Dislodged CV axle after tight turn?

[mclasser]

My buddy's 01 automatic Civic made a loud clunk after pulling into a tight parking spot and wouldn't move in any gear afterwards. He had the car towed home and asked me to come check it out. It makes a grinding noise in every gear except park, and won't move when pressing the gas. The engine sounds fine, no CEL, no fluid leaks. The grinding seems to coming from the wheel wells. The car also rolls in park unless you set the e-brake. The tow driver said it sounds like a busted CV axle. It was dark so I couldn't see much with my phone flashlight. We checked out some YT videos and they seem to match the noise. Buddy said the axles are original at 210K miles. He said the tranny runs fine and he didn't hear any abnormal noises leading up to this. I asked him to take some pics of the offending part(s) when he's at the shop so I can post them here.

 

[Kira]

Whatever serves as a yoke might have broke (couldn't resist).

The open differential would have the busted side spinning fast upon revving the engine, no?

A RockAuto fix?

 

[mk378]

Look at where the axles go into the transmission. If one merely dislodged there will be a big gap between the CV joint and the transmission case, and transmission fluid coming out. More likely one of the outer joints has broken though. You can check those one at a time by lifting the car so that wheel is off the ground. Put the transmission in park or in any gear if manual and see if the tire can rotate but the axle doesn't.

 

[eljefino]

Dodge K-cars used to do this when the motor mounts were shot. The engine would stretch too far away and pop the axles out.

 

[dlayman]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Dodge K-cars used to do this when the motor mounts were shot. The engine would stretch too far away and pop the axles out.


My guess is a similar scenario. If it got this bad, there should have been some symptoms of the mount failing before it finally went out completely. I would ask the driver about that.

 

[artificialist]

I had this happen once. I had just installed 2 reman CV axles in a 1990s Honda Accord, but because good cores were in short supply for that car, they popped out of the transmission.

 

[Astro14]

The axle is toast. The CV joint broke (since it was a tight turn, this is likely what happened). Time for a new axle.

 

[supton]

Same happened to my wife, 2001 Civic but with a stick, around 100k I think. I don't know what actually broke, wasn't able to work on cars at the time so it was towed to the dealer, and an axle was replaced. It wasn't worse than that, not a diff or anything like that.

 

[Evili]

More than likely an outer CV joint has failed.

Set the parking brake and block both rear wheels, ahead and behind both tires. Start the engine and put it in Drive or Reverse. Look underneath.

You'll see one of the axles rotating, but the wheel will be stationary. That will be your broken axle. Given the car's mileage with the original axles, it'd be an excellent idea to replace them on both sides.