nevillen
Well-Known Member
Normally we do our own repairs but the previous owner of our 'Beast' had said it needed a replacement N/S front drive shaft, there was a 'knocking' coming from the front which seemed to confirm the need for a new one. Purchased a 2nd hand replacement from gentlemen of salvage in the West Country and had the Beast booked in for the fitting today. Received a call this afternoon that the replcement had the right serial number but had a different CV joint which was too big to fit, so on my instruction they refitted the old one but packed it with grease first. End result 'silent' front drive shaft, apparently it didn't need changing in the first place. I was at the garage before they refitted the original part so I know they were not telling porkies! Point is I will berate the parts supplier in the morning (left it because I was too irate today) but I think they supplied me with a post 2006 part (mine is 2004) which may have had the same part number but had been altered during the production run. The salient lesson is...IF you are going to use repurposed parts, double and triple check that they WILL actually fit! Today's little event set me back £180 including VAT, it could have been a lot worse if the garage hadn't felt so bad about what had happened, the best I can expect back from the supplier is the £48 I paid for the part, lesson learned painfully, at least the knock has gone!