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Sport L494 broken shifter button fix, DIY

51K views 51 replies 32 participants last post by  emmaslovelys 
#1 ·
Hey all. I'm new to this forum and to LR/RR. I'm usually over on Expedition Portal for my '98 Montero but I wanted to post here as I didn't see much in the vein of DIY/tech write ups for the RRS vs. this forum. My wife just purchased a 2014 RRS with 49k miles and I now 'get it' as far as why these trucks have such a rabid following! I like simple when it comes to my vehicles but I'm learning to appreciate all the gadgetry engineered into this beast. Unfortunately it left her stranded within a week of ownership, requiring a AAA tow back to the house this weekend. The gear shift button broke while she was parallel parking and left her stuck in the middle of a busy street here in LA. The shop said it'd be around $600 to replace the entire shifter plus labor and 5-6 days just to get the part delivered. I did find some replacement buttons on foreign sites similar to ebay for around $20 but delivery time was 12-18 days. So I tore into it..

Using my mini screw driver set, I carefully pried off the gear position indicator plate which appears to be held on by an adhesive/double sided tape. I then used the small driver to carefully pop the parking button off.
Vehicle Car Family car

You can see the parts removed to the right of the pic, they're upside down to show the small clips on the P button and the back of the plate.
The small screw in the shifter is a Torx 8. Remove this long screw and you'll then be able to pop out the cover with a small screwdriver.
Vehicle Car Multimedia Technology Electronics

From there, carefully maneuver the electrical switch unit out of the shifter by pushing on the shifter button and guiding the whole piece towards you. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE PIECE OF THE BUTTON THAT HAS BROKEN OFF. You'll need this to guide the length of your repair later.
Vehicle Car Electronics Multimedia Audio equipment

Vehicle Car Audio equipment Center console Electronics

Now you can turn the unit to the side and see how the shift button is connected. It swivels on two small points as seen just to the right of my thumb nail in the next photo. You can disconnect the electrical connector and take the whole unit into the house to get better lighting. Study the button, its arm and the slide on the unit that the arm contacts and pushes to enable shifting. You'll likely find that the tip of the arm is broken off completely so that the arm no longer contacts the slide, hence stuck in park. Now VERY carefully use a small screwdriver to push one of the small axles in and CAREFULLY maneuver the button off of that axle/nub and then do the same to the other side. It took me a few tries and one side was easier to get off vs the other but I don't recall which side. The other side will then require a similar technique to free it. Be really cautious and take your time. If you break either post, you're pretty much SOL. Once you visualize the part, you'll understand..
Fictional character Auto part Toy Scale model Vehicle

With the button removed, you can see that when pressed, it pushes the long plastic arm which then presses the slide on the unit and allows shifting out of park. Again, the tip will likely be broken off as the arm tapers at the end which weakens the plastic arm at the pressure point over time and it just breaks off. Lousy design.
I debated several ways to remedy this and came up with using a cotter pin that slides perfectly onto the arm with the cotter pin eye extending out to the same length as the arm with the small broken off piece. It's important that you keep the broken piece so that you'll know how much of the cotter pin end to trim off so that your repaired arm is the same length as OEM.
I used a very small piece of tape to attach the broken bit to the arm and then line up my cotter pin to find the right length. I did have to trim the pin a bit. I also had to bend the legs of the cotter pin a bit so that when it slid onto the arm, the legs stayed flush against the arm vs flaring out to ensure stability in the grooves of the arm. I pinched the eye of the cotter pin to narrow it down so that it would fit through the tunnel on the electrical unit. You'll see.. I also had to bend the tip/eye of the cotter pin up a bit so that once installed, it had an angle at the tip. In my version, if I left the eye straight it would have been partially actuating the slide on the electrical unit. The slight bend allows the slide to fully close when the button is installed back onto its axles. I know this sounds a bit complicated but once you get a cotter pin or similar metal piece onto the plastic arm and installed, I think it'll make sense. It took me a couple of times to get the shape of the cotter pin correct so that the slide on the unit had full range of motion. Made me a little nervous removing/installing the button a few times as the posts are really delicate as I mentioned.

Revolver Gun

The pics don't show the bend at the end of the pin I mentioned, apologies. I was too excited to get the thing back together and test it out! Once I was sure about the configuration, I dabbed a bit of epoxy onto the cotter pin legs and the arm of the button to maybe give it a bit more support.
Threw it all back together, started 'er up and bam, down the road I went, $800 richer!
A bit long in the narrative I know but I wanted to hit the details that made this work. Hope this helps. Lemme know if you have a different approach as the cotter pin was just something I had handy.
 

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#34 ·
Sjoe, managed to find the ONLY kit in a 1,500km radius at a dealer 60km from me! [emoji28]

Now to fit it - does anyone know of a YouTube video of the installation, or have instructions on how to do it?

Thanks

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk
 
#35 ·
Sjoe, managed to find the ONLY kit in a 1,500km radius at a dealer 60km from me!


Now to fit it - does anyone know of a YouTube video of the installation, or have instructions on how to do it?

Thanks

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk
If you have the kit and look at the pictures in the first post of this thread, it looks pretty easy. The kit comes basically pre-assembled. Once you pry the cover off and remove the screw, you just disconnect the electrical connector, swap the parts, reconnect the electrical connector, tighten the screw, and put the new cover on.

Not sure if the parts in the kit are "upgraded" - I'll bet they're the same.
 
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#37 ·
Hey all. I'm new to this forum and to LR/RR. I'm usually over on Expedition Portal for my '98 Montero but I wanted to post here as I didn't see much in the vein of DIY/tech write ups for the RRS vs. this forum. My wife just purchased a 2014 RRS with 49k miles and I now 'get it' as far as why these trucks have such a rabid following! I like simple when it comes to my vehicles but I'm learning to appreciate all the gadgetry engineered into this beast. Unfortunately it left her stranded within a week of ownership, requiring a AAA tow back to the house this weekend. The gear shift button broke while she was parallel parking and left her stuck in the middle of a busy street here in LA. The shop said it'd be around $600 to replace the entire shifter plus labor and 5-6 days just to get the part delivered. I did find some replacement buttons on foreign sites similar to ebay for around $20 but delivery time was 12-18 days. So I tore into it..

Using my mini screw driver set, I carefully pried off the gear position indicator plate which appears to be held on by an adhesive/double sided tape. I then used the small driver to carefully pop the parking button off.
View attachment 269678
You can see the parts removed to the right of the pic, they're upside down to show the small clips on the P button and the back of the plate.
The small screw in the shifter is a Torx 8. Remove this long screw and you'll then be able to pop out the cover with a small screwdriver.
View attachment 269680
From there, carefully maneuver the electrical switch unit out of the shifter by pushing on the shifter button and guiding the whole piece towards you. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE PIECE OF THE BUTTON THAT HAS BROKEN OFF. You'll need this to guide the length of your repair later.
View attachment 269682
View attachment 269684
Now you can turn the unit to the side and see how the shift button is connected. It swivels on two small points as seen just to the right of my thumb nail in the next photo. You can disconnect the electrical connector and take the whole unit into the house to get better lighting. Study the button, its arm and the slide on the unit that the arm contacts and pushes to enable shifting. You'll likely find that the tip of the arm is broken off completely so that the arm no longer contacts the slide, hence stuck in park. Now VERY carefully use a small screwdriver to push one of the small axles in and CAREFULLY maneuver the button off of that axle/nub and then do the same to the other side. It took me a few tries and one side was easier to get off vs the other but I don't recall which side. The other side will then require a similar technique to free it. Be really cautious and take your time. If you break either post, you're pretty much SOL. Once you visualize the part, you'll understand..
View attachment 269686
With the button removed, you can see that when pressed, it pushes the long plastic arm which then presses the slide on the unit and allows shifting out of park. Again, the tip will likely be broken off as the arm tapers at the end which weakens the plastic arm at the pressure point over time and it just breaks off. Lousy design.
I debated several ways to remedy this and came up with using a cotter pin that slides perfectly onto the arm with the cotter pin eye extending out to the same length as the arm with the small broken off piece. It's important that you keep the broken piece so that you'll know how much of the cotter pin end to trim off so that your repaired arm is the same length as OEM.
I used a very small piece of tape to attach the broken bit to the arm and then line up my cotter pin to find the right length. I did have to trim the pin a bit. I also had to bend the legs of the cotter pin a bit so that when it slid onto the arm, the legs stayed flush against the arm vs flaring out to ensure stability in the grooves of the arm. I pinched the eye of the cotter pin to narrow it down so that it would fit through the tunnel on the electrical unit. You'll see.. I also had to bend the tip/eye of the cotter pin up a bit so that once installed, it had an angle at the tip. In my version, if I left the eye straight it would have been partially actuating the slide on the electrical unit. The slight bend allows the slide to fully close when the button is installed back onto its axles. I know this sounds a bit complicated but once you get a cotter pin or similar metal piece onto the plastic arm and installed, I think it'll make sense. It took me a couple of times to get the shape of the cotter pin correct so that the slide on the unit had full range of motion. Made me a little nervous removing/installing the button a few times as the posts are really delicate as I mentioned.
View attachment 269688
View attachment 269690
The pics don't show the bend at the end of the pin I mentioned, apologies. I was too excited to get the thing back together and test it out! Once I was sure about the configuration, I dabbed a bit of epoxy onto the cotter pin legs and the arm of the button to maybe give it a bit more support.
Threw it all back together, started 'er up and bam, down the road I went, $800 richer!
A bit long in the narrative I know but I wanted to hit the details that made this work. Hope this helps. Lemme know if you have a different approach as the cotter pin was just something I had handy.
Just thanks so much! I actually super glued end back on and added "splints" either side with small nails/pins. Back on the road in an hour. Could have done it without your guidance!!
 
#42 ·
You ABSOLUTE F$&KING LEGENDS!
Just suffered from the gear lever button fail whilst driving out of holiday park after family holiday 200km from home... $1000 to tow home... bit of Google brought me here.
Amazing step by step instructions. Borrowed small screw drivers and the fix was done! AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for this content. Bloody fabulous.
 
#47 ·
Just had this happen to me and it is possible to quickly take it apart and push the button with a pen to get it into gear if needed I was able to use a knife to get the screw off and very easily pushed the button. I repaired it myself with super glueing the broken piece on. Then I took a little Bobby pin cut it to the same size and superglued that all around the plastic piece and it’s strong now no way it’s breaking. So it’s and easy quick fix if you are crafty.
 
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