Left Rear Axial fatigues out causing the Wheel to fall off when driving

Back in November 2009, I was driving my Toyota 4Runner 3rd generation SR5 and the left REAR Axial fatigued out while going 20 MPH on an entrance to a parkway. As the Axial fell off, I lost control of the vehicle and saw the whole wheel fly off to the other side of the entrance to the parkway. I was at the other end as seeing sparks coming from the 4Runner. GEICO put down that the accident was my fault due to skidding, however this is totally untrue. I want to know if any one else had a problem with the LEFT REAR AXIAL fatiguing out causing the whole wheel to fall off while driving.

PLEASE RESPOND AND LET ME KNOW WHAT I CAN DO SO THAT GEICO DOES NOT CHARGE ME EXTRA MONEY FOR MY BILL. IF SO, GEICO OWES ME A LOT OF MONEY!!!

THANK YOU for your help and I hope NO BODY EVER BUYS A TOYOTA 4RUNNER EVER AGAIN!!!!

Funny I should reply to this thread first. Ive been active on the 4runner forums and Toyota forums since 2001-2002 and am the only one that I know of, besides you, to have this happen.

The difference is that I was running 35s, and had just towed a suburban out of some deep sand on the beach. Mine broke down in Mexico and the wheel rolled a good mile down the center of the highway and didn't cause any accidents.

I contacted Toyota and they said it was not a common issue so they couldn't do anything. Its a freak thing that you just got unlucky with. This could have happened to ANY vehicle, and the last statement about never buying a 4runner again is pretty ridiculous. 99/100 a 4runner will be more dependable than any other vehicle on the road today but I'm just biased I guess.

Your fatigue could have been caused by a bad wheel bearing due to a leaking axle seal. Could have been caused by your lack of maintenance on the vehicle. There are a lot of variables in this. You can't just go blaming everyone else. Do you have full coverage or just liability?





(Yes I know posted these a gazillion times I'd imagine...)

rross said:

THANK YOU for your help and I hope NO BODY EVER BUYS A TOYOTA 4RUNNER EVER AGAIN!!!!

Click to expand...

Just for fun what would you recommend as a better vehicle choice?

Baja Runner said:

(Yes I know posted these a gazillion times I'd imagine...)

Click to expand...

I've actually never seen your pics before. Not really sure how I missed it, but I did. Terrible situation to be, but if you can make it out of it to post about it it couldn't really be that bad. lol

rross said:

THANK YOU for your help and I hope NO BODY EVER BUYS A TOYOTA 4RUNNER EVER AGAIN!!!!

Click to expand...

Might not be smart poker to try and ask for help from a bunch of people who love their 4Runners while telling them they should own something else. Just my two cents.

Same thing happened to me but fortunately the disc brake caliper held the rear wheel on.

I did have a pretty good grease fire to put out.

Dealer also told me it was common, they get one or two a month.

It was a '71 Corvette with a rear bearing that could not have been more than 1" in diameter. Overheat causing the skinny drive axle to break (not even 50K mi on it, one owner, me.)

Baja,

Was the bearing bad? What do you think caused the failure? Just curious..

rross said:

I hope NO BODY EVER BUYS A TOYOTA 4RUNNER EVER AGAIN!!!!

Click to expand...

Your a troll. 1 post and this garbage!. Fist off its called an axle. And if your truck broke and you crashed into something/someone it is your fault. I assume your all mad because you have liability only and you want this accident to be covered. Things break, this is not the most common failure. It still happens.

We all love our 4runners, even if the rear axle shaft snaps off.

J-money$$$ said:

We all love our 4runners, even if the rear axle shaft snaps off.

Click to expand...

In my defense I'd probably love my runner alittle bit less if the rear axle snaped off. But I'm sure I'd get over it.

So the axle seal is still good? LOL

Baja Runner,

Could you post a picture of the axle side?

i reported the post as trolling, hopefully we all dont get banned for posting in here!!! but i do want to say these things can happen to ANY semi-floating axle, not just a 4Runner

Stick Figure said:

I've actually never seen your pics before. Not really sure how I missed it, but I did. Terrible situation to be, but if you can make it out of it to post about it it couldn't really be that bad. lol

Click to expand...

To be honest, I was really lucky. Happened on a flat, straight part of the highway and a family saw it happen. The father towed me off the road and into their front yard, while the mother cooked us up some fresh fish tacos and cold Tecate.

I left my truck down there and took a bus up to the border. Came back a week and a half later and the truck was still there in tact. The people are so nice, I tried to give them money, beer, wine, and they wouldn't accept it.

FdcCal said:

Baja,

Was the bearing bad? What do you think caused the failure? Just curious..

Click to expand...

I really think it was caused by a small fracture or chip in the axle that worked its way to breakage. The bearing felt fine to me, but in all honesty I was so freaked out I didn't really try to figure out what caused it but concentrated on figuring how I was going to get home for work the next day and fix it

I had been driving in deep sand for a week prior, going fast on washboard roads for probably 200 miles as well as pulling a suburban out of the sand that was about 1ft buried. All that together might have had an impact, I honestly don'tknow.

Drcoffee said:

So the axle seal is still good? LOL

Baja Runner,

Could you post a picture of the axle side?

Click to expand...

Hey Dr Coffee, the first photo I posted is of the axle shaft if that is what you were wanting to see.

J-money$$$ said:

Your a troll. 1 post and this garbage!. Fist off its called an axle. And if your truck broke and you crashed into something/someone it is your fault. I assume your all mad because you have liability only and you want this accident to be covered. Things break, this is not the most common failure. It still happens.

We all love our 4runners, even if the rear axle shaft snaps off.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Anyone coming in saying that such a catastrophic and rare failure is reason to not buy a vehicle, then they are stupid. If this had anything to do with a quality or design problem, they would have been recalled due to the catastrophic nature of it. This has nothing to do with the vehicle design, more to do with the individual vehicle and how it has been used.

Baja, I am surprised anyone else had this happen. Though looking at your axle end, it looks like it had been fracturing for a long time before it finally broke. It looks like the surface of the axle at that point is bare cast, not machined and polished, so you could have gotten a rare bad axle that had a casting defect in that spot that initiated the crack, then the big tires exacerbated it. On the other hand, it looks like it cracked the majority of the way through the cross section before it finally failed.

Either way, OP is a troll, and I am not worried about this happening to me. 1 failure a bad car does not make.

Also, he says this happened to him in 2009, and he is just now getting around to questioning it?

Welp, this has to be a troll. Maintenance is not Geico's responsibility and when something occurs to your car, like this, it isn't an accident. It is an owners responsibility. Sucks that this happened, but this person hasn't a clue how auto insurance operates. If you, as a person, are concerned about repairs to a vehicle you have 2 options.

1. Buy new, every couple of years, and have a new vehicle in warranty.

2. Purchase an aftermarket auto repair warranty. Most of these companies are sleazy, but there are decent ones.

If you don't do either of these, then most of us on here know that crap breaks.

Comprehensive coverage covers accidental damage, not breakdown issues.

Troll.

Comprehensive coverage covers accidental damage, not breakdown issues.

Click to expand...

I know you guys are saying that maintenance isn't Geicos responsibility but if he has full coverage he should be covered depending on the state.

In CA, multiple people have suffered an LBJ accident when driving and the insurance covered the crash repairs.

So I suggest you get some legal advice.

.

brianemc2_42 said:

I know you guys are saying that maintenance isn't Geicos responsibility but if he has full coverage he should be covered depending on the state.

In CA, multiple people have suffered an LBJ accident when driving and the insurance covered the crash repairs.

So I suggest you get some legal advice.

.

Click to expand...

Tie rod failure in my 2500HD nearly totaled it to the tune of $10,000 and Allstate covered it no questions asked.

Understand there are different types of coverage, and in general, vehicle issue are normally not covered.

The above situation. You have comprehensive coverage (which covers you in an accident, regardless of fault). Your tie rod caused you to crash. In this situation, yes, your insurance would cover it. If you carry full coverage, they don't care WHY you hit the pole; just that as soon as you hit the pole.. you are covered.

To be clear. If you have full coverage and you are driving and your rear diff locks up; no auto insurance will cover that. If, you are driving, and your rear locks up and you HIT a wall and you have full coverage.. then yes, your insurance will cover it.

I again, state, the OP is a troll. If you carry FULL protection and you have an accident where you crash into something, regardless of why it happened (absent "acts of god", I think some insurance companies don't cover for that) then you would have the repairs covered.

His statement that Geico marked it as his fault is suspect. Full coverage doesn't car. You buy full coverage on a vehicle to cover just this. Most banks require FULL coverage when you fiance a car to make sure that when you slip off the road and hit a pole, it gets fixed. You skidded off, who cares.

When you ONLY carry liabelty, that is for when YOU hit someone else and it is YOUR fault; that is when the insurance company DOES not have to pay for YOUR repairs.

Get it? From his story, which, by the way is really vague. He had a mechanical issue and hit something, whether another car OR a wall. It was, in the eyes of the law, his fault... as in NO ONE ELSE. No one HIT him.

In this situation and when you ONLY have basic coverage, the insurance WILL not and IS NOT obligated to pay.



Ok? Make sense? There is a difference in the types of coverage.

rross said:

THANK YOU for your help and I hope NO BODY EVER BUYS A TOYOTA 4RUNNER EVER AGAIN!!!!

Click to expand...