Rear RH driveshaft popped out under hard cornering

[Homerlovesbeer]

Hi all,

Driving home today I was going through a part I enjoy which consists of a tight uphill LH bend which I took in manual mode second gear. As I was applying a bit of power again I heard a big "bang" so I backed off immediately and pulled over.

Immediately I could smell transmission fluid which had spilt onto the exhaust. Looking under the car, I could see oil dripping out of the rear diff and the right hand axle coming out of the diff housing (no teeth though).

I was about 1.5km from home so I limped it home very very gingerly and didn't hear any other bad noises coming from it.

I parked in the garage, had a look and took some pics.

Why would this have happened?

It's a 4.8is with full air suspension with recently replaced Arnott bags (prob 5,000km ago) and the rear suspension completely rebuilt about 2500km ago with a wheel alignment done and no issues.

Could it be the retention clip let go and the centrifugal force of going around the left hard corner caused it to pop out?

Cheers,
Homer

[andrewwynn]

About once every two years a thread on xoutpost with a drive shaft popping out of the diff. First time I've seen it on the rear but it's the same situation other than there's less give on the rear boots apparently and the rubber pushed the shaft in enough to drive home. On the front usually a tow or roadside repair in involved as the symptom is grinding gears sound as the spline has popped out of the diff.

Hopefully not more serious than the c clip letting go. I don't know what you'd do more than push on and pray it stays.

Replacing the clip will be pretty involved as the exhaust is most likely in the way and you may have to remove the hub/bearing to have echo room to pull it out completely.

You may be able to just unbolt the flange, move the shaft out of the way to pull the flange spline out to repair/replace.


–awr–

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[Homerlovesbeer]

Right,

So just push it back in and hope to hear a click, then fill with oil and off I go?

Yep, no crunching of splines on the way home, about a mile.

How can I prevent this from happening again?

[andrewwynn]

For prevention is a fair amount of work.

Odds are very good that if you push in and it's difficult to pull out you'll be good but the scary thing is why the "bang".

I would prob remove the flange diagnose if there's damage to the internal splines that could be why it released.

On the front most cases were a push it in give a good prybar pull and see if it'll holds but i don't recall a rear axle doing the same.

Might be easier to investigate pulling off the dif back plate. You really want to know if the output gear is damaged. You'll grenade the whole diff if there's a hairline crack in the output gear.


–awr–

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[Homerlovesbeer]

Thanks mate,

I think the "bang" I'm referring to was due to the car being under a lot of load and the power suddenly having nowhere to go as the shaft came out.

I think it's best I take the back plate off the diff and look seeing as the oil has gone anyway.

Appreciate it.

[andrewwynn]

I'm hoping you can see the c clip from the inside of the output gear.


–awr–

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[80stech]

I would make sure that there isn't something going on with the suspension causing a problem, maybe worn out ball joint or loose lower a-frame bushings. You should notice something with tire wear though if it's that bad.

[andrewwynn]

Solid advice! I helped fix an e53 where one fairly new ball joint failed so dramatically the owner had to steer like 10° to go straight as the two rear tires fought about which way to crab down the road. Could also explain the bang.

If the CV came out far enough to disengage you'll lose all forward propulsion and hear gear grinding from skipping splines.

Any chance you hit a pothole in that curve that could have helped knock out the drive shaft??


–awr–

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[Henn28]

I’m surprised that can happen. Glad you were so close to home.

The axle can definitely be moved out of the way after unbolting all the torx bolts holding it to the output shaft/stub axle. I did it when I pulled my diff, but the car was on jack stands with the wheels off the ground. This needs to be done so you can spin the wheels in order to access all the torx bolts. You can only get a socket on them when the flange is at specific positions. The torx bolt heads get messed up easily so you may want to order a handful to replace any that get messed up,

I think I’d pull the shaft out and make sure the splines didn’t get messed up, and that you can find the c-clip. If it doesn’t come out with the spline, then it’s in the diff unfortunately and you’ll need to pull the cover and fish it out.