DSS Axle broke yesterday (pics)
 

Yesteday while doing a very light u turn i pushed the gas coming out of the u turn and this is what happened. Keep in mind that I installed the set of dss axles about a month ago and I am not lowered of any kind. I was on my road when it happened and I take this same u turn very often. Lucky my neighbor saw me and towed me back home into the front yard using his pick up truck.

I may have just got a manufacture defect but I am very afraid to give them another shot after experiencing this.

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wow, if i ddnt know any better it would look like you are pushing major HP..



did you fet a hold of the manufacturer? maybe they can issue a refund

Far from major but I think she does pretty good. Lightweight flywheel on a 2005 tranny (smaller gear ratios), cattman headers, cold air, intake spacers, and vias block plate. Shes powerful but not that powerful.

These axles were supposed to be the axles of choice and are not remaned, they are brand new. A few members on here have given dss a lot of credit. I know it may be a defect but defect or not I am not sure I want to use there product any longer. It is so new that I still have the box it came in. I will be contacting my dealer tomorrow to see what we can do. Scary thing is that my dss driver side axle is still in while I put my oem axle back in on the pass side.

Definitely a defect. I've been running them for a few months now. And other than the clicking from me betting so low, they've been fine.

damn homie that is crazy :eek:

It is lol. Thanfully I didnt get very far. there were those big balls rolling down the street.

At first I thought my tranny went out on me. I just installed a brand new one from nissan with 0 miles on it along with these axles about a month ago.

Raxles; Never fails, amazing quality. But thats a bummer hope you get it fixed soon enough!

How much are raxles? I heard the pass side is no longer available. Is this true?

That sucks
 

Sorry to hear, glad mine are doing fine after 6 months. You mentioned you often make that U turn, and gave it some gas as you ended the turn? I try to be slow and gentle when doing a U because the outer joint is at the most extreme angle and has the greatest chance of binding- thanks for sharing, good reminder.

Either way, a vehice at factory height shouldn't have a problem with that. When building their vehicles, I think nissan would assume that it's consumers would be making U-turns also.

The amount of gas applied coming out of the uturn was enough to get me moving out of the u turn.


Agreed

I agree, my point is these axles may not handle an extreme joint angle well. Perhaps this one had a defect, or perhaps it's an inherent weaknes in the design- either way I appreciate NismoAce giving us a heads up by sharing his unfortunate experience.

I bought mine awhile back I see they did stop making it; thats unfortunate. You could go with GSP :D...They are the cheapest BUT are hit or miss. Anyone whos slammed they won't work for they usually go out within a month or less, just ask essential1. While people who are stock they seem to last anywhere from a week to 2K, 5K, 13K, and 20K. That's just from what I have researched and heard.

I'm not sure if you ever resolved this issue from your Trans Replacement Thread:

It seems as though you had one of three issues.
1. You were sold the wrong application.(wrong length)
2. The axle joint popped out sometime during install.(this is easy to miss)
3. The axle was defective from the store.

From the appearance of the broken axle in your photo, it looks like it was one of the first two.

Welcome, and thanks all for the input.

Your brain is like a computer. The axle that was moving in and out was the driver side wich is still fine and now that I think about it the factory driver side did the same thing.

As for the clunking noise, that was due to a loose end link. Solved that and I have no noise coming from the front end other then the crappy struts and mounts.

Hm. Well, it looks like the failure was caused by improper engagement of the actual joint. Do you have the part # of the axle you were sold?

8006n

Dam ace. I have a brand new dss sitting in my garage I would drop off but I'm an auto not a manual. Did you get it from Groton? They are pretty good about covering parts most of the time. That's where I got mine from since alex told me that's where they get theirs from the oem ones are up there in price

FWIW, the passenger side axles work regardless of MT or AT.
Its the driver side that matters.

that's horrible. I have done many axle jobs and have never seen anything like this. Glad it was at low speeds, can you imagine if this happened on the freeway during an emergency maneuver. yikes. get it replaced free of charge as it seems like a factory defect.

I have gsp axles. A six speed with the same mods as you and these axles have been good so far (about 25k miles). Be careful though, I believe they sell the drivers side axle the same for manual and automatic, which is technically incorrect but obviously my car has been fine.

I would return that axle for a free replacement. Try to rule out manufacturer defect that way.

Thanks man. Yeah alex said oem is rediculous. I had my old orignal axle downstairs so I threw that in and was back up and running within an hour.

I just dont know how I feel about throwing another dss in here. If I was on the highway it wouldnt have been good. I was lucky enough to avoid a tow since I was only 100ft from my home when it happend.

Ah thanks I knew one was different.

Ace mine is a 8004n. If it is compatible text me I can meet up with you if your in a bind

And whoever works at your place with Ser wheels needs to lower the car to lol

I agree. I got very lucky or someone was watching over me.

I plan on calling up the retailer tomorrow to discuss the issue. Im sure I will be able to get another one I just really am worried about putting one of these one my car again.


any vibration with gsp?


lmaoooooo thats my car. I put my factory axle back in for now. It is a good axle I was just replacing it proactively while I had the tranny out. Lesson learned.

And yeah my car has the ser wheels painted. It looks like a monster truck doesnt it!


That adds to my point that im not even lowered.

Month ago I put in a new tranny, control arms, wheel hubs, spindle, bearings, end links, inner and outter tie rods. Cant blame anything else for my event.

If this happened to one I would be afraid of it happening to the next.

holy $hit

With the kind of turning radius our cars have, I don't think U turns had ever occurred to them.

Your not kiding. You would think it wouldnt be an issue while turning with such a crappy radius on the car. If it was a honda my response would prob be "Thats why Maximas dont have turning radius like that". But I cant say that. :(

On the good side I was able to call my boy and say "You know how I know my car is faster than yours? Because I broke my axle!"

Mine looks like that now with the h&r's on the car so don't feel bad at all lol

lol. The only reason why my back looks decent is because of the shot suspension and all the extra added weight.

I had blown shocks and struts with my tein s techs and holy ****ty ride

I looked by the install by it looked dark there so I didn't ask if you were there. We were there looking for a big screen tv

I do get slight vibration on acceleration only, I am also dropped on eibachs. I strongly recommend rebuilding the joints on the oem axles. They do sell those parts separately and I think it's around $40 a side.

On 5.5's the passenger side on an AT is shorter than a MT...wont work

ahhh ok good info and clarification

How much are people getting oem for?

i still remember snapping a DSS axle before. i was slammed and had my cut out open.....

They go for $535 each side.

ouch

Crazy.....I don't know how low you are but if you slam your car to the ground that puts lots of pressure on the axle. A mild drop of 1 - 1.5" is OK, but alot of people drop the thing so far the wheels UNDER the fender....cmon now. Might want to get some Raxle Axles...actually they only make one for the drivers side on 6MT. Other than that if you want to ride around scraping on the ground might have to get custom axles or raise it up a bit. I dont know how low you were, might have just be a defective axle.

Factory height bro and I wish raxle still made the pass side.

DANG. I would say defect, or incorrect installation. I was going to buy some Raxles, but they only made one for driver side....so I said forget it. They are expensive though.