Honda Car Forum

I recently heard about most automatic cars since the 80's having a 'neutral safety switch' or something, usually located on the driver's floorboard, that can be activated to put the car in neutral when it can't be started. I have a 2003 Honda Accord LX. where would I find such a thing?

the only one I've heard of is to prevent the car from starting in gear, and is located in the shifter linkage and has been on cars since the 50's

I have seen them on automatic and standard cars as well. I have found them on steering columns, shift linkages, even built into transmissions

a lot of times neutral safety/ backup light switch is located on the transmission. i think what you are thinking of is the brake light switch which is located on the brake pedal.

All automatic trans cars built, since 1946, have a "Neutral Safety Switch". It isn't used to put the car in Neutral but to keep the car from being started in drive or reverse. The switch only allows the starting circuit to work when the transmission is in Park or Neutral. The switch is sometimes located at the transmission and sometimes on the shift linkage. Depends on the car. If you have a good battery but the starter won't turn then the Neutral Safety Switch is one possible cause.

sorry but I think you have 2 entirely different pieces of equipment confused...The neutral safety switches have been available since the late 50's they make it so automatic transmission equiped cars will only start when the gear selector/shifter is only in Park or Neutral... Hence it will not start in Reverse, Drive, 2nd or 1st... this was mandated as a safety feature by NHTSA (National Hiway Traffic Safety Association) to prevent a vehicle from starting and then immediately starting moving and running over people or objects...in the 80s some vehicles with floor shift automatics had a shifter lock override which made it so the shifter could be moved into to neutral in case of emergency without the key in the on position... this button is rectangular an found at the base of the shifter and is usually clearly labeled as suchlook closely it should be labeled...although someone could have removed the label... (label and factory decal removal often happen in my area where non english reading/speaking hispanics remove these to clean up the appearance of their cars & trucks)Most Floor shift automatics in the 80s had a shifter lock that if the ignition key wasn't turned the floor shifter would not be allowed to shift out of Park.... The Button in question allows this to happen... I recently repaired a floor shift 84 Buick Skylark with this issue of a broken piece in the console making it so the key tumbler wouldn't turn..Walt