Not starting in park? Before you replace neutral safety switch, try this!

Hi all,
My first post here. I've been browsing from time to time, getting help where I can find it.

Thought I would pass this along. My Mazda5 wasn't starting in park. First it was intermittent, then permanent, and I had to put it in neutral to start. Classic neutral safety switch gone bad. So I ordered a new one and went to replace it.

When I got up under the front of the car and found the switch, my first attempts to loosen it were failures. Not wanting to strip anything, I hit it with a few sprays of a rust buster (think it was Sea Foam Deep Creep), and left it.

I wasn't able to get back to it until the next day, and drove it in the meantime. Suddenly I noticed that it was starting in park again. And has started in park ever since (several weeks now).

So, before you spend money replacing the switch, try a few sprays of your favorite penetrating spray (PB blaster or whatever) and work the gears a bit (turn the key to on and move from park to neutral a few times, etc). It may just loosen up on it's own.

I've included a pic of the switch after I sprayed it again (I figured a little preventative couldn't hurt).


Hope this helps someone save a little time and moola!

Heath

This a common problem amongst 3's, 5's and 6's with auto trans. The plastic shifter cable siezes to the stud due to rust on the shift lever preventing the full range of movement of the lever. This prevents the park position from being engaged electronically. The "P" won't be highlighted in the cluster. The shifter will move stiffly. Mazda has released a new shift lever to be mounted to the trans that has a better coating to resist rust. Cleaning the rust off and applying something to prevent rust can be just as effective though. Good catch.

My wife's care has been experiencing this for over a year. I will try this. From your picture it looks like it's just to the right of the oil pan? Thanks for the post, I hate spending money for nothing.