the brake fuse.

 

Yes that's what it was. Figured it out yesterday afternoon. Thanks for the reply.