Changed axle and now tranny is blown???

[aaron7]

Ok, my brother had his 96 Avalon in the shop for a new axle as his CV was clicking bad.

They replaced it as well as his wheel bearing and he was fine for about 5 days till today... when forward stopped working and he said the car smelled funny.

I checked the tranny fluid and it was BONE DRY! We refilled it but alas... no forward Still has reverse though.

Now... I find it hard to believe that the car was fine all this time and randomly the tranny goes dry and fails; but the shop is telling us the differential has different fluid than the tranny and the axle job as nothing to do with it.

HELP! Who is right and what is going on here?

[toyomoho]

Depending on year and trans model some Avalon V6 trans had a separate fill point for the diff and others did not.

Check for yourself.

Find the diff housing, this is where the axles go into the trans. There should be a drain plug under the housing.

If a separate fill plug it would be either on the back of the housing facing the firewall or drivers side of housing.

On trans with a separate fill plug, the fluid is drained out with the lower plug. The plug is installed and the fill plug on the side or back of the housing (depending on trans design) removed. Fluid is then added until it comes back out the hole. The plug is then installed.

On trans without a separate fill point the drain is the same location but fluid is added via the trans dipstick tube.

The trans holds 6-7 quarts, the diff housing say 1.4ish. If the trans now has no fluid this is a lot of oil to leak out.

When the axle is pulled the diff will start to leak oil. if a separate camber only the diff fluid will leak out, but only so much as the axle hole location is above the bottom of the chamber. If no separate chamber then much more of the trans fluid could drain out.

Look around for the fill plug it should be guessing about 2/3 the way up from the bottom of the diff housing some place accessible on the trans (if it has one).

Sometimes there is a flat spot on the housing that looks like a plug could be there but it was not machined for one.

If no fill plug then:

The mechanic could have forgot to fill the trans.

The diff seal could have been damaged during axle replacement and leaked (this happens).

Had a vary rare issue where the axle was not fully installed and popped back out. The result was the car drove OK but lots of fluid leaking was out.

The fill plug was not tightened or fell out.

Look under the car for signs of fluid leakage. Check the diff housing under the axles, the drain plug area plus under the chassis. The oil may be been blown back and covered the underside of the car.

Typically when a trans is low on fluid it starts to slip first. Any signs of this before failure?

Check the hoses running between the trans and trans cooler on the bottom of the radiator for signs of leaking fluid.

This sounds very strange. Unless the trans fluid was never checked or one of coolant hoses failed I too would be looking at the shop as the cause.

[aaron7]

I'll check those things soon as it isn't snowing out!

And no, there was no sign of slipping at all; the car drove great.

[toyomoho]

Please post with findings.

[mr.kenny]

It's possible that the drive axle was not pushed in or 'popped in' to the transaxle all the way and has popped out partially and no longer driving the wheel. I had this happen on a honda once. I drove 500 miles before it popped out part way and the car wouldn't go. I just popped it back in correctly.