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Redneck repairmen screw up my car....


Crazy Lee
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A little background... Late fall 2014 I had an axle installed on the driver's side of my car. Then, late last summer, I had a bearing replaced on the same wheel. In order to replace that bearing you would have to remove the nut on the end of that axle, and remove the end of the axle. I never touched the nut or axle afterward because it's on 200 foot pounds which is a very high torque.

Recently I started feeling the wheel having play, and it started getting worse and worse. When I had the wheel looked at, a new mechanic found the threads on the end of the axle that holds the nut on were stripped badly. When I returned the car to the place where I had the bearing replaced, the guy took the nut off, and then couldn't get it tightened back on again. So I was stuck there, and had to pay them $130 to replace the axle.

Someone said that maybe the axle threads were stripped before the bearing was done, which is possible. But why didn't the mechanics doing the bearing notice the threads? The second mechanic IMMEDIATELY noticed the threads when he checked the bearing. Which is why I suspect the mechanics who did the bearing fucked up the threads and stripped them. This doesn't surprise me, the people who run the shop were a bunch of white trash rednecks, the kind you'd see on maurray or maybe honey boo-boo. They probably do shit half-assed and don't even try to do a good job. To actually fuck up an axle that badly. I've shown the picture below to other car nuts I know and some have almost died of shock from how wrecked it is.

It's too bad I doubt I can sue. I don't have the paperwork for when they did the bearing, so they could lie about it. And how do I prove that they were the ones who stripped the threads? It's hard to find a good mechanic.

 

axle.jpg

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How fishy the mechanic buisness is sucks man, I got an oil change and they left my radiator loose which in the end totalled my car because I didn't notice until it melted all my electronics.

My advice is make friends with someone who knows what they are doing and hang out while they do, or make friends with an auto shop manager.

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Well on the plus side, if there is a machinist shop around nearby, might be possible to get your axle re-threaded by them either by on a lathe or a thread repair tool,

that being said, I'm not sure if they have tap and die sets that large, would be interesting to find out.

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It's clear that the guy cross-threaded the axle nut and used his impact gun. Typical of incompetent guys.

From the looks of them the threads seem to be beyond recover unfortunately. That's why I always, ALWAYS screw any nut at least a few turns by hand first, especially the finer threads like this. They're easy to ruin.

29 minutes ago, Khaki said:

That being said, I'm not sure if they have tap and die sets that large, would be interesting to find out.

You'd be surprised. Taps and dies are made in pretty darn large sizes! Like these M20 X 2.5mm dies:

DD2.jpg

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Not sure what it's like in a city, but I find the small local shops that have been around for a while tend to be the best for car repairs. If you can't find any, then try to look up reviews for places before you decide to take your vehicle there. Oh and never go to the big name garages, they tend to rip you off as much as they can.

4 hours ago, Johanna Waya said:

How fishy the mechanic buisness is sucks man, I got an oil change and they left my radiator loose which in the end totalled my car because I didn't notice until it melted all my electronics.

How the fuck did they manage that? Also that's the reason why I occasionally look at the temp gauge. Overheating sucks ass.

Edited by Barnectomy
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Thats a clear sign of a cross threaded nut. Usually that happens on an axle nut when its barely (like just a thread or 2) started and then impact tools are used to zip it on. It also happens when taking off old rusted axle nuts (which is why the new cv axle comes with a new nut). I wrenched for 7 years and ran across stripped out axles a handful of times.

Also, 200 foot-pounds is not a lot. Quite easy to torque down by hand with a torque wrench.

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