Complaint 2227613

Complaint Summary

SUSPENSION

Owner Narrative

This vehicle was sold to me as a new truck by Mountain West Truck Center in Salt Lake City, UT, with Federal Excise Tax paid accordingly. Prior to sale, the truck had undergone structural frame repair at Tec Equipment, an authorized Mack/Volvo dealer and repair facility in Reno, Nevada. During that repair, Huck bolts — permanent, engineered structural fasteners used to secure the frame and axle assemblies to OEM specification — were removed and replaced with non-equivalent standard threaded bolts. Those substitute fasteners were not properly installed. This condition was not disclosed at the time of sale. Nature of the Safety Defect Huck bolts are permanent, high-clamp-load fasteners engineered for critical structural joints in heavy-duty commercial vehicles. They function through a swaging process — a permanent mechanical crimp creating an interference fit engineered to withstand heavy vibration and dynamic load. They are not interchangeable with standard threaded fasteners. When the failure manifested on Truck #35, the vehicle was unable to move and drive unless the axle lock was engaged. It exhibited clunking from the transmission and speedometer dropout — symptoms consistent with loss of driveline integrity. Teardown by Mountain West technicians revealed a broken left-side axle shaft and gear metal in the front differential fluid, indicating differential destruction caused by axle instability. The rear axle was essentially floating, unsecured from the frame. The axle was missing several bolts and many were finger tight or loose. This safety failure resulted in a serious highway breakdown incident endangering other motorists, This failure presents a clear and foreseeable risk of axle separation or driveline failure at highway speed with no warning. The truck was operated in normal commercial service prior to discovery of this condition.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.