I have been stuck in park for a couple days now.
After the initial freak out, I figured out what the little button was next to the shifter. But why do I have to keep pressing this down to shift out of park???

um, yeah, you need to get that fixed. i have the same vehicle and you shouldnt have to be pressing anything to get out of park except for the brake.

you can check your brake light switch, which also acts as your safety switch to let you shift out of park. That is just one of the places to check.

I fixed it! All it was was a brake light fuse!
God bless the intranet!

Thanks everyone!

Yep, that's how Toyota designed it. If your brake light fuse blows, the tranny will not shift out of park...unless you activate the manual override.

that happened on my Honda van that is why I suggested the brake system.. Glad it is fixed..

Now that you've found the problem, it is time to track down whatever caused the fuse to blow. Fuses don't just randomly go bad, so keep some spares handy, as this will definitely happen again unless the short causing the fuse to blow is found and repaired.

Have you had a trailer hooked up recently? Thats how it happened to me, there was a short in the running lights on the trailer and once I connected it to my wiring harness it blew my fuses.

Most lighting issues I see on trucks that come into the shop are caused by trailers. I'd check the wiring at the tow hitch as well if it isn't a factory installed piece.

THATS IT! I recently purchased a utility trailer. I have been doing some light towing for a week or so.
Why would the wiring harness blow a fuse?

Because you either have a loose wire or a bare wire somewhere that is creating a short. Just start tracing wires until you find it. Check the lights on the trailer as well.

Mine would occasionally not shift out of Park and all the traction control lights would come on. It was the brake light switch ("stop switch assembly").

To replace:
1) Depress tab on blue plug and pull out.
2) Twist switch counter clockwise and pull down
3) Push new switch up and twist clockwise (I didn't replace the brown nut)
4) Put blue plug back in.

Viola fixed my problem in 2 minutes. Dealer had the balls to quote me $120 in labor to replace it.

You might also want to verify that your trailer wiring harness is compatible with that on your 4Runner. I once had replaced the one on my trailer only to find out that one wire was not configured correctly therefore blowing my brake light fuse and rendering me helplessly in the dreaded stuck in park mode. IJS.

I'm not Christian but god bless a forum member that knows how to search for an answer.

Wouldn't be fair to utilize this forum without thanking the contributors for the answer I needed which saved me a bunch of money, even if the answer was I was being a dumb---. I was working on some wiring last night under the console. When I was trying to plug all the plugs back into the console, I tried to shift it out of park to move the shifter out of the way....from the passenger side. I managed to get all,the plugs replugged, put everything back together, and got on this thread to,find out what was going on.

Duh. Yes, there is at least one person that checked this thread who had to be reminded you have to press the brake,to shift out of park.

Thanks guys. Cheapest and easiest fix ever.