Wife's 2016 Outback just turned 100k miles. Has had noisy rear wheel bearing for a while and we'll be taking a trip in a couple weeks. I was dragging my feet so she took it to a shop. They drive the car and confirm left rear bearing is unhappy.
Shop owner calls me and says they can supply and install an OEM brand bearing for $350. I give the green light. Drop the car off next morning.
I then get a call saying.. on disassembly the threads on the end of the axle were found to be damaged and they recommend replace. Says he can get the part for $189 and he won't charge me labor - they can have it ready the following morning. This seems a little bit like a possible admission of ham fisted removal but I don't know any better. So I authorize the expanded r/r.
The next morning (today) I get a call saying car is ready.. but the ABS light is on and they suspect they have damaged the wheel speed sensor...
So I think "that ain't great". And I also wonder if the shop knew to put the electronic parking brake in "maintenance mode".
Shop owner says he intends to make it right but he can't get a new sensor until Monday - I can take the car home. So I go get the car and I get to see the axle. I've never taken one apart but looks like an axle. Splines near the end and normal thread and a nut on the (hub) end. Outer most threads are worn off. I didn't shoot a photo.
Cruise control won't work on the way home so I think wheel speed sensor is a reasonable diagnosis.
Shop owner affirms that I won't pay for the damaged sensor - I just need to bring the car back after he gets the part.
To those who work on these.. is this something that sounds unusual or typical? I know Subaru axles are a common replacement item - I'm just curious.
That sounds pretty typical for somebody that doesn't realize what a massive pain in the ass they can be. The axle was probably seized in the hub, super hard. By the time he beat it all apart, the axle was pooched, and the wheel speed sensor got damaged.
His fault, only in that he should have called and said, "Hey Dude, your axle is seized hard in the hub. The chances of us getting it apart without berkeleying something up are 50/50, but since it's your car, and your problem, you may need to buy some more parts. Also, labour is no longer flat rate."
Since he didn't call, and accepted responsibility for your problem, well, maybe he'll know better next time.
If it breaks coming apart, its your problem. If it breaks going back together, it mine. I once spent 40 minutes with an oxy acetylene torch cutting a hub to bits so I could salvage the axle, after spending at least 40 minutes with air hammers, pullers and heat. That's not my fault, and most of the extra time got charged out.
Does the axle nut look something like this? I have no idea if Subaru does this but this method/design is common and to have threads damaged while doing a wheel bearing sounds pretty amateurish to me.
The outer sleave is intended to be staked (smashed into) into the keyway of the axle to lock it in place. If the staked portion of the nut is not lifted up with a chisel, you can wipe out the axle threads when removing the nut. A decent air impact wrench will do this pretty easily for you. Pretty common.
You can use a chisel or there are even tools to this:
https://www.matcotools.com/catalog/product/MST130/staked-axle-nut-chisel-set/
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I didn't see the hub/bearing after removal but the axle barely had surface rust (Georgia). So I'm not sure. Do these need that much force to disassemble if there isn't any rust?
In reply to Scott_H :
Around 2:15 on this Vid shows what the outer nut looks like
https://youtu.be/yUgjxEMxmL8
I'm truly puzzled how the outer most axle threads get flattened.
I have never unstaked a nut and never damaged the threads in the process.
It IS very easy to damage the ABS sensor when cleaning out the bore, if it's the bolt in style bearing. I got to eat one on a Forester last week when I nicked it with the carbide burr I use. Oops. (The sensors never come out without breaking, so I didn't try that first)
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
That's good to know. I'm not going to be broken by buying a new axle - but I was curious if it was likely (to have been) damaged by a mistake or by simply doing the job of the bearing replacement.
I'm actually glad my wife took it to a mechanic rather than trying to do it myself in this case.
I have read that these axles need replacement sometimes and maybe this is a common reason why.
Definitely not a job I would do at home, if they still use a backing plate that seizes to the bearing housing. Not sure why they would if it does not have a drum parking brake, but Subaru is nothing if not willing to re-use a design forever...
OHSCrifle said:
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I didn't see the hub/bearing after removal but the axle barely had surface rust (Georgia). So I'm not sure. Do these need that much force to disassemble if there isn't any rust?
They usually don't look rusty. The really tight ones just look black. I would bet that part of the problem is, the guy doing the job isn't used to rust. I go into those jobs knowing there is a good chance that I will have an argument. If you've not run into it, it can become a big problem.
They come apart very nicely when stuff is new, but they can get ugly fast.
