gear shifter stuck
 

I own a 2003 g35 sedan and was stopped at an intersection today. The car was in drive originaly and I was fooling around with the gear shifter and my hand slipped while it was in between neutral and drive. Well the gear shifter ended up in the little area which allows you to do manual shifting even though it's an automatic car but the area where the car shoes which gear it's one was blank. I tried moving the gear shifter to the left towards regular drive and it would move a little but it wouldn't budge when i tried moving it into drive. When i did move the gear shifter a little, the car would show N (for neutral). I tried holding down the shift lock button and trying it but still nothing. I tried a lot of things but nothing worked. Finally, i decided to call a tow truck and get it towed to the nearest infiniti dealer. I looked for recalls on this problem and didn't find anything.

do you think it's a computer problem and easily fixable? or am i in for a unpleasant and costly surprise?

What's the year and mileage??? You have a 70000 or 80000 mile warranty on the drivetrain, so you shouldn't have any out of pocket expense as long as your mileage is under the limit. Hope that helps.

yea thanks man i didn't know that, the mileage is just under 60,000

Bumping an old thread. Anyone have an idea on this? I hit a snowbank last night at about 15 mph and my car did the same thing as the OP. There are no warning lights on except that the drive indicator was blank. I get the same thing with neutral as the OP. I have to get 2 new bumpers, but a new transmission doesn't seem like a fun time to me. I am pretty sure the transmission is OK because I have no warning lights. Something with the shift lock seems messed up, but I dont' know what. I tried all the little actuators by the shifter (took off the console finisher).

Happened to me three days after I got my car on Christmas Eve no less, at the Galleria in Dallas...Long Story short, the shift linkage or shift plate can get jarred and misaligned, resulting in the computer allowing no shifting...Infiniti will pull up your console, re-align, pop a little pin out, and viola...Had mine covered by Sewell at no cost, including the towing of my car and storage for two days over Christmas....

PS--> Mine was caused by an overzealous Valet who shifted into manumatic either too violently from Drive or never paused while shifting from Park down into manumatic...Service tech said he had seen it a handful of times...Best of Luck...

G'ed,

Thanks for the response. Nearest infiniti dealer is 120 miles away, and since the car was in an accident (the snowbank requiring me to get 2 new bumpers) I do not know if the dealer will do anything. If I can do it myself I will. Any other thoughts? Thanks for the response.

Anyone know the re-alignment procedure? Is it a possible DIY?

Didn't get a chance to watch them, essentially giving you what they told me...Might think about getting a Chilton's guide or some other sort of shop guide...Me: DIY = Hell no, but I scare easy..

If you feel comfortable taking apart your console and possibly some dash, then I'm guessing that's the most difficult part, or so the tech made it seem...

Best of luck and mine was less than 4 hours at the delaership if that helps...dropped it off at 12:30 or so and they called and said it was ready about 4:00 or so...

Update:

I did take the center console apart and got the shifter working. You have to follow the instructions on page 237 of the AT section of the factory manual to get to the shifter. Once you remove ventilator duct 2, you can undo the 4 bolts holding the shifter down. Once I did that and lifted up slightly on the shift assembly, I could move the shifter around enough that it finally snapped back into place. Works perfect. I know I saw similar advice on another post here at driver, but can't seem to find it at the moment. Here is another link to someone with similar issues in case it comes up for someone else again:

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/285809

You my friend have bigger balls than I, eitherways congrats on the DIY and not having major tranny issues...

So if I'm not mistaken, my diagnosis was fairly correct? Ding, put me down for a gold str:biggthumpup:

Bump. You may have made my night with this post I had the same problem tonight and it took Roadside three hours to get a tow truck and the closet dealer is more than 330 miles away

Here we go.....I need help on this. A good friend bought an 04 (after driving mine :coolio:) and is stranded with this problem. He said he had to take drastic measure from some idiot. I don't know how that misaligns the shifter mounting plate, but whatever.... I just want to keep him from having to spend money at the dealer if I can fix it.

Someone mention page 237 of the manual. I know I downloaded the manual from this site a couple years ago but I think it was on my work computer. The same place of employment that laid me off at Christmas. And I get nothing but tranny stuff when I search. Can anyone post the page or give me some of the steps to removing the console? I'll be doing this in a parking lot and would like to know what tools to take. Thank you guys!!!!!!!

The links to the manuals are still on this site. Check out pages AT-227 and IP-20. That will tell you all you need to get the center console off. As far as the shifter, just loosten up the 4 bolts holding the shifter onto the frame and move the shifter around. The shift knob should slip back into place. At least it did for me and a couple others on here. Do not disconnect any of the modules (especially airbags with the yellow harnesses) that are connected to the frame below the center console. As far as tools, Just bring a #2 phillips and flathead screwdriver, along with a 10mm and 12mm nut driver or socket set. I *THINK* those are the only tools you will need. A needle nose pliers might be helpful too.

Thanks, that's exactly what I did. I expected the "bind" to clear itself after simply loosening the 4 bolts holding the shifter plate to the hump. That didn't happen. I removed all four bolts completely, raised the entire assembly and wiggled it. Then it snap back into position.

The thing I find weird is that if it were just the shifter stuck in no-mans-land, why does the indicator on the dash show neutral. Why wouldn't it show D or a number. Whatever, I can't explain how slamming on the brakes causes this but I fixed and my bra saved a few bucks.

I think it constantly shows neutral as a safety precaution. If the transmission computer cannot sense what gear it is in, it makes sense to throw it in neutral. That way the car can still be moved. One thing I noticed is that if you tried to move the shifter over, the gear indicator would just go blank.

This is exactly what I had to do.
Thanks dude :)