I’m new to this site and I am trying to find out what I may have done to my Daughters car. This morning at 4am I got into my Ford Windstar van and was backing out of my driveway. I did not realize my Daughters car, 1995 Honda Civic, was behind me. I backed into it and when I bumped it, it started to roll back about 20 feet. I then went to move her car and when I put it in drive, it will not go and makes some crackling noises. I did not bump it very hard and actually there is no cosmetic damage to the exterior, but I would guess I did something to the transmission…Any suggestions or does anyone know about how much something like this might cost to repair?
I think you cracked the transmission case. Basically you broke the paw that engages park. Part of this mechanism hooks onto, or is mounted to, the transmission case on the inside of the transmission.
The OP did not tell us whether this Civic has a manual transmission or an automatic trans, but–assuming that it has an automatic trans–I agree with Uncle Turbo that the symptoms sound like a broken park pawl inside the transmission case.
If our diagnostic guess turns out to be correct, then a used transmission from a junkyard is probably the best bet, as it wouldn’t make sense to sink a lot of money into repairing an 18 year old car.
Check both front axles. If one of the four joints of the CV axles has broken, you would get some noise and no drive. It is possible that you have stripped the splines on either end of the CV axles. It is also possible that you have damaged the spider gears in the differential or the gears of the final drive. Broken spider gears, final drive gears, or internal splines as well as a cracked transmission case as a result of overloading the parking pawl will require work on the transaxle or a replacement of the unit.
Many of us here recommend using the parking brake all of the time. This is one reason why. Had the parking brake been on, there’s a good chance that the Civic would still be running.
On another note, please consider installing an aftermarket backup camera in your van. If you were unable to see a car, you certainly wouldn’t have seen a child or animal.
That repair will cost you a couple thousand, The pawls I have seen have about 12 teeth with little springs attached. It’s inside the transmission. In the old days of RWD they may have been cheap to get to. The transmission will probably have to be removed and partially disassembled.
Hope that isn’t the case. It could be one of the other things mentioned.