This is in regards to a 2004 Pontiac Montana van. Once in a while, the vehicle can be shifted out of park without having your foot on the brake, either with engine off or running. Events leading up to the failure are normal. Situation 1: get in the van, put key in ignition, turn key to run position (not start position). Do not put foot on the brake pedal. Engine is not running. Try to put the van in gear (from park to reverse - R). Sometimes, it is possible to put the van into any gear even though the brake pedal is not depressed. Situation 2: same as above except that engine is started normally using the ignition key. Once the van is running, try to put the van in gear without pressing on the brake pedal. Sometimes, the van will go into gear even though the engine is running and the brake is not applied. This seems to be a randomly occurring problem. I cannot find a pattern of when this happens versus when it operates properly (that is, will not shift into gear without the brake applied). I have been testing this because I have 2 small children and don't want them to be able to put the van in gear. I have been trying to prevent an accident by never leaving the keys where the kids could get to them and also applying the parking brake so that the van won't move in case the kids ever did try to "drive" the van.

- Kokomo, IN, USA