broken half shaft consequences? causes?

[indianaimprezed]

My 16 year old took our 96 impreza to to library to study. About an hour later he called to say the car was stuck. I assumed he was screwing around in the heavy snow and hung the car up above the axles. I picked up a army shovel and drove out to discover the car sitting running on completely dry pavement. When i hopped in to move the car the engine revved, but the car didn't move. I opened the hood to see if the clutch cable ahd snapped, but my son said to look under the car.

 

Under the car, the passenger side front half shaft was laying on the ground. the wheel side was jammed up and the engine side was resting on the ground. A large piece of a snap ring, a ripped boot, 4 large ball bearings, and a ring were laying on the ground under the car.

 

I beleive he was sliding out of control and hit something, but he claims not to have done so. Still, i find it hard to believe that the pieces all just fell out because he was slipping on the snow.

 

I have been wrenching on volvos for 30 years, but never have had to touch this subaru. What is is the likely cause? The axles, and clutch were replaced last week by a local mechanic.

[Storydude1]

My 16 year old took our 96 impreza to to library to study. About an hour later he called to say the car was stuck. I assumed he was screwing around in the heavy snow and hung the car up above the axles. I picked up a army shovel and drove out to discover the car sitting running on completely dry pavement. When i hopped in to move the car the engine revved, but the car didn't move. I opened the hood to see if the clutch cable ahd snapped, but my son said to look under the car.

 

Under the car, the passenger side front half shaft was laying on the ground. the wheel side was jammed up and the engine side was resting on the ground. A large piece of a snap ring, a ripped boot, 4 large ball bearings, and a ring were laying on the ground under the car.

 

I beleive he was sliding out of control and hit something, but he claims not to have done so. Still, i find it hard to believe that the pieces all just fell out because he was slipping on the snow.

 

I have been wrenching on volvos for 30 years, but never have had to touch this subaru. What is is the likely cause? The axles, and clutch were replaced last week by a local mechanic.

 

 

Massive Clutch Dump?

 

Were there any burnout marks in the area?

 

Doughnut marks?

 

I think your son beat it untill it broke.

 

that, Or the mechanic totally messed up.

[Ratty2Austin]

i have beat my impreza up a lot.. and many other subarus.. they are tough to break- however

 

if the local mechanic used a cheap-brand reman axle (non OEM) then thats your problem. I am almost sure of it... i stopped buying cheap brand reman axles cause they usually break when i install them.. one of them never made it into the car, cause it was broken out of the package!

 

other axles (also cheap reman) exploded on me... even after a week of normal driving! so i would say, DONT get a cheap reman axle to replace that one- get a genuine Subaru reman or NEW from a dealer. trust me- its worth the extra money!!!

[nipper]

ive never heard of them coming apart but have seen them strip and not move the car, just spin in thier hubs.

 

i would just replace the axle, have the motor mounts inspected, and other bits in the front end, but should be ok. i agree with your theory. Check the tire and wheel to make sure they arent bent.

 

 

nipper

[tcspeer]

I vote mechanic error or part failure, if the axle was just put in last week.

[indianaimprezed]

Well, thanks for all the advice.

 

Once my temper cooled i asked him to tell me exactly what he heard the car doing and what it was doing prior to becoming immobilized.

 

He said the front right side got stuck in a snowbank (more likely jammed up on a hidden curb) and he was trying to dislodge the car and as he ran it up into second gear, with the car still not moving, he heard a grunching sound. He managed to push the car out then and the car pulled away, then he heard a second grunching grinding sound and that was it. The car won't move at all.

 

I have really really abused cars over the years, but i have never heard of such a thing. I had a 78 ford fiesta that took a heck of a lot more abuse than my son could dish out. Believe me, he is quite mellow compared to how I was at his age. My personal car now is a 70 volvo sedan, but for the past 9 years that little impreza was mine. I managed 149,000 on the original clutch and 90k on brake pads.

[nipper]

sometimes stuff happens ....

 

 

nipper

[a97obw]

Not familiar with the Impreza, but if it is like the Legacies there should have been a roll pin that holds the axle to the output shaft at the transmission. Easiest way to remove/replace the axles is to remove the lower pinch bolt just below the ball joint on the hub, put one foot on the lower arm and lifting up on the hub give it a push/lift to seperate. So I can see that if the mechanic didn't get the ball joint assembly back in the hub correctly then the pinch bolt wouldn't find its correct spot and hold things together. If that's the case consider yourself very very fortunate a MAJOR accident didn't occur!

 

 

I'd look around for that roll pin.

[indianaimprezed]

The shop is going to replace the axles without charge. It turns out that the parts that broke were the exact ones that were replaced. My fear is that the parts are no good or the mechanic is not familiar enough to do the work properly. Is there anywhere I can find a diagram of the axle assembly?

 

Not familiar with the Impreza, but if it is like the Legacies there should have been a roll pin that holds the axle to the output shaft at the transmission. Easiest way to remove/replace the axles is to remove the lower pinch bolt just below the ball joint on the hub, put one foot on the lower arm and lifting up on the hub give it a push/lift to seperate. So I can see that if the mechanic didn't get the ball joint assembly back in the hub correctly then the pinch bolt wouldn't find its correct spot and hold things together. If that's the case consider yourself very very fortunate a MAJOR accident didn't occur!

 

 

I'd look around for that roll pin.

[idosubaru]

i would not suspect foul play of any kind. the axle failed most likely because it was improperly rebuilt or assembled. i pulled over to help a guy earlier this summer in a nissan (i think, i don't remember exactly) stuck in the median. his axle did the same thing (but at 60ish mph). i have subaru's with 200,000+ miles and have never had old, clicking, greasless cv joints break. the only one that ever broke, broke the same day i installed it, blew in pieces just like you mentioned. it was a remanufactured unit. there's a company mentioned on here quite a bit....MWE or something that rebuilds axles and has a good reputation. probably better going with them than random off the shelf cheap parts. some companies actually replace all the internals, other companies only replace something that's broke...there are different standards on rebuilding. i've found the original axles (nearly 20 years old) to be nearly indestructible. haven't had one fail yet, and driven them 50,000 miles + on broken boots (just talked about that in another thread). my rears have broken boots and they've been on the car the 115,000 miles that i've been driving it (220,000 total).