This is my first post on this forum although ive been lurking and using info from here for a while, but my car has had a unique problem that I need some opinions on.

today I picked up my car from a body shop after getting in a fender bender in a parking lot a couple weeks back (rear taillight was smashed and replaced). Once I arrived to the shop to pick up my ride, the body shop worker(a friend of mine) alerted me that the car was not starting. The car would just emit a long beep, the lights would turn on as I had just replaced the battery, but the gear selector was blank. He called a mechanic buddy to come check it out, and he ended up jumping the starter and the car turned on, he then told me my ignition switch must be replaced and I could get one for pretty cheap, however something was still not right. This is where it gets hectic.

I noticed my car wasn't pulling like it did, revving high but not getting much power, I also noticed it wasn't shifting, and the gear selector was blank. the engine temp read normal, however I saw a bit of what I presumed to be oil being burned and very light steam coming out of the engine bay that soon subsided. Not only this, but when entering manual mode and attempting to shift, nothing happened. I was able to take my car home in a single gear keeping revs around 3-3.5k which was high for the speeds I was at. after arriving home and shutting off the car, it will not start yet again

does anyone have a similar experience with this? I am completely lost and very spooked as I dont have the money for a new tranny. ive read this could be due to a faulty tranny temp sensor, but im not sure if that has to do with the ignition at all.

edit: forgot to add my check engine light and check AT light are both on. my car is at around 127k miles

 

Well in the last edit sentence you already answered your question.

Plug in an OBD2 scanner and see what the car is TELLING YOU THE PROBLEM IS These are very sophisticated computers that control modern cars, when something is wrong there is almost always an associated "diagnostic trouble code". You can reference the factory service manual to see what the possible problems are that's causing the DTC. Or post the code here and folks will typically give you a few things to troubleshoot.

 

Also, if these problems didn't exist when you dropped off the car at the body shop then you should NOT have accepted your vehicle. They could have taken the car out and blew up the transmission dikcing around for fun after hours, how would you know? Never accept the keys for a vehicle that is more broken than when you dropped it off at the shop.

 

SOLVED

update, I just found the problem myself.

the culprit ended up being a blown AT control fuse (located in fuse box behind the battery, 3rd fuse down in the right column) caused by what I expect to be some faulty wiring from the new taillight that was recently installed. after replacing the fuse the selector is back in action, and revving back up the way it always does

gonna take my ride back to the shop and have them recheck the wiring they did very soon.

AT check light gone, check engine one still there so ill deal with that when my OBD comes in the mail.