A week ago I bought a beater 93′ Saturn Wagon (165,140 miles) for $400. It was running, but badly needed a tune up. I drove it home about 35 miles, changed the oil and filter, did a basic tune up. During driving the front left wheel was making a banging noise. I thought it could have been the wheel bearing, but after research, I also thought it could have been the ball joint. The motor was running well during another 30mile run, the banging was still happening and getting worse as I got home. Right as I was coming up my hill, it began to die in 3rd, I shifted to 2nd, but it didn’t go into gear and made a horrible sound. I depressed the clutch, rolled it backwards to the bottom of the hill, put into in drive and drove it up to my driveway. Today the car was refusing to roll back while in [N] with the parking brake off. (it’s on a slope) I put it in park, bounced it around a bit, THEN the transmission started leaking badly in the front left right where the banging was happening. The car starts up fine, the motor sounds good, but it wont shift into [1] or [R]

I think the clutch could have gone out, but also something is obviously wrong with the transmission. Specifically right where the drive connects to the left wheel.

I’m no mechanic, but I was hoping to learn how to repair my own car as a project when I bought this. I didn’t expect the transmission to die, but I’m hoping somebody can hint at what’s wrong before I go to a mechanic and blow a load of $$.

Anyone have a clue of what I’m lookin’ at?