I had a not so great outing with the car this weekend.
Pretty much on the first drive the car started overheating. It looked suspicious since the coolant was coming out of the fill cap and in conclusion: I didn't put the cap on all the way. Dumb. No overheating on the way home so I think that was fixed.
Bigger issue... The car started driving really weird on they way home. I felt it on the way out, at speed, like the rear toe needed to be adjusted so no big deal right? Yeah it was a big deal. It started to drive really bad. I got her home, put her on jack stands and holy crap! both wheels were moving quite a bit. I looked and the toe links were super tight so I took the wheels off. Both wheels had loose lugs! Not only that but a few studs were unpressed from the hubs too. One side was so bad that the hub tried to pull its self from the bearing (see below about the CV). See the pics of the two hubs and you can see one is not seated all of the way.
The axle also needs the CV replaced since that nut came loose and chewed up the threads on the end. This was my fault for not staking the nut. I was taking it apart too many time with the engine in and out so i didn't stake it.
I have pretty much said i am done with those bearings (i hated those bearings anyway since they have always had a small bit of play), hubs, studs and order all new stuff. The issue is that I don't know what actually caused the problem. I do know that the hub pulling out the bearing was was a result of the either the studs coming loose or the lugs not being tight in conjunction with the CV issue. I am going with the studs being the issue since they were never really pressed into the hub hard and I always torque those lugs down to spec.
My bigger concern is that the wheels might have been damaged and I don't know how to fixed them. The inner lug seats are beat up and i don't know if I will ever be able to get the lugs tight or trust them.
So what do you guys think in general and more so what do you guys think about the wheels? I am wondering if a wheel repair shop could fix them. I cant seem to find them either. koning Wideopen 4x100 R15x8. hummm.....
On the good side!!!! I got to drive the car and she felt great!!! That turbo is sweet and it spools really fast.
I kind of feel like I am dropping the ball and not seeing deep enough into these things initially to prevent the failures. But like my buddy said, you built an f'n car with all kinds of custom stuff, this [PooPoo] is going to happen until its all sorted. He said he is still sorting stuff on their race cars that have been running for several years with a team and several engineers. It made me feel better but still....