Car won't go
 

I'm still trying to recover from my lug bolts shearing off, when I discovered that my front passenger side CV boot was torn open. I had the axle assembly replaced today and as I was driving home from the shop after picking it up, I pressed on the gas and the engine just rev'ed, but the car wouldn't accelerate. This was after 5 minutes of normal driving and fortunately I was only 2 houses away from home and was able to coast into the driveway. Once stopped, I tried putting the car in reverse - nothing. I tried 1-4, and then D again, stopping and starting the engine, but the car won't move. I didn't hear anything unusual and I even had the A/C and radio off to listen for weird noises from the passenger wheel. I looked under the car and there are no obvious physical issues - nothing hanging down or visibly broken. The engine seems to be running fine and when I change gears, it does sound like the transmission is moving through the gears. Nothing unusual until I put it back into P at which point I hear a little bit of a rattling grinding kind of noise. Like what you'd hear during a mis shift on a manual, but not as bad - the sound tails off as the engine revs lower. The only thing I noticed under the car is that there was some kind of fluid on one of the exhaust manifolds that was burning off. That could have been grease from the mechanic's hand or something. Nothing was dripping.

The shop wants me to tow it back tonight so they can look at it in the morning.

What am I looking at here?

So I just heard back from my mechanic and he says that the aftermarket part is defective. He called the parts place they got it from and they told him that they've had 17 of these axle assemblies come back. They haven't pulled the part off the car yet, so I'm not quite sure how he knows this, but he says the axle isn't engaging the differential. I don't know how AWD differentials work, but if that were the case, wouldn't I only loose power to that one wheel and not all wheels?

Anyone know where to get a quality aftermarket axle assembly? Or a rebuilt MB axle?

Thanks!

Try
 

calling www.autohausaz.com
or fastlane via www.peachparts.com
I think they were about $130 last I had occasion to check

Thanks. I found a used MB axle from a local auto recycling center for $150, so I'm going to have new boots put on that and give it a shot. The aftermarket part that they claim is defective was this one from FEQ:

http://tinyurl.com/3vk73ts

which is the part available from peachparts.com and thepartsbin.com

That makes complete sense to me. Worse case I could see is either the front or rear not getting power for some reason if the axle was bad. It doesn't make sense that the other end wouldn't be getting any power.

Back when I had an MK1 GTi I broke one of the front axles (multiple times, they were a weak link) and the car would not move. With yours being an AWD car it doesn't make sense that it would act like that.