Shift to Park comes up in Message Center - Issue?

[Spartanator]

Greetings from South Korea,

We shipped our '10 Taurus SHO here to South Korea with us for the next two years. We haven't had any issues since we got it here in April until today.

My wife was driving it and in the Message Center, it said "Shift to Park". After 3-5 seconds, the car shuts off. She was going about 20 MPH or so when it happened so thankfully, she wasn't driving at speed. There's a Ford service center here but I'd like to have an idea of what to tell them prior to taking it in. Any ideas? The car has 51k miles on it and has been a champ over the past 3+ years.

 

[Dave]

First thing I would do is check for codes, write them down and clear. Then, disconnect the battery for a few minutes. The ECU should reset everything. Then run it a bit and check for codes again. If you get any codes, you can look them up online.

 

[SHOdded]

^ what Dave said. Possible transmission range sensor, or just a blip. No other issues lately?

 

[Spartanator]

Thanks for the quick replies. No other issues at all. It's been running great since we've been here. It's performed quite well. I would check for codes, but I don't have a scanner. I need to order one on Amazon anyway so I'll see if she shows any of the same symptoms again over the next week or so.

 

[saldivo2]

I don't post often but figured I would chime in. Exact same thing happened to me only I was on the highway doing 75mph. Only happened once and brought it to the dealer. No surprise they said nothing is wrong and no codes. Good luck with your issue, hopefully it was a one time event.

 

[markathome]

Haven't heard of this issue, but, I did have problems with the transmission range sensor initially and Ford performed the TSB for this issue. I've not had any problems sense.
(The TSB is in this forum.)

 

[integrity6987]

Greetings from South Korea,

We shipped our '10 Taurus SHO here to South Korea with us for the next two years. We haven't had any issues since we got it here in April until today.

My wife was driving it and in the Message Center, it said "Shift to Park". After 3-5 seconds, the car shuts off. She was going about 20 MPH or so when it happened so thankfully, she wasn't driving at speed. There's a Ford service center here but I'd like to have an idea of what to tell them prior to taking it in. Any ideas? The car has 51k miles on it and has been a champ over the past 3+ years.

I got the 2 volume phone book sized workshop manuals for the 2010 Taurus for Christmas. Thought I'd put them to the test for you. There is a section on instrumentation and the message center in section 413-010-6 & 7 that lists all of the messages. It lists "SHIFT TO PARK" under the Intelligent Access. So at least this is not an engine / trans warning. It lists these possible sources: Park detect switch, and Remote Function Actuator module. - the RFA shows on pg 419-10-93 to be a "black box" held by three screws behind the glove box - near the interior cabin air filter. It has a large wiring harness maybe it got kicked or something. The thing store code that has to be uploaded and transferred to a new one - so sound like a dealer job. Then keys re-programmed and factory permanent entry code loaded.

I like my car a lot but we all know these machines are computers on wheels now - and have as many sensors and CPUs as the space station.

Now at least you know where to start at the dealer.