What is going on? *5s Auto Tranny Problems*

[jtex2717]

So, last week I was driving up the street from my house and I was taking a left turn. Upon this left turn there was a huge banging noise coming from the wheel/transmission area and the car seemed to jump. Having a heavy vibration on the highway for about 2 months which seemed to be the CV joint, I thought the (Driver Side) Axle just went. So, Monday I came home, pulled the axle and set it aside. There were no rips but it was pretty heavily rusted and the inside knuckle was very stiff. Today upon getting home, I replaced the axle with a reman, and the rotors and pads since they were already off......

After all that: The car is still doing the same thing ! WTF?

Now when I shift the car from D to R at a standstill the tranny hits real hard.....Could this be a lack of fluid in the Diff? Or is my tranny blown? The car wont even drive at a 5mph roll without banging while turning left.......Im Confused


Can someone help? I havent had my car in almost a week......im dying!!!

Thanks

[carsrus]

Sounds like your differential blew up aka it needs a new transmission.

Drop the pan and look for anything suspicious, do the same by taking off the differential cover. Im pretty sure youll find *****s of gears when you take off the diff cover.

[jtex2717]

nice......*UCK!!!!!! I have never replaced a transmission nor done anything to one in that matter......IDK what to do.....Should I tackle getting one from a junk yard and replacing or should I just begin the 5spd swap that I have been wanting so hard to do.....I am a mechanic.....Ive just never touch trannys other than replacing fluid.

[93celicaconv]

I don't know this as fact, but I thought if clunking occurs on turning one way, but not the other, the outer wheel involved in the turn is usually the one with the CV joint problem. If true (one would have to check), it would make your passenger side axle the suspect one with a CV joint problem.

When you took out your drivers side axle, you lost fluid out of the differential, right? Did you fill the differential back up with fluid after replacing the drivers side axle? I thought I saw someone in this forum say that Gen 3 & 4 automatics on 4-cylinder (5S-FE engines) don't share the same fluid between the transmission and differential, so any lost fluid would have to be topped off at the fill plug on the differential. I think V6 automatics share the same fluid between the transaxle and differential.

Anyway, did you replace the fluid loss?

[jtex2717]

I didnt lose any fluid.....I am thinking maybe its running low......It almost looked dry inside but I never pulled the pan to check......I think I will do that tomorrow......hopefully if its just low, I can refill it and it will be ok.....IDK tho.....it sounds pretty bad.....and I changed the axle so that cant be the issue....and it doesnt feel like its coming from the other side.....I will def check it though.

[93celicaconv]

You should have lost some fluid, if it was filled to the proper level. The oil seals on the differential output (where the axles come through) depend upon fluid to prevent them from burning up and failing, and to lubricate your carrier properly (where your axles snap into). Although, if that happened previously, maybe you've been running with low or no differential fluid for a long time, and that may be the cause of the problem now, as carsrus was trying to say earlier.

[jtex2717]

ok....ill check it in the morning and record what I see.....hopefully its just dry and nothing is damaged.....if its broken.....then bring on the 5spd i guess.....

[fenixus]

just wanted to post a trick that helps avoiding a total screw up situation.

before you remove the drain plug on bottom of differential, first loosen the fill plug on side. for some people it was a disaster when they drained it first and then discovered they rounded the fill plug and were unable to remove it.

and yes, 5s-fe automatic tranny (at least gen4) have a separate differential chamber that's supposed to be drained and refilled every time you drain&refill the tranny (30k miles).

i hope it's only running dry bro! good luck!

[jtex2717]

thanks......we will find out the results tomorrow......

[jtex2717]

UPDATE: I replaced both axles after fighting and beating them up....lol, rotors, and pads. Greased everything up all kind and nice like.....replaced the tranny fluid and the diff fluid, all to find out MY F*@KING TRANNY IS BROKEN!!!!!......So now the Cam is out of commission until I do one of two things.

1. Grow the balls to actually replace the tranny myself (which I have never done, But I am a mechanic)
or
2. Save some doe, get a used auto for $400 bucks from this guy and pay a shop to put it in......

Hmmmm What to do?

[RichieRichJP]

Yeah I bet your torque converter took a shit.
Costs about $400 for a new one I believe and then you have the cost of labor on top of that. Don't get a used one!!

[Chris Crash]

5-speed swap. No better time to do it then now.

And new trans for $400? No way.

Go for the swap man. It's not ACTUALLY that hard.

[RichieRichJP]

No, $400 for a new torque converter.
You can find an s54 for like $150...

[Chris Crash]

Originally Posted by RichieRichJP

No, $400 for a new torque converter.
You can find an s54 for like $150...

Shit. I need to think before I post

[pmx007PL]

So, what was exactly broken, something in transmission or "only" differential died?
I have the same problem... [gen3] Grinding noise from A/T (car won't go).

-------------------------- EDIT: I looked at date of last post. -------------------------
WHY you guys demanding help on problems, but don't post what was the solution (how story ended)?