I am sure you know this but remember to pull up the nylon central shaft before fitting the gear knob.

Yes. Very important to pull up that white nylon shaft in the gear shifter before fitting the knob while pressing it's lever in.

I am sure I now understand my gears I think


Gear Lever after renewing the Spring

a. Initially the lever in P is locked
b. Fob docked. Lever in P is locked
c. Fob docked. Lever in P start/stop button pressed. Lever is locked
d. Fob docked. Lever in P foot brake pedal is pushed. Lever is unlocked, start/stop button is pressed engine starts.
Lever is unlocked. With the foot still on the brake all gears are accessible with no lock on the lever. Foot off brake, car will move forward or backward depending on the chosen gear apart from N of course
The engine can be stopped in any gear by pressing the start/stop button but a warning shows in the info box that the car can only be started in N or P.

With the engine started and the lever in P pushing the brake overrides the lever lock

If your spring is fine, then you have not installed your gear head correctly. Even with the brake depressed, you need the gear head lever pressed to be able to move to either R, N or D. And you need the lever pressed to move from N to R even with the brake pressed. It won't move otherwise.

With my car when going forward in Drive I can change without pressing the gear lever to N and then to R a loud warning beep is emitted and R shows on the info screen but the box remains in Neutral gear.

My previous post show what mine is doing. I am a simple person with brain cells dying rapidly partly because of age and partly because of the wife, anyway I couldn’t digest your post properly but if you look at my post showing the positions and whether they are locked or not and your is the same then you have it right. 😃😃

You can change D to N without using the lever but not from N to R.

Apologies for not coming through clearly. English is not my native tongue. 😊

The engine can only be turned off when it is in P. A ding and display message let's you know. It can't be switched off in neutral. If you can move freely, without pressing the lever from N to R or straight through from from D to R, the gear head has not been fitted right

This being said, I have a MY13 SD4 HSE, which does not have a fob that needs to be inserted. Maybe there is something different in it's set up.

I say if you've fixed your FL2 to your liking, then all is good. 😊

The gear selector and the changes are purely mechanical and that lever is a safety feature, if you try to select gears ignoring the interlock that is when the electronic/software throws a wobbler. Of course you can always get a manual box something I prefer or maybe a DSG.