i have a 98 accord and yesterday i was taking the dash apart trying to get to the vents (another seperate issuse) anyway, i was done putting it back together and the last piece to reconnect was my clock with the hazard button. the car was on (not running but on) when i reconnected the two wire groups i knew right away... that was dumb. i tested the hazard button and it did not work. my turn signals work though so i thought big deal. then i tried going somewhere. car starts fine. but the check ingine light is on. my biggest immediate issue is that the car will not shift out of park. the brake feels stiff and it will not let me go anywhere. im pretty sure this is connected to my mistake but i dont know why or how to fix it. any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

start checking fuses.
From your description the shift interlock is without power.

 

check tom see if your brake lights are working. You may have blown the fuse. On most cars it is a safety feature that if your brake lights arent working you cant take it out of park.

 

It's actually a safety feature that doesn't let you shift into gear without standing on the brake. Reguired by US goverment...
Since it uses the brake light switch, a blown fuse can take it out.

 

hehe my old 91 Mustang would shift without standing on the brake.....

anyways I agree...sounds like you blew a fuse when hooking those wires back up with the car on

 

thanks for all the input. prob solved

 

Was it a fuse?

 

naw... i actually feel a little more dumb b/c it was a group of wires i forgot to reconnect. i had to disconnect them to get to a screw. then when i was putting all back together it slpped my mind and vision. sorry to waste your time when i could have just looked a little more... the wire group was in an odd location.

 

A cluster of ground wires attached to a screw in the metal structure? Yeah, that'll mess with a lot of strange things. We've all done stuff like that, whether we admit it or not...

 

^^ Absolutely! No need to apologize to us.
I've done stuff like that before and needed to apologize to people who were in earshot because of the stream of profanity that ensued because I couldn't figure out what was wrong.