2014 C7 Stingray 3LT / automatic…. Quick question if anyone has ever had this problem in their C7. Went for a spin this morning, came home and backed in the garage, shifted to park, went to shut the engine off, engine shut off but on the main display it shows the car still in Reverse. The physical shifter is in park (I tore it apart to make sure), but will not come out of reverse.

Any thoughts?

 

You likely have a shift cable failure between the shifter module and the rear tranny housing shift lever. If like the C6, each end of the cable uses a plastic/nylon grommet. They were infamous for splitting apart due time and high temps in that tunnel. More likely to fail first is the console shifter end. But the rear will eventually fail too. With a cable failure, the shifter is now disconnected from the rear tranny and the console shifter can be moved forwards and backwards with little resistance.

 

You can see the remaining split half plastic grommet still on the bottom shifter pin. It’s a press fit. This is a 2007 C6 A6. Check the back transmission first to see if it is split there before opening up the console.

 

Rather than replace the entire cable, I just bought a Dorman plastic grommet kit from Autozone. The big end of the grommet also press fits into the cable end. You can see the cable end in this photo. It is the half spherical fitting protruding from the much bigger rubber bellows. Search the C6 General and Tech sections for lots more about all of this.

 

Good info and keeping this for future reference.

 

Helpful info above

 

I could be misreading your post. Ignoring what the driver display is showing, does the car move forward and backward as you shift the gear shifter positions?? If yes, then the issue is the display message and what is causing it. Low battery condition can cause electronic gremlins especially at engine startup. But you did startup for a drive so the battery should have charged up. Do you still have the original factory installed battery in it?? Even if it’s a replacement, it might be time to replace it as well as your car is now ~9 yo.

 

What’s weird, the car shows “R” on the dash, car will not start-up, shifter is in the “P” position, and we can push the car front/back almost like it’s in neutral. The actual shifter will not move back and forth at all, almost locked. Doesn’t make any sense to me.

 

Good luck !!
Rich

 

Thanks for providing some more details. I don’t own a C7 auto but did a C6 A6. But I would think the shifting mechanism and interlocking controls to be same or very similar. Being able to push the car forward and backward certainly means the rear transmission did not successful get into Park as the Park position locks up the gearing set to a Parking pawl inside the rear tranny housing as you know. So that by itself would say the shift cable (grommet failure at one end or cable itself broke) just as you moved the shifter from R to P. There are other interlock switches, shift position transducers and a locking solenoid inside the shifter module that may now be commanded by the ECU based on the first failure to not let you move the shifter module out of the Park position. I suspect that the interlock controls may be still another level more complex than my C6 A6.

Because the tranny did not get into the Park position, I think you have a shift cable failure. Look underneath the car rear where the shift cable attaches to the tranny housing rotary shift lever for a cable disconnect. If still attached but broken elsewhere up forward, you should be able to detect that. If memory serves me, the Park position will have the shift lever rotated CW. Taking the shift lever CCW takes it from Park and Reverse toward Neutral and Drive gears. You should be able to rotate that lever arm if the cable is broken somewhere With your fingers. Obviously have your wheels blocked if underneath the car first for safety.

The rear housing shift lever has detents for the individual gear positions that you can feel with your fingers if not actually hear them if you can rotate that lever arm. Since the rear tranny is likely in Reverse position, you should be able to rotate one detent CW to get it into Park position. Then rotating the rear lever CCW (forward) will go back to the detents for Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Sport, in order, etc.

 

Shane - please update us to what you have found out about this issue.

 

So, just got the vette back on Friday and it was a shifter cable. The previous owner had the same issue, but instead of investing the time and money to complete the job correctly, they thought epoxy was the route to take. All-in-all, it’s fixed and working great. 👍

 

Great news Shane. I guess they used epoxy to glue the plastic/nylon grommet back together?? That is really a low-life fix!!! It would have seemed better with the same amount of effort just to install at least a new grommet. Replacing the cable itself has been done by members themselves but I think best left to professionals on a lift as the center tunnel plate has to be removed and then the exhaust mid-section has to be removed to allow access to the upper tunnel as I remember. Was it the front or the rear cable grommet that failed?? Most likely the front as it is totally enclosed in the tunnel where it gets the hottest.