Car Mechanical Question

[Ceri JC]

Cage broke down on Friday, having only done 6 miles since the last service MOT, I naturally suspect it to be due to something the garage fiddled with. The AA man confirms it was the drive shaft having come away, but that it could be as simple as a circlip needing to be refitted and that the garage might be able to fix it in a matter of minutes. I then take it to the garage (where it still is) and they confirm that it is indeed "only" a circlip that came off the drive shaft, where it passed through/joined the gearbox, but that you have to replace the whole drive shaft when this happens. This sounds a bit OTT and expensive to me. I'm still waiting for them to get back to me with a quote for the new drive shaft. I'm new to the area, so don't know whether the garage is dodgy/not.

I was just wondering if anyone with any (car) mechanical experience could shed any light on whether or not what they are proposing is common practice. Car is a 1.3l R-reg 5 door Toyota Corolla Sportif with 127K on the clock if that makes any difference.

Cheers,

Ceri

[Viney]

Phone a toyote garage part department to see if the part is available seperatly, if it is then you are being ripped off.

[Ceri JC]

Phone a toyote garage part department to see if the part is available seperatly, if it is then you are being ripped off.

So assuming the circlip is standard/available seperately, you can't see any reason why its replacement would require a whole new drive shaft? Ta.

[Ceri JC]

Update, they say the circlip had worn away/damaged the shaft where it rubbed against it. They've welded a new end on which they claim should last the remaining life of the car, cost £150. Cheaper than I'd expected...

[sv_rory]

thats still a lot of money to do a bit of welding

[timwilky]

£150 to repair a drive shaft. you could have got an exchange fitted far less

[Lozzo]

I have never seen a driveshaft end welded on, they usually simply replace the inner or outer CV joint (which is fairly cheap)

[Sid Squid]

I've seen it a couple of times, if the shaft end splines are worn it's easier to weld a few dabs on the outer end of the shaft to retain the CV, the pslines that transmit the drive are probably fine but the circlip groove is worn away - it's the car equivalent of welding the engine sprocket on when the output shaft end splines are goosed :).

150 notes seems a bit steep - but to be fair I don't know the specifics of that car.