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Please help! Very desperate! Front hub assembly woes...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by xc_prius, May 27, 2014.

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  1. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    Ok I made an earlier thread but wanted to stress the level of frustration I'm at right now. I successfully removed my front right hub assembly by removing the whole knuckle from the car. I had the old hub assembly pressed out.

    I was unable to re-use the steering knuckle component, so I sourced another knuckle from a salvage yard. Installed new hub into knuckle. Installed back in the car no problem. Everything torqued proper thought I was good to go.

    Bolted negative battery terminal back on. Turn the car on I have abs vsc and ! on. Drats. I drive away hear scraping but minor. Car did not feel right. Drive it back into garage. Jack it up the wheel is insanely loose like the wheel bearing is shot. Worse than with the bad hub. I notice the cv drive axle is no longer fully seated in the hub either.

    I used a timken hub which many people seem like they are using. Is it possible the hub went bad immediately from setting the car down, causing the axle to slide out slightly? I can shake the whole rotor and everything, what is going on? I don't want to tighten the axle nut anymore and I'm afraid taking it off again and damaging the threads? Am I going to need another hub already? Will I need a new cv shaft after this? What do I do at this point apart from taking it all apart again which I really would rather not do. HELP Please!
     
    #1 xc_prius, May 27, 2014
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    It sounds like the hub may be an incorrect size. You may need to seek professional assistance if you don't have the energy or motivation to figure out what is wrong on your own.
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, May 28, 2014
  3. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    It's kind of hard to do that at this point. So I will take it back apart when I can to see exactly what's going on. It really seems like the hub is really lose as the whole rotor and everything shakes. Maybe I just got unlucky with a bad part. Anyways, my main concern is that the threads of the axle shaft are going to start to strip from torquing that down and removing it multiple times. How hard is it to change the drive shaft?
     
    #3 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    The hard part is getting the half shaft out of the transaxle. You may need to use a slide hammer if it is not possible to pry the half shaft out without causing damage to the transaxle case.
     
    #4 Patrick Wong, May 28, 2014
  5. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    I noticed that the rim was also a little hard going on but attributed that to the aluminum rim being off the car for awhile. Still don't thinkbitsvtge wrong part though as I compared them before installing. I really think the bearing is just completely blown out and is so loose it caused the cv shaft to slip out slightly.
     
    #5 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  6. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    Just guessing here, but is there any chance you cross threaded the axle nut? On both of mine once it broke loose it was pretty easy to get off and back on and this was a ny car (salt in the winter). If it cross threaded you may not have seated it all the way down before the torque got high enough to click your wrench and that would allow the cv joint to play in and out some.
    Edit: or maybe you didn't pry the detent out enough
     
    #6 KhaPhoRa, May 28, 2014
  7. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    I pryed the detent out pretty good using the SST and the axle nut came off and went on fine. I used a new axle nut too. The threads on the shaft did look sort of stripped out in the middle but just like 1 thread. If the whole rotor and everything can be shaken with the wheel then that would have to be the hub no?
     
    #7 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  8. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    My rotor (only) had a little play, but once the wheel is put on and tightened up you should have zero movement. Perhaps you did blow out the bearing. I'm definitely curious at this point. You have no spare parts left over, right? :)
     
    #8 KhaPhoRa, May 28, 2014
  9. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    Did the hub fully seat in the new knuckle? That should be a tight fit.
     
    #9 KhaPhoRa, May 28, 2014
  10. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    One more thing.. Pop out the little hub caps on both fronts and look at the threads and see if the available threads are the same..
     
    #10 KhaPhoRa, May 28, 2014
  11. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    I'll be taking it apart again tonight so I will let you know. Almost positive the hub blew out though.
     
    #11 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  12. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    Yes the hub fully seated into the knuckle it was a very tight fit. Torqued it to spec also. It is possible that the hub blew out as well as cross threading the nut because I did notice that the length of threads available weren't as long compared to the other side. At this point I'm probably looking at replacing the half shaft as well as the hub assembly again. I went real slow threading it on too idk what the deal is.
     
    #12 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  13. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    If I did cross thread the nut does that mean the cv axle has to be replaced?
     
    #13 xc_prius, May 28, 2014
  14. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    Ideally yes, but if the threads aren't totally trashed you might be able to salvage it.. If you can find a die large enough you might be able to chase the threads. If you go that route make sure as can be that it'll support the torque.. I'd over torque then back off and torque to spec just to make sure it'll hold.. Chasing (rethreading) obviously takes off some of the metal. If you cross threaded you should see obvious signs on the little bit that is exposed on the end of the shaft.
     
    #14 KhaPhoRa, May 28, 2014
  15. Piano Tech

    Piano Tech New Member

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    Just replaced the hubs on my 05 and had to literally cut the races out from the inside to get the right hub out. My mechanic, an older gentleman and a good mechanic overall, had neglected to unstake the axle nut before removing it and damaged the threads. I got the new hub in and was tightening it down when I hit the bad threads and it felt like it had bottomed out but it was all still loose. Fortunately we stopped, pulled off the nut, ran a 22mm x 1.5 die over the axle end and repaired the damaged threads. The threads were really not damaged all that much, and we installed a new nut. Up until that point everything was loose and sloppy. Check your threads and install a new nut. I learned long ago that when I pull a hub on any vehicle to have at least one more nut than I think I might need because things happen.
     
    #15 Piano Tech, May 30, 2014
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  16. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Good one Piano. And yes that axle nut should not be re-used as it gets trashed when you remove it. Always replace with new nut.
    That's important. Rarely will the service manual in any car not specify new nut.

    I would clean up the threads with a wire brush....all the threads.....hose that off with brake cleaner...look at the threads real closely and chase them with a dye if sketchy. The whole threaded axle should be clean and free of rust or it will trash the threads on the nut.
    The threads that sat under the nut at the bottom get corroded sometimes and get bad when you break the nut off. Thats the important part.

    Lubricate the threads with synthetic gear grease and tighten it down without a Torque wrench till you know it bottoms out. Outer shaft will be tight to hub. Grab the outer shaft with gloves and try to move it laterally in and out hard as you can. Should be no movement. Then torque it down slowly with t wrench. Before you replace tire pop out wheel center cap from back of wheel. Install tire and shake the tire in all directions and should be absolutely no play. Fill the cap hole with synthetic axle grease and pop cap back in. That will prevent the axle nut from rusting back on the axle and help protect the axle from corrosion. I also grease the mating surface of the wheel to hub so the wheel doesn't get re-fused to the hub. After you bolt on the tire you can wipe off the excess mating grease through the slots in the mag wheel. After that nothing will leak out.
     
    #16 edthefox5, May 31, 2014
  17. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    Ok I have an update on my progress so far. I plan on doing a write up on this to make it easier for anyone else attempting this. So the replacement hub I had installed blew out the moment I let it off the jack. I believe this put enough force on the axle nut to cross thread it as I had not staked the axle nut because I wanted to make sure all was good before doing so. So I had to impact the axle nut off as it would not budge. It took about 15 min of hammering on it with the impact to get it off. Threads were obliterated beyond saving so I removed the CV axle and am putting it all back together this weekend and hope all goes well. Going to do the other side as well so I hope it goes smoother.
     
    #17 xc_prius, May 31, 2014
    uart and KhaPhoRa like this.
  18. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    So I got the wrong cv axle even though the years match. My 2005 prius needs a 2004 cv axle? The axle I got is .11 mm bigger should this make a difference I don't get it...
     
    #18 xc_prius, Jun 1, 2014
  19. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    You need the exact correct physical dimensions. Buy the correct part from a Toyota dealer if necessary.
     
    #19 Patrick Wong, Jun 1, 2014
  20. xc_prius

    xc_prius New Member

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    So I ended up returning the piss poor aftermarket axles and took my axles to a drive shaft place and they basically built me a new one using parts from axle i got from the yard. Went home and popped er in and put it all back together. However, now I'm getting abs vsc and (!) lights even though I unplugged the 12v negative cable. When I drove it I noticed the brake dust shield is rubbing against the rotor a bit and was making a lot of noise. A little more bending made it a lot better but it still scrapes a little bit. Enough to be annoying. Probably should just have bought a new dust shield but it was the least of my worries at the time. This would'nt cause any codes to get thrown would it?

    Other than that the car drives great and the whole front end is really solid. Although now i have to top off my transmission fluid as I lost between a quarter and half a quart.
     
    #20 xc_prius, Jun 3, 2014
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