Missing and loose bolts on left rear axle

[FTG-05]

I had my tires replaced at my favorite shop last Friday. I go to pick it up and the owner shows me that one bolt is missing and two are loose on my left rear axle. These are the bolts on the axle itself and are NOT the lug nuts.

I've never touched these bolts, have had no reason to. Have no clue how long it's been like this, it's been about a year since I rotated the tires.

Do you guys think this has damaged the axle? It goes into the local dealer on Thursday AM.

Comments?

Thanks,

Al

 

[BamaSixGun]

You would think you could fell a vibration or something if bolts were loose and missing.

 

[bushpilot]

how many bolts are in that thing...like 6 or 8 arent there ?
was there any SLOP in the axle w/ the bolts missing ?

any signs of rear lube/fluid leak, (have you checked the fluid level) ?

my guess is youre fine.

 

[kingkevindavid]

my guess is you are fine as well. really need to check the fluid though because you are probably low. did you notice any oil on your rim or tire? that is a sure sign that your axle seal is leaking. it will make a nice spread pattern even from a little leak. even with a center cap, should still be noticeable.

 

[FTG-05]

No vibration whatsoever (I have Centramatics, so smooth as glass), no leaking that I could see and there's none on the driveway where it's usually parked.

It's at the dealer this morning, perhaps I'll hear by this afternoon.

Thanks,

Al

 

[FTG-05]

They are replacing the hub under warranty. The reason they are replacing it is due to a broken bolt that couldn't be removed. They said it was freshly broken, no way did it come from the factory that way.

Here's the thing: There's only been two people who's worked on that truck on that rear axle since I've owned that truck: One was me in rotating the tires and the other is the off-road shop that just replaced my tires last week. He was the one that told me of the broken/missing and two loose bolts.

Any ideas?

Al

 

[kingkevindavid]

I have seen this happen before on older trucks where the axle has been taken out a couple times, not put back together correctly, etc... you have to remember these are full floating axles and what you are looking at is the way the axle / hub is spinning the the tire. My guess is the dealer is probably doing it under warranty because when they noticed when they took it apart it was a factory defect or it was missing loctite or something.
I had a 79 F-250 and I could not keep the axles from loosening up on that thing until I put the strongest loctite I could find on it. I am still surprised you didn't see a spray pattern of oil on the rim.

 

[FTG-05]

They said the broken bolt broke recently and "couldn't have happened from the factory". I've asked to see the parts that were removed. I'm going to look for locktite or oil and take pics.

Thanks,

Al

 

[FTG-05]

Here's pics of the hub, now with two broken bolts!

They said one bolt broke off a while ago, while the other was relatively new. When I talked to the Service guy, we could find no credible scenario to account for these broken bolts.

Two questions I failed to ask:

- How did the second bolt get broken, since it wasn't broke when I brought it in.

- What did they do with the other six bolts? I hope they didn't put it back in the new hub....

Thanks,

Al