EDIT: The bumper in the first pic is from the other car. Mine is still attached to the car, though badly out of shape.
There’s very minimal intrusion in the engine bay area. The battery base was tilted a bit and the wiper fluid reservoir is shattered, but other than that the engine seems intact. Also there are no oil or coolant leaks.
Yet, when I tried to start the car the gear selector (automatic transmission) was sticking and had to push rather hard to get it back to Park. Then, the engine started with no difficulty but it was idling very roughly and was totally unresponsive to the gas pedal. I checked the throttle cable and it was fine.
Any opinions? Could it be some sensor that got disconnected or there might be some serious damage?
These are all front wheel drive “style” where the engine is in sideways and the transmission is directly under the engine. The AWD version just has a different transmission that has an output for the rear driveshaft. Either way the transmission is RIGHT where you got hit. You’ve obviously not going to be able to drive the thing with that wheel like that, so just don’t mess with it until you can get a professional to size up the damage.
FYI, driving around with a broken axle can cause serious damage to the transmission because it will be like driving around with that wheel constantly slipping, which will cause the AWD unit and the differential part of the transmission to work overtime. Depending on how the AWD system works, it might even just send all the power to that axle, so you won’t go anywhere.
The engine seems ok. It wouldn’t run properly because of the fuel shutoff valve. I pressed the button in the engine bay and it started running normally.
Also the gear lever sticks because the whole central console is broken and shifted sideways. It looks like there’s no problem with the tranny either.