98 V70 Axle Bolt: A Cautionary Tale

hockeyjake1997 · Post by **hockeyjake1997** » 04 Jun 2015, 22:24

I recently had an experience I felt was worth sharing, as a warning. I bought my V70 in late March, and I love it! But the previous owner either didn't do his research or did't care, because lots of repairs are half-a**ed. I've reconnected missing or lazily left unhooked vacuum tubing, and still have exhaust coming out of my dipstick despite his claims to having overhauled the PCV. He also mentioned having done the brakes (which to my surprise I found to be done correctly), and when he did the brakes he apparently reused the axle nuts. On a 1300 mile road trip we took a couple weeks ago, I noticed a new minor squeak a low speeds, then I could swear it looked like my drivers side camber was wrong, when I got home I I noticed a myriad of symptoms of acute problems, a faint occasional click, a quiet squeak, steering jerking but only when cranked all the way right, and eventually found out that it was out of camber, in fact the wheel was very loose; the nut, that does not hold torque well after being used basically once, backed itself out, allowing the PA Turnpike to shake and smash my suspension, and drivetrain components on the front drivers side. The camber issue caused my innermost tire tread to wear just about to the nylon belt, and tonights investigation revealed two large chips in my hub inside the bearing assembly, which has fallen apart into separate bits (hub, inner bearings and race, and the back not held together by anything but the pressure of the cv axle and wheel), and some CV axle play that may lead to it needing to be replaced. Maybe I'm just on a rant here but if theres anything to get out of this story, don't reuse parts that aren't meant to be reused.

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 04 Jun 2015, 23:19

Why would the axles nuts be removed for brakes...?
Am I missing something here?

Post by **E Showell** » 06 Jun 2015, 06:39

I can't figure that one out either.

Post by **precopster** » 06 Jun 2015, 06:58

It's actially a nut. And they can be re-used.

Bolts are used on 99 plus cars and are one -use.

Blockpartie · Post by **Blockpartie** » 06 Jun 2015, 07:08

precopster wrote:It's actially a nut. And they can be re-used.

Don't reuse them. Several different versions of axle nuts exist, one that, IIRC was phased out, actually had to be deformed to be secure.
I've seen multiple cars that had nuts come loose. Often nuts get reused multiple times / overtorqued / not torqued correctly leading to problems later on.

Post by **j-dawg** » 06 Jun 2015, 08:22

precopster wrote: Bolts are used on 99 plus cars and are one -use.

Even the XC90 bolts with the giant cushion?

Post by **polskamafia mjl** » 06 Jun 2015, 09:57

precopster wrote:It's actially a nut. And they can be re-used.

So its safe to re-use the axle nuts on an 850?

Post by **dosbricks** » 06 Jun 2015, 13:08

I've reused the OE nuts on both cars and never had one come loose except once many years ago when an indy did the CV boots and he did not tighten the nut properly. I reuse the OE because it looks to be of much better quality than replacements I've gotten with GKN boots (which are OEM).

This is a big honking nut and 89ft lbs + 60 degrees rotation is a lot of torque.

Post by **jimmy57** » 06 Jun 2015, 13:27

+1 on reuse if not damaged/rusted/worn and torqued properly.

Post by **erikv11** » 07 Jun 2015, 22:45

I've reused a lot of these, no problems yet.