Mom‘s had her 96 Nissan Altima for 2 yrs. A month ago she had her engine replaced. Suddenly the other day her front axle broke in half. The new mechanic said bolts came loose on axle causing it to break in half. Did the engine mechanic loosen the bolts to cause this?
What is your source for this claim? Do you have any scientific research that backs it up? You can't just make stuff up and expect to get away with it, you're not the bloody President.
I have never heard of axle bolts suddenly come out with no prior work done in the area. Good luck proving anything.
The way your question reads makes it seem as if the mechanic is criminally responsible for the axle breakage. I'm sure he didn't deliberately cause the damage although it is possible (but not likely) that the bolts weren't tightened to the proper torque specs after the engine was replaced. Just to be safe, have a competent front-end mechanic check all the bolts in the front end and let him decide if the problem was malicious, accidental, consequential or normal wear and tear (the last is what I'd vote for!). Good luck!
I would say that your axle failure was probably caused by something that someone did not do properly, it's anybodies guess what that was exactly. The only other alternative would be a defective part, and if this part has been in service since 96 I think you could rule that out.
