Crack in transmission

The most likely suspect was the spring broke inside the inner cv joint, then when it could no longer push the joint's housing into the transmission, that housing came out and pounded on the transmission case as it spun around. That alone would result in transmission fluid leaked out and sprayed all over the area. Anyone with common sense would not go looking for more than that, and in fact, 99 percent of the time a new $3.00 spring on Chrysler products, or a rebuilt half shaft on import cars would be all that's needed.

A conscientious mechanic who was looking out for your best interest would want to replace the seal right away, but many of us won't do that because we always get accused of trying to sell more parts and services than you think are needed. Perhaps half of the time they'll get lucky and the old seal is still okay. We are accused of fraud if we want to sell you a new seal, and we're called incompetent if we don't replace it and it leaks.

The sprayed-out transmission fluid will evaporate eventually so we typically don't make you spend more money for the time it takes to wash the area. With no reason to suspect further damage, a quick test drive is all that's needed to insure everything is working properly. A slow leak won't show up right away, but we expect you to return if that does occur so we can recheck our work. We hate having to tell customers more parts are needed and you can be sure we won't let you leave if we know there's a leak or other parts are going to cause a problem. We aren't psychic so just like doctors, we don't always see everything right away, but ignoring a known problem makes us look incompetent too.

You have one of those situations where an uncommon failure occurred that we normally don't have to go looking for. Unfortunately you DO have to come back a second time for us to dig deeper. Funny that we don't complain when we have to go back to our doctor multiple times for the same problem. Mechanics are held to much higher standards than are doctors.

Sorry, our replies overlapped.

That is much more severe damage than a flinging cv joint would cause. It would appear the car hit something, and if that shoved the engine / transmission to the side a few inches for just an instant, that would let the inner cv joint pop out of the transmission. This is the type of damage that typically occurs after sliding sideways into a curb or after driving over one of those miserable cement stops in a parking lot. I can't think of anything the mechanic could have done during the service to cause this.

Because the crack may have been on the inside and when new axle was installed it was ok for a little bit then broke when you saw the trans fluid leave a nice little path behind you as well as smoke on exhaust system that may have come out the back or from under hood.

Probably a rebuild or get one from a junkyard

Try this web site

www. Car-part. Com good site

Roy