Bolts connecting Transmission and Driveshaft
06-29-2009, 09:17 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Bolts connecting Transmission and Driveshaft
So, this weekend, I went to the beach (lovely california weather).
Everything was fine on my way there. When I was trying to leave, I hear a "pop", and then a thumping. The thumping was relatively mild, but quickly got more severe as I picked up speed. Keep in mind, that this is at parking lot speeds. At 5 MPH, it was loud enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to drive home from the noise alone.
I quickly did a few tests to try to diagnose, or at least identify where the noise was coming from. My first thought was the diff, but I have never launched my car, nor do I plan on doing so.
I tried pushing the car in neutral. Initially, I didn't push more than 1-2 mph, and I did not hear the noise. I again started the car, and rolled forward in 1st gear, and the noise was present. I then started rolling, and pressed in the clutch. The noise was still there, so it could not have been the clutch. I came to a stop, and started in 2nd. The noise was still there, so I ruled out the transmission as well.
At this point, I was really worried that it was my diff. As I was running out of room in the parking lot, I went into reverse. I heard a pretty loud POP, and I felt the blood drain from my face. I came to a stop, and did it one more time to verify the sound. It happened again.
Fearing the worst, I stopped the car where it was, and called AAA (much thanks to the friend that let me use his membership... time to get one myself after finding out how cheap it actually is....). While waiting, the officers patrolling the beach asked me what was wrong, and I explained to them that the car was not in drivable condition, and they directed me to move it to the fire lane if I could. I pushed the car, and the popping noise was still there.
After having it towed to the dealership (I got there about 30 minutes before the service dept. closed), they put it on a lift to see if there were any obvious problems.
It turns out the noise is from the washer that was hanging on by one bolt. As seen in the picture below, the driveshaft is connected to the transmission by 6 bolts. One had completely fallen out, leaving the washer (spacer?) hanging, which was causing the thumping when it was hitting the transmission/driveshaft tunnel when going forward. The pop in reverse was from it forcing its way due to it's shape.
The other 5 bolts were loose (anywhere from 2-5 complete turns loose), and there was a considerable amount of grease in the area as well.
The dealership is looking to see if there was any damage caused by this.
The picture was taken after most of the grease was wiped off.
Does anyone have any feedback on potential damages?
Also, for the record, I am currently at about 33k miles, and had a ACT Heavy Duty pressure plate, performance street disk, and Prolite flywheel installed at about 7k miles. I figure if the bolts hadn't been torqued from the clutch install properly, they would have fallen out MUCH sooner, not 30k miles later.
Any speculation on cause?
Thanks in advane
Everything was fine on my way there. When I was trying to leave, I hear a "pop", and then a thumping. The thumping was relatively mild, but quickly got more severe as I picked up speed. Keep in mind, that this is at parking lot speeds. At 5 MPH, it was loud enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to drive home from the noise alone.
I quickly did a few tests to try to diagnose, or at least identify where the noise was coming from. My first thought was the diff, but I have never launched my car, nor do I plan on doing so.
I tried pushing the car in neutral. Initially, I didn't push more than 1-2 mph, and I did not hear the noise. I again started the car, and rolled forward in 1st gear, and the noise was present. I then started rolling, and pressed in the clutch. The noise was still there, so it could not have been the clutch. I came to a stop, and started in 2nd. The noise was still there, so I ruled out the transmission as well.
At this point, I was really worried that it was my diff. As I was running out of room in the parking lot, I went into reverse. I heard a pretty loud POP, and I felt the blood drain from my face. I came to a stop, and did it one more time to verify the sound. It happened again.
Fearing the worst, I stopped the car where it was, and called AAA (much thanks to the friend that let me use his membership... time to get one myself after finding out how cheap it actually is....). While waiting, the officers patrolling the beach asked me what was wrong, and I explained to them that the car was not in drivable condition, and they directed me to move it to the fire lane if I could. I pushed the car, and the popping noise was still there.
After having it towed to the dealership (I got there about 30 minutes before the service dept. closed), they put it on a lift to see if there were any obvious problems.
It turns out the noise is from the washer that was hanging on by one bolt. As seen in the picture below, the driveshaft is connected to the transmission by 6 bolts. One had completely fallen out, leaving the washer (spacer?) hanging, which was causing the thumping when it was hitting the transmission/driveshaft tunnel when going forward. The pop in reverse was from it forcing its way due to it's shape.
The other 5 bolts were loose (anywhere from 2-5 complete turns loose), and there was a considerable amount of grease in the area as well.
The dealership is looking to see if there was any damage caused by this.
The picture was taken after most of the grease was wiped off.
Does anyone have any feedback on potential damages?
Also, for the record, I am currently at about 33k miles, and had a ACT Heavy Duty pressure plate, performance street disk, and Prolite flywheel installed at about 7k miles. I figure if the bolts hadn't been torqued from the clutch install properly, they would have fallen out MUCH sooner, not 30k miles later.
Any speculation on cause?
Thanks in advane
06-29-2009, 12:37 PM
#3
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A similar thing happened to my AP1 recently...
I was driving about 30mph and all of a sudden my gear lever started shaking violently and got even more violent as speed picked up. I was like "oh god, my diff is out already?"
A day later with my car having been towed to the nearest import shop, they discovered my driveshaft was disconnected from the transmission/clutch side. AND on the differential side, there was one bent bolt that was sticking out of the hole a little bit, and then the other bolts were a bit corroded on the studs. Further more, the bolts installed on the clutch kit were also rusted, indicating the previous owner installed the clutch outdoors over a long period of time (caused vibration and buzzing in low rpm ranges).
Long story short, the previous owner who'd installed a high performance ACT pressure plate and 6-puck clutch disc caused higher loads on the drivetrain and ultimately caused the disassembly of my propeller shaft.
My advice would be make sure all clutch/pressure plate bolts are torqued down to spec with Loctite, do the same with all propeller shaft parts, and make sure the fluids in your diff are up to level because loose driveshaft bolts on the rear axle-end can cause mild diff fluid seepage.
That be my 2 cents from my lame experience. Like the previous poster said, it shouldn't cause any damage to the driveshaft since you didn't put any more stress on it while it was broken than you couldve. My shop told me that even though my driveshaft was hanging from the diff end, it didn't need to be rebalanced.
I was driving about 30mph and all of a sudden my gear lever started shaking violently and got even more violent as speed picked up. I was like "oh god, my diff is out already?"
A day later with my car having been towed to the nearest import shop, they discovered my driveshaft was disconnected from the transmission/clutch side. AND on the differential side, there was one bent bolt that was sticking out of the hole a little bit, and then the other bolts were a bit corroded on the studs. Further more, the bolts installed on the clutch kit were also rusted, indicating the previous owner installed the clutch outdoors over a long period of time (caused vibration and buzzing in low rpm ranges).
Long story short, the previous owner who'd installed a high performance ACT pressure plate and 6-puck clutch disc caused higher loads on the drivetrain and ultimately caused the disassembly of my propeller shaft.
My advice would be make sure all clutch/pressure plate bolts are torqued down to spec with Loctite, do the same with all propeller shaft parts, and make sure the fluids in your diff are up to level because loose driveshaft bolts on the rear axle-end can cause mild diff fluid seepage.
That be my 2 cents from my lame experience. Like the previous poster said, it shouldn't cause any damage to the driveshaft since you didn't put any more stress on it while it was broken than you couldve. My shop told me that even though my driveshaft was hanging from the diff end, it didn't need to be rebalanced.
06-29-2009, 12:58 PM
#4
Thread Starter
Awesome. Thank you guys for the feedback.
I just got a call from the dealership saying that they re-torqued the bolts back to spec, and replaced the missing one. They also took it for a test drive to see if there was anything wrong with it, since they didn't notice anything else that was wrong with the car.
All is well
I just got a call from the dealership saying that they re-torqued the bolts back to spec, and replaced the missing one. They also took it for a test drive to see if there was anything wrong with it, since they didn't notice anything else that was wrong with the car.
All is well
07-01-2009, 12:32 PM
#6
Thread Starter
I have no suspension work done to the car. For the most part, the car is at stock height, but I do swap wheels quite a bit. I daily on AP1's which FEEL like the car is slightly higher than on AP2 wheels.
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07-01-2009, 01:37 PM
#8
Thread Starter
I'm definitely adding the (easily accessible) drivetrain bolts to my checklist when I service my car...
I have absolutely no problem overmaintaining the car, as my driving habits certainly warrant it
I have absolutely no problem overmaintaining the car, as my driving habits certainly warrant it
07-01-2009, 01:52 PM
#9
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IMO you don't want to use loctite on those Allen-key bolts if you ever want to take them out again.
The "half moon washers" somehow work as a locking ring I guess.
I've used NeverSeez on the threads and they have not loosened.
The "half moon washers" somehow work as a locking ring I guess.
I've used NeverSeez on the threads and they have not loosened.
07-01-2009, 03:59 PM
#10
Registered User
Originally Posted by smokenrowboy,Jun 29 2009, 03:37 PM
...
My advice would be make sure all clutch/pressure plate bolts are torqued down to spec with Loctite, do the same with all propeller shaft parts, and make sure the fluids in your diff are up to level because loose driveshaft bolts on the rear axle-end can cause mild diff fluid seepage...
My advice would be make sure all clutch/pressure plate bolts are torqued down to spec with Loctite, do the same with all propeller shaft parts, and make sure the fluids in your diff are up to level because loose driveshaft bolts on the rear axle-end can cause mild diff fluid seepage...