Why does my 2000 kia sportage keep dying when I into reverse?

Answer 1

Sounds like the wire between the backup light switch and the backup lights is shorted to ground--probably because the insulation on it wore off somewhere. When the switch turns on, the short causes all the power in the car to go straight to ground, and everything shuts down. If this is an automatic, do the RPMs drop some as you're shifting through reverse on the way from park to drive? If so, it's definitely the backup light circuit. The RPMs drop because the engine is actually dying for a brief second. When you get to neutral, the power comes back on and, because the engine is already turning, it starts firing again. If you want to prove this is what it is, crawl under the car with a Haynes manual for it, find the backup light switch on the transmission and unplug the backup lights from it, then put the car in reverse with the engine running. If it dies when the lights are hooked up and doesn't when they're not, you found the problem. You SOLVE the problem by either finding the place where the short is, cutting out the piece of bad wire and splicing in a new one (check where the wire crosses frame members first), or pulling new wires to the backup lights.