Black/White

Ok, so here is my deal;

I lowered my car about 15k ago on Koni SP3 shocks and H&R race springs. The car was driving perfect for the first next 10k or so until I broke my 1st pass side axle at the spindle-side knuckle where the bearings are housed. The machined housing holding the bearings in place shattered into about 8 peices and all the bearing fell out. Upon further examination, the chunks of the bearing housing were heat scored blue due to heavy friction causing high levels of heat. Then ultimatly the bearing housing gets hot and cold everytime I drive and park the car and the metal housing eventually gets brittle and shatters. Now, ever since the first axle was replaced, I have a very severe shake through the car. Not just through the steering wheel, the whole car seams to shake. Now that I broke the first axle, everytime I replace the axle, it breaks again after 200 or 300 miles. I have taken it to three shops now, and no one can figure out what in the hell is going on. They all suggest that my car is too low and the axle angle is causing the axles to bind. I dont think my car is that low, nor the axle angle too steep. What do you guys think is going on? Anyone else have this problem? Any and all ideas would help me out tremendoulsy.

Here is a picture of my car to give you an idea how low it is:

shadowkahn

Occam's razor. Your axles were fine before you lowered your car. Then you lowered your car and broke 7. I think that's a clue, dude

Shalooby

Hmmmm, let's see. Engineers spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars in research and development to determine precise angles, set up complex geometry, and make hundreds of pieces all work together in a multitude of situations and elements, and guess what? It worked pretty damn good!

Then people go and lower things "for looks" and things start to break and they wonder why? C'mon dude......

I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that if you put things back to the way they were before you started monkeying around with what all those engineers figured out, you'd probably stop having to buy new axles. Just a thought.....

VQPower37

how much did all seven off these axels cost to replace? sheesh by number 3 i would've raised my car back up

Bearcat94

Pretty low.


Have you tried to raise the car; maybe keep the koni's and replace the stock springs? Just to try and see what happens? You know, isolate a single variable.

H&R race springs are what? 2.5" shorter than stock? What perch on the Koni's?


I notice you've also got SPC camber kit and Front upper and lower control arms. You don't think it's possible you've got the geometry out of whack to fit tuck your wheels?

PowerCommander

As mentioned above easy isolation. Raise the car back up and drive it that way for a few hundred miles. Then if you succeed in not breaking another axle then you know it has something to do with your lowering your ride. And might start questioning other members on their setup cause it seems you're the only one that hasn't learned from it after 7 axles heheh.

Edit: Oh nice freakin ride!

MikeERideWNC

If no one else is going to say it, I will.

The car doesn't look right with the tires shoved into the wheel wells.
How much does it rub when you turn the wheel to the left or right.

I am sure you think your car looks cool... Maybe you should rethink.

I hate cars

X2 what everyone else said.

If raising it does not work, are you replacing the axles and hubs in pairs? I learned the hard way on a different car that if the axle breaks in/near the hub you should replace both at the same time.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

7 axles! Wow, that's insane. There are so many other people on here who are just as low as you who've not reported any problems.

There's some good advice by others given already.

mb1976

Seriously, keep the car stock. You can do few things but something major like monkeying with suspensions are going to be issues down the road

tg900

I've learned not to make a lowered/modified car my daily. I'd see how much play there is between the tranny and the steering knuckle, maybe you need a shorter axle since you lowered it? Just throwing the idea out there, I've had to shorten driveshafts when I lowered my trucks. When I lowered my truck and the driveshaft was too long, it would ruin my u-joints every month.

Majofo

These threads are ridiculous.. you have to pay to play. You screw with the suspension geometry and don't ensure a proper balance, guaranteed shit will break.

killersrt

So judging by everyone's input, the TL can't be modded and if is it, it will break. I'll be sure to remember that when my modded and slammed TL starts breaking stuff Seems the general consensus is that if you lower your car, just keep spending money on axles because there is no other possible solution

On a serious note, I'm pretty much maxed out on my Tein SS's and I haven't broken any axles. I agree with some of the people in this thread. Raise the car and see if you still have issues. Do it as a way to find the problem, not as a solution.

Majofo

If there's not a proper balance, guaranteed the issue will reoccur and if one side seems to be at issue, what does that say about the balance & stress on the opposite side? btw.. here's your :cookie:

shadowkahn

Funny, I got a totally different read of the thread. "The TL can be modded, but if you do it stupidly, shit will break."

Mod it all you want. But when you mod it, and then break something 7 times that never broke before, that's a pretty good hint that you screwed up the mod.

killersrt

You're*

I was using myself as an example, not a chance to brag. What can the OP do to have his car "balanced"? It's evident that not everyone that drops their cars breaks axles, so this problem seems to be specific to his car only. Yes, lowered cars put more stress on the axles and make them more prone to failure, but the OP is the only person I've seen have issues so severe and reoccurring, and there are those who are even lower than him.

killersrt

What is your interpretation of "stupid"? I personally don't think the OP has done any stupid mods. The drop is moderate, but I wouldn't say it's too extreme. It just seems like a lot of the posts in this thread are useless. The OP was making this thread to get comments and suggestions about things he can do to fix the problem, not get lectured and have people tell him to return to stock or deal with it. I personally haven't had any issues, but if I do get them, I'd like to know if there is anything I could do to remedy it, while retaining my ride height, or lack thereof

shadowkahn

Valid question, killersrt.

My interpretation of stupid is "After I did something involving a certain part that never broke, the part broke 7 times in a row, but I don't think I could possibly have done anything to break the part."

The end story is that he lowered his car wrong. Lots of ways to do that. If you lower it to the point that the axle angle is beyond tolerances, you will break stuff. If you lower it too much, and drive like a maniac over a rough road or hop over railroad crossings with it, you will break stuff. I don't know what he did, but my money's on the first suggestion. He's gone out of the tolerances for the axle geometry. Maybe when you lowered your car, you didn't because you did a better job than he did. Or maybe you have better parts. Or maybe one of his parts is defective. Or maybe you're not quite as low as he is. I don't know. But I do know that it's pretty much guaranteed that lowering the car is what caused the axle to start breaking.

The simplest solution is to raise the car. I'm not saying raise it back to stock height. I'm saying raise it more than it is now, because from the pictures it so freaking low it looks like he's riding on collapsed springs. If that's the look he wants, that's fine. It's his car. But then he needs to get used to replacing parts when they break.

killersrt

The point is, there are those who are even lower that don't experience the problems as he did. I would be one of them. He also stated that for 10k miles after it was lowered, without breaking a single axle. After the first one breaks, he had to replace them every 200-300 miles. I would think that if the height was the issue, it would have done it in the beginning. I think the lowering has an effect, but isn't the entire reason for this. Maybe IHC is on to something, with the reference to the hub. To the OP, if you're still checking on this thread, has it been the same axle all 7 times, or have you had to replace both sides?

Bearcat94

However, I rarely (if ever) see someone dropped on a "regular/common" after market part (i.e. tien, H&R, etc) who also has added adjustable front upper and lower control arms PLUS a camber kit.

Camber kits, yes we've seen 'em. But if those control arms aren't right ..... ?

killersrt

This is true. I must have read over that OP, I see you also have motor mounts. You may want to check those out as well. Be sure they're all tightened to specs, and that none of them are broken or "donut...ed" (?).

I hate cars

Good point. I missed that. You can almost picture how having the correct camber with the TL slammed could put axles in a bind.

PShep

I like what you've done there.

killersrt

Now, if only I was right about it Guess that's what I get for trying to multi-task.

phee

iTrader: (5)

what is your camber angle?

Majofo

I wasn't going to say anything..

I'm hoping that newbie was being facetious.

AckTL05

iTrader: (18)

Stop spinning your tires. I went through 4 sets when I first got the car and realized it was going over the rail roads too fast and bumpy roads too fast and taking off too fast and always trying to do a burn out. The TLs axels are weak. Half the battle is the FWD because even in the rain with my 6SPD it sucks taking off, so yours should be even worse with those low profile tires.

GbosilTLS07

?????? Seven Axles! OMFG!! Ahhhhh dude... raise it back up! Geezzzzzzzz! By the time you are done you could by a new TL!

butnin

so what was the outcome?