Axle is bent and not covered under warranty

[flip]

No marks on the wheel, and it was parked in the garage when the noise was first noticed. We genuinely dont think anyone or anything hit it and it has never left pavement so we dont know. The mechanic at the dealer was saying that it could have been like that for some time and had been grinding but it finally reached a point where the shaking was noticeable. The car has just under 9k miles but it isnt the dealer we ordered from unfortunately we just went to one closer to home. The dealer stated that it wouldnt be covered under warranty :/

Who services it and how many times have the tires been rotated? Are they claiming the flange of the axle is bent or the shaft itself? I'm out for the evening but will check back in the morning.

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[Dullah]

They would need imo a dial indicator mounted and rotate the axle slowly to prove the bent axle. What were/ are the symptoms? Any noise or just the strange wear pattern?

That is what they did if I am understanding you correctly. When driving randomly it felt like driving on a flat and then I noticed wear on the break pad. There were metal shavings on the wheel. I took some pics in a previous post

 

[Dullah]

Who services it and how many times have the tires been rotated? Are they claiming the flange of the axle is bent or the shaft itself? I'm out for the evening but will check back in the morning.

Other than the 2 oil changes done on the bronco, it has not been serviced. I was going to rotate the tires at 10 k miles which we havent hit yet. To be honest with you I dont know which part of the axle. Im not that competent in cars unfortunately.

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

Just a data point - a number of years ago when I had my Acura in for routine service the tech let me know that I had a serious alignment issue. Further research showed the rear subframe was bent and needed to be replaced (and I'd been driving it this way for some time). Best as we could all figure someone hit one of the rear wheels while my car was parked and did the damage. So it's *possible* something tweaked your Bronco without an obviously visible indication - yet it still sounds strange.

FWIW my insurance company covered the whole thing; the subframe, however, took some time as it had to be shipped from Japan!

 

[93_SVT_3503]

From the looks of the wheel in your previous post, it looks like its been curbed a time or 2. Probably why they're initially denying the claim. Are they saying the rear end is bent, or the axle shaft?

 

[Dullah]

Just a data point - a number of years ago when I had my Acura in for routine service the tech let me know that I had a serious alignment issue. Further research showed the rear subframe was bent and needed to be replaced (and I'd been driving it this way for some time). Best as we could all figure someone hit one of the rear wheels while my car was parked and did the damage. So it's *possible* something tweaked your Bronco without an obviously visible indication - yet it still sounds strange.

FWIW my insurance company covered the whole thing; the subframe, however, took some time as it had to be shipped from Japan!

They did say to get insurance involved so I was going to get that ball rolling. Thank you for letting me know that could be the case. It is odd overall

 

[Dullah]

From the looks of the wheel in your previous post, it looks like its been curbed a time or 2. Probably why they're initially denying the claim. Are they saying the rear end is bent, or the axle shaft?

Im not sure what part of the axle. And yikes tis but mere flesh wounds

 

[Frankie945]

Doses it sound like this

 

[‘21OBX]

That is what they did if I am understanding you correctly. When driving randomly it felt like driving on a flat and then I noticed wear on the break pad. There were metal shavings on the wheel. I took some pics in a previous post

Thank you. I have Slight brake sqeak starting in the rear. Dealer of course we couldn’t duplicate. But mines been off roaded all over lol.

 

[Mattwings]

Not that it’s a great solution, but your car insurance should cover the damage if it’s impact related. Call your agent or make a claim through your company. I handled many of these issues as an auto adjuster back in the day. If hit when parked, it may be an uninsured motorist coverage depending on your policy and state. You may need to make a police report too.

 

[Prew]

Hey there, I'm an ASE certified technician, ask them to check it with a dial indicator and show you how much runout the axle actually has. Make them put a number to it to compare against specifications. Just a shake in the vehicle tells me nothing. All vehicles will shake when raised in the air because driveline angles are at maximum angles. I call bs on this one.

 

[Dullah]

Hey there, I'm an ASE certified technician, ask them to check it with a dial indicator and show you how much runout the axle actually has. Make them put a number to it to compare against specifications. Just a shake in the vehicle tells me nothing. All vehicles will shake when raised in the air because driveline angles are at maximum angles. I call bs on this one.

Interesting point, do you know what would cause the vehicle to shake when driving? At first I thought it was just brake calipers. The shaking is only present at breaking so thats why I assume it was that. They stated that a bent axle would just cause the brake to do that again if we just fixed the brakes and not the axle

 

[Dullah]

Never went off roading because it’s my daily driver and I didnt want to deal with any issues. Turns out just driving on pavement would cause issues lol

 

[Dullah]

Hey there, I'm an ASE certified technician, ask them to check it with a dial indicator and show you how much runout the axle actually has. Make them put a number to it to compare against specifications. Just a shake in the vehicle tells me nothing. All vehicles will shake when raised in the air because driveline angles are at maximum angles. I call bs on this one.

Additionally, they’re now stating that they wont even fix the brake issue under warranty because it was caused by the shifted axle. So since the shifted axle isnt covered the damage it caused also would not be covered. Initially they told me it would be covered and the work would be done last week but today they stated the axle was shifted

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