Right off the bat you should know I'm an idiot. I bought a rebuildable 2012 Chevy Sonic 1.8 automatic with 38K miles at auction, and rebuilt the wrecked front end. Unfotunately, I forgot to top up the transmission fluid that got pumped out of the broken tranny cooler.

I took it for a test drive, and within a half a block I got on the throttle pretty hard. It accelerated well for about 2 seconds, and then there was a solid bang from the transmission. Now there is no drive, no reverse, and when I put it into park, there is a grinding sound. Park does not hold the car. Drive and reverse produce a barley audible rumbling sound.

Can anyone tell me what likly failed inside the tranny? Or is it a torque converter problem?

Thanks,
Keen

 

For sure is not a torque converter problem. Although you probably need a new one after that.

You probably destroyed the center support one way clutch, along with some other parts as well I'm sure.

Grinding noise in park, probably sheared the splines off of the input shaft. On that 6T30 transmission the input shaft is only about a foot long, and less than half an inch thick, so no fluid to cool parts means they go bye bye lol.

But my guess is there are probably a few good parts left in there, but how many is the question.

 

Thanks for the detailed response. As it happens, the problem wasn't so bad. As near as I can tell, the engine/tranny rotated a bit in the accident, and the axle shaft pulled out just enough to release the retaining clip. Fortunately, the splines on the axle shaft ground down, not the splines on the output shaft of the transaxle. I replaced the axle shaft, and the car has been fine ever since.

Regards,
Keen

 

Hope you washed out all the shavings ?

God bless
Wyr