Hello, my 2002 mazda 626 lx is stuck in park. I bought it less than a month ago from a dealership and within 6 days it happened. Since then, I have succefully gotten it out of park and driven it a few times but when I put it in park it almost always sticks again. The only way I got it out before was to shake the shifter and try pressing the button over and over for a long time until it finally slipped into gear. For the last week or so I was keeping it in neutral and engaging the e-brake (and starting it in neutral) but I'm not sure if that is good for my car or not. Right now, however, it is completely stuck in park and will not come back.

The dealership said that they would fix it so I brought it back and they took the column covering off and said it was very dirty around the solenoid and that they cleaned it but that the problem was not fixed. They said they thought it was the shifter that needs to be replaced and that the part is approx $450 plus $200 in labor but that no warranty covers this and that they wouldn't spend a dime on it.

I heard from a few people that my model of car does not have a shift interlock switch that I can flip to get it out of park, and I can't find one anywhere either. Also, that it could be numerous other things wrong. The button on the gear shifter is very hard to press in when it is stuck in park. Another note is that the dealership told me that the solenoid was 'frozen open' so I didn't even need to depress the brake in order for it to shift but that they did not cause this to happen. I also made sure that my brake lights were working. The car starts fine and everything else works.

I've been told that there could be other numerous problems with this so could anybody here help me? Is there a temporary fix that I can do to let me drive it to another place to get it fixed? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give the full picture. Thanks!!