TougeHorseman

Hi ya'll. Tonight a bizarre thing happened. I was driving at a mellow pace (actually this is true). Going up a gentle right hand medium speed sweeper, my car suddenly started making a loud rotational squealing/scraping sound. I noticed a loss of power. I slowed to a crawl, and noticed it took effort to continue forward. I came to a complete stop on a hill, and the car would not roll back, even in neutral. Initially, I thought it was a seized brake caliper, or something simple.

I pulled the car over immediately into a flat turn out. While I was taking the rear driver's side wheel off, I noticed some metal shaving looking bits on my rim. When the wheel was being completely removed, the axle nut thing (the nut inside the center of the hub with that little ding on it) fell out! I could see the metal itself was completely sheared off. I reattached the wheel without that axle nut thing, and left it parked, and am awaiting a tow truck tomorrow morning.

I also now notice after putting the rear wheel back on that it looks like I am running a massive spacer on that wheel. It sticks out much further than the other uninjured side.

What happened people? Help me diagnose. There was no sudden impact. I didn't run over anything or bomb through a pothole. It seems like it just failed on me. I'm at 130,000 miles.

This thread seems to describe my problem exactly in the final post:
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/871...ken-rear-axle/

Recommendations for repairs?
Things my mechanic (Joey) should look into while repairing this job?
How much is this gunna cost me?

Pics of the inside of the axle nut, and the wheel hub are attached.

danvuquoc

What in the world, it looks like you sheared off the axle shaft spline that was threaded into axle nut.

I'd probably be replacing the axle and nut.

ls1->s2k

^^what he said.

i think you have to replace the axle and hub.

did you do the axle nut TSB?

tkeyyy

that's pretty crazy though. guess all the mountain runs added up

TougeHorseman

I don't think I did that axle hub TSB. I just realized that might be a possibility after searching through the axle threads. I wasn't previously aware of that issue. It could have been done when my mom owned the car, and my parents were doing service through the dealership. I'll have to check my maintenance records.

Oh yeah, something like this was bound to happen eventually. It's par for the course. I'm happy it didn't cause me to lose control, etc. My car has a excellent maintenance record (thank you Joey ) and this is really the first "wear and tear" repair that has happened other than routine maintenance related issues. With 130k on the odometer, I've been expecting some gremlin to pop up.

TougeHorseman

DR BROD is on it's way to Dr. Joeys!

tkeyyy

fail. i just realized what 'BROD' meant on your plate.

TougeHorseman

LOL, its not "bee-rod".
Or a play on "broad", because I'm not going to be an OBGYN, haha

andrewhake

Tow truck! They do exist! Glad you got it out of there away from that raccoon.

When it was flat on the truck did it look like the LR was still aligned properly?

There is no probably replace axle and nut, that one is pretty clear The wheel bearing seizing up must have been the cause. Looking over the axle TSB stuff If it wasn't ever done and the bearing had slightly more play I could see how under a heavy load it could just seize up or tighten up dramatically. Once the bearing locked/tightened up the diff was trying to turn a driveshaft into a wheel hub that no longer wanted to turn, the splined section of the driveshaft tip stayed put inside the wheel hub, and the rest of the driveshaft said f@#k that and kept on turning.

I would imagine the splined wheel hub is incredibly strong, but I am sure it is worth looking at the wheel bearing, wheel hub, and of course the obviously damaged drive shaft.

You should be able to see if the TSB was done by looking at the marks on the driveshaft and axle right? Hope it doesn't turn out to be to pricey, good luck sir! I blame that stupid Ford Contour...

TougeHorseman

Andrew. Thank you for your help last night. You are a truly good friend. Once my car is back running again your reward is a session behind the wheel sittin in the Recaro! That raccoon was totally stalking us. Hilarious when it was holding onto that little tree and peering out behind it.

Amazing how AAA gave me the run around. Everything from outsourcing me to a mobile motorcycle repair man to a Firestone in Texas... I called AAA again at 8am after about three hours of sleep and they sent a flatbed from Action Towing in RWC immediately. He was a really nice guy and arrived in less than an hour.

Most of the technical talk is over my head. The more I think about this situation I think something was slowly going wrong with that exact rear left corner for a matter of months. I kept hearing an intermittent rotational scraping sound when I would make right hand turns. Through that time I had a sticky rear left caliper that created a similar rotational scrapin sound. I did get new pads and rotors and I still heard the sound. Shame on me for not taking it into my trusted mechanic to evaluate that sound earlier. Because it kept coming and going I guess I had some ridiculous fantasy that the problem had solved itself. I think I never heard the sound at high speed and high rpm for obvious reasons due to all the noise my car makes from intake and exhaust.