Loose CV Boot and axel

I have one of the early 1999 996s. 54,000 miles. Third owner. To make a long story short, I was going about 70 on the highway, heard thumping like a flat tire, pulled over and all four tires were fine. I went to put the car into first and accelerate. The engine revved, but the car would not move. I was towed to a reputable indie who advised me that my CV boot had leaked and the bolts to my rear axel had loosened from the CV boot so that the driveshaft had become disconnected. The whole thing was just $150 to fix. Does any of this make sense? Has this happened to anyone else? Thanks.

No, what most likely happened was either: CV grease leaked out and with enough use, the cage (holds the bearings to the race) broke, bearings popped out (hard to do) and you lost drive. Or the axle "C" clip came off the end of the shaft and it backed out of the race....and you lost drive (quite likely). Or it also could have broke in the race (least likely) and you lost drive. But loosening bolts would have only created a "clunking" noise in the rear end, you still would have had drive up until the bolts all sheared. If they backed out, that would have shortened the axle, so I'm guessing the shaft pulled out of the middle of the joint. $150's probably not bad (labor incl).

have you had work done recently ? rms clutch ect? sounds like someone left the axle bolts loose

Had this happen twice... 3 weeks apart It happened after a rsm and clutch job. Left me stuck on the side of the road. I had them lock tight the bolts the last time and never happened agian. Bolts just back out If you had work done to that part of the car they should pay. I know it happen to someone else. It sucks but does happen

About a month ago I had my brakes redone? Would they have touched this part of the car? Should I be worried this is going to happen again? Why did it happen to you twice?

Can't say how your shop does things but I just did my brakes and never touched this part of the car. Not sure why it happened twice. The car and I had a love hate relationship going on at the time. Were very happy now The service mgt blamed it on another part but he didn't know what he was talking about so I went to the tech. The Tech states that the bolts were tighened to the proper settings each time, but still came loose. I really don't know if thats true or not but the last time I told them to lock tight it down. If they didn't tighten the bolt down well enough you should be on the side of the road within a couple hundred miles. Sorry I don't have a better answer but 99firehawk can better answer these questions Check out this thread

sounds like they may have been loose BUT I Have heard stories of guys torqueing them to the proper torque and then coming back loose. 1000+ miles later I Have never had that hapen to me (thank god) but it always could, its always been somthing I was every caefull about torqueing evenly and maybe put a lil extra pressure on the torque wrench the 2nd time around. no reason to have it apart to do brakes

Thanks Aaron and Brad.

Still guys, unless just about every bolt backed all the way out, he still would have had power. mm, did they loosen or back out? or do you not know?

It would be really amazing if they all backed out together and then all together, totally backed out of their holes entirely after you stopped the car. There's 6 bolts and even if one was holding the car would still move. They would all have to back out together exactly at the same time for this to happen. However, stranger things have happened. A couple of weeks ago, I was drivng home from a shopping trip when my car started making a weird clunking noise. I pulled over and looked over the car but couldn't find anything. I drove home another mile or so and parked it, all the while occassionally hearing a weird clunking noise sometimes. It was definitely rotational. The next day, I had to pick up my daughter from day care and on the way heard the noise again, but it seemed to be worse. I stopped once and looked over the car but saw nothing. I kept hearing it and isolated it to the rear driver's side wheel but couldn't see anything wrong when I stopped again. I tilted my driver's mirror down and watched the rear wheel and quickly noticed the wheel wobbling through its rotation when I started driving. I stopped, got out, and grabbed the wheel in both hands and pushed back and forth and was amazed when the whole wheel moved back and forth. There was 1/4-1/2" of space between the lug nuts and the wheel on 5/6 bolts. The 6th bolt was the wheel lock and was still tight. This was the steel spare that I'd put on the car 4-5 months and thousands of miles before. I'd patched the normal alloy but was lazy and left it as the spare. Before you say "well that moron just didn't tighten the lug nuts" let me say a few things: 1. The locking nut, which invariably gets tightened less than any other nut, was still tight. 2. I've put a spare on 10-20 times in my life without any issues. 3. I'm a car guy. There's no way in hell I didn't put enough torque on those bolts, especially on 5/6. 4. I'd driven the car for 4-5 months and thousands of miles since I changed the tire. So strange things do happen sometimes...

Here are the Tech's notes: "Comments: Found left drive shaft disconnected. Install new CV cap, inspect bolts and holes, install CV shaft and torque to spec., re-torque bolts on right side."