Strange failure. Sitting in left turn light lane waiting in the rain. Traffic cleared and I started to roll, the R front tire hopped three times and the car stopped moving. Rev a bit made a banging noise, no motion at all. Pushed it into a immediately available vacant lot (nice of them to put it there) and looked underneath. The axle was broken mid-way between trans and outboard CV joint. I was a Navy materials inspector for a long time and I saw no obvious damage, nicks or gouges. Has anyone ever had this happen? Mini of Portlaand said they'd never seen one.

 

I never seen one break at the rod, mostly at the joint itself. Do you have pics ?