Questions and Answers

Dodge Durango Won't Start In P Q. 1999 Dodge Durango, automatic transmission and remote starter. Tree fell on truck during ice storm, damage to exterior not engine. Truck went in for repairs, two weeks later pick up truck. Worker says truck will not start in park, you must put in neutral in order to start. Sure enough, this was the case. No problems prior to dropping truck off.

Thought maybe they remote started it and couldn't shut it off and pulled some wires, put wires back together wrong, possibly. Called a place that installs remote starters. They say No. No connection between transmission and remote. If remote was hooked up wrong it just wouldn't start by the remote.

Truck runs fine once started and after starting you can put it in park and it continues to run. Also, Neutral Safety Switch (NSS) was replaced with no changes to the problem. Hoping you can shed some light on the problem.

Thank you,
Nancy

A. My first thought would be the NSS but you kind of shot that down. Now it is a matter of checking the NSS adjustment. If you put it in park and hold the key in the START position while slowly shifting from PARK to NEUTRAL and it starts somewhere in between, then the NSS is mis-adjusted.

If it doesn't start until it drops into NEUTRAL, you have a bad switch. It is easily checked with an ohmmeter to confirm this. And yes, new parts can be bad.