davidluko

First, some background info: I recently flew over a curb and bent the suspension - basically everything on the driver's front and the driver's trailing and lower arms. The driver inner and outer tie rods bent but I think the subframe and rack were fine. The car was undriveable and got towed home.

Anyway, my question. I have everything put back together and something is burning oil. The oil pan was dented a little bit but it doesn't look like it's leaking enough to actually be able to leak enough out to burn.

How likely is it that the accident caused damaged to the transmission? How much play are the axles supposed to have, in and out (from driver to passenger side basically)? The only thing I can think of is that oil might be leaking out where one of the axles goes in (well, tranny fluid). When I jacked the car up and let it spin in gear it looked like the axles and wheels were 'bouncing up and down' but I didn't notice anything while driving (everything feels weird of course, cause the alignment is way off). When I drive it I notice is seems harder to put the car into gear, too notchy. I did fill it up with OEM tranny fluid to the proper level, there was no visible external damage to the transmission, and it holds fluid just fine as far as I can tell, when it's not running.

I looked all around with a flashlight and couldn't find any noticeable source of a leak but there were little oil splatters in the VSS area, on the rear motor mount and its bracket, in the charcoal canister area, and on the rack and lower tie bar.

Cliffs: hit a curb, bent a lot of suspension, now the car leaks and burn oil from somewhere unknown; what should I check and what is the possibility of tranny damage causing a leak?

superacecardriver

damaged carrier bearings, jack up the front wheel and move the axles around up and down on each end. Both hands. If you have excessive play in either axles your going to have to repair or replace. Thats just what I would assume from what you make it sound like. I think using good judgement without experience you would be able to tell if the axles moved excessively. Maybe just damaged the axles seals. Check those.

ps does your trans fluid look like motor oil? lol? should be like a redish tint not black or motor oil color. haha. j.k Is your trans fluid low? Is your oil level low? Losing oil? losing trans fluild?

davidluko

I tried moving the axles and it feels like the driver's axle might be wobbling too much but that's where it meets the intermediate shaft, not at the tranny.

There wasn't enough oil splattered to tell if it was motor oil or tranny fluid, and the tranny fluid is pretty clear so it wouldn't be easy to tell the difference. The motor oil is new too so it's light colored.

I haven't checked if it's lost tranny fluid because it's such a pain, pulling the fill bolt and everything, but I will in a minute. I just took it for another drive and it feels even worse going into gears so I'm definitely thinking it's the transmission but I can't find where from. The seal between the two halves of the case looks fine where I could see, and neither axle side looks like it's leaking, at least not enough to be noticable from a quick drive.

davidluko

I just wiggled the axles and it seems like the passenger side (where no suspension was bent) also wiggles too much, but I have no other car to compare to. When I wiggle the pass. side it sounds like something in the differential area inside the transmission is moving/clinking a little bit.

superacecardriver

seems like the carrier bearings, have someone check it out for you at a shop. Make sure they know what there looking at to.

davidluko

Looks like it was the oil pan gasket, near the back of the engine. I guess the oil got so high up (near the head and on top of the tranny) because it was being flung up by the axles. I don't smell any burning anymore though and I checked the tranny fluid level and put about 1/8th of a bottle extra after it started leaking out of the fill hole and it shifts perfect now.

teg_duty_08

umm, that makes no sense. the engine oil has nothing to do with the transmission fluid. They are two completely seperate fluids. You put the engine oil in through the head (and it drains down) and you put transmission into the side of the transmission, just abouve where the axle goines into the case on the passenger side. I just dont understand this at all. haha.

davidluko

Congratulations Mr. Obvious, what are you trying to say?

lmike6453

If the bottom of the oil pan experienced a severe dent, I would replace it if it were leaking oil. Another thing to consider is if the oil pickup was damaged=not good.

As far as the trans, is it auto or manual?

I doubt that the trans itself is damaged before the chassis where the upper trans mount is bent. The trans casing is very thick. I would check axels and shift linkage first.

davidluko

The oil pan did get dented but not too bad, it's more of a wide shallow dent than a small deep dent if that makes sense. The oil pickup was untouched. It was enough to make the oil pan gasket go bad though.

As far as the rough shifting, I'm not sure what was causing that but I checked the fluid level, which was fine, and then added about 1/10th of a bottle extra and now it shifts like it used to. I was worried the axle on the side where the suspension was hit might have done damage to bearings or the differential. Oh and it is a manual.

I've been driving the car for a couple of days now and it drives fine, aside from the fact that it needs an alignment really bad.

lmike6453

That is a good point that the diff could be cracked. Lucky for you, you would know for sure if it was shot. If the oil pan wasn't dented deeply, I wouldn't worry about it.