CV Axle Nut Breakage-Almost caused an accident.
 

I don't know how, and I don't know why. But about 1 year ago our right Wheel Bearing went out. I presume because of the play in the Hub it loosened the CV Axle but when we went to change the bearing out, the cv axle nut was less than finger tight. Thank god for the Coter Pin.

However today my wife calls and says the car is making this bad noise when I brake. Said the ABS light was on. We had this issue a while back when one of the speed sensors got some metal chips on it and wasn't reading the speed so it would pulsate the breaks incorrectly and heavily.
She makes it home ok, but says the car feels terrible its got a bad shimmy and the brakes hardly work.

I get home to find that on the left side front, the entire end and cv axle nut have snapped off! This time the coter pin couldn't save us.I have never seen this, this CV Axle is the Factory unit and has never been removed for service etc. The only thing I could think because the hub feels loose is the bearing is starting to go allowing excessive play putting undo pressure on the nut and thus causing the failure. We have no symptoms of a bad bearing, but who knows.

I guess I will need to start checking the CV Axle nuts every few tire rotations.

Happen to anyone else?

Because you found the axle shaft nut loose a year ago and now after the bearing replacement the nut has broken, you've probably got worn parts there. Do not drive the car far before getting the hub, and outer axle shaft/drive shaft assembly (the bearing will have to be replaced) carefully inspected by someone who knows what they are looking at, for signs of bearing inner race "spinning" and wear. I suspect that the hub and outer axle shaft are toast. The bearing bore of the steering knuckle also should be looked at for signs of the outer race spinning. This axle shaft/bearing nut has a torque spec. of 188-245 ft/lbs so it normally should never lose it's torque or back off unless there is a problem.

^^ Sorry for the confusion, but this isnt the side we fixed last year. I was bringing that up because that nut had come loose when the bearing went on that side.
This is an issue on the Drivers side, the entire threaded area and nut are gone. not to mention it blew off the center cap of the wheel.
I have no idea what would cause this.

Let me know if you need a new bearing pressed in. I can help. Sorry to hear of your mishap, but good thing you caught it in time.

Most of the bearing failures I see on 5 gens (and it's been several) have been because the front hubs are not torqued to spec and the nut comes loose. The nut isn't loose because the bearing went bad- the bearing went bad because the nut was loose.

As has been said, replace the bearing, hub, and axle on that side. At this point, you probably need to replace the knuckle/spindle as well so you might just want to buy a knuckle from the junkyard and then have someone replace the wheel bearing using that hub and knuckle for parts.

When you reassemble, torque the axle nut to the MAX of the torque specs- 250ft lb.

Be sure to pull the wheel off the other side and you might go ahead and loosen and retorque the other hub as well.

Wow... it is rare to happen. Glad your wife made home safe...

That happened to me last year except for mine axle nut actually
broke off with part of the stud of the axle. It caused the wheel to wobble pretty badly when I drove on it. I had to replace the hub, bearing, axle, and the axle nut.

Update:
Ended up replacing the Hub, Bearing, and CV Axle. and the tie rod end as the bushing had split open and the greese was oozing.

Just out of curiosity I went and checked the right side CV Nut. That baby was loose too, probably took no more then 20ft lbs to get it off. That baby was tightened down to spec too, we used an air gun on it and a torque wrench. I tightened it back down to spec..but I dont understand why these nuts are backing off!

Use new locknuts each time you remove the old one or at least use some locktite.

damn, where do you live? That's pretty excessive that they keep backing off like that. I would definitely suggest some loctite and with your luck, to constantly check to make sure it's still torqued down.

We live in Georgia so nothing excessive as far as weather or Terrain goes.

I am going to check them every two oil changes now. I will apply some Loctite the next time I take them off. Good idea on the Washer..will have to figure that one out to make sure it seats properly and gives enough room to put the cotter pin back in.