Possible Transmission Issue

[prady]

(98 A6 2.8 Quattro 160k)

So i was driving down the road Thursday night and slow down at the signal. The signal turns green, i take the foot of my brake and push the gas pedal but nothing. It wont move, the RPM goes high, but car wont move. No Drive, No Reverse, No gear could make it move. I push it on the side of the road and the worst is that i put it on Park but it was still going back down the slope. I had to put hand brake to stop it. Now every time i turn it on the engine is normal but when i put it in Drive, the RPM goes high and speed needle goes high but nothing happens, but when i put it back to Park gear i hear cranking sound. Finally i had to tow it home.

Any suggestions? :(

I know transmission has nothing to do with it but ABS light came on a couple weeks back, also for past week or two everytime when i turned the car on i heard cranking sound and my mechanic said its just the lifters, keep the oiled topped up and dont worry....

[Scrwedtxboy31]

clutch master cylinder possibly?

[prady]

clutch master cylinder possibly?

as long as its not blown transmission im ok... CMC sounds to be a not so expensive fix though. Mine is an automatic though. You put a smile on my face my friend

[Scotty@Advanced]

(98 A6 2.8 Quattro 160k)

So i was driving down the road Thursday night and slow down at the signal. The signal turns green, i take the foot of my brake and push the gas pedal but nothing. It wont move, the RPM goes high, but car wont move. No Drive, No Reverse, No gear could make it move. I push it on the side of the road and the worst is that i put it on Park but it was still going back down the slope. I had to put hand brake to stop it. Now every time i turn it on the engine is normal but when i put it in Drive, the RPM goes high and speed needle goes high but nothing happens, but when i put it back to Park gear i hear cranking sound. Finally i had to tow it home.

Any suggestions? :(

I know transmission has nothing to do with it but ABS light came on a couple weeks back, also for past week or two everytime when i turned the car on i heard cranking sound and my mechanic said its just the lifters, keep the oiled topped up and dont worry....

You have a broken axle or cv joint.

[prady]

You have a broken axle or cv joint.

Well the same evening a few hours back i got my car back from Mechanic who replaced Axle and Upper control arms. But could the the two things related?

[Scotty@Advanced]

Well the same evening a few hours back i got my car back from Mechanic who replaced Axle and Upper control arms. But could the the two things related?

yes he didn't tighten the axle bolts properly.

[prady]

yes he didn't tighten the axle bolts properly.

I hope whatever u said is true and it is axle bolts problem :) Scotty does the car have a mechanism to freeze under such situations? I mean is it some sort of intelligent mode or fail safe in the car? and why do i hear funny crank when i put the car in Parkmode and why does it not stay in park mode and still slip down the slope in park mode?

[rollerton]

When an axle/cv breaks all the power goes to that one axle. It's just the nature of the differential. The speedo thinks you're moving because that output shaft is spinning and giving a speed reading. Not sure about 98' but usually you'll have a few other warning lights on the dash: ABS< EPC< etc..
Take the car back to the guy who screwed up the axle install.

[Brendon1098]

The noise you hear is because the hub where the axle bolts up tois still spinning even though the car is not moving and neither is the axle. That noise is the parking pawl inside of the transmission. Do your trans a favor and put it in nuetral and shut the car off and use the parking brake until the issue is fixed.

The car will still move because it has a open differential in the front and it needs both axles correctly installed for park to actually work.

[prady]

When an axle/cv breaks all the power goes to that one axle. It's just the nature of the differential. The speedo thinks you're moving because that output shaft is spinning and giving a speed reading. Not sure about 98' but usually you'll have a few other warning lights on the dash: ABS< EPC< etc..
Take the car back to the guy who screwed up the axle install.


The noise you hear is because the hub where the axle bolts up tois still spinning even though the car is not moving and neither is the axle. That noise is the parking pawl inside of the transmission. Do your trans a favor and put it in nuetral and shut the car off and use the parking brake until the issue is fixed.

The car will still move because it has a open differential in the front and it needs both axles correctly installed for park to actually work.

Thank you guys, i feel so much lighter. I was so stressed past couple days. Okay, so if bolts r loose then if i jack the car up would there be play in the tires? coz then it would be easy for me to prove that bastard that its his fault :)

[rollerton]

Yes. There is a jack-point just under the car at the front of the front door. Jack up the car on the side that the axle was replaced on.
The axle could fail in a variety of ways, some aren't immediately visible right when you look. I just swapped an axle on our 99' Avant last night- took 45 minutes, pretty easy. But just to illustrate~ I got the old axle out, went to install new axle and I was able to manuever it into place very easy. Something wasn't right. Pulled it out and compared, and it was about 1.5" short. If I had installed it the axle probably would have worked fine until I made a sharp turn, then the axle would have probably come out of the CV joint, and you wouldn't see that since the boot covers the joint.
I guess an easy test would be to simply jack that wheel off the ground and try and spin it, if it spins then it means that the axle shaft has failed somewhere between the wheel and the trans.
So, loosen the wheel, jack up the car, remove the wheel, and look carefully at the axle. Reach behind the brakes and feel for proper insertion of the axle into the CV.