John,

I had exactly the same thing happen except it was me, who torqued the
bolts properly, but unwisely used bolts that came with some really
cheap and crappy CV joints. And, I was in the dark, in a ditch in
someone's front yard by the busiest highway in the little town I was
in when I changed them. You should really go to fastenall and get a
high grade of the proper bolt and some really good lock washers if you
have any doubts as to the quality installed on your car.

Jim

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 4:05 PM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
> I found out what's worse than the DPO's mechanic not torquing down the 6
> left side inner CV bolts: him torquing down only ONE of them. If they were
> all loose, surely I would have heard the horrible rattling noise of a loose
> CV joint. Instead, that ONE tight bolt held the CV joint fast against the
> transaxle flange, and so long as ONE of the other five bolts was at least a
> half turn into its hole, all seemed well. As soon as that last bolt fell
> out, THWACK! The CV joint flipped off the flange and snapped off that one
> tight bolt. Fortunately it happened in the parking lot at work, so I was
> able to make a quick and dirty (VERY dirty) jury rig by stealing three bolts
> from the right side and drove home without incident with three on each
> side.
>
> I had intended to go over all that stuff with a torque wrench when I bought
> the van, but what with one thing and another, I've ended up driving it daily
> for work while dawdling with the Subaru swap on my work van. One more stupid
> thing to check on a newly purchased van: if the CV boots look too new to be
> original, CV bolts could be loose!
>
> --
> John Bange
>