About my car: 2002 Pontiac Grandam. Front wheel drive, open differential. Check engine ABS light has been on, and I’ve taken it to 3 places to get a diagnosis, none of which was able to give me any answer. It drives okay, except that, sometimes, the RPMs will rev as I’m driving around, and occasionally, it will feel like it is lacking power. But I’ve taken it all around and there have been no real problems.
About an hour into a drive I run over a huge rock, somewhere kind of centered in the belly of my car. I’m going uphill and other than a loud noise nothing noticeable happens. I keep going uphill over the pass and about 45 minutes later I hit the top of the pass and start going downhill. When I applied the brakes the car started shaking violently. So I pulled over to the side. I realize that I can’t drive my car downhill anymore so I decide to drive my car uphill to the ski area 3 minutes back so that I am in public etc. I turn my car on and go about 8 feet when my car decides that the wheels won’t turn forward or backwards anymore. They still go side to side for steering. They car will gently rock forward and backward turning about 2 degrees each direction but nothing more. The car will only rev up to 2k rpms. When I put it into Drive and Reverse you can feel the car jerk into gear.
I have very little car knowledge, but once I can diagnose my car I usually fix it myself. Is there something wrong with the connection of my wheel to my axle system? Please let me know!
TLDR; car already had ABS light on and RPM problem. I hit a rock. 45 minutes later car shakes violently when braking downhill. Now wheels won’t turn though gears do engage. What do now?