2018 Chevrolet Traverse: battery drain or dead battery

Filed Dec 24, 2025 · Electrical · MI

After shifting from drive or other gear to park, vehicle will not register vehicle is in the "park" gear. Vehicle is in the "park" gear and will not move but is not turning off. "Shift to park" is displayed on the display. Vehicle will not shutdown the display system and keeps beeping. The issues worsens over time and continues to drain the battery. The vehicle is kept on.

Filed Dec 22, 2025 · PA

When the gear shift is in the park position, the system does not recognize it so the car doesn’t properly shut down; on occasion draining the battery. The shift to park problem has been present for 4 years. It has not drained the battery until this month.

Filed Sep 16, 2025 · Transmission · WY

Vehicle displays Shift to Park message and audible tone after arriving at destination and attempting to turn off vehicle. Shifter indicates the vehicle is in Park and the transmission gears display on main screen also indicates the vehicle is in Park; however the warning message and audible continue to occur. Numerous attempts to move shifter through the different positions P-D1 are required to get the warning message to clear and the audible tone to stop. It has rapidly gotten worse in a matter of two weeks and I’m concerned that it will continue to get worse until I am no longer able to clear it leading to a dead battery, as well as other potential powertrain problems. A recent class action settlement unfortunately does not provide any relief to me for this known safety issue which already has a large number of the federal safety agency complaints filed pertaining to this powertrain issue. Given the number of complaints filed, I would urge the federal safety agency to force GM to issue a recall for this safety issue.

Filed Jan 22, 2025 · Transmission · 111,000 miles · MO

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact stated that while parking the vehicle, the gear shifter was shifted into park(P); however, the “Shift to Park” message was displayed. The contact was unable to turn off the vehicle and left the vehicle running until the battery died. The vehicle needed to be jumpstarted the next day. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The contact related the failure to Technical Service Bulletin: PIT5616 (Vehicle Displays Shift to Park Message On DIC When In Park); however, the vehicle was not covered under the TSB. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact to file a complaint with the federal safety agency Hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 111,000.

Filed Jul 23, 2024 · Electrical · MD

This concerns a defective transmission control (shifter) assembly. The defective shifter assemblies prevent the vehicles from detecting when the driver places the car in “Park.” As a result, the vehicle goes into accessory mode and one cannot shut off or lock the vehicle, the instrument cluster displays a “Shift to Park” message even though the gear shifter is already in “Park,” and the battery drains. Because one cannot reliably turn off their vehicles when reaching their destination, the Defect substantially impairs the vehicles’ ability to provide safe and reliable transportation. Shifter assemblies are not expected replacement or maintenance parts and absent a defect should not require replacement. Nonetheless, GM had knowledge of the defect and GM fails to repair the GM known Defect. Chevrolet service department has confirmed the defect.

Filed Dec 8, 2021 · Transmission · OH

Vehicle does not turn off...gives a "Shift To Park" notification even though the vehicle is in park. Play with the shifter and sometimes it will turn off. Restart engine and turn off again sometimes helps but usually has to be done multiple times. If left as is the issue will drain the battery. Cannot leave vehicle in this condition. Late for appointments. Reported issue to dealership on day the 36 mo. warranty was up and they said not in and diagnosed. This is a known issue from multiple Traverse owners yet the car was not in the shop and diagnosed. Issue began 2/27/21 and was reported to dealer 3/1/21 first available open time of dealership service department. The want $207.xx to fix the problem...if the fix helps.

Filed May 5, 2021 · Electrical, Engine · 40,000 miles · FL

When shifting into park and attempting to turn off the car, 80% of the time the vehicle would not register that the car was in park and allow the vehicle to turn off. It would alarm & charm with a message to "shift to park". This is a known manufacturing issues with the chevrolet traverse, gmc acadias, and possibly other models of chevy/gmc. This is a major safety concern as there is no way to know if the vehicle is truly in park and can leave you in scary situations when you cannot turn off the car. We have also been stranded with a dead battery because the "shift to park" chime and message drained the battery. Chevrolet has provided their dealerships with bulletins in how to add a jumper harness and add/replace a switch in the gear shift assembly to correct the issue, but refuse to take accountability. I have had multiple service advisors admit they have had to fix numerous gear shifters and that this is a known issue. A recall needs to be issued on this problem as it is a safety concern for anyone affected. Please address! I am including my receipt on the service I had to pay for to fix this problem. Also an example of one of the technical bulletins chevrolet has sent their service department.

Filed Jan 26, 2020 · Electrical · 15,000 miles · NJ

For the past several months we have been having difficulty turning off the engine, with an error warning us to 'shift to park', when it is already in park position. This renders the driver unable to turn off the vehicle and will lead to battery drain. We brought the vehicle once again to lucas chevrolet service department on december 31st to fix this and were made aware that this is a known problem, not yet at the recall level. It has now been a month since the service department ordered the part needed to make the repair, assuming they even know what that is. This is absolutely unacceptable considering we were told the part would be delivered in just a few days.

Filed Jul 27, 2019 · Driver assistance, Electrical · 9,500 miles · OH

When I stop driving and put in park warning comes up on display "shift to park" it takes a little bit to get it to turn off , but if you dont see it you could have dead battery when get back in car.. This should be a recall , getting tired of always reshifting it every time I turn car off,