Glad I could at least make you chuckle! He really was a 16 year old kid, and without going into all the drama, it took the police and his mother to get involved before he would even call State Farm to tell them that yes, he hit our stationary car.
Anyway, that's exactly why I wanted to ask before I take it to the shop. I had no idea where the differential casing is or what it actually does. He did say he checked my tranny fluid and there were no metal shavings in it, which I assume is good. Is there anything else that can cause a casing to break like that other than being struck? I mean even our mechanic said he couldn't believe there was anything wrong with the tranny with such low miles on the car. And I will say he can replace transmissions, but he's not a transmission specialist. He actually called a friend of his that owns a tranny shop and told him what he found to make sure he was right.
But yes, the damage was all to the drivers side. After he hit it, the tire was sitting at an angle, tilted in toward the engine at the top and wasn't driveable. I wish I had taken a picture.
I took the car in about a month ago because when it started making that humming noise, I thought it was a rotor because I did need my brakes replaced. That trip I got all new pads and two front rotors and a new wheel bearing on one of the back tires, but the noise didn't stop. You can't hear it when I'm a low speeds but once I hit about 30 miles an hour you can hear this constant mid-pitch humming noise. The faster I go the louder and higher pitch it gets. About 50 mph you can really hear it, even over the radio. So if it's weird that the casing is on the other side, any ideas what else could be making that noise? I'm not ruling out that the mechanic might be wrong and nothing is going on with the transmission!
