Hi all! 

Not sure if it’s in the right section, if not please move! 

So my friends purchased a pug 206? (The small 3 door) on a 2003 plate around 6 months ago. A horrible squeak and vibration started happenening from the rear wheels. 

She took it to a garage and they said the rear axle needs replacing. Bare in mind this car doesn’t do many miles, only carries her and her child and has not been crashed. She’s been ripped off by many garages before for jobs that simply didn’t need doing, or jobs that she paid to have done cause the garage told her it needed doing then didn’t actually do it! Just took the money! 

My question is how can a rear axle of a front wheel drive car just fail like that? I mean it doesn’t do anything?!

i haven’t looked at the car but my opinion would be a wheel bearing or buggered brake drum. 

What’s your thoughts??? 

Does it even have a rear axle??
More likely a hub and sub-frame set-up.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

Could check if the wheel are all straight. One of my dad's friends complained about a vibration or steering vibration and my dad had found one of the wheels to had been buckled

Could be as simple as needing a rear wheel balanced.

They do have a rear beam axel and problems with them are not uncommon it effects the Saxo too, refurbished axel are approx £150- £200 plus fitting easy job

They have a torsion bar rear axle like many PSA cars did then.  

The bearings fail on them over time due to water ingress, when the bearings fail they wear into the beam tube ruining the beam, making the wheels lean in and squeak.

Places like IMAxles will do refurb beams for a reasonable price but quality control seems to be hit and miss.  Getting a used one is a lottery as most are crap now...I've replaced several on 306s lol.

So the axle can actually fail then. I’m my mind it doesn’t do anything, it’s not like a moving part. The only way I thought a rear axle on a front wheel drive car could fail is rust, or crash damage. 

I’ll do some basic checks tomorrow, wheels bearing and do a visual to make sure everything is straight. I’ll update tomorrow if I find anything. 

had a look today. its one of the rear shocks that have failed! robbing garage!

gives me something to do in the morning.

Cheers guys.

1 hour ago, Jordan99 said:

had a look today. its one of the rear shocks that have failed! robbing garage!

gives me something to do in the morning.

Cheers guys.

Sure it's just a shock?  

A torsion beam is a moving part, it uses two sprung steel rods rather than coil springs.  The arms of the beam are constantly moving over every bump in the road.  Are the wheels leaning inwards at all?  Eventually they'll wear a lump out of the arch liner if left long enough.

no the torsion spring with fine, i swapped out the shock for her, driving good as new now. the shock that was on the had completely failed. she said she drives carefully but i beg to differ!

Feel free to name and shame the garage!

On 6/4/2018 at 5:27 PM, Jordan99 said:

no the torsion spring with fine, i swapped out the shock for her, driving good as new now. the shock that was on the had completely failed. she said she drives carefully but i beg to differ!

Glad you got it sorted