Driveshaft pullled out from transaxle

[mkvhaz]

Let me first apologize if this sounds like a rant, but I'm still a little pissed.

So the story goes like this. I was driving home and was only about a block from my house. I took a somewhat hard right turn and got on the throttle a little bit in second up to the next stop sign. As I started across the intersection in first I heard a pop and lost all power to the wheels accompanied by a nice grinding noise. I immediately pushed the clutch in, turned the car off and slowly pushed it to my house (only about a half a block away at this point).

When I looked under the car I noticed that the driveshaft had separated completely from the transaxle by about 2 inches and all but two of the bolts were missing. I retraced my steps and picked up the other 4 bolts.

So the back story is that I had just had my drivers side driveshaft replaced (CV joint was on its last legs) about a week ago at the Dealership. I won't say which one it was because I will give them a chance to make it right and so far they are being very accommodating (it's back there now). But one thing I did notice is that the bolts I picked up off the ground appeared to original i.e. they re-used them. So my question is aren't these bolts one time use, should they be re-used under any circumstances? My car almost has 100k on the clock btw.

 

[eurocars]

They probably didn't tighten the bolts. I've reused mine several times and never had a problem

 

[mkvhaz]

Yes, I did a little searching and I see that it is the axle bolts on the other end that are non-replaceable. This is the first time I've gone to the dealership for anything and I'm just at a loss as to how this can even happen...

 

[Tutti57]

It sucks but it happens. People in a hurry to turn hours or simply an oversight. I had a couple family members experience similar things like loose lug nuts.

 

[The Fed]

Probably started and bottomed them with an air rachet and forgot to tighten them. They obviously don't own any torque wrenches.

 

[mkvhaz]

Anybody know what these bolts are supposed to be torqued to? 80-90 Nm?

 

[The Fed]

This claims 70 Nm: http://squarespokes.com/07/how-to-replace-mkv-gtigli-drive-axle/

And he claims the 6 bolts are reusable but the center axle bolt is not.

 

[mkvhaz]

Right, thanks for the help. Still waiting to hear from the dealer. In the meantime they gave me a loaner 2013 Passat. It's a terrible boring cheap car, but I am glad to have transportation.

 

[mkvhaz]

An update on this. One week later and I finally have my car back. The Dealer took full responsibility for the bolts backing out. They bought me a new OEM axle (they sourced an aftermarket one the first time) and fixed some minor damage on the transmission flange and paid for the tow.

They did find a hairline crack in the oil pan which I wasn't aware of so that set me back a bit. I only have two more oil leaks to take care of now, LOL. One is coming from the vacuum pump and one coming from the diverter valve? That is what the tech said but I need to take a closer look, once the snow finally melts...

The upside is that it feels super quick after a week with the Passat.

 

[eurocars]

glad to hear they took responsibility for it

 

[Rajini98]

The upside is that it feels super quick after a week with the Passat.

I know this feeling. I was in a passat since wednesday while they were fixing my pcv issue(the screw holes were stripped on the head cover so they had to replace the whole thing. Gave me a loaner while the part was being shipped). It has no pep at all and felt like a boat.