broken axle 1 week after lowering with coils..
 

alright so on my way to work i get in my car (2 mile commute...local)
and drive off normally. nothing too crazy..just driving regularly..
i stop at a red light.. and need to pass a car so i take
1st gear to 5500-6k rpm and shift into 2nd and i hear a SNAP!
and next thing i know.. the car is revving in gear but not pulling..
and i hear this crackcrackcrackcrack(read it out loud fast) sound
from my rear wheels...so i barely pull over by half clutching without
any pedal and get out of my car to see nothing looks wrong with the
coils/wheels. so eventually i had to flatbed my car in to F1 motorsports
and have the guys check it out.

they found out that the axle snapped. :shakes head:
i also found out that if you take off quickly then this usually happens.
The thing is.. i dont do burn outs... nor run my car like sh*t..
but this happens.... with the car having only 5*** miles????
they say this is a common problem with g's, z's, gtr's... wtf nissan
seriously... why make a sports car with a sh*tty axle?
well i cant blame everything on nissan because i recently put on
tanabe coilovers... and now i know that coils (or just straight out lowering the car) makes it easier for the axle to snap.. the mech explained it to me..
... something about cambering...

well they did find a used part from the junkyard (i think it was out of a G35) and i got it installed and the car is drivable again....

but this sucks guys..
i thought about taking it to the dealer but... thinking about the time and fighting over the warranty issue is just going to give me a bigger headache knowing that they will blame the coils and see the other aftermarket parts i have on the car and think i drive the car hard all the time.

Its the first time im seriously considering selling the car.. :shakes head:

I've been on the z forum for about 5 years and very rarely have I read about anyone breaking their axel. Do you think your car accident could be partly responsible?

Quite a few of my friends own the G's and the Z's and this is first I've heard of this.

Oh well . . .
 

Here you go . . . .

Carbon Fiber Composite Driveshaft.

.

He said it was his axle.

After reading this, that would be my bet....

Your quote:

"MY rear bumper got messed up pretty bad...(i think the impact hit parts of the rear suspension too) but the beemer
had some scuffs on the bumper and hood... wtf!!!!
the body shop told me that i would have to get a new suspension
and an alignment AND a bumper plus new airbags."

I read 350 forums for a while, first i ever heard of this.

Wow that suck! First the bimmer incident now this... Seems like the incident you had may be the reason your axle snapped. Glad everything is fixed now!
I do hard take-offs with the Z all the time and things seem fine... I'm sure this will never happen again though.

No. You can take off quickly without this happening. Every pro review of this car with a low 0-60 has required a hard launch of this vehicle and none of them have snapped an axle. Also, this does not seem to be as common with these Nissan vehicles as your mechanic would have you think. I vote accident.

:icon18:

I have... a 350Z owner snapped his axle after doing a few hard launches. Wheelhop = bad.

Other owners snapped the large bolt that holds the differential to the body frame.

Launch with care... :-)

Isn't the drive shaft covered under warranty?

this is like a fluke people have hard launch on these cars all the time and nothing happens it had to have been strain from the accident IMO

I say you've experienced part two of "bad sh*t happens in 3's". I'd stay out of the car until your girlfriend dumps you or your fish tanks explodes or whatever. You'd hate for that third one (which is coming) to hit your car again. Good luck bro, you'll need it.

:iagree:

The guy's axle shaft broke. Not his drive shaft.

Reading...its a good thing.

ya thats weird it broke, especially since it broke shifting to second and not lauching, its not like you were revving at 5k at a stop and just dropped the clutch.

Wow
 

Never heard of this one before. I have owned quite a few GT-R's and never had an axle snap. Buddy of mine in Yokohama was a Z freak, had at least 6 since Ive known him......all of them tuned to at least 500hp at the wheels....and never had an axle snap.

The only car that is notorious for weak axles that I am aware of is the evo. When I was stationed in Japan, we would spend alot of time at Ebisu circuit, Fuji Speedway, and EVERY weekend on Saturday nights from midnight to 3:00 a.m. watching hundreds of cars drift and 1/4 mile. NEVER and I repeat NEVER have I seen a snapped axle on a Z or a GT-R.

Three different times though Ive seen an evo snap one either 1/4 mile or Gym -kana.

I have to agree with ModShak and the other guys.......your previous accident finally showed you how much damage was done. Sucks to hear, still would have taken it to the dealer.

This guy already addressed this on page 1.
Reading... what was that again? :owned:

I've got plenty of friends that drives a Z, G, and GTRs.
But seriously this is the very first time I've heard about this happening.
Anwiaise should be glad now that it's fixed.

-Shunya

You're considering selling after an axle mishap that I'm quite sure was a result of the accident and not your driving? Have you seen my video here? Laying down burnouts right on into second gear with no problems.

Anyway, I haven't heard of any broken axle's with any of the press cars that got completely tortured.. or any other's (that are accident free) for that matter.

So assuming that this is indeed due to his accident, could there be any more nasty surprises lurking in the future? Like the differential failing next month or something?

With the axle possibly being damaged by the accident I would thoroughly inspect all of the suspension components and bolts. Especially on the same side as the axle.

Whatever - isn't the axel shaft covered under warranty?

He already said, in his original post:

Not if the failure can be linked to his accident which, according to his report, included suspension damage.. Personally I would go back to the insurance claim as there is a good chance this is additional residual damage from the original accident.

:iagree:

I think the insurance claim is the way to go. This sounds like an accident issue to me.