freddy33

I am currently replacing my passanger side rear 36mm axle nut due to a creaking noise . When I went to tighten the nut the outer axle turned with the nut but the drive shaft remains still. So the bottom line is I cannot torque the axle nut up to the required 220lbs/ft and the play/creaking remains in my rear axle. Can anybody please advise as to what this problem could be???

Billman250

Well if you didn't get it to 220 that's the problem right?

Put the wheel on, put the car on the ground, remove the center cap, and tighten it through the hole.

freddy33

This mabye a stupid question Billman, but is it normal for the axle to turn with the bolt when you are tightening it? What I also found worrying was the the bolt was going in very far on the thread before the axle started turning. I compared the depth threaded in of the bolt to the opposite side of the car and it was not as far in on the thread. I am the second owner of this car so I am concerned about a botched repair in the past . I did have the car jacked up at the time. It was in gear with the handbrake on etc.

Billman250

Are the nut threads binding on the axle? Yes the axle turns with the nut once it bottoms out on the hub. I would not recommend using the e-brake alone. Put the car on the ground to tighten it, work through the center cap hole.

We may not be on the same page here, your description is a little vague.

xviper

Yup, I did what Billman said - wheels/tires on the car, on the ground, in gear and ebrake pulled hard and the damn thing still wanted to move on me.

Sideways

220 ft lbs torque is more than the stock engine will produce at maximum.

xviper

Never thought of it that way. It certainly does put things into perspective.

SolReborn

This may be a stupid comment, but I remember reading somewhere to pull up the parking break when doing the rear.... or was that for changing my brakes... hmmm... i forget

SolReborn

oops... i just read that xviper had already said that... sorry

freddy33

Okay guys. Like Billman said, I could have been a bit vague. So I will start again:

I noticed a creaking in the rear passenger side of the car when pulling away and shifting gear. There is also an occasional rubbing noise which is easily audible when going slow or coasting. This noise is on the same side of the car.

I removed the rear wheel to investigate and noticed an unusual amount of play in the axle on the offending side. The other side of the car did not have this play.

I was advised that I should check my 36mm axle nut . Sure enough it was loose. So I went to my dealer and bought a new nut.

I removed the old nut an set about fitting the new nut. I did have the car jacked up at the time. I was wrenching away initially and everything seemed fine. The new bolt did thread correctly. But then after a while the nut was not tightening and the axle started turning. So I had a look and the axle thread and compared it to the opposite side of the car. The new nut had gone much further on to the thread of the axle then on the opposite side of the car. It was also not tightening.

I also noticed at this point that the nut I was replacing had been replaced before. It could be a previously carried out poor repair before I bought the car.

So here I am now.... Tomorrow I will try to tighten the nut without the car jacked up. But my concern is that if there was a poor repair done on the car before I bought it, could it possibly be something else in the axle that needs attention?

Would anybody have a detailed diagram of the rear axle available? Why did the nut thread so much further onto the axle than on the other side of the car? Am I the nut ????

Any ideas guys?????????