Would you lose oil from the crank case when the CV axels are replaced in a 95 Toyota Camry Wagon?

I have to replace the transmission (cracked case) because it did not have oil on a recent trip. It died on the highway @300 miles after having the CV axels replaced and oil/lube service. Is there a correlation?
Any input is greatly appreciated.

Yes, Pulling the halfshafts from the transaxle can allow the transaxle to lose it’s fluid.

Tester

The half shaft seals may or may not need to be replaced when you replace the half shafts. Some mechanics don’t replace them unless they look bad, to save the customer money. Personally, I think that’s silly. It’s like, $25 more on a several hundred dollar job. Who cares?

Last summer I was getting ready for a road trip in my Toyota MR2 when the inner CV boot decided to let go on one of the axles. I didn’t have time to get to it before the trip because work was slamming me, so I dropped it off at the local mechanic. He decided to save me money. Naturally, I got it home, and the next morning there was a puddle of tranny oil under the car. Back it went, where they had to tear into it again, without getting paid (to their credit, I didn’t even have to suggest that they shouldn’t get paid, and in fact had to insist on paying for the part on the new seal).

Moral of the story: Yes, if the seal is bad, or installed wrong, you’re gonna leak transmission oil.

There is an added complication I think. I think 1995 is one of the years where the transmission is separate from the differential. You can check by seeing if there are two drain plugs, the differential is probably a regular hex and the transmission is a allen bolt. So sometimes there is confusion and one gets filled or overfilled and the other is left empty. They both use the same fluid.

Thanks for the input! I’m a shade tree mechanic, but leave getting under the car for transmissions, etc. to the younger set. Is this something they should check from underneath with each oil/lube service or with it being '95, should I start a separate transmission check?

This is not something that should require regular monitoring. As long as you’re monitoring your tranny fluid routinely as you do with your engine oil, you should not have to get under the car except when doing oil changes or other undercar maintenance.

The crankcase refers to the engine block and is not the transmission case. A leaky cv axle seal could allow fluid to leak out. Most fwd cars with automatic trans have a design where the trans fluid will also lubricate the differential. I am not saying this car is like that. The diff may have its own separate lubricant.

You’re correct Stoveguy, but the thread is actually addressing the loss of trannu fluid rather than the loss of oil. The OP just used an incorrect term in his/her title.

The OP doesn’t say what year the Camry is, but attached is a drawing of a typical Camry transaxle setup. The Scion tC uses the Camry 2.4L engine and tranny setup. You’ll notice that the halfshafts insert at a level above the transaxle fluid level, such that removal of the halfshafts would not typically allow drainage of the fluid, but the tech may have drained the fluid as a part of the servicing and not refilled it. Especially if it was a Skippy lube joint.

http://tijil.org/Scion_Docs/05_tC_Shop_Manuals/Repair%20Info/Repair%20Manual/Automatic%20Transmission-Trans/Automatic%20Transaxle%20Assy/conponen.pdf

the same mountainbike, the model year is in the thread title, 1995.

Sorry. I didn’t see it. Mea Culpa.

I don’t see how low oil will cause a cracked case. I can see how a cracked case can cause low oil though and a careless mechanic could have cracked the case while replacing the axles, most likely while prying the old ones out.

I agree with @keith. It is too coincidental that a half shaft replacement caused a leak and that leak is now determined to be a cracked case.
There usually are points to you pry against but you still have to be semi careful to not damage the case. Sometimes shafts don’t cooperate and that’s when you may decide to use more violence getting them out. I’ve never cracked a case but could see how that could happen.

I’m thinking the mechanic (if it was a mechanic and not a Skippy lube) drained the tranny and the oil and just refilled the oil.