Axle nut and dealership...need your 2cents
 

Here is the short version. This is the third time I am taking my car into the dealership for the clicking sound coming from the rear axle. The first time they heard the noise and tq the nut down. Well it came back a month later so I took it in again but they could not hear the noise and I was not able to repeat it with them in it so nothing could be done apparently.

Fast fwd 3 months later I was completely annoyed by it and said I will see for my myself. When I took the wheel off I was shocked to see that the axle nut was not staked. I was coming up on my 40k service so back in I went armed with this new information figuring they must acknowledge there is a problem now.
Nope they took it for a drive and heard nothing then I told the Service advisor about the nut not being staked and he said if I mean the cottin pin... I described it to him and said he will inform the mech. Just got a call back and he said they can't see anything wrong. So I asked for his email and sent them a picture of what it's suppose to look like.

So now I wait to hear back from them tomorrow. Now that you have a little of the backstory what are my options going fwd with them if they still do not want to replace the nut. I would rather not have to go to another dealership.

Why don't you torque down the nut, notch it yourself, and see if the clicking is still there. If it is, Im almost certain your axle is on its way out (in other words, its a time bomb).

Yea I could do that but I want them to do their job. This is something that's just eating at me and I can't justify fixing it myself to myself if you get me.

I feel your pain, which is pretty much the reason why my car hasn't been back to the dealer since I bought it, I would rather just do the maintenance/repair/upgrading myself. I agree though I would want them to just to the job correctly the first time.

If the dealer shop didn't do right by the second time, take it somewhere else. Your not limited to just one dealer shop.

I would ask the new place to order a new axel nut and put it on.

@BigFatFlip

I went to 4 dealers for the same thing. They won't do anything unless it's repeatable when they look at it and even then they'll charge you if you have any aftermarket stuff going on in that general area. I bought a new nut and punched it down myself. The sound went away for a few weeks then slowly came back. I thought it might be the cv joint, but figured I'd try greasing the ebrake parts as suggested by a couple others on here. A day or two after greasing the ebrake parts (not the part that makes contact with the inner wall to stop the car but all the other parts that make it move), the click sound went away after a day or two. The sound never came back either so that must have been it. In short, try greasing the crap out of the ebrake bits. Worked for me and a couple other people.

Is there like a Subaru shop manual that shows the replacement of the axle nut. They are telling me it's fine the way it is not being staked and the cotter pin is the only thing needed to hold it in place. I want to believe them but rather double check.

Yea I will try that. This is my first bad experience at a dealer. I was always shocked to hear all the stories here and almost did not want to believe them. Pick up the car today and it will be the last time it ever goes in.

Here's my policy when getting dealer service:
- Find someone in the service department who races. There usually are a few.
- Show him your car and talk about their race car(s) for a few minutes.
- Mention why you're getting work done today, and get feedback on the difficulty of the repair.
- When you pick up the car, check-in with your new friend. Usually they will have kept an eye on things.
- If there's some leniency in the interpretation of your warranty... politely ask questions.

Being friendly and having a cool car goes a long way, with regard to dealer service.

This is a cotter pin:

http://www.4wdmechanix.com/images/Un...ing%20(19).jpg

Unless they drilled a hole in your axle and installed their own cotter pin your car has no cotter pin and they are lying to you not even bothering to take the rear wheels off to look at the axle.

Shame them if you can, absolutely find a new dealership, they are doing the bare minimum to get you out of their hair. These are the kind of places that dust off your oil filter and say they replaced it.

Edit: Easy solution "I didn't know this car had a cotter pin, can you show me? Should be easy 5 minutes of your time to pop one of the rear wheels off point it out and put it back on :)"

please do this. Actually thoough, record it on video, decribe it very well on here, do something. I need more car drama on this forum its getting a little stale these days

Not sure why this tag didn't show up, but I guess I ran into this thread anyway. Am I turning into the unofficial expert on this? :lol:

This isn't a new problem and you're not the only one. There's quite a few of these around now and I bet Toyota/Subaru are starting to rack up the data and are probably starting to consider having a TSB or something on these.

Here's a couple of threads I know of:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95702
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102761

My advice to your particular situation: Just torque it down and stake it yourself. If you are not comfortable with that or the problem persists, find a new dealership to work with, they clearly do not know what they are doing. As much as we want to believe that its better to take it to the dealer because they are "experts", they are not.

Are you able to replicate it when driving? if so, suggest that you drive and have the mechanic/tech sit in the passenger side while you drive. I also found it helpful to drive in and enclosed location (like a parking structure) or next to a wall to help "reflect" the sound back to the passenger. Mention that another dealer had already tried replacing the axle nut and have the new dealer look at your axles, particularly the CV joint (have them put it on a lift and wiggle the tire around, you can see in my thread how I replicated the click while the car was on stands).

Hopefully, if its not the axle nut, you can get them to replace your axles under the power train warranty.

Best of luck.

Seriously, just fix it yourself.

Takes approx. 5 minutes of your time if you have a torque wrench.

And as others have mentioned, the mere discussion of a cotter pin should tell you to go to another dealership. The more you linger on this, the more annoying it will get and you'll just burn bridges with everyone.

-alex