[roundel]

A buddy at work understeered into a curb in yesterday's snow. He flattened both front tires. They replaced the tires, but now when in gear, no power gets to the wheels. It is an automatic. When they shift to neutral, they can push it, but in gear no go.

Anyone understand how this could happen?

[Jazzbass]

Sounds like he broke/messed up something in the diff or the transmission. With the car in gear, can he rev the engine (like its in neutral) or does giving it throttle just bog it down? Can he move it in reverse at all?

[cmartin]

Broken cv joint or axle?

[Vicegrip]

My thought too. In park the dif might be locked so both drive wheels are locked but in N the dif freewheels on the busted 1/2 shaft.

[roundel]

while it was parked sans wheels, I peeked in the wheel wells and it appeared that the half shafts were intact. I did note that the drivers side looked like what I would expect, but the passenger side was very long and a bit beefier.

Sounds like he bunged up the tranny internally then. He made some wishful comment about there being a fail safe mode or something, but this sounded like a dream to me.

[Dr K]

Fail safe mode usually allows you to drive it slowly...sorry.

[Charlie Stylianos]

Happened to me on the Civic.....CV joint splines slipped out of the flange on the transmission side, but did not slip out enough to visually see the "disconnect". Symptoms sound exact.

[Lupin..the..3rd]

Originally Posted by Charlie Stylianos

Happened to me on the Civic.....CV joint splines slipped out of the flange on the transmission side, but did not slip out enough to visually see the "disconnect". Symptoms sound exact.

This or the CV ball cage is fractured. It's all still contained in the boot, so no visible clues. Happened to me once on a VW.

Jetta slushbox isn't known for being robust, so it's a candidate as well.

A peek underneath with a flashlight seems in order.

[roundel]

So the verdict is: hole in tranny pan -> All the ATF was gone.

Estimate was $700 for new pan, filter screen, ATF, and install.

[HoodPin]

Lost fluid makes sense. In Park, the tranny is mechanically locked. But in drive, needs fluid to work the torque converter. Without fluid, the engine turns the torque converter housing, but there's no fluid to in-turn drive the vanes on the shaft connected to the tranny.