When I put the car in drive, I hear a vacuum leak from the push button area. If I put it in low first, then drive, it goes away. The parking brake release stopped functioning and i checked the hose connections; main line goes to the shifter unit, another goes from that to the parking brake vacuum canister.
When the parking brake release fails, it fails because the vacuum diaphram ruptures. The hiss you're hearing is from the failed diaphram.
Just cap off the vacuum hose where it connects to the release. It won't affect anything else
negatively. The hiss will go away, and your idle will improve.
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