Hello there. Friend of mine has a 2000 MPV that will not come out of PARK. Now this is the situation, I am a Lexus Tech, and I am tring to help these people out, but the van is in a parking lot, and I don't have shop manual.
Anyway, The battery is fine, and I turn the key and NOTHING. The interresting part is that if you were to put your foot on the brake and try to move the shifter, you can't move it out of park. Now I looked on the brake pedal and saw the switch that controls the brake lites, and they do work. I also jumped the connectors to see if it would unlock the interlock, and nothing. Like I said, I don't have a schmatic diagram, so I really have no idea what is what. The bottom line is that when I put the key in, and turn it, no power to starter(everything else works, radio, lights,ect.. Also like I said, will not shift out of Park. Any ideas?? Please another tech write back.Thanks

 

I just corrected a similar problem. First of all, to shift the shifter out of park in this situation, remove a small 1/2"x1" plastic tab above the steering column; depress the switch below the plastic tab to free up your shifter from the shift lock interlock mechanism. You'll be able to shift the shifter into each gear, but once you shift back to the Park position the shifter will lock up again. So depress the switch below the plastic tab again.

In my case, the inhibitor switchlocated between the transmission and the engine shorted out. The inhibitor switch is located approximately 6" to the right (or the driver side) of the water pump. The inhibitor switch shorted outwhen my water pump failed and the resulting coolant spill damaged the switch. This switch is used to tell the Instrument Cluster that the transmission is in either Park or Neutral; which allows the engine to start. When you shift the shifter through all the gears, the square bracket on your dashboard that tells you what gear the MPV is in will light up for all gears except the P and N positions. This will definitively tell you that the inhibitor switch is bad.

The inhibitor switch is relatively inexpensive (around $40-$60), but it is tricky to install. You need to remove the battery and once the switch is installed, you need to adjust the switch to make sure it triggers in Park (i.e., square bracket around "P" on dashboard) before you tighten the mounting screws.