ok soo. i finally got a battery for my 2000 kia sophia. and i started the car. it started up alright, but when i went to put it ino drive i had a hard time. seemed like it was stuck in park and i couldn't get it out of gear.
it was not like that when i last used the car 2 months ago.
anyway, i tried to get it out of park by using some force which i did manage to get it out of park to drive. but now cant get it back to park.
~~ i shut off the car an now i cant start it cause its stuck in gear i guess.
~~is there a way to manually put mit back in park under the hood like i usto in my old cutless? if not what should i do?. does anyone have a diagam where i can see what im sopostogo to or look at?

thanks
kem::.

Battery is in the way of the shifter linkage. Go under the hood and make sure that there is nothing in the way of the battery. I could not find the diagram of the gear position indicator however it looks like




It's going to be most likely underneath the battery (if you installed the battery wrong) and a result is trying to press past the battery when you try to move the shift lever. Take the battery out and then try moving the shifter, notice how it moves freely now? That's why.

Either you caught the battery cable on the shift cable like Bak said, OR the shift selector rod is seizing in the transmission case. It happens all the time to those, they even updated the shift rod to take an extra o-ring. For now, you can spray some PB Blaster in there and work it free, but you will need to replace it and clean the corrosion out eventually.

the rod getting stuck is most likely your problem. when i had my first sephia(it was a 2000) this was a problem that kept happening untill enough visits to the service department got us a new shifter rod.

hmm.. is this an update that if i bring it to kia i can get it done for free??..
~~ ok. ill take a lookj near the battery top see.. cause i did jus replace a battery as well.. could deff be the issue.. ill keep you informed.. thanks guys!

I don't think there was a recall for this issue, I think that's just how it rolls...literally.

ya i took apart the shifter int he car. evrything loks ok there . everyting is moving freely from park to 2 but i dont think the rod under the hood is moving?.. i thiink i might have broke the wire when i jammed it out of park the 1st time. how much does it cost to replace the wire if thats the issue?
~ also, i tryed to manually move the rod. it got alittle play in it but not much and it does look all corroded??.. i donno imm gonna have to get it towed to a shop cause i dont know how to mess with that styuff.... just hope its not the wire cause it just looks like a *#'^@ty job to do.. soo theyll prolly bang me $$ when i go to get it fixed.,

The shift cable isn't awful to replace, but the shift selector rod involves removing part of the valvebody inside the transmission. There's alot of KIA dealers that won't do the job anymore, as they won't get paid to repair an auto trans under warranty anymore. KIA insists on installing a reman transmission for this issue on the few cars still under warranty. The parts are still availible, so it shouldn't be such a big deal to find someone to do it.