P272C: Park Pawl Motor Control Circuit
What to do
Always apply the parking brake when you park — do not rely on P. The car may not be able to engage or confirm the park lock. When parking, come to a full stop, apply the parking brake, and only then select P; doing it in that order takes the vehicle's weight off the park mechanism and is worth the habit on a slope. Get it diagnosed promptly.
What this code means
The park pawl motor control circuit has a fault.
The park pawl is the only thing physically stopping a parked car from rolling away, and shift-by-wire made it an electrical component.
It is a steel tooth that drops into a toothed wheel on the output shaft. On a car with a mechanical linkage, moving the lever to P pushes it there through a cable and the driver feels it engage. On shift-by-wire there is no linkage — the lever is a switch, and a motor moves the pawl. Which means the car has to know the pawl engaged, and has to tell the driver when it did not.
That is why these codes matter more than their part cost suggests. A pawl that has not engaged leaves the car held only by the parking brake, and on a slope by nothing at all if the brake is also electric and has not applied.
A control circuit fault means the module cannot drive the motor reliably, which on shift-by-wire is a failure of the only path between the driver's selection and the gearbox. Expect the car to refuse to leave P, or to refuse to enter it — both of which are the system failing safe.
Check the connector and harness before the motor. The assembly sits on the transmission where it takes heat, vibration and road spray, and its connector is a common point of failure.
Use the parking brake every time while this is stored, and do not assume the car is held by P.
Likely causes
Start here
- Corroded or loose connector · specialist
- Faulty transmission range selector motor · specialist
- Damaged wiring harness · specialist
Less common
- Seized or obstructed park mechanism · specialist
- Faulty transmission control module · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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