Hi Guys

Today I stranded middle of the road. Made a little spinning rear tires at the stoplight on wet road and bam something broke and the power was spinning freely... making bad ratling noises when pressing the gaspedal and no drive. Like a loud rattle which stoped in neutral/when clutch down.

Some angel helped me push the car to a place where I could park it and, I could let the car go downhill a few hundred meters to get there in neutral rolling. While rolling there were no weird noises at all and rolled normal (in neutral).

Just when in gear and giving gas it starts to rattle without moving.

Later I noticed If I raise the clutch slowly the car starts moving slowly like normal without any noises until there is a bump or light road inclination and then its start to rattle and slip and go nowhere.

So on pefectly flat it will engage to drive but with any resistance in the road it will grind loud and not go anywhere.

What could be broken? Diff? Something in the clutch or gearbox? Axles?

In an app group most people say "diff" but from reading it sounds simlar to other people braking CV axles.

Eventually I towed the car home being pulled about 2 km/miles at super low speed and in neutral, rolling there were no noises at all (I kept the door open a bit to hear well the noises from the car.)

Does a broken diff roll fine without any noises?

Would like to have some ideas as to what is probably broken?

Thanks!

 

Anyone?

 

Broken axle spider joint.
Look at the rear axles, find the twisted boot.

 

...which wouldn't be a difficult diy fix. Buy used axle, replace just axle shaft. Reuse your axle cup,outer cv, etc (assuming yoirs are better shape than the used parts).

Its a bit messy, and you'll want to refresh grease at same time.

Finding an axle cup swap diy will have most of the steps you'd need to perform.

DO NOT replace with aftermarket axle. Any shop you bring it to is going to just replace w aftermarket. It'll vibrate horribly.

If you ignore this advice, at least ask for old parts back (bring a hd garbage bag to put in). That way when the replacement axle destroys all enjoyment driving the car, you can still buy a used axle, combine best of yours and used, make a good axle, swap that in.

 

Sounds like a bad clutch.

Since the car coasted down a hill without noises.

Try this...
try to drive off in 1st gear.
Does the speedometer indicate a speed even though the car isn't moving?

 

It’s not a bad Clutch. It’s exactly what I said it was. I have seen it numerous times.

 

Sounds exactly like a broken axle.

However a broken diff CAN coast without making a lot of noise as well. When mine destroyed itself it coasted to a stop without really making any noise, but under power, or coasting in gear with clutch out made a hell of a racket of course. I was even able to make it drive forward very gently to get it off the track further.

Example below. Sorry for a video of a video, but Catalyst only exports completed laps so had to video the video off its screen But notice how it changes when I press the clutch and coast. It did make a very quiet noise there, but when towing it back to paddock in neutral it really did not make any noise. Ring and pinion were completely trashed of course. It generally will make SOME noise though coasting if you listen closely.


I think it may be the axle though. Have also broken one of those on a hard launch in Lincoln one year at nats. Like Billman said, look closely at the boots on each side, one likely will be twisted if the axle let go. That made zero noise when being pulled back to the paddock. The boot/clamps themselves provide enough friction with the car in neutral to still keep the halves of the joint rotating together. Plus normally what happens is the spider cracks between the lobes but only on one side so it is still somewhat engaged. If you give it gentle pressure it will still engage and try to move. Anything above that and it starts slipping on the splines and making noise. So very likely the issue here.

 

follow up
thanks for this reply and all others.
I had done some tests at the time and came to the same conclusion.
Although there were no visible outer signs I could see the diver axle spin at the diff connection when on the brakes and the axle itself didn't move.

I replaced the complete driver axle (It took a lot of effort and new stronger tools to get everything loose) and everything seems fine now.

Posting this now for future drivers who face the same symptoms. (And its annoying to read a thread where there is never a final asnwer)

I havent opened the CV joint yet to know exactly what is broken. If I will some day I might post if anyone is interested?

 

Even if no one expresses an interest at the moment, I don’t doubt that someone would benefit from those images at some point later on. For that matter, I wouldn’t mind seeing what you find even though I’m hoping that I won’t have to deal with such a thing myself.

 

You will most likely find the spider is cracked where it slides on the splines. It will look something like the picture below that I took of mine when I broke one. I kept the rest of the axle for spare parts.