Must Be Running to go to Neutral

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RonLC

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You mimd sharing the way?
It's the same design with all cars that have the ZF 8HP. However, it is a pain in the ass on low clearance vehicles because you need to jack up the car securely to get to the release.

If your car is not completely dead, there is a way to trick it into neutral while the starter is attempting to turn over the engine.
 

Polo08816

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You mimd sharing the way?
Hit the engine start/stop button once and as the starter attempts to turn over keep hitting the console shifter into neutral. The transmission may go into neutral. I'm not sure how this would work with a rotary dial shifter like in a Ram, though.

Fortunately, pickups have higher ground clearance and it's possible to slide underneath the vehicle to hit the parking pawl release screw. This wasn't possible on my 335i which is about 4-6 inches of ground clearance.
 

Rocket Man

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I don’t see the issue. Any AWD needs to have dollys put under one set of wheels and the other end lifted up. I just had my 02 towed, and AAA knew to send a tow truck that would do this. Even if it’s put in neutral, you can’t tow it with wheels on the ground.
 
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RonLC

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I don’t see the issue. Any AWD needs to have dollys put under one set of wheels and the other end lifted up. I just had my 02 towed, and AAA knew to send a tow truck that would do this. Even if it’s put in neutral, you can’t tow it with wheels on the ground.
Not AWD (is 4x4) and the issue was how to pull it out of a parking place...nose to a wall in garage...without putting it in neutral. The answer turned out to be a "repo" wrecker that could slip an aparatus underneath and raise the back wheels and pull it out.
 

Blackcar

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Not AWD (is 4x4) and the issue was how to pull it out of a parking place...nose to a wall in garage...without putting it in neutral. The answer turned out to be a "repo" wrecker that could slip an aparatus underneath and raise the back wheels and pull it out.
Unless it's backed in.It's just that there are certain situations that you need vehicle in neutral.
To me having something on outside of vehicle to release park pawl is great for thief's there should be a place inside vehicle to allow that, I think in this thread someone said Ram truck have something inside truck. At least they would have to break in vehicle to release. But there is a lot of ways for thieves to acquire a vehicle if they want it.
 

Rocket Man

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Not AWD (is 4x4) and the issue was how to pull it out of a parking place...nose to a wall in garage...without putting it in neutral. The answer turned out to be a "repo" wrecker that could slip an aparatus underneath and raise the back wheels and pull it out.
I understand yours isn’t AWD but the result is the same. My point is a good tow truck driver knows how to get a vehicle out of a spot even if none of the wheels turn. Mine was in a parking spot with vehicles on both sides. He did this while his was at almost a 90* angle at the rear of my truck because there were cars in the spots directly behind me. He was able to put dollies under the front wheels and used a big long steel bar to crank them to raise the front off the ground, then angle his lift under the back and lift the rear up. He didn’t complain, he mentioned he knew he needed to do this because it was AWD and he knew he needed the heavy steel bars instead of the aluminum ones to crank those dollies because it’s a full size heavy a*s thing. What I’m saying is a good driver knows how to tow anything , and get it out of anywhere it might be. I’ve never had a tow driver fail me and I’m old AF.
 
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