The wife was driving car and it just started making noise from transmission. She stopped and had car towed. It's a 2005 honda accord 4 cylinder with automatic transmission that has noises when put in gear. The car does not move, just loud clunking noises. The car starts fine but once it goes into gear the noises start as something is turning in the transmission and just clunking around. I put it up on jack stands and it does the same thing. I have to turn the car off to stop the noises, putting it into park doesn't do anything. The tires don't even move when putting it into gear with the car running just noises. The tires move freely when in park. I checked CV axels and the outer drivers side looks bad. The passenger side looks good but I can move the tire when its in park. When I move the passenger side tire I can see the driver's side axle turn in the opposite direct. The drivers side tire only moves sometimes suggesting a bad outer CV joint. This CV joint feels and looks bad. I'm just wondering why the passenger side tire can move when in park. Is it the transmission or just a bad CV joint or both? Should I change the driver's side axle and see what happens? Thanks - Lon

 

I'm confused about what is going on with your CV joints.

When you turn a tire by hand on a normal transmission, the other tire should spin in the opposite direction. This is from my experience with manual transmissions, but I am almost positive the automatic should behave the same way.

If you have a destroyed inner CV joint, the inner joint and the metal "axle" should still spin.

Also, transmission noise while still in park is pointing to something wrong in the transmission.

 

My wife thinks its a bad transmission so I was assuming that with a quick look and listening to the noises. The driver's side outer CV joint is destroyed. The axle spins but the tire doesn't. Most of the noise is coming from there. No noises when car is started and in park. I'm worried about the transmission. I can turn the passenger side tire when it's in park with car on jack stands. The driver's side axle feels locked when in park. Does park just lock one side (drivers) axle?

 

I misread your first post. I thought you had transmission noises when in park.

Even if the transmission is damaged, you won't know until you replace the broken CV joint. So I'd recommend replacing the CV joint as your next step.

 

It might be limited to a bad outer CV joint, depending on how I read your description.

Automatic or manual, both have a differential, and both behave this same way. With the transmission in PARK, if you lift both front wheels, and spin one; the other front wheel will spin the opposite direction.

So if the left outer CV joint is bad, spinning the right wheel should cause the left axle to spin the opposite direction. If the left CV joint was OK, then the left wheel would spin also. If the left axle doesn't spin like this, then maybe transmission damage along with the bad CV joint.

What happens when you try to drive should be like this:
The left outer CV joint is broken, so the left axle is spinning without driving the wheel. The action of the differential means the right wheel isn't spinning, & the left axle is spinning twice the speed.

 

It sounds like the outer CV joint spit out the bearings. A test for this is to put the car on the ground with it in park (engine off), and see if you can push it. If it moves, the CV joint is bad. If you can't, then you've got a big problem in the transmission.
Does the left drive axle kind of flop around in the left outer CV joint? If so, the bearings are gone.

I only say this, as my wife's old Chevy Cavalier spit out all of the bearings out of the left outer CV joint (this happened 20 years ago), and their was no power to the drive axles. Some co-workers helped push it into a parking spot, and found her a block of wood to use as a temporary parking brake (cables were rusted from non use). When I went to "take a look" at it, I walked back 20 feet from where it was parked and started picking up the ball bearings, so I knew what happened. WE had it towed home, I picked up a new reman drive axle from CarQuest, installed it, and it was good to go.

Everything else in your post sounds normal when the CV joint fails.

 

It was the driver's side outer CV joint. I was scared it was the transmission because the car was able to move in park on the ground and the front tires moved when up on jack stands. Plus the wife freaking out that the transmission blew up. I went to a bad place thinking about all the cost and work that will need to be done.

I checked my other Accord and the tires moved as described above in opposite direction when up on jack stands which made me just change out the CV joint. A few hours later and the car was driving fine with no other noises.

Thank you for all the help. I'm just glad it's not the transmission. - Lon