I have a 97 civic ex. I left my friends house today, and drove about 200 yards, and I heard this subtle sound, like i hit something with my car. Then something starts scraping, sounds like metal on metal. I get out and theres nothing dragging underneath or anything. The sound is there when the car moves, when its and gear and when its in neutral. I go back to his house to get a flashlight and take a better look but still i see nothing, but as i go to leave I heard this loud clunk, coming from the front of the car. Then the sound is gone. Also after i left his house he called me and told me i was leaking fluids. When i got home I looked at where it was leaking. The leak is coming from right behind the front passenger wheel, about an inch towards the inside of the car, and the fluid appears to be oil but im not sure. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT WRONG WITH IT!!

 

Do you see a bunch of thick, nasty grease under there too? The only thing near the wheel that could "leak" is your axle boot, or steering rack.

My money is on the axle.

 

no its way behind the axel.

 

Yea... i was working on my car (lowering the GC's a lil more ) and i realized that i had some like oilish slim on the inside of the fender liner..

i looked around and it looked like the axel boot was kinda covered in it too but i couldnt tell.... and it didnt fell like it had a leak or nothing

 

If you supplied pictures your question would be answered shortly.

 

When the boot rips, grease and crap fling all over the place.

The only thing that's farther back is the a/c drain. Find out what fluid is leaking and get back to us. Oil has a distinctive smell.

 

might wanna check your tranny fluid level, when my Input shaft bearing came apart...thats kinda what it sounded like....besides the metal draggin sound..haha

 

Can you take a pic of where it's coming from? Or be more specific please. See if it's tranny fluid, tranny fluid has a very different smell then oil

 

how do I go bout checking my tranny level?

 

If you have a manual tranny there's no dipstick. You have to get under the car and remove the drain plug, then stick your finger in there and see if the fluid is near the top. If not, it's low.

However, I'm willing to bet that as soon as you stick your head under the car, you'll be able to ID your leak.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TwoKSiR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can you take a pic of where it's coming from? Or be more specific please. See if it's tranny fluid, tranny fluid has a very different smell then oil</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah if there is actual HMT fluid in it...most people use 5w30 or 10w30 motor oil

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DecentCivicZ6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

yeah if there is actual HMT fluid in it...most people use 5w30 or 10w30 motor oil</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ya that's true. I guess I'm just used to the nasty smell of my tranny fluid because that's all I use.

I know on a b series the drain plug is a 17mm and is to the left of where drive shaft comes out of the tranny on the passenger side. Like he said, stick your finger in that hole and it if it's full it should be level with that hole.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DecentCivicZ6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

yeah if there is actual HMT fluid in it...most people use 5w30 or 10w30 motor oil</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oil in the tranny should be MUCH cleaner than the oil that comes out of the engine, and it has a different smell to it. Kinda like it just came out of the bottle, unlike the "burnt" smell of oil from an engine.

Yes, I'm strange.

 

yeah better check the level...if thats the problem...sucks ***...gotta pull entire tranny apart..and pay like $50 a bearing from HONDA...its fun tho...also might have damage forks...believe thats what they are called....the claws that hold the gears together...mine is aluminum and they were all broken...had a spare tranny i used the one outa that..i was gonna use that tranny casing to...but it was from a non vtec engine so all the bearings were VERY small compared to the vtec tranny. so I stayed with the vtec tranny with bigger bearings.

Edit:topshotta..... well...that kinda depends..most people i knwo do not change tranny fluid much at all..and when mine came out...it looked like metalic paint...it had SO much metal flakes in it....and my boys h22 accord, when we changed his clutch, his also was very dirty.

 

Hey to each his own.

 

Were you shifting gearswhen you heard the original sound?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DecentCivicZ6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah better check the level...if thats the problem...sucks ***...gotta pull entire tranny apart..and pay like $50 a bearing from HONDA...its fun tho...also might have damage forks...believe thats what they are called....the claws that hold the gears together...mine is aluminum and they were all broken...had a spare tranny i used the one outa that..i was gonna use that tranny casing to...but it was from a non vtec engine so all the bearings were VERY small compared to the vtec tranny. so I stayed with the vtec tranny with bigger bearings.</TD></TR></TABLE>

the car shifts and drives fine, and the noise was still there when the car was outa gear. Could one of the brake pads come loose and grind against the rotor?

 

Go outside and check your brake fluid level.

 

it was fine when i checked it. The brakes didnt seen to be as strong either after it happened.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turnsignalandy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

the car shifts and drives fine, and the noise was still there when the car was outa gear. Could one of the brake pads come loose and grind against the rotor?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah when mine blew it also shifted fine still after that initial blow...i went to put it in, and it just wouldnt do **** then BOOOOM...my whole engine jumped in the mounts....and started driving fine...the only reason i found out, was when the input shaft broke...it made the input shaft not spin in a perfect circle and it ripped out the seal i believe in there, and was leaking fluid down on clutch, and coming outa the lil hole inthe pan on bottom of tranny/enigne

edit: it also cracked my tranny right near the final drive, it got jammed between final drive and casing and thats how it cracked it, but all the gearing looked perfect...just those aluminum claws, and bearings were all trashed from the small metal flakes rolling between the ***** ******* the bearing casing up..so i replaced them all. works like a charm now...i put a lil JBweld over the SMALLL crack, no leaks since..lol

 

ya but it still made the nois when the car was not in gear.

 

My buddys LS did the same thing when he took a chunk out of the ring gear. Not to bum you out but ya. You might be needing a new trans. Lucky for you d series trannys are cheap and easy to come by.

 

might just get a sx or cx tranny to save some gas in order to make up for the money it will cost me. ****** **** THIS IS GAY!!! only 83k miles on it too.

 

Sorry bro. Good luck. There easy to swap out atleast.

 

maybe its a sign from god, to swap in a b16 or LS