[RRick]

Hi all, I have a 2020 Enclave Avenir that today decided not to shift into park. Wife went to visit her mom and when she tried to put the vehicle into park it would not. It is equipped with the electronic shifter. Lights on shifter were flashing between Neutral and Drive, but would not go into park. After the vehicle was shut off it could not be started because the vehicle needs to be in park to start. Then to make it safe seeing it's not in park, when you open the door, an electronic e-brake is set. What makes things even better, the vehicle still thinks it on or something and it runs your battery completely dead.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? We love this vehicle, but this has really ticked me off.

 

[dporter22]

I haven't even heard of that problem before. Please let us know what the service department says.

 

[Alvenir]

There have been many reports of electronic shifter problems with the updated Enclaves and Traverses, however, all of them I have read about have to do with shifting out of park, not into it. They have recommended tapping the thumb button or the Park button, but I don't know if that will help in your situation because it seems a short is killing the battery as well. I hope you are still under warranty. If you get it resolved, please let us know what happened.

 

[RRick]

Well, we got the Avenir back tonight from the dealership. They had to replace a valve body in the transmission. According to the women at the service department, this is only the 2nd one that she has seen. Don't know if I feel good about that or not. Anyway, everything was covered under warranty.
I did inquire as to why the battery goes dead in this situation. Their explanation was that because the transmission did not go into park, there are a number of modules that keep functioning, looking for certain conditions to be met and they will keep cycling until the battery goes dead. Only way to stop it is to disconnect the battery. Technology at it's finest.

 

[Alvenir]

Glad they found the problem, and that it was covered. Thanks for the update.

 

[enclave 2021]

Well, we got the Avenir back tonight from the dealership. They had to replace a valve body in the transmission. According to the women at the service department, this is only the 2nd one that she has seen. Don't know if I feel good about that or not. Anyway, everything was covered under warranty.
I did inquire as to why the battery goes dead in this situation. Their explanation was that because the transmission did not go into park, there are a number of modules that keep functioning, looking for certain conditions to be met and they will keep cycling until the battery goes dead. Only way to stop it is to disconnect the battery. Technology at it's finest.

My problem of not being able to shift to neutral (going in to a car wash) seems minor compared to all of this! I felt so much more confident in my 2015 Enclave. Seems my 2021 has taken several steps backward.

 

[Alvenir]

enclave 2021, do you still have the problem at the carwash. On the later models you have to open the driver's door, then shift to neutral and hop out.

 

[enclave 2021]

enclave 2021, do you still have the problem at the carwash. On the later models you have to open the driver's door, then shift to neutral and hop out.

i'm getting better at out-thinking it - seems you can completely stop/go to park/ then push the side button and get to neutral OR you can 'bump' the shifter forward NOT ONCE BUT TWICE! (my 1951 chevy powerglide transmission was more user friendly)

enclave 2021, do you still have the problem at the carwash. On the later models you have to open the driver's door, then shift to neutral and hop out.

 

[Avon30]

Good Morning, owner of a 2020 buick enclave experiencing exact same issues. Dropped off my vehicle to my local buick on the 28th of December. Im just yesterday being given a diagnosis for which im being told isnt covered by warranty. My enclave has 53000k miles on it. Quote came to $4k + and not sure if it fix the problem-_-... How did you get it covered under the warranty??

 

[Avon30]

Also would happen to remember the cost of everything although covered by the warranty??

Below is the break down given to me to solve the shift to park issue...

 

[JayS]

You have a 3 year 36k bumper to bumper warranty and a 5 year 60k mile powertrain warranty so I can't see how a transmission control valve solenoid wouldn't be considered powertrain.

Even if they don't cover under powertrain, the Buick emissions warranty SPECIFICALLY lists the transmission solenoids as part of the emissions warranty which is 8 year/80k.

I didn't find the specific 2020 warranty but the emissions warranty is federally mandated and doesn't seem to have changed between 2011 (first link) and 2021 (second link)

https://my.buick.com/content/dam/gmownercenter/gmna/dynamic/manuals/2011/buick/enclave/2011_buick_enclave_warranty.pdf

https://www.buick.com/bypass/pcf/gma-content-api/resources/sites/GMA/content/staging/MANUALS/5000/MA5172/en_US/6.0/21_BUI_WM_en_US_U_84299678C_2021FEB01_3P.pdf