AFAccord

Alright, so I've gone and broken something... Headin down the highway, come up to a redlight and stop. Put the car in first, and when the light turns green, I ease out on the clutch. I punch it a little before shifting into second (up to 4K rpms) and the motor just sings up into the heavens while something sounding like a blender with marbles in it draws everyone's attention. Something broke... Now the car is back at my house, and I'm trying to figure out what actually went wrong. It suuure seems like a CV joint or axle, but they appear to have remained in place. What else should I check, and how? There has been no clicking or popping previous to this happening, so it's all just confusing me. The tranny slips into each gear fine, so it couldn't be that. Could it be the clutch? pressure plate? flywheel? or am I just looking at an axle break? At the scene, When I tried to engage the clutch in gear, it did the crunching sound and bogged the engine down. now that it's sitting at my house, it still crunches, but spins freely. Car has around 140K miles on it and everything is original. I've included a sound clip below, so take a listen. Let me know If I've left anything out...


This is me slowly engaging the clutch while in gear.
http://afaccord.com/stuff/broken.mp3

i20ar

sounds like crap that sucks.... i forgot what that sound was it sounds liek it has to do with your transmition i think.. it sorta sounds like grinding.. like gears almost.. maybe the gears arent lining up correctly ..

AFAccord

It's not gears grinding. I can let the clutch out all the way, and it just sits there and "skips." It almost seems like a broken axle spinning and just skipping on what ever it's touching.

i20ar

oh.. i thought the car still ran... yea then its probably broken axle have you getten uder the car yet? can you tell what side its on?

LL2009

its sound like you broke your preasure plate that happen to my friends civic it sound it just like that but you wont realy find out whats wrong intill you remove
that trnny out it could be that or the cluth .

AFAccord

I cant pick one side or another that it might be coming from while I'm in the car. That's what leads me to believe it's something with the clutch.

P_Adams

Will the car move at all?

... dinner calls, I'll be back shortly


P

AFAccord

My speedo still works lol. Would that narrow anything down? like by knowing where the speed sensor is?

AFAccord

Not a bit. Its' like each gear is neutral, except for the crunching.

P_Adams

The sound I heard at
http://afaccord.com/stuff/broken.mp3

is the sound of a blown Constant Velocity joint. If you've a friend brave enough he can look with a flashlight at each axle while you let out the clutch (WITH THE E"BRAKE APPLIED). The broken joint will be identified by the axle rotating, while the corresponding wheel doesn't.

P

AFAccord

SWEeeeeeeeet... I'll definately check that out tonight. I've never replaced them on this car, so how much does that run? $100 bucks?

P_Adams

Prices will vary. In most cases this failure is addressed by purchasing a replacement axle assembly thru places like AutoZone, Parts America, and other such parts Palaces - if you're capable of doing it yourself.
If you can't (or don't have the facilities (who has access to that stuff on an Air Force Base* ???), I'd leave it to a local Indy Honda shop.
It requires lifting the car, splitting at least one ball joint, a few gymnastics and a few special tools (Ball joint fork, etc.) Oh, and a repair manual.

Let's confirm that we're correct about the failure first.

P

* "excuse me, could you move that F-16 please? I've got to use the lift" LOL

AFAccord

LOL actually we have this thing called an Auto Hobby Shop, or an Auto Skills Center where we can rent lifts and they lend out any tool u can think of. All for about $3 bucks an hour. They even have mechanics on duty to help us out. Just shows how helpful the Air Force really is when it comes to its people.

P_Adams

Cool!
Surprisingly progressive for the military.
My son's stationed at Fort Polk, La and is readying for deployment to Kuwait*. With the Army, if you're an N.B.C. Specialist they'll have you working on your own vehicle (Fox Recon that is).
Sounds like you've got it handled.

P

* unless they send him to that other war zone New Orleans.

AFAccord

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by P_Adams &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">* unless they send him to that other war zone New Orleans.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep the TDY taskings are coming down as we speak...

P_Adams

Thats' a scary thought, four military branches all operating helo's within the confines of a dead city. God help the kids manning both C&C and Air Traffic Control. In fact, bless them all. They're doing a great job under hidious conditions.

Sorry for hijacking the thread......

P

AFAccord

Ok. So the passenger axle spins when it's in gear. When I'm getting this replaced, is it routine to replace them in pairs? If I only replace one, should I expect the other to break soon also?

P_Adams

There's no reason why, unless you find it damaged. Most times the boot (looks like a bellows) which seals the Constant Velocity Joint fails (cracks) and allows dirt (and ultimate failure) into the joint.
Replace the effected axle and inspect the left. No cracks/splits; button it up.

P

AFAccord

Thanks again!