Broken rear axle, ideas

[dieselguy]

A little background first, the wife searched for a the right 3rd gen for quite a while before she found this ride, a one owner 98 limited 4wd, well documented service records, lived its life in the city, we acquired it with around 160k on the clock, we've owned it a little over a year and put about 14k miles on it so far, so we're fifty miles from home after a twenty two hundred mile trip, all highway miles btw, we're tooling down the highway and the engine revs like I hit neutral with my knee or something, I pull over and check the driveline etc and determine it must have broken an axle, so I put it in 4wd and eased on home, no strange noises at all btw, a few days later I get a chance to yank the driver side axle and it's broken at the snap ring groove just outboard of the abs ring, looks like maybe the original nachi bearing, a little sloppy, not horrible either, I'm assuming the slop in the bearing caused the axle to break in snap ring groove, being the weakest area maybe, it also appears to have been broken a while and hanging on by a small area, so is this common or just a fluke, I plan on putting all new oem bearings and seals in both sides, should I go with an oem axle or is there an aftermarket source for a good axle, we plan on keeping the runner for a long time so I'm looking for best options.

 

[rideexileex]

Wow! You are lucky you didn’t lose a wheel while driving!

Had that happen on a 4runner I did a fix and flip on. Rear axle seals leaked so bad that the bearing failed also, and eventually heated the axle up so much that the axle shaft itself broke. I would assume something along the lines of that may have happened. Axle shafts just breaking while “commuting” are very rare compared to off-road.

 

[JZiggy]

More pictures please. I’d like to understand how it failed.

 

[diverscale]

no need for OEM. rock auto has it for 200$ canadian, which would account for approx 150$ american.

 

[dieselguy]

You can see the break through the abs hole.

 

[JZiggy]

Check your service records to see if the rear bearings have been done before. It could be that the previous retainer ring had to be dremel'ed off and they nicked the surface of the shaft.

The path of the crack propagation is pretty clear, starting right at the bottom of your first picture.

 

[kolelt]

Wow! You are lucky you didn’t lose a wheel while driving!

Had that happen on a 4runner I did a fix and flip on. Rear axle seals leaked so bad that the bearing failed also, and eventually heated the axle up so much that the axle shaft itself broke. I would assume something along the lines of that may have happened. Axle shafts just breaking while “commuting” are very rare compared to off-road.

You couldn’t. The whole wheel is bolted to the housing. But the OP is lucky though.

 

[St Runner]

I would not hesitate to put a used OEM axle back in. Its not common for the rear axle to break like that. First time I have read about it. Probably a faulty part that slipped through toyotas normally excellent quality control (for those years)

 

[mtbtim]

Even with a rig that supposedly lived it's whole life as a pavement pounder, who knows how it was driven. It could have been something as simple as the previous owner was coming out of a driveway onto a busy road and turned the wheel too sharply while gassing it. If the drive wheel came off the edge of the curb while they were gassing it hard, the wheel was able to spin freely as it was coming off the curb and then hit the ground and grab causing a ton of torsional force translated to the shaft and the rear differential for that matter.

But, it could have been a manufacturing flaw or like Jordan mentioned above from somebody nicking the axle shaft cutting off the retainer. If I were you, I'd check the local PickNPulls and/or other wrecking yards for 3rd Gen 4runners or 1st Gen Tacomas and see if you can find a used axle you could pick up for a very affordable price.

 

[dieselguy]

Even with a rig that supposedly lived it's whole life as a pavement pounder, who knows how it was driven.

I have to totally agree with you on that point, Houston potholes can be way more brutal than the trail at times .

 

[T4R2014]

Take a look at this:

Estate claimed Toyota SUV axle had manufacturing defect - VerdictSearch

 

[dieselguy]

Check your service records to see if the rear bearings have been done before. It could be that the previous retainer ring had to be dremel'ed off and they nicked the surface of the shaft.

The path of the crack propagation is pretty clear, starting right at the bottom of your first picture.

I haven't gone through all the records but I believe the broken, dirvers side, is the original nachi bearing with a national seal, the pass side has both a national bearing and seal so I believe both sides have been into before, I also noticed that neither axle appears to have a retaining ring in the groove, so I suspect both sides were serviced at the same time and the tech either forgot the retainers or just didn't want to bother with them.

 

[nevada]

Take a look at this:

Estate claimed Toyota SUV axle had manufacturing defect - VerdictSearch

wow.

id like to see some pictures of that axle. I don't see how it could come off the vehicle. unless it broke outside the bearing, but there isn't much space there. odd.
i would think if this were an actual manufacturing defect, we would have seen more of this type of failure.

 

[JZiggy]

I haven't gone through all the records but I believe the broken, dirvers side, is the original nachi bearing with a national seal, the pass side has both a national bearing and seal so I believe both sides have been into before, I also noticed that neither axle appears to have a retaining ring in the groove, so I suspect both sides were serviced at the same time and the tech either forgot the retainers or just didn't want to bother with them.

Oh, so both axles were missing their snap rings??

 

[phattyduck]

wow.

id like to see some pictures of that axle. I don't see how it could come off the vehicle. unless it broke outside the bearing, but there isn't much space there. odd.
i would think if this were an actual manufacturing defect, we would have seen more of this type of failure.

If the axle broke past the c-clip, there is nothing other than the fit of the axle to the bearing holding the wheel in place. If the bearing is already in bad shape, it could release the wheel or the hub could come out of the bearing (it is only a loose press fit) before you have a chance to stop the vehicle.

-Charlie

 

[dieselguy]

Oh, so both axles were missing their snap rings??

Yes, no remains of a snap ring in the broken side and no ring on the pass side either, but with there being a national bearing and seal in the pass side I'm confident someone has been in there. Things like this is the very reason I do all of my own wrenching on all of my vehicles and equipment, I'm very fortunate that I've been turning wrenches for most f my life and made my living do so for thirty plus years so it comes naturally for me.

 

[JZiggy]

You can see the break through the abs hole.

That crack took a while to develop. Look how part of the fracture surface is discolored from contact with oil and grease.

It's also nothing like a pure torsional failure. That's the problem with semi-float axles -- they resist a combination of torsional and bending loads.

I'm trying to think how the lack of snap ring could contribute in this case.

 

[nevada]

If the axle broke past the c-clip, there is nothing other than the fit of the axle to the bearing holding the wheel in place. If the bearing is already in bad shape, it could release the wheel or the hub could come out of the bearing (it is only a loose press fit) before you have a chance to stop the vehicle.

-Charlie

the bearing would have to be super bad to let the inner race go, and then you still have the retainer holding things together.

at that point, I don't see how it could be considered a manufacture defect. I cant believe they won that case.

like I said, id like to see pictures from that case.

 

[T.A.Kirk]

Yes, no remains of a snap ring in the broken side and no ring on the pass side either, but with there being a national bearing and seal in the pass side I'm confident someone has been in there. Things like this is the very reason I do all of my own wrenching on all of my vehicles and equipment, I'm very fortunate that I've been turning wrenches for most f my life and made my living do so for thirty plus years so it comes naturally for me.

You can never rule out sheer incompetence on the mechanic's behalf--I once worked on a FZJ-80 front axle where the dealer's "trained factory technician" failed to fill the Birfields with grease on both sides. 20,000 miles later, I'm helping the new owner service them, and it's Hey! Presto!, this is what knuckle joints look like after 20,000 miles without lubrication.

What was so bad about it was, that FZJ-80 had been taken back by the dealer on a trade-in, and then sold to this poor guy I was helping, along with all the maintenance records and documentation, it having literally been owned by your classic "little old man" who was a fiend for doing everything "by the book". Old guy even had an affidavit from when he'd missed an oil change by a couple of hundred miles because it was on a trip, and the dealer hadn't wanted to bother servicing it just yet... Some kind of lifetime oil change thing, for him.

Which just goes to show that even a thoroughly documented "well-maintained" rig can have major nightmare issues, and that "trained technicians" are only as good as their training...

The dealer did spring for the new axles on that whole deal, so there is that.

 

[T.A.Kirk]

the bearing would have to be super bad to let the inner race go, and then you still have the retainer holding things together.

at that point, I don't see how it could be considered a manufacture defect. I cant believe they won that case.

like I said, id like to see pictures from that case.

Like as not, it wasn't that the case was decided on the merits, but because they felt sorry for the plaintiff. I'm not getting how that accident even happened, unless the driver was both inexperienced and driving too fast for conditions. Which she apparently was, but the speed at which she was going was apparently never raised as an issue--Which, again, is probably due to the appearance of things. You don't want to imply that the plaintiff's darling daughter was possibly at fault, in front of a jury. That argument is just going to piss them off, and then you're screwed. Damned if you do, damned if you don't... I wager that the insurance company settled, just on optics. Of course, it is a fairly recent case, and the odds are that it's under appeal.