Know what happens when the drive shaft on your car breaks?

[Teresa]

You stop pretty fast.  It's also extremely noisy.  The car must be towed, but cannot be towed on a regular truck, must be on a flatbed.  It's not easy to get the car on the flatbed.  The drive shaft can pierce the transmission . . . that can be messy . . . . and very expensive.  The drive shaft can also knock the muffler off your car . . . and the rest of the pipes that go to it too.  That's less messy . . . . and less expensive.

[Mikey]

Both of our cars, including the station wagon, have front wheel drive, thus no drive shaft.  I've never heard of one breaking but I can imagine the noise it made when it the shaft hit the ground.....

[kaz]

Oh dear Teresa... you having car trouble?

[MikeW]

That's not a question one wants to know the answer to.

Hopefully your mechanic who insisted nothing was wrong will be red faced - and once it is repaired, you will be over the constant problems that could not be traced. It is jolly annoying how a car will not make 'the noise' when you have the mechanic drive it.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the automotive problems.

Cheers,

Mike

[-Greg-]

Teresa, hopefully you can take it someone who will be fair and honest with you! Mikey, unfortunately front wheel drive vehices have 2 drive shafts, each one containing 2 cv joints, when you turn sharply either way and here a clicking sound, you have a cv joint going bad, get it replaced soon, if one of those decides to let go when you are driving, it can take out more than a muffler! I have seen it happen..

[Mikey]

....when you turn sharply either way and here a clicking sound, you have a cv joint going bad,...

Great.  Now I'll be paranoid and likely hear that clicking sound everytime I turn....

[-Greg-]

No need to be paranoid, as you will know when it it time, the clicking is unmistakable...

[tammie]

Teresa - did THAT WOMAN drive your car before she left?! 
I'm trying to remember which vehicle I had had a drive shaft problem... and I can't remember!  Must be my brain protecting me from a horrible memory...
Tammie

[Teresa]

Teresa - did THAT WOMAN drive your car before she left?! 

I must say that is the best laugh I've had all day!!!

Actually, it seems that this problem is quite common in Land Rovers and I was very, very lucky it happened the way it did.  It started this funky vibrating several weeks ago (when Dad was in the hospital and all hell was breaking loose in my life and I didn't have time to really deal with it) and I took it to the gas station thinking it was the tires needing balancing because I'd had a recent flat.  They checked everything they could check (breaks, universal joint, tires, etc).  The problem is that nobody but Land Rover can fix Land Rovers cuz they can't get the parts . . . . and most cars don't have drive shafts that snap.  So anyway, the vibrating went away and it hadn't done it again until this morning.

I drove the girls to school (all of 4 or 4 1/2 miles) and just before we got there, we were going up a slight hill and as I accelerated it started the vibrating and making a bit of noise.  It was a good bit worse than before.  By the time I got home it was MUCH worse, so I had DH drive it around the block and he agreed it needed service NOW.  So I called the mechanics and they said "your drive shaft is about to break . . . get it in here NOW if it's driveable but be very gentle with it and don't accelerate fast."  I got in to try to drive it there and it felt so funny just backing up 10 feet to turn it around that I got out and told DH I thought we should have it towed (Yeah, now that I have triple A, I can say that anytime I want!!!)  He said he'd drive it and he hopped in and I got in his car to follow (the 2nd time I've driven his car since he got it in 1999!!!)  He made it down the drive way, to the end of the block and just around the corner when it snapped and the car quit going.  I guess he could tell there was something wrong so he was going VERY slowly and that's the only reason nothing else under the car got torn up by the loose end of the shaft.

Took the tow truck driver 40 minutes to get it on the flatbed because everytime the wheels would turn around, the end of the shaft would slam into something and he was afraid it would take out something serious.  He took a hunk of 2 x 4 and secured the end of the shaft and got the car on the flat bed and took it in.  Both the tow truck driver and the mechanics said that they see this a LOT in Land Rovers.  As a matter of fact, when I called the mechanics they said they had another one in the shop already and that one was the one with the pierced transmission . . . . that guy's looking at $7000 to get his car fixed!   When we got there with the tow truck behind us, there was another one on another flatbed with the same issue.  I asked the mechanics how many broken drive shafts they could fix in one day and they laughed and said they usually see two a week!!! 

Since the car was going slowly and stopped quickly and the tow truck driver was so careful, there were some scraps to things under the car, but no real damage.  The shaft and replacing all the break lights (someone stopped me last night to tell me they were out) ran $766 - not good, but could have been so much worse!!

I found a great little independent shop where they only work on British cars (jags, MGs, rovers, etc).  They do good work and they do it for so much less than the dealers that it isn't funny.  They seem to be honest . . . I never get any surprises when I go in and they don't try to do a lot of unecessary work on the car.  The guy offered to come over and look under the car before I drove it in this morning . . . now I wish he had!

[jclements]

Land Rover merged with Ford...maybe parts will be more readily available? Nah, probably not...they haven't been any easier to come by for my Volvo (also merged with Ford). Your bill was very reasonable. I just had the fuel pump assembly crack in mine which caused a gas leak. The part was about $300 and the labor was initially $400. I got them down to $150 on the labor, but that's another long story for another day. They're expensive cars to maintain.....glad you, the girls, and DH are ok!

[Johns]

T,

Generally, it is not the drive shaft per se that breaks, but a universal joint.  Either way, should it happen on the highway at speed, he result can be catasrophic, as if it is the front UV that gives way, the car can "pole vault" with the shaft penetrationg the passenger compartment.  You are indeed lucky to have noticed the vibration before such a failure.

[Krista]

Wow.. that's just crazy! Wouldn't that be something they would do a recall on if it's happening so frequently? Dang scary! Glad you are safe.

And CV joints.. only thing I had go wrong on my Notemobile ... 3sets. And I swear they are going on my Montana but the mechanics says he can't hear anything. At least DH is finally hearing it.

[Teresa]

They would do a recall only if this was happening before the first warranty period ran out.  Unfortunately it happens after that . . . . when they aren't responsible anymore.  It IS odd tho that it is so prevalent with this type of car that the tow truck driver says he sees it 'all the time' with rovers and has never seen it with any other car. 

However, now that mine's replaced, the car is running smoother than it's run in a long time.  I figure it's good to go for another 3 or 4 months before it breaks down again.  I have no car payment, so if the next break down is less than $1000, I'm still ahead keeping it.  I like the beast . . . most of the time.

[jclements]

Teresa, our volvo is a '99, long out of the original warranty and even the extended warranty. We had a repair last year that was $1000. Enough people called it in to Volvo that they issued refunds for it last month. It was technically not a recall, but a good faith sort of admittance to the problem. I just registered my problem with my fuel pump assembly from last week to volvo as well, as I found many people online with the same problem. I'm hoping they will again refund us for the latest repair. We should not have purchased the first year of the model, the s80. Since they've all merged together, Land Rover may have similar policies, so you may want to register it.

[Teresa]

Thanks Jessica . . . . it's definitely worth a try . . . wonder if the shocks would be covered too - that repair was almost $2000 and they said it happened to every rover out there too!  (The dealer wanted $4000 for the same work . . . . thiefs!)

[MikeW]

That's the spirit Teresa. A prior roommate of mine who drove an old MG said - "With a new car, I have a payment every month. With an old car, that I like, I have repair bills, but every once in a while, it gives me a month off".

Mind you this was a girl who eventually learned how to remove and bake spark plugs to get the car to start, and kept an old toothbrush and baking soda on hand to scrub the battery terminals. Her other comment of note was, "It's not broken, it's just British"

Cheers,

Mike

[Teresa]

That's the spirit Teresa. A prior roommate of mine who drove an old MG said - "With a new car, I have a payment every month. With an old car, that I like, I have repair bills, but every once in a while, it gives me a month off".

Mind you this was a girl who eventually learned how to remove and bake spark plugs to get the car to start, and kept an old toothbrush and baking soda on hand to scrub the battery terminals. Her other comment of note was, "It's not broken, it's just British"

Cheers,

Mike

Actually my very first car was an MG midget, so I completely understand her thinking!  I actually dated my mechanic back in those days . . . . it was the only way I could afford the car!   And, this rover is not unlike the midget, tho the repair bills are not yet monthly (they will be by this time next year as 8 years seems to be when that begins . . . .)