First I will give a little background information. This past summer, I was experiencing some serious winding out of the front differential. Long story short, it turned out the third member was pretty shot. Most of the bearings were grinded down and the driveshaft was practically spinning with 3 inches of lateral freedom. At any rate, I had the front diff and the third member rebuilt by a solid Land Rover independent shop and the car has performed wonderfully since then.
Yesterday evening, I was driving around at no more than 40 MPH. Out of nowhere, I got horrendous feedback from the entire car and vibration like the thing was going to implode. I pulled over and the driveshaft was hanging – literally dangling above the pavement. Two of the couplings for the U-Joint – the ones connected to the diff were completely broken. The entire system felt bone dry.
I am having a hard time imagining how this could be anything other than neglect or poor workmanship the first time the area was assessed. It’s as if the system was never greased properly.
Ultimately, no one was hurt – thank god. There were no children on board and I was really the only one on the road at the time. And aside from waiting for 2 hours in the middle of the night for a tow truck, the situation could have been much, much worse. If I was at highway speed, the end result could have been catastrophic.
However, now I am sitting here wondering if there are any legal ramifications. Should I demand the repair be done free of cost? Any suggestions would be nice.
This truck is really starting to wear me down and I am on the verge of just parking it in the garage for a while and not driving it like I want to.
Yesterday evening, I was driving around at no more than 40 MPH. Out of nowhere, I got horrendous feedback from the entire car and vibration like the thing was going to implode. I pulled over and the driveshaft was hanging – literally dangling above the pavement. Two of the couplings for the U-Joint – the ones connected to the diff were completely broken. The entire system felt bone dry.
I am having a hard time imagining how this could be anything other than neglect or poor workmanship the first time the area was assessed. It’s as if the system was never greased properly.
Ultimately, no one was hurt – thank god. There were no children on board and I was really the only one on the road at the time. And aside from waiting for 2 hours in the middle of the night for a tow truck, the situation could have been much, much worse. If I was at highway speed, the end result could have been catastrophic.
However, now I am sitting here wondering if there are any legal ramifications. Should I demand the repair be done free of cost? Any suggestions would be nice.
This truck is really starting to wear me down and I am on the verge of just parking it in the garage for a while and not driving it like I want to.
