2000 SEL - Today I went to back out of the driveway and there was a series of LOUD crunching/rattling noises from under the hood. It sounded like a lot of plastic toys breaking up in the engine compartment. I got out and looked under the car, thinking something got stuck in there or the fan blew to bits or something. When I didn't see anything, I tried to back out some more and the noise returned. Then the car started bucking in reverse. It would catch then slip, etc..., both in reverse and drive. If I tried to drive the car, it would roll a bit and then start the bucking and crunching noises. I started to figure it was the transmission so I popped it it neutral just to be safe and push it myself back into its parking spot. But oddly, the car would roll a few inches and then stop, as if stuck. Both rolling forward or back, it would only roll a few inches and then become stuck... in NEUTRAL. I got fed up, put it into drive and said 'oh, well'... and gave it more gas. The car then rolled passed this 'stuck' point, the crunching came back... and then suddenly, everything disappeared. No noise, no sticking point, nothing. I even backed out of the driveway and drove a circle around the parking lot and the car worked fine. In drive and in reverse. I started to wonder if it wasn't the transmission at all and if it was just some plastic piece that had broken off and lodged itself into the wheel or something. I parked, got out and started looking under the car. Then I saw the growing puddle of transmission fluid. I looked up and saw all the fluid dripping quickly out of the right(passenger) side of the engine.
Obviously there was some major malfunction. My question is, since the car resumed to function normally at the end, what are the chances that the trans. is still good and that the noise was just some broken pieces of seal or something making its way through?
Thanks for the help.
Obviously there was some major malfunction. My question is, since the car resumed to function normally at the end, what are the chances that the trans. is still good and that the noise was just some broken pieces of seal or something making its way through?
Thanks for the help.
