Help with clutch/axle?

[krem8tr]

Let me get the specifics out of the way 2004 Vibe GT 50k miles...manual...I was driving today and started to feel a wobble that felt like it was coming from the front passenger wheel....I got out checked it out...appeared to be ok......started to drive home and as I hit 3rd gear.....nothing.....the clutch did not engage...no gears...no reverse nothing...the clutch pedal feels normal like before but the strange thing is I can put in gear without pressing the clutch....when i do and look under the car I see the axle? on the passengers side spinning and wobbling......Is this the clutch that has gone bad or is the axle broken?......I would appreciate any help suggestions you can give me....Thank you in advance

[Mavrik]

So you have an axle spinning... I assume the portion coming out of the transmission? Now if that spinning then it should be connected to the wheel and means its engaged... which means the clutch has engaged. But if you can shift and the car is not moving... sounds like its inside the transmission that the problem lies.I just don't know what you mean by the axle is turning... because if it is it should be turning the wheel.

[joatmon]

If the car is not moving and any part of the axle is spinning, then it's broken. a drive axle is a lot easier to replace than a clutch (since you have to pull the drive axles and more to get to the clutch)

[krem8tr]

Ok I'm sorry for not being more specific...here's what i didput th parking brake on.......put the car in 1st gear..i hear a "circular" scraping noise...i got under the car and saw the axle that goes from the "transmission" to the passenger side "cv boot" spinning and grinding ....just noisy....now excuse my ignorance but does a front wheel drive car pull/push both wheels when its in gear? let me know if there's any other questions...or something i didn't answer.....

[joatmon]

If everything is fine, but you jack up one of the front wheels, start and idle the engine, put it in first and slowly engage the clutch, the wheel that is off the ground will spin and the front wheel on the ground will not move. It's the nature of the differential built into the transaxle. The broken axle (I assume a completely broken CV joint) allows any torque from the engine to go into spinning the broken axle. If the axle was not broken, there's no way any part of the axle can rotate and the wheel would not also move.You can get a limited slip differential to put in there to make it harder for one axle to spin without the other axle also spinning, but for most drivers on roads they are not needed.There's probably a write up about differentials on howstuffworks.com somewhere EDIT - http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htmSucks, because there's not much you can do to the the car to move with one of the axles broken. If there is any good news in that, then at least the clutch is still grabbing enough to spin the broken axle, and also, I think you are the first here to have broken a drive axle.

[krem8tr]

ok here's what i just did.....i went out and looked at it again......now again excuse my lack of mechanical terms.....the passenger side axle that coming out of the trans goes in to something that appears to be some sort of boot....then there's another shaft that comes out and goes to the cv joint at the wheel.......the shaft from the trans to the first "joint" is spinning so i guess it's broken there....

[krem8tr]

Thanks Joatmon and sometimes it's sucks to be the first in something...lol

[joatmon]

at least it finally got you to post here - welcome to genvibeI think the drive axles for base auto, base 5 speed, AWD, and GT all have different part numbers so if you go after a replacement from a junkyard, make sure it comes off a GT. One from a Matrix XRS is probably the same as for a GT, but me, I wouldn't bet money on it.

[krem8tr]

The one thing I can tell you....is that it's a dealer only part.....I've called all the local part stores and no one has it...so i'll call the stealership in the morning.......and thanks for the warm welcome...I'm going to be posting some pics of my GT in a few moments