The "Who broke it's axle" thread
 

Hi guys, I want to have some info about FR-S/BRZ owners who broke 1 or 2 axle. They seem damn weak since I've broke 2 in a cupples of months...

Please provide infos!

Car: FR-S '13
KM: 18000
Use: Track & Weekend car
Lowered: Yes, about 3"
Power: App. 210 at the crank
Forced Induction: No
Axle broke story: Left one broke at the drag strip. Dropped the clutch too hard at a too low RPM with sticky tires and some glue on the track. Snapped in the inner boot.

Right one just snapped. About 1500km after the left one. Was in the street, normal left turn. I've snapped the throttle and it broke without giving any advice.

Maybe it was already damaged from the drag strip incident.

I've changed them (Well the right is still broke as we speak) of my own at my cost. I'm a car mecanic and I don't trust anyone...

Seriously that sucks.. and your not the only one it happened to looks like a real weakness in this car.. hope it never happens on my car.

happened on my car. the inner cv joint was clicking on the drivers rear. its my autocross car. have over 400 runs on it. replaced under warranty.

car is on konis and rce yellows 20 mm drop. car is a automatic.

I'll play as I just ordered some DSS upgraded axles to replace mine. And I know a number of locals who are having CV clicking sounds at stock or near stock power.

Car: FR-S '13
Miles: 23,000
Use: Daily with frequent spirited driving
Suspension: ~3" (Ksport Kontrol Pro with rear height approximately 1/4" from lowest height)
Power: 420HP/310TQ @ the crank, 360WHP/260WTQ
Forced Induction: Yes
Other: Car has never been launched, throttle is typically "rolled in". Gears are never slammed.
Axle broke story: While out on a spirited drive I was driving in a decreasing radius turn which resulted in a near full suspension droop on the left. I hit a small dip in the road while starting to ease the throttle in (20-25% throttle) in which my rear sagged near full drop. CV completely destroyed immediately. Car felt like I slammed on the brakes, my seat belt locked against my chest.

Apparently it had been clicking prior to it breaking but I did not hear it. A friend who was behind me at the time said he thought the sound was normal as his was doing the same thing (he has significantly less horse power and is slightly higher ride hide than me, and frequents autox events).

From what I can tell it seems like more of a suspension geometry problem to me. The fact I am still on a factory clutch with over 10k FI miles with frequently spirited driving makes me believe I am quite easy on my transmission / axles. I however am not easy on my suspension.

I have only spun the tires off the line once when replacing my tires at a significantly lower horse power rating. This was months ago. No clicking seemed to happen until a few days prior to the CV shattering.

i was wondering if an axle is broken the car cant be driven at all right ? not even to the closest shop. you would need to tow it ?

CV joints are at their strongest straight, so ride height might be as much a problem as increasing the power.
If they reach the limit of their movement by the angle, under load, than something is going to break. Reaching the limit of extension or compression could also rip the clip off or crack the body.
At the limit for angle the shaft can touch the outer edge of the body and crack it, also the cage can crack and break at extreme angles under load. Both would give the clicking sound.

I'm not sure what sort of CV's are fitted to the inner but if the shaft is breaking inside the boot it could be where it's been touching the body at extreme angles?

you can just buy and replace the axle. Simple job.

Tore a boot at the first event I did. Car had about 1,200 miles.

The axles are weak. People who are extremely low have more issues than others cause the angle of the axles get more and more jacked up as you lower it. I would lower mine a little more but don't want to risk breaking an axle.

Waiting for subframe and diff risers to become available. Also gonna make an upgrade to DSS axles down the road

who is going to be selling these subframe and diff risers?

Your issue would be related to "Lowered: Yes, about 3"".

Why is this an "issue"? All of you with busted parts are racing the car. It's your problem at that point.

Probably because these things shouldn't be breaking on a car specifically designed for spirited driving. Subaru should have taken into account the aftermarket, and culture of lowering the cars for even better handling. My 1999 Honda Prelude has 201K miles, is lowered about 2.5 almost 3 inches and has the original Honda OEM axles. I beat the living shit out of it almost every day and they have yet to fail me. Numerous hard launches (usually with A LOT of wheelhop) and plenty of very hard cornering with a lot of suspension compression. Nary an issue. There is no reason whatsoever Subaru couldn't design their axles to withstand this kind of abuse. And I have a stock motor that is probably making 20HP less than it was when it was manufactured in 1998, if not more.

Subaru, are you listening?

If I could dislike or thumb down this post I would. Do you see how they market this car? Plus, I haven't tracked or raced my car once and I have these issues. For a car with this little power, I can't believe the axles are an issue.

not everyone that has broken an axle had been racing the car. Do your self a favor and do more research before typing next time. Might look a little smarter. Theres threads on here that talk about the clinking and clanking from the axles. Look at my post stats you will find the threads.


Here is video from today. FRS suspension shots. Racecomp RCE springs and Koni Yellow inserts. [ame]http://youtu.be/4PToOkNim7I[/ame]

Nope, and you need to flat bed it. I jacked it up, verified the CV was broken, verified it wasn't going to make a mess and called a truck.

I have only heard of 1 person breaking the shaft. They were on slicks at a drag strip, and with fair power to boot so that is acceptable.

The cage on my CV broke down the middle (in the same place as another members). I will post pictures later. They are all breaking in the point between the bearings. If my tulip is still around ill verify if there are any impact marks on the inside of the base of the tulip where the shaft might impact.

Most of us have... Some of us have done it multiple times. I just bought DSS axles to resolve the issue.

Yeah I was hoping diff risers but I would rather buy new axles than raise my car up. Ill live with my childish wasys.

Exactly. Post up your issues if you would. I would love to see a nice roster and see realistically how many people are doing what, at what height, with what power.

@feldy thanks for the video! I was planning on recording some once I get my car running again as well.

The risers don't raise the whole car up. It raises the subframe and diff up allowing the axles to not be at such extreme angles which helps take added stress off. It also gives more under clearance.

Interesting angle to view the car from. Also looks like you got a cone stuck in there :P.

Thanks. I will be interested in any pics and any sign of impact.
For the cage to break at that point suggests extreme angles because it carries zero loading normally. It's just there to keep the balls in position.
Could you check it for indents where it broke, from the balls and scuffing on the outside faces? The indents should be minimal, quite tiny at low mileage. If it's wearing there it will weaken it and wear there would likely be from not enough grease at the factory or not up to spec?

I used to have a business selling, fitting and repairing cv joints, so i'm interested from that angle.

Yes I will take detailed photos as long as Toyota didn't dump the axles. They wanted to see the axles so I dropped the car off a few days ago but the tulip should see be in the diff. When. I swing by wed I wil take some detailed photos. I will also strap down some go pros to my car to get footage of the angle where I broke it before I re-adjust my suspension to help out. I just immediately upgraded the axles as I feel there may be a problem with th OEM setup that just makes it a weak mechanical point compared to other cars. I have driven a number of my previous vehicles on the same road in the same condition without issues. Hopefilly if get enough info we can find the thresholds. :)

Picture of my left axle faillure on the drag strip.

http://www.quebecfrs.com/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=538

The first observation is that the inner race shows the shaft was extended in the normal operating position, causing the inner joint to run extended with nowhere to go with further extension.
Either the car was lowered making the shaft run at an angle and pulling it out from the centre position or if it was horizontal the shaft is too short by perhaps 20mm?

I've been having the clicking for a few thousand miles now and it's becoming more and more profound to the point where my girlfriend is even saying "WTF was that? What did you break now?"

I'm really not wanting to go to the dealer since every time I go for any little complaint/concern they dismiss it or they just throw the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" line at me. None of my local dealers have much experience with this car so any work that has to get done takes forever. I can't afford to be out of a car because of techs who don't know the car so I'm stuck between waiting it out until they break or until there's a TSB out for it (unlikely).

Any documents or tech notes that anyone can share from their experience of having their axles replaces? I'd like to replace them myself with a heftier set but unfortunately don't have that kind of money to just put down right now. Anything that'd help my case would be great.

When does it click?

Thanks for the video... I've completely understand now. I'll change my axle and put the car for storage this winter. At spring, I'll raise it.

Here's my thread I started awhile back. There's a video of the clicking sound.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43936

Never tracked. On RCE Yellows.

I started hearing creaking when I entered/exited the car. Then after my 1300 mile road trip to Florida, I heard it every time I accelerate. It has gradually gotten worse.

Unfortunately toyobaru doesn't sell parts to rebuild (well they sell almost parts but it costs almost as much as the entier axle). And the performance axles cost barely more than the stock ones. Stock are 340-440ea depending on where you shop.

I was referring to the guy with the flatbed quote. No need to waste that much time and money. DSS axles are a good solution FTW:clap:

Damn, that really shows precisely how soft the diff and subframe bushings are. Good thing there are upgrades!

If someone could take a picture under the car to check the angle of axle when at stock height would be great.

Envoyé de mon ST18a en utilisant Tapatalk

To the people who put on the DSS axles, how long have you been driving/tracking on them? And no clicking/creaking/etc issues whatsoever?

I just went out and checked mine. No pic.

It's almost perfectly horizontal but with a slight rise from the diff to the wheel.

Has anyone encountered this issue with the stock suspension?

And at stock power level.

@Ninjin I believe started clicking at near stock power. Just TRD intake and tune.

Hard to tell in my case, I went from "basically stock" to "full retard" in about two weeks. I don't recall ever hearing the clicking noise stock though.

Sent from my GS4.

Oh clicking was after the header & front pipe ? I thought you had it before. My bad! Regardless he is still NA. So i guess he is off the board for stock power. :(

Im having this same problem and I am gonna try to bring it to the dealer tomarrow morning. I think its been happening to me even before i got my mods. Right now I have coils and for a while I maxed them out so I was pretty low. Sound has gotten so much worse. My friend told me it was because I used my ebrake to drift but now I know that its an axle problem.

I will post this picture from an old thread here:
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...psbbe9d8b5.jpg

As far as I know, nearly all the breaks are in the same area and every one of them has been on a car that is lowered. Some have been tracked or autox but not all. But all have been lowered which apparently is adding additional stress to the CV joints. If you watch the above video you can get a better understanding of why that may be the case. That car is on RCE yellows with a drop of only 20-22mm (.80 inch approximately). Look at the angle of the axle during cornering and large bumps. Now think of what the angle would be with the car lowered 2-3 times that much.

This is a problem on many cars with independent rear suspension that are lowered not just the BRZ/FR-S.

A longer shaft in a lowered car would be a good start. It's tracking at the end of the race and you can see where it pulls itself down under power to cause the indents towards the outer range of that movement.
That wear suggests the car was lowered early on and either heavily tracked or had engine mods?
It's no wonder they are failing when the CV's are being pulled to their limits at an angle.

So am I getting this right? Any power mods and suspension mods (as in lowering) will cause premature axle wear/break? :thumbdown: