rear axle beam

lat.ch. · 07-16-2011, 05:09 PM

Drove the car four hours to a site in south central PA and got 42 or 43 mpg as has been typical lately for me. Then drug the underside over a curb somehow. Got about 38 mpg on the return and only 35 by the time we did some local driving. At first I thought it was the heavy AC use. Then suspected bad alignment from curb. Slid under the car and found scraped and mildly torn plastic. Also found evidence that tells me the right side of my axle beam is bent near the shock absorber connection. Seems to me that the proper repair is to replace the beam. Just about at 8500 miles.

Thoughts?

Cobb · 07-17-2011, 12:40 AM

Lots of aero parts under the car. If not that, the alignment would be my main issue with the poorer fuel economy.

I removed the flaring from the rear axle beam near the spring buckets when I installed my Fit sway bar, but notice no change in mpg.

lat.ch. · 07-18-2011, 01:01 PM

I'll probably go for an alignment first. But the plastic cover connector no longer lines up at all with the hole in the spring bucket.

Cobb · 08-10-2011, 01:09 AM

Thats ok. You have to remove that anyways to install the rear sway bar.

cheesie · 10-10-2011, 12:30 AM

i didnt know alignment messes up the mpg

i did an alignment on my auto class and i found out that my left rear tire is toed in and cant really get fixed cuz id have to move the whole rear axle
the only fix is replacing the axle

itll be over 2 Gs

Cobb · 10-11-2011, 10:42 PM

Have you been hit on that side? What about hitting a deep pot hole?

Yeah, thats serious and no adjustment is built in the rear axle. That may explain your tire wear on that side. I guess you can check the local junkyard and or rotate tires frequently on that side.

cheesie · 10-17-2011, 12:07 AM

never got the rear axle crashed
knock on wood

but i do remmember hitting really really baaaaaaaaaaad pot holes in the past
dont remmember which side but it would always be the front and rear wheel on the same side

maybe thats why one tire is more is more worn from the middle than the other ones

id go to the juckyard but what specificly would i need??
the whole rear axle??
meaning the whole piece of steel in the back ?

lat.ch. · 10-17-2011, 05:01 PM

So I forgot to mention that my alignment was within specs. No adjustment needed. The really bad fuel economy was apparently mostly AC related and has vastly improved.

Cobb · 10-23-2011, 06:39 PM

Ive lost as much as 15mpg using ac, it can give a big hit.

jcbesq · 10-23-2011, 08:14 PM

as i picked up my car in march, i still haven't had a winter to go through and measure mpg/efficiency vs. summer ... but ... thus far, and comparing spring no a/c useage with summer full a/c useage, the mpg is within a very consistent band bw 46-50mpg