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Hi everyone! I have a '02 Civic LX with an automatic transmission. Last weekend while rolling up to a Stop sign, the right side CV axle popped out of the transmission. I got towed home and didn't think too much of it. Since I had to disassemble a few things to get the axle re-installed, I thought I would also change the struts and stabilizer bar links at the same time....a job I've been putting off for a while! Anyway...I put it all together and took it for a test drive. After about 1 mile, I heard some weird mechanical noise coming from the transmission. It was definitely gears or something rattling! I gently turned the car around and limped back to my garage expecting to see something wrong with the CV axle. When I jacked the car up, the first thing I realized was that the wheels were not locked while in Park! The CV axle was still in place. Now I'm thinking that perhaps this "mechanical" issue was the reason why the CV axle popped out last weekend. Can anyone advise if the Parking pawl could somehow be related to my issue? I did remove the right CV axle again to see if I could see anything in the side of the transmission...nothing unusual.

 
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not a DIY article, moving to proper section

 
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Was the axle recently replaced?
also the noise and lack of park could be from the axle not being fully seated

 
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Oops!
I got the car about 4 years ago. It needed a tranny. Got one from salvage and installed it with original axles. i haven't replaced or touched the axles until the right side popped out the other day. When I was putting it back in, there was some scoring on the smooth part of the shaft that goes thru the bearing. I did file it down but still had some difficulty getting the axle all the way in. I did finally manage to get it right up to the transmission housing.

 
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I stuck a bore scope camera inside the side of the transmission. I see no damage to the splines or anywhere else. Actually, there isn't much to see in there...seal, bearing, splines and a "cross-shaft" that does not engage the axle. I'm wondering what has to be disassembled to inspect the parking pawl.

 
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You are aware the wheels will rotate with the transmission in park if they are in the air, correct?

If you're not sure the axle is fully seated, get us a picture.

 
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How could the wheels rotate when in Park? If both axles are still in, and the diff is connected to the transmission, and the shifter is in Park with a functioning parking pawl, it should be locked??? What am I missing? I will go back to the garage this evening and check it again.
I spoke to a tech at a local transmission shop. He suspects that the reason for the axle coming out, may be that the differential bearings are loose and the play in the differential is slowly working the axle out of the splines. Looks like I may have to pull the tranny:-(
I'm confident that the axle was fully seated...there was only about 1/8" between transmission and shoulder of inner CV axle "butt end".

 
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Park locks the transmission mainshaft/countershafts which in turn locks the final drive and differential. The differential itself will not spin but the spider gears inside will. If you spin the driver's side wheel, the passenger side wheel will rotate in the opposite direction. This is how an open differential works.

Here is an old but informative video.

 
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I do understand the principles of a differential. It is a cool video!
I'm going to pull the transmission, perhaps this weekend, and see if there is any obvious damage. Likely have to make a trip to the local PikNPull.

 
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Well...I pulled the transmission and was expecting to find some mechanical damage, perhaps on the Parking pawl side...nothing wrong in there! Upon closer inspection of the passenger side differential bearing, it almost looks like something passed thru between the bearing and the shaft and left the inside of the bearing with a score mark. Perhaps this is what initial pushed the CV axle out of the spline??? This would also explain why I had difficulty inserting the CV axle. The CV axle bearing surface also had what I would call additional metal that was melted to the CV axle, giving it some additional outside diameter in a few places. I was able to get rid of this with emery cloth.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I thought the CV axles were all good but perhaps something is broken in one of the joints... even though both CV joints on both axles feel like they are good. As a reminder, on my test drive I did have "clunking" noise under load or quick deceleration.
I haven't split the transmission to inspect the differential side...yet!
I do have a junk transmission that I tore apart just to see how it is put together and I think the differential side is almost bullet-proof.
Any other insight on this???

 
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I took a closer look at all the CV joints. Nothing wrong there. I'm left with splitting the transmission on the diff side to inspect further. I was hoping not to have to do this