Northern_aqs

I was at our summer home for the weekend and decided to take the 951 despite some ground clearance issues on our road; today it feels like I'm somehow paying for that decision. I'm currently riding in the tow truck flat-bedding the car home.

It appears a cv-joint has let go on the inside flange (hanging loose). I felt a brief slight vibration then the sound of the axle hitting the exhaust. Thank fully I wasn't going very fast at the time. It appears that there is also a plug hanging down so I'm assuming it's taken out the speedo drive perhaps?

We'll see when I get it on my lift. Monday's.

Jfrahm

You might consider hex heads and safety wire star washers to keep these bolts from backing out.

Northern_aqs

I'll certainly look for alternatives. I just checked the cv joints for play and that the bolts were tight a month ago when I changed the fluid in the transmission. Strange that they would back out like that when I haven't had that issue before.

A "safety star washer" would be preferential to a typical lock washer?

V2Rocket

Lock washers aren't actually useful despite what the name suggests.
Once torqued down they are in essence a regular flat washer.

You shouldn't *need* to do anything but torque these bolts in dry but safety wire is a good idea if you can do it.

Jfrahm

I am not talking about regular "star" lock washers or split lock washers. Split locks I think are OK for stuff like oil pan bolts where a gasket might shrink but I do not think they afford much locking on an application like this. I'm too lazy to drill bolts for lockwire, the washers that have tabs to grab hex heads and a longer tab for safety wire are much easier.

You might also find tab washers that'd work without safety wire if one of the tabs is long enough to hit the flange and the other tabs can be bent up to grab the flats of the hex head. The safety wire star washers might do this and work without wiring them together as they have that long tail.

tempest411

What about the Stage 8 locking CV bolts? Those are about as secure as you can get.

Northern_aqs

Are you referring to grade 8 locking bolts or is there a "stage 8" kit out there somewhere?
I'm guessing that loctite is a no-no in this case?

azbanks

Ideola has a "Stage 8" kit for sale on his web site.

http://garage.ideola.com/prod-Suspen...es.html#Stage8

Northern_aqs

Thanks for the link. They certainly look like a solution to a problem that I didn't know existed until this morning.

I'll pull everything apart tonight an see what else needs to be replaced too.

SloMo228

Unfortunately this is not an uncommon event with these cars. It's tough to keep grease out of the bolt holes when installing CV axles, and if the threads are greased, well, they tend not to stay tight.

I haven't had one completely let go before, but I have had loose bolts a few times. I am now very careful about cleaning out the threads and using blue loctite to keep everything snug.

Also, lowering the car seems to put more stress on the CV joints. I have had a lot of CV trouble since lowering my 944; I'll be raising the ride height a bit this weekend. Unfortunately, that means re-indexing the torsion bars...

curtisr

Hah! That's nothin'! Today I had a fuel filter -- yes, a fuel filter -- pack it in on the I-81 (Read: many miles from home) on my Chevy S10. Hard to believe isn't it? And since my truck is a 2003 my insurance company no longer offers roadside assistance. And while it was being worked on a fuel line let go thanks to a bit of rubbing and rusting where the line first enters the frame. All in all, I spent $330 US to get it towed and fixed.

And just how does a fuel filter let go one might wonder? Well, when extricated and given a good shake, all you can hear is rattle, rattle, rattle.

PS: I feel your pain. It's just that I'm trying to make you feel less worse-off.

Northern_aqs

Thanks, it does a little, however my "road-side assistance" included with my Hagerty insurance ended up costing $402 for the flatbed home. (15km is included, not much).

No one said that fun cars would be free cars.

curtisr

Roger that.

Tiger03447

Since we have older cars for DD's, we have the AAA premium..I've had one car with several tows on it..one was about 100 yards from the house at night..not fun..I think that the "premium" has about 100 miles towing on it..other types have less..One good tow bill will more than offset the cost. Had it on the kids too, when they were in distant colleges..helped a bunch then too..FWIW..

curtisr

That's good to know and appears to be offered by CAA as well:

5 Roadside Assistance Calls
With CAA Premier, your range of towing expands up to 320 km on one of your five Roadside Assistance calls, so you have many more options as to where to tow your car for repairs. You can be towed up to 200 km on the remaining four allowable calls.