996 Tiptronic stuck in Park!

So in the last 24 hours my 996 C2S tiptronic was showing erratic behaviour where the tiptronic gear stick wouldn't unlock - and in a panic I got out of the car, relocked it, unlocked it, started the car with my foot on the break and then it somehow managed to free it up again Now it's got to the stage where luckily it is parked, but no amount of unlocking / locking or foot on the break / off the break while the car is started seems to want to convince it to unlock and move Any ideas???? I believe from reading this post the 997 has a plastic 'lock' that prevents the tiptronic gear stick from moving if the break is not pressed so I wonder if it is the same for the 996 gearbox? Also - does anyone know if there is a manual release like there seems to be for the Cayman according to this post ? Many thanks and every suggestion very welcome! Alex

There is a solenoid in the gear selecor mechanism that locks it in P. I haven't heard of a release tool. There was someone on here recently with a similar problem, and there were some photos showing the solenoid location, but I'm damned if I can find it.......

Thanks Richard and yes that makes total sense - I think from studying photos on eBay it's underneath the front of the gear selector at a 45 degree angle The good news is for the moment from kind of testing the button and applying gentle pressure, it seems to have freed up and will now pop into gear fine (with brake on and car in ready to start mode or running) - however I think it's likely to happen again so I'm looking to replace it in the winter I'll post up some pictures when I do [s1]

Merci, mais je toujours pas ni trouver, ni put accéder a ce solénoïde, auriez-vous des précisions? Faut-t-il démonter quelque chose? D'avance un grand merci. ( je suis nouveau et ne maitrise pas encore tout).

Thank you, but I still can neither find nor be able to access this solenoid, would you have details? Do we have to take something apart? Thank you very much in advance. (I am new and do not yet master everything). Courtesy of Google. My French is OK but not that good.[ ]

I ended up not needing to change mine but my understanding is that the black wire in the attached photo from under the tiptronic gearbox shows where it goes to on the locking solenoid Photos of one here on eBay for reference https://www.ebay.co.uk/it...tch-u-95-/323797353681

Right - finally solved my Tiptronic stuck in park problem with a new brake light switch Here's some advice for the future for anyone else attempting this On right hand drive cars, like mine, the switch is actually above the drivers foot vent so is even more difficult to access - here's it's location and highlighted Highlighted As the pedals on the right hand drive cars are in a different place and the LHD ones, the switch is even harder to access as it is above the drivers foot vent (photo above with holes in it) The switch locks into the metal bracket just in front of the highlighted switch. The bracket has key slots cut out at the top and the bottom so that the notches on the sides of the brake switch can go into these. Once slotted in then you twist to 45 degrees either way for it to lock Once you have located the switch you can twist it to align the notches with their cut outs on the bracket and it will come out. Here is mine as it dropped down To get initial view of this I used an iPad with the screen camera on and a bright torch to highlight under the dashboard Once removed you can find lots of replacement ones out there - the original part numbers are: 996 613 111 01 996 613 113 01 996 613 114 01 off of the switch on mine. I used a Cambiare replacement, and one thing to note is when they come out of the box they look much bigger than the original one. They are actually adjustable and with a light pressure on the top which holds the switch you can compress or extend this to match the height of the original The bottom of the switch has a 'T' shaped key so can only be plugged into the car harness one way round. From testing the original switch with a multimeter, with the switch unplugged, one set of the pins is normally closed and the other is normally open. I believe the normally closed is used for the brake light switch as this triggers when the pedal is extended away to closed while the normally open pair are used for the tiptronic lock as this is closed when the accelerator is in resting position and open when the pedal is compressed On my original switch the normally open pair was sticking on compression and sometimes engaged and sometimes didn't - hence my problems with the tiptronic gearstick not unlocking! Finally to install the new switch, on the RHD there was no way I could do this from the drivers seat position as you can't get your hand past the drivers foot vent - so I worked out an alternate strategy which is to put the drivers seat as far back and as reclined as it will go, and then to sit on the seat like normal but then rotate 180 degrees with your feet towards the passenger side as you turn around, as this way you can swing your head out of the open drivers door, and under the steering wheel Final tip, the aftermarket switch was being a right pain to 'click in' once in the guides, so I used a sharp craft knife, and removed a little more of the bottom of the plastic guide pins where the metal bracket would sit, so that it was easier to turn On second attempt of installation, after doing this, it clicked in much easier and job was done. HTH!