jasonius

iTrader: (1)

Whilst attempting to rotate the wheels of my 05 wrx f-r I found, to my horror, the n/s rear wheel to already be loose. I thought at first I'd somehow already loosened the wheel nuts, before realising that no they were tight and in fact the whole hub assembly (disc/caliper etc) appeared to be loose. Now when I say loose I mean loose, with around 2-3mm rocking movement at the 10-4 position..!

I literally started shaking at the though of the wheel falling off at speed with the family in the car..! Especially as we'd only just returned from a 450 mile holiday around the Yorkshire Moors a few days earlier..!!!

Before removing the wheel I was sure the hub nut had come loose and was only prevented from coming off by the wheel centre- such was the looseness of the wheel. Fortunately this wasn't quite the case and the nut did appear tight and the 'crimp' in position. I therefore thought it must be the bearing. However, on closer inspection the following day it turned out to be the hub nut, which had turned at least one whole turn before the 'crimp' relocated itself in the driveshaft notch, therefore appearing correct to the eye..!

Once correctly tightened all seems well and I'm probably fortunate not to have fubar'd the bearing, but what I can't understand is why don't Subaru (and a lot of other MF for that matter) use spilt/cotter pins in these nuts..?! Surely they're a better fail safe than the notch/slot method..?

So, whilst there's no doubt something like this would be picked up at your MOT, I personally will be checking each wheel every few months from now on and suggest others do like wise..! Lol, running without centre caps might be an idea..

As a precursor to this, a few days earlier I had a 'random' ABS light come on, which with hind sight was probably a result of the wheel/ABS sensor running out of true. Disappeared after resetting the ECU never to return, but maybe a future warning to any Impreza owner to check for a loose hub nut..?!

scooby546

iTrader: (1)

that is a little worrying... I'll be checking mine when I get home just in case. Agree with you on the good ol' split pin and cotter nut setup, never seen one of those come off. Impressed it didn't wreck the bearing tho

davedipster

Lose Hubs nuts are common on wrx and sti's, everyone should check them and check that the crimp is deep enough.
My 03sti was making a noise at the front left, it was a lose hub nut. A subaru bulliten has been written about this.


dipster

jasonius

iTrader: (1)

DD, do you know the sort of wording Subaru used in the bulletin and recommendations, heavier crimp..?

redwards

iTrader: (6)

I'd replace the hub nut and re-crimp it just to be safe. I took a look and my front pads last week (yearly service) and found the were stuck fast and full of brake dust. Lesson learnt there and I will be checking the car over every 6 months now.

davedipster

something like if customer complains of noises...check tightness, if lose remove nut and fit new, torque to spec and crimp.
I just tighened and recrimped cos the crimp was shallow and allowed the nut to turn.

dipster

redwards

iTrader: (6)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for saving money. I've lost count of the number of times I have recrimped the hub nuts on a pug 306 derv, but I wouldn't take a chance on a scooby, after all they are all about the tight twisties

bodgeit

were you not gettin any noise or vibration from the back end?

D1CCY

Where can you get the 32mm nuts for this, normally AFAIK they only come with a bearing kit.

jasonius

iTrader: (1)

Nothing and that's is the scary thing- I'm very aware of any new noises..!

The only possible indicator was that it may have caused the ABS light to appear- thought it stayed away after resetting ecu, so not a totally convinced even about this..

With regards to the nut's themselves, should they be replaced once removed..?

FWIW It seems most manufacturers use this method these days btw.

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

I was driving down the M11 a few months back and a BMW X5 about 100m ahead of me lost a wheel at 70mph. The wheel went charging off the road, hit the bank, launched into the air hitting one of the blue motorway signs only to come bouncing back at speed into oncomming traffic. Amazingly the X5 managed to come to a stop in the break down lane and the wheel came to a stop against the central reservation a few hundered meters back without hitting anyone. Could have been much worse.

StuS

iTrader: (5)

A lucky escape for the driver and the people travelling in the opposite direction!


I've had similar hub nut issues to the ones described above. The clue that something was wrong was very nasty noises when turning the wheel, and also big gouge marks in my disc

davedipster

Subaru sell them as a separate part.

dipster

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

Yep, much braking and swerving was required by about 30 cars, but very happy to say that everyone seemed to be paying attention to the road and the other vehicles on it for a change and as a result no other damage was done.

jimbo70

Rather than replace the nuts straight away, a trick is to swap sides as this usually puts the crimp in a different place on the nut

StickyMicky

After getting a subaru "specialist" to replace one of my wheel bearings, a few months later i left a roundabout at speed and my front wheel fell off, as the new bearing had failed.

the end of the cv joint sheared off with enough force to catapult my center cap into a field (never found it)

The "specialist" was complained to, who told me to bring it down and we could sort it, the old mech had left and a new one was working, upon chatting with him, the new mech told me that the bearing should never have been fitted, as the centre spindle thing, was out of spec, and it was bound to fail quite soon again due to wear.

How did this all end up? the owner told me they were getting in another second hand front hub for me, you might think this is ok?

Err nope, i was also given an invoice for the second hand hub.

I vowed to never use them again, and the 2.0 engine rebuild they did for me previously was not the best either, the engine could be removed with a small ratchet when the 2.5 was installed as nothing was torqued up properly.

fujiyama

Once correctly tightened all seems well and I'm probably fortunate not to have fubar'd the bearing, but what I can't understand is why don't Subaru (and a lot of other MF for that matter) use spilt/cotter pins in these nuts..?! Surely they're a better fail safe than the notch/slot method..?


It's cheaper to use crimped nuts than a split pin-and-hole.

Mikkel

PM me who this was Micky.

To the OP, lucky escape.