mobile-menu-icon
GM Authority

Here May Be Why Your Chevy Trailblazer Displays A Shift To Park Message

If the “Shift to Park” message appears in the Driver Information Center of your 2021 to 2023 Chevy Trailblazer, which may or may not be accompanied by the vehicle failing to start, GM TechLink has pinpointed the malfunction that causes these symptoms and has determined the fix your dealership’s service personnel need to apply to correct it.

A malfunction in the park switch inside the shifter assembly of your Chevy Trailblazer is likely to be the source of these problems if they appear (either the Shift to Park message only or the message and failure to start).

Rear three quarters view of the Chevy Trailblazer.

Notably, the diagnostic trouble code (DTC) B000A – “Park Switch – Shift Lever Position Not Plausible” – will also be generated if the vehicle fails to start. Regardless of whether the Shift to Park message appears with no other problems, or if failure to start and the noted DTC also occur, the shifter assembly of your Chevy Trailblazer needs to be inspected at the dealership.

GM provided an image of the shifter assembly, which is shown below. The inspection should check on the terminals of the park switch located inside this assembly. If the terminals are spread apart or damaged, the park switch is probably the cause of the issue(s).

The Buick Encore GX shifter assembly.

Via GM TechLink

To repair your Chevy Trailblazer, the dealership service department will replace the whole shifter assembly. Replacement involves first removing the cable bolt and the automatic transmission range selector lever cable at the same time. Following this removal, the failed shifter assembly can be extracted from the vehicle.

Once the old shifter assembly is removed, a new component with a correctly functioning park switch can be installed. To complete this successfully, the service personnel will tighten the bolt and nut holding the assembly to the mounting bracket slot while holding the bolt in place. Correct tightening is needed to prevent rattling noises and the possibility of the shifter feeling loose.

Installation of the Buick Encore GX shifter assembly.

Via GM TechLink

The repair is completed with adjustment of the range selector lever cable to the proper setup. This should complete the fix, enabling your Chevy Trailblazer to start as normal (if it was suffering from a failure to start) and causing the Shift to Park message to stop appearing while in Park.

Under the body panels, the Chevy Trailblazer rides on the GM VSS-F vehicle set, with production taking place at the GM Bupyeong plant, which supplies the Trailblazer crossover to all markets.

Subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevy Trailblazer newsChevy news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

[nggallery id=1238]

Subscribe to GM Authority

For around-the-clock GM news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. More quality problems!

    Reply
    1. F!nd new roads to the Mechanics……

      Reply
      1. With apologies to the late Dinah Shore: “Call the AAA, from your Chevrolet…”

        Reply
  2. Really? Didn’t we have to endure this stupid engineering in the Acadia fiasco? Come on GM, this should not repeat in more models.

    Reply
    1. And the Malibu. Had to fix it twice on our car.

      Reply
    2. And the 2019 Blazer, and they did not fix it for free either!

      Reply
  3. So is there a bypass or will my trailblazer have to be towed someday. Why not recall before owners need to have a crappie day.

    Reply
  4. South Korea UAW ?

    Reply
  5. Gotta love the GM service model. Replace the part to get the customer past the vehicle warranty. When the problem occurs again (out of warranty) then they want to charge $700+ to do it again. Revenue generating bandaid applied. Fixing the design problem or issuing a recall doesn’t generate revenue. My ’22 Trailblazer has this issue but I no longer trust the local Chevy dealerships after several bad service experiences with various vehicles.

    Reply
  6. Anyway to get everything to turn off until it is fixed? Or is my car stuck in the garage flashing and beeping?

    Reply
  7. Anyone think pulling the positive battery post would help Judy out ? Would it reset the car system ?

    Reply
  8. Local dealer here in Santa Fe said the STP issue on my 2017 Volt with 40k miles wasn’t covered under warranty and would cost me $2000 out of pocket to fix. Needless to say, I dumped the car and won’t ever buy a GM product again.

    Reply
  9. Worst part is GM engineers could’ve walked over to the parts bin, and grabbed any of the various shift-position switches that served us reliably for decades.

    But noooo…. let’s reinvent the wheel, with a setup that anyone with basic mechanical skills could tell them would be susceptible to wear and cause problems!

    Reply
  10. I have a 2019 Silverado LTZ Texas Edition with the same problem! Took it in for a oil change and told the service manager about the problem and he said they couldn’t find anything wrong!

    Reply
  11. I had the same issue with my wife’s Blazer. My son’s friend, a GM tech, bypassed the microswitch in the console activated by the shift linkage. It solved the problem caused by a poorly designed part.

    Reply
  12. Had this problem with my 2017 Malibu. Still pops up from time to time. No fixes offered by GM but it’s not terribly hard to correct yourself watching some of the You Tube fixes.

    Reply
  13. It’s not only the Chevrolet TrailBlazer it’s also happening in many 6th generation camaro’s as well and many are questioning why isn’t there a recall for this since this seems to be a wide spread problem?

    Reply
  14. I will never buy another GMC. 2021 trailblazer has this issue since it hit 20k. Dealership will not fix it because it don’t have any codes stored. Very frustrating may have to do a trade in soon. I am currently out of warranty .

    Reply
  15. Your trailblazer is not the only vehicle suffering from the dreaded shift to park issue Silverados, Malibu’s, Cadillacs Camaros Etc for the last 8 months my 2019 camaro has been doing this off and on some days very often but I could a week and no problems when it does happen I just hit the top of shifter and it goes away immediately I believe with this many vehicle’s having the same problem GM should issue a recall and they know this is an issue, GM do the right thing for your customer’s we put our trust in your vehicle’s return that trust.

    Reply
  16. Yes if I press the button on the shifter it usually goes away. If it don’t go away I have to wiggle the shifter. If that don’t work I have to crank car up and put it in reverse then park and it will go away. It’s a bulletin out on it but since I don’t have any codes stored dealer want fix it

    Reply
  17. Next time it happens record it on your cell phone go back to the dealership and show them if they still say no check engine and no codes ask for the service manager some vehicles are not posting a check engine or codes for this now, when I still own my 2017 Malibu premiere it did put up a check engine light for the shift to park but my 2019 camaro will not but I did record it and will be going to the dealership and showing them this problem without any codes and if your dealership still gives you the run a round go to another dealership or call GMs customer service and see if they can help you it’s worth the try.

    Reply
    1. I did all of that. Dealership had my truck for 3 days nothing pop up. Took pictures and videos contacted GmC. Talked to GMC manager they sent out an engineer still nothing. If it’s not showing up in the data base on the trailblazer nothing can be done. 🤦‍♀️. Very frustrating. If the problem gets worse I am going to trade it in. I had new transmission put in at 30k. I had water leak in the spare tire area which I diagnose myself after a few tries I fix the issue. It’s a temp fix but I added more gasket on the rear truck area. Dealership was giving me a hard time. They wanted $280 for a water leak test something I knew they was going to come back with some BS so I did it myself. Too many issues on a new car I got in 2021

      Reply
      1. Sorry that your going through so much trouble and I don’t blame you for moving on to another brand I was once in your position many years ago and decided to give Chevrolet one more try if it didn’t work out for the first time in my life I was strongly concerning purchasing my first foreign vehicle.

        Reply
  18. First it’s the fuel rail and now this. If it was a recall I would just shrug my shoulders and deal with it. Apparently it’s not so my question is….. why the heck should I stick with Chevy?

    Reply
  19. This is our first Chevrolet and I cannot believe, GM, that you are telling us the cause of a frequently experienced defect and not recalling it?! Our car was six weeks out of warranty when this started. Incredibly poor customer service model.

    Reply
  20. I too have the same problem. A 2022 Chevy Trailblazer Activ. I only have 31000 miles on it and the dealer said the part is back ordered with no idea when it will come in. Once I had my grandkids in the car and flipping the shifter button wouldn’t work and we were stuck for around 10-15 min as it would not shut off. This is my first Chevy too and I really want to take part in the class action lawsuit since GM is doing nothing about it and refuses to do a recall and won’t stock the part. Now I can’t drive it!.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel