Freelander 1 Front driveshaft inner gaiter HELP!

Hi Everyone. I'm new on here but I've read many useful threads through the years and I'm hoping that some of you knowledge people can help before I go completely insane!
My mechanic fitted a Britpart Driveshaft TDB104980 to my Freelander 1TD4 several weeks ago. A few weeks after he fitted it I was horrified to see that the inner gaiter was torn. There's no explanation for how on earth that happened. Anyway the motor factors ordered in a replacement gaiter TDR500210 but when it arrived my mechanic said it's not the correct one. He says the gaiter for that driveshaft needs to be round inside, not shamrock shaped like that one is.
Do any of you know if the shamrock shaped one will fit that driveshaft? If not, can you give me a code or a link or something, to a round one that will fit?

Hi,

The britpart driveshaft is not an OEM part, so it has nothing in common with the original. So the gaiter will not fit, you need to put a universal gaiter, your mechanic should know that.

Regards

losingmymind said:

Thanks for your reply. Mechanic isn't a fan of universal gaiters. What do you think of them? Do you know if Britpart do a gaiter for that shaft?

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That makes no sense. He won't fit universal gaiters, but fits a cheap aftermarket drive shaft instead.

The shamrock shape inner joint is a genuine GKN joint. Round joints are aftermarket, and to be honest not worth fitting.
What was wrong with the original joint?

Hi,

You should always put quality driveshaft. Don't forget that is a 4x4 with heavy angles, so aftermarket ones are designed to fit the car, not to comply to all constrains.
If you can't find one, put a preowned one, you can renew the gaiters before fitting.

For the gaiters, you should inspect them and change them if they look bad, I only had 3 gaiters change ( one was changed twice because universal ones doesn't seams to last more than 10 years ).

GKN shafts are hard to come by now mind. Are there other reasonably high quality alternatives?