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?

 

Update: both axles feel like they're wiggling too much at the transmission, but I have no other car to compare to and I'm not sure what 'normal' would be. When I wiggle the passenger axle it sounds like the differential area inside the transmission is moving a little bit and making a little clinking noise.

 

Did you replace the axles? my guess would be the the inner ujoint on the axle is damaged, id also replace the axle oil seals

Number 10

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...ISSION+HOUSING


And number 12

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...CLUTCH+HOUSING

 

The axles were not replaced. I had my dad who used to be a mechanic take a look at how much the axles wiggle and he says it's normal. I was also thinking axle seals but there is none leaking from either side where the axles meet the tranny. I'm starting to think it might be an oil leak from the engine, but then that doesn't explain why the shifting feels rough.

 

Axles wiggling is normal??? I'm not a Honda tech but I am pretty sure the axles are not supposed wiggle.

As for the shifting, have you checked the shift linkage?

You definitely may have done damage to the transmission/differential.

Check the power fluid level, maybe leak is in power steering system, with that kind of damage to suspension it is possible a seal has gone, check steering rack. 94

 

Linkage is fine and the rough shifting isn't always rough so it's not that.

I took my power steering out so it's not that either. I inspected the rack when I had the subframe out and was replacing the tie rod, and the oil is too high up in the engine bay, so it couldn't be that.

 

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.

 

you cant forget about the wind that travels in,out, and through your car when your driving it. it has the ability to carry oil or any other fluid just about anywhere and everywhere