As the title says, my car was broken into and rendered undrivable while the kid tried stealing it. Had the tow show up, he hooks it up and gives it a hard pull with it in park and the ebrake on, his buddy told him to stop to which I sighed in relief, but he proceeds to disengage the ebrake and pull my car with the transmission in park onto the flat bed, the front wheels were literally locked in place. My question is, can this damage my car?
Edit: it’s a 2022 Kia Forte, it has an immobilizer and the ignition cylinder is broken, that’s why it got towed.
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Damn a 22? Those have the easiest shift lock release. Even if the battery won’t turn on pop that little plastic piece above the “P” symbol on the shift selector. Shove a key or screwdriver in there and you can put it in neutral.
I know! I was going to say something but I saw him grab a screwdriver and get in the driver seat so I assume that’s what he did, next thing I hear is the tow chain pulling and my cars tires screeching like all hell and I was like what the fuck just happened?
This sounds like incompetence from the tow guy, there are ways to put it in neutral.
If the tires were still locked up (or one turning backward) while it went up and you didn’t hear a big snap you should be fine.
He was honestly super nice! But that doesn’t go a long way if you don’t know what you’re doing and possibly damaged my car.
Can it? Yes, it can.
This idiot should have taken 2 seconds to look at the shifter to see if there was a manual release which would allow the transmission to be put in neutral regardless if ignition.
Even if he didn’t see the manual release, a 5 second google search would reveal this
https://www.youcanic.com/manually-release-shifter-out-park-kia-forte-2018-2022/
Dragging a vehicle in park can damage the transfer case and/or transmission.