Loud, mechanical scraping noise when the transmission is shifted from R to P.

I'm north of Dayton, OH. My daughter is a college student up in Cleveland. She has a 1998 Saab 900SE, 2.0 liter w/ turbo.

A week ago the battery on her friend's car died. He had a pair of jumper cables, and used her car to provide a jump.

Afterwards she drove home. And that’s when something bad happened:

1) All of the electrical displays inside the car went out.
2) When she shifted the transmission from reverse to park, and loud, mechanical scraping noise can be heard.

So yesterday I went up there to help her move back home. I checked every fuse, and all were good. I started the car. Alternator was fine (14 V). All electricals inside the car were fine. No loud scraping noise when shifting transmission from reverse to park. So I thought everything was O.K. When we got ready to leave, the symptoms came back: all of the electrical stuff inside the car were out, and loud, mechanical scraping noise can be heard when the transmission is shifted from reverse to park.

We didn't drive it home; the car is still up in Cleveland. This week I am going to rent a car trailer and bring it home.

Any ideas on what's wrong?

Resolved!


This is my daughter's car.


I noticed that, when I started the car, the ignition switch would stay in the start position after starting; it would not spring back to the run position. I manually rotated it back to the run position. And everything was fine.


However, when she started the car, she didn't notice this. This meant the starter was engaged the whole time, and explains the grinding noise and loss of power in the instrument console.


So... any advice on how to replace the ignition switch?


Thanks