DRIVESHAFT SNAPPED!!!!

[SIMONG 0]

my near side drive shaft has snapped! but the worst thing is i wasnt even driving it.

 

it all steams from this tracking which ive been trying to get tracking sorted out. i went back to national for the forth time on sat and got it done, went for a drive round the block wasnt right so i went straight back there was no noise, no clunking no nothing. the staff were havin a knock about in the car park. so i got the guy who did it to come over and got him to have a go in it so he could see how far it was out. 10 mins went by, 15 mins went by, 25 mins went by, im thinkin whats he doin? at this point two of the other staff had gone out in a car, didnt say anything. then the manager came out and said that my driveshaft had snapped. i was like "what?" where is it then? his reply where you left it have you got aa or rac? er no your guy was driving it! his reply oh well i must have missed heard him on the phone, my reply I hope so.

 

then it was dragged in by the two other guys who had gone out. then they basically dumped it in the car park. "your diveshaft has snapped" not even a sorry!

 

so i spoke to the manager and asked what the score is now with your guy driving it? "its just general wear and tear, unless he hit something", he went and asked, "no he didnt hit anything". well of course he's gonna fookin say that!!!

 

i know that he would of nailed it and its then snapped. but again when i asked him, he said "no i never abuse customers cars" i alrite! so potentionally i could of nailed it and it snap on me. but i dont drive it like that i just potter about in it so dont think i would of done it, not until next month when im going to santa pod any way. then i would of been well fooked!

 

SO where do i stand with this?? im gonna ring customer services today and see what i can get out of them, but im guessing nothing! but what do you guys think? can i charge them for any work or bits resulting from this? or is just tough S##T!

 

sorry for the rant, Si :(

[Critical_Mass 10]

Another garage nightmare :( Sorry to hear this Si.

 

I think it will be another case for contacting Trading Standards. You should have a case if the car was driveable to the garage but not after. How can they deny liability, a broken driveshaft would mean you cant drive the car, so you wouldnt have got to the garage if it had been broken before. So it HAD to have been done whilst in their hands.

 

By the way id always advise going along with them if you let anyone else drive your car.

 

Good luck fella.

[daleyboy 0]

Man i would have gone mental, surely its their responsibility if i used your car and broke it dont you think i would fix it or pay for repairs ?

 

I would go to citizens advice or something like that find out where you stand legally, i would say dont fix it yourself get a garage to do it and take the bill back to those who broke it.

 

Find out where you stand though............ :confused:

[Supercharged 2]

Never heard of a driveshaft actually snapping on a (standard powered) VW...

 

I think you need to get it to somewhere like Stealth so they can sort out what's going on - I'm wondering if it's got the wrong driveshaft or trackrod fitted that is making it impossible to setup right.

[Jim 1]

Like Steve says, driveshafts really don't snap. It must be something they've done...

[volksworld13 0]

i take it the joint has snapped/broken up, it is highly unlikely the the center part or the shaft itslef hass broken, sometimes when you strip the suspension steering down, especially when doing the bottom balljoint, is you have to be carefull in not pulling it out and dislodging the joint slightly, and when turning corners the joint popped completly out,im well aware the joint was held in byu a c clip, but this can happen.i would personally ring them up, and say trading standards are involved and that you will go to court over the matter if neccesary, perhaps then they may reconsider getting you a new drive shaft in a nd replacing it.

[Jonny777 0]

Have you had CV joint problems?

 

It could be that the splines on the shaft that go into the outer CV have f*cked because the joint was broken and wore it out. Actual driveshaft snapping is a pretty big deal, only way i can think of it happening.

[markrtw 0]

They can snap - though very unusual. I had the end of my drivers' side (long) shaft shear off last year - had a bit of intermitant vibration and checked the CV joints - they were OK. After 3 weeks or so, doing 10 miles an hour it gave way.

 

Swapped the shaft - OK since. I guess there was some fatigue in the metal after 15 years of use.

[SIMONG 0]

its on the inner side nearest to to box, and has completely sheared in half. more revs to go faster means more torque, more torque going through the shafts, causing this to break. if it was gonna happen it was gonna happen. but it happen when they had the car and took three people to drag it back and i cant see how they can dispute the fact they broke it!

 

i know what you mean about going with the person driving but i was thinkin down the the lines of my weight in the car on the n/s and may have some effect on the steering and wanted him to see what i see, if you get what i mean.

 

they are closed sundays so goona ring up customer services tomoz speak to them. if getting no where then i will get on to trading standards

 

just a small quote from their website:

 

"Our whole operation is based on one very simple premise – that we go that extra mile to make sure that every single one of our customers is totally satisfied with the service we provide"

 

Alan Revie, Chairman

 

i want to speak to this guy and ask him his opinion!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I put 350lbft through my 15 year old driveshafts every day, well, actually more if you think about it. As I understand it, gearboxes are torque multipliers, so torque "at the driveshaft" is the more important figure. I don't know the exact calculations but I'm guessing it works on the standard gear reduction principal, so if you take 4th gear as an easy example, which is nearly a 1:1, you get 350lbft at the input shaft and multiplied by 3.68 (final drive ratio) you get 1288lbft at the driveshaft, at certain points in the rev range.

 

Now, if my standard 15 year old shafts can handle that on a daily basis, all I can say is your car must have seen some pretty severe abuse to snap it clean in half like that, or you are extremely unlucky.... but funny it snapped whilst in their care isn't it?

 

A lot of garages get away with murder. We have to sign disclaimers when renting a car don't we? We have to walk around it, check for dents / scratches, confirm the mileage and confirm the tank is full etc etc. I think it's about time we did the same to garages.

[SIMONG 0]

Now, if my standard 15 year old shafts can handle that on a daily basis, all I can say is your car must have seen some pretty severe abuse to snap it clean in half like that, or you are extremely unlucky.... but funny it snapped whilst in their care isn't it?

 

yeah it is funny that! thats what i thought?

 

well ive been on to both the trading standards/consumer advice and the complaints dept of national tyres.

 

consumer advice really helpfull and spoke to me about "supplies of goods and services act 1982" basically is to do with taking care of your vehicle (in my case anyway) and the service which has been provided (or not in my case). they told me to write a letter regarding this with some other stuff which she told me about in the letter and send it recorded delivery.

 

i rang national at 09:08am and got told that i would be contacted within 24Hrs by the regional manager. and guess what .....had no phone calls!

 

gonna writ this letter tonight, consumer rights lady said i couyld ring her and go through the letter before i send it. which i thought was nice of her. and get it sent of in the morning!

 

only problem is i cant really start any work on it until national have contacted me as i need to give them a chance to rectify any problems. er no thanks i will get it sorted myself and bill you cheers!

[Critical_Mass 10]

Good stuff. Sounds like the ball is rolling to get this sorted. :D

 

Keep us updated mate! :D

[Jim 1]

Aye - keep us posted mate. Really fed up of the horror stories of cowboy garages on here and always like to hear of people getting results against these scumbags!

[SIMONG 0]

spoke to the regional manager for my area today. he basically said that they would not accpet liability, which was always gonna be the case, but as will of good gesture if i bought the part that he would have it arranged to be fitted free of charge. i told him that i dont want them doing anymore work on my car, he said well there all fully trained and quailifed. maybe so but they still broke my car.

 

so letter wrote, with the help of a good friend who also happens to be a forum member! sent off today to head office.

 

will see what happens next!

[tandino 0]

To be fair i can see there side of the story, you have a car that lowered significantly if your signature pic is anything to go by?,

This puts significantly more loadings on the drive shafts and i would say its just bad luck its gone whilst theyve been testing it...

Also why did you not go out in the jump seat with him whilst he was testing it?

[SIMONG 0]

Also why did you not go out in the jump seat with him whilst he was testing it?

 

cause i wanted him to see what i see. but in hein sight (?) yes i should of gone out with him. but i dont expect them to drive/break it in the that they did cause i wouldnt do to some ones car!

[tandino 0]

Also why did you not go out in the jump seat with him whilst he was testing it?

 

cause i wanted him to see what i see. but in hein sight (?) yes i should of gone out with him. but i dont expect them to drive/break it in the that they did cause i wouldnt do to some ones car!

 

How do you know that the car didnt just break through no fault of their own?,

Thats what you have to prove, and as you say if it didnt break there it would more than likely have broken down the road with you behind the wheel.

If it was a new car you might have a leg to stand on, as a 15+ year old modified car i dont think you have.

[SIMONG 0]

mot'd within the last month with no mention, full service history, stacks and stacks of reciepts. no expense spared uprated bushes anti roll bars and suspension. this may be modified but its all better than standard stuff.

 

but again yes it could of happend when i was drivin but it didnt. it dont drive my car in a manner which would of caused this to happen.

[markrtw 0]

I was only doing a gentle 10 miles an hour when mine went - it's not necessarily how it's being driven at the time.

[tandino 0]

mot'd within the last month with no mention, full service history, stacks and stacks of reciepts. no expense spared uprated bushes anti roll bars and suspension. this may be modified but its all better than standard stuff.

 

but again yes it could of happend when i was drivin but it didnt. it dont drive my car in a manner which would of caused this to happen.

 

MOT means twat all when it comes to driveshafts and possible metal fatigue neither does service history or paperwork.

Bottom line is you dont know how this happened or when it might have happened otherwise you would have had it replaced before it did happen,.

Driveshafts dont let go when you put your foot down or drive the car hard, they let go because there is a problem with the shaft or CV joint not because of how its being driven.

Im sorry mate, im not saying its not a pisser but fact is in my mind this is not the garages fault, if he had punctured a tyre because he drove through a pothole or clipped a kerb then fair enough but a driveshaft??..

[SIMONG 0]

sorry but im gonna have to disagree, i could appreciate it if it was a CV joint but for the shaft to brake i would say it would have to come under some kind of stress.

 

you say that the mot means nout, but i know the guy who did it and he would told me if there was something wrong with the car. may not be something that is checked, i dont do mot's, but checking all the suspension is part of it. so he should of been able to see something.

 

again you say history/receipts mean nout? surley if a car has been well looked after and well maintained that you cant discount that fact. if it was just a peice o c##p never looked after then again yeah there might be some issue there.

 

the main point im getting at is that how can they not take liability for it when it was the care of one of there employess. if they regional manager has said if i buy the bought and he will get it fitted free of charge is that not taking some sort of liability?

[Fanjita 1]

I don't normally do this but I just wanted to say I'm with tandino on this one.

 

Driveshafts just don't go, there must have been a hairline crack or defect from new or fatigue that caused this to go. Had you have been driving you'd have just shrugged it off and paid for the new one. I don't think, based on what you've said, that you would win this one, for that very reason. You have no way of proving how the car was driven, and the garage has plenty going for them for it not being their liability.

 

As stated its a 15+ yo car with modifications, if anything happened to mine mechanically whilst a garage was testing it, I'd just have to accept it. There are obvious ones (crashes, engine exploding) that I would confront them about, but if somethings gonna go, its gonna go.

 

Sorry mate

[strimmer 0]

Both sides are credible, a previous issue, long term or short term, means the snapping of the driveshaft was not the fault of the driver. The driver at the time was an employee of the garage who was employed to take care of your car and therefore they are liable for damaging it.

 

All that can happen now is to litigate the best solution, they will wish to offer a lot less than you expect and you of course want it completely resolved in quick time without cost to yourself which is what your rights all about and trading standards are there to assist in your fight, but, to get everything you want often takes a longer period of time than anyone really has the time to for (except the garage) and may only be resolved in court.

 

My 2p's worth is that they wouldn't be able to prove that your car's age, or modifications caused the break, indeed the words on a page of how this and that and next thing have caused it may sound credible but in truth it is speculation and cannot be proved (in your case) without several thousands of pounds of official testing, and even these tests are subjective and can still be open for interpretation. Has been mentioned near the start of the thread;

 

You should have a case if the car was driveable to the garage but not after. How can they deny liability, a broken driveshaft would mean you cant drive the car, so you wouldnt have got to the garage if it had been broken before. So it HAD to have been done whilst in their hands.

 

This fact is un-deniable and despite all the words and technicalities that may be slung around this is what they did to your car, fortunately on this point Trading Standards would be 100% behind you.

 

My advice is be nice to the customer services team, but only to make them work for you. Go in prepared with detail and phrases regarding the legislation surrounding this case. In most national companies the customer services team have to mop up the mess that local, and often sloppy, managers make in their day to day trading. They find it easier to side with you, a regional manager will probably feel powerful and un-reasonable but in most cases they can be over-ruled by the central customer services team who wish to maintain the companies reputation.

 

Hope some/any or all of this helps

 

Good luck

[SIMONG 0]

i have had no contact from them and have since have to fix my car due to travel comitments. so far seems to have made no furhter complications with gearbox and surrounding parts. all in all a fix which for them is gonna be chump change.

 

i know there are two side to every story and that they would never admit liability as this would open a whole can of worms for them. the simple fact whilst the car was in the care when this happen is my problem.

 

i try to be nice with customer services / retail as i tend to find this gets you further. also having worked in retail i know its not always the person you speak to or deal with's fault.

 

on the phone or face to face yours always gonna get big talk! but puttingall this info down in writing i feel its gonna be harder for them back there corner

[tandino 0]

Strimmer, there's two sides to that arguement.

You could knowingly drive a car into a garage that had its engine mounts shot to pieces and hanging on by a thread, do you therefore think that a garage would be liable for replacing the engine mounts when they failed and the engine fell out because they drove a few yards on a test drive?.

Sorry but in all my years driving VW, which is nearly 20 years and what would equate to hundreds of thousands of miles of driving in my own VW's ive never ever had a driveshaft snap no matter what abuse has been thrown at it with cars running significantly more than they are designed to run, in fact my old Mk2 20VT was running with a G60 box and shafts and was putting 280bhp through them, it got ragged on track and on the drag strip and never failed.

Sure ive had a CV joint go but that was through age and wear and tear.

I still stick to my point, this failure in my humble opinion was not caused by a few minutes of (debatable) over exuberant driving but a flaw in the shaft or the components it interfaces with.

Shafts dont break, they are designed to take all that the engine can throw at it and more, CV joints yes, if they had done a CV then i would say there is a possibility they have done it driving like a twat but not a shaft..