hi, i recently got my car back from a police department after sitting for 9 months, i noticed the battery was dead at first so i changed the battery & it started driving sluggish. i remember before it was gone, i change all my essential maintenance for the car(oil, breaks, rotors, spark plugs etc. Car Has 220K + Mileage Engine is strong car is maintained well.

my issue now is that i noticed that my dashboard doesn’t read how fast i go & gas gauge moves (essentially nothing works on the dashboard except the buttons to turn up lights & change the middle screen etc) ,

i confirmed it could be an issue from the box behind the radio missing (police took the box out sabotaging the car sadly) & also hence i drove it for two days so far & for some reason my car don’t wanna drive or reverse unless i full press on the gas,

im just tryna confirm is the reason for the car not accelerating correctly after a while of driving is because of the box or is it essentially low transmission fluid or a bigger issue ? never touched the transmission fluid also

i took the bcm out to see if it was wet but it was dry i didn’t open it up didn’t wanna mess anything up but can someone confirm the issue. many sources said it could be a faulty transmission also & im just tryna do everything to maintain the car.

 

Whilst I will not ask why the car was in the custody of- and "sabotaged" by- the local bob for such a period of time, it seems to me that if they "damaged" the car- for whatever reason- they should be liable for repair. Though I am sure there is some hidden BS policy that "shields" them from such. I'd find out what your rights are in that circumstance and jurisdiction.

That said, based on your symptoms it seems there is a issue with the Unified Meter/ AC amplifier. This is a white, rectangular plastic box that is mounted on the AV headunit:
If the UMAC is "missing" then find one from a local pull-a-part yard or eBay and plug that in (assuming the connectors are not damaged). If the UMAC is there, make sure the correct connectors are plugged into it. There are two connectors marked with yellow tape. These get plugged into the amp. It is very easy to mix up connectors back there once the AV headunit is removed.

Perhaps they thought the UMAC was some sort of event recorder?

Please keep us updated on how you make out.

 

update: thank you so much bud after purchasing the Av head unit , it got fixed from the dashboard settings

problem two now the issue is my transmission, the code is given is p0500 people are saying it could be low on fluid or it can be the speed sensor located inside the valve body by the transmission. i’m getting hard shifting & my “ drive sport mode “ automatically cuts into drive after 5 mins into a drive, it revs high but does not change gear. gonna go do a flush & drain & see whats the issue is, but i also wanna know is my transmission cooked internally or that all depends on what a mechanic would determine ?

 

P0500 could also just be one of the wheelspeed sensors, you have one on each corner of the car. The fronts are connected to the knuckles and the rears are on the diff, each are held in by a 10mm bolt. Pretty easy to swap out and aftermarket sensors are dirt cheap.