Vetteran04

Drive the car today after a couple of weeks. Noticed interlock solenoid much louder than usual but appears to be functioning properly. Not sure if worth further investigation.

Dano523

FYI, very seldom do the interlock solenoid actually go out*, but what happens is there is a contact switch in front of the shifter shaft that does to south instead.
* hence coils wind wires for the electromagnet don't burn out, or the rod just needs to be lubed so it not binding in the electromagnet body channel.

Most of the time you can just bend the arm out a touch more to make sure that the contact is working with the shifter in park, while other times you have to either pull it apart to clean the inner contacts, or just replace it instead.

The contact switch that ends up having problems



The actual electromagnet solenoid that will unlock/pull back the park lock ratchet once it gets powder to do so, hence the contact switch engage with a contact through it to so it will power up the electromagnet solenoid while the shifter is forward in park, the cut the power to the actual electromagnet solenoid once the shifter has been moved out of park .

CSixDude

If you put the car in park and press and release the brake, you'll usually hear a fairly loud click as the solenoid cycles forward and back. Mines pretty loud too. I don't think it is any indication of a problem. When it stops making the click is when you need to worry, cause that would indicate that it isn't working anymore, which is usually caused by the switch, as posted above.

Vetteran04

BTW, I called my dealer to see if their Vette mechanic was working (which he wasn't) to speak with him, and asked about the cost to replace the solenoid. According to the tech writer it's 4.5 hour job (labor), plus I believe that they replace the entire shifter assembly and not just the solenoid when it goes bad.

If it comes to replacement (which apparently we're not at that point), I would just pull the console myself and try an fix it. It appears straightforward, but tedious.

I guess typically when it fails, the car can't come out of park, so I there wouldn't be much choice other than to tear it down even to get it out of park. At that point, unless the linkage is all screwed up and broken, it should be fixable.

My concern was not the nonie so much as whether the louder solenoid nonie was some indication of imminent failure resulting in the car being stuck in park someplace other than home base.

Thanks for your feedback and images.

Vetteran04

Damn autocorrect:"nonie" = "noise". WTF.

CSixDude

I don't think the noise from the solenoid activating is anything to worry about. It's simply the action of the solenoid striking the lock mechanism when it extends and retracts.