So I just purchased the car today, I had another post with some questions but I figured I'd make a new one with this issue.
97 civic ex auto 177000 miles bone stock, rpms won't go past 1500, barely starts, rough really low idle but stays running.
the car was stolen and the PO thought it was raced, but ran bullet proof before this and was maintained well, I got a telephone book sized folder with receipts.
so I was trying to see what would happen if I tried to drive the car, or even just putting it in gear to see what happens and the car started to lurch forward when I put it in reverse so I dropped it down to netrual and still pulled forward. But would die as it lurch or if I keep my foot on the brake it would die after 2-3 seconds. The car is parked up an incline so no way should it go forward in netrual.
no cel
what could is be? I'm pretty stumped but I'm guessing major damage inside the tranny or the control module for the tranny is fried

any help is much appreciated.

 

Recent cars have gone fully electronic about shifting gears, but that car still has mostly mechanical controls. There is a mechanical cable from the shift lever to a lever on the transmission that selects a gear. Likely it is not working.

As for the engine barely running, it could have a skipped timing belt or one or more bad cylinders.

 

so the cable isn't working the gear selector on the tranny right but even when I physically put the Trans in netrual( on the transmission itself) the car still pulls forward when I start it.
I'm not to sure I want to replace it with another auto, or do a manual swap.