Just did a 1200 mile trek in my TDI200 - up to scotland, round scotland, back down and round the country . All going perfectly until I hit the M1 on the way back... the rear shock absorber mount (the welded part on the axle) totally snapped off the axle.

I got it back to the garage, cleaned it all up and MIG welded it back on. 30 miles and 1 too many heavy breaks later and SNAP!

Do I -
a) clean up and reweld using a stronger ARC weld? the snap is right next to the axle shaft so there isn't much steel to weld up against.
b) buy a recon rear axle from a breakers and do a straight swap?

All thoughts more than welcome

Hi Tom,
I've just had exactly the same thing happen to my '94 200tdi.
Unfortunately there wasn't any good metal to weld to, so ended up getting another good axle caseing and put all my good bits in that.
Also had to change the ball joint in the middle of the axle as it had developed a clonk. I couldn't do the job myself for various reasons, so let my local landrover garage do it, cost me £500, most of it in labour.
Won't be doing that again
In the mean time I bought myself a series 2 td5 GS, and love it to bits, so going to get rid of the 200 now. I've had it 11 years and it's never let me down once, it's done 126000 miles.
SBEEN A GOODUN AND STILL IS

Regards
RichardG

Blaaaast I knew someone would have had the same problem, cheers for info Richard - I have a breakers locally so I'll try and get an axle casing from them. In the meantime I am (through determination) still going to try and weld the thing, just to see if I can pull it off.

Pleased you're happy with your TD5, I wanted an old one so I could trash it and not worry... which is all good but for every hour I drive it I spend 3 hours fixing it!
I have a Ford Focus as a main car, as it never ever ever lets me down (watch the engine drop out later )

Hi Tom,
A friend of mine has got a ford focus as well as 200tdi. Don't want to worry you, but he had to replace the front nearside spring as it had a crack in it. And a month later he drove out of his drive and the offside spring collapsed. Doh!
Landrover's ok though
I told him he should take the Landrover off roading not the Focus.
He said he didn't want to break it!

Regards
RichardG

Now you're worrying me, my little focus has been top notch since I got it. 5 years now and all I've done is changed the tyres, fluids, filters and the brakes. I got in my mates Discovery 3 and it looked and drove more like a transit mixed with a focus than my landie - . I guess that is a good thing?

I have a mate with a gorgeous 1 year old 110 county, but he's never taken it off road, I don't get it? I've been off-road more than on in my landie. Been stuck in a swamp, got towed out by a Suzuki... the shame was unbearable, so I bought the biggest winch I could find and stuck it on mine - seemed like a good idea but it weighs so much the off-road handling has seriously gone down hill (excuse the pun).

I'm feeling socially responsible, so I'm putting follow ups on the forum:

I re-welded the shock mount in the end, used an ARC 190 and 3.2MM rod, had to do a lot of cleaning. i also welded additional mild steel plates on either sides of the mount to strengthen the connections. have cained it offroad and onroad and it's held nicely... took a long time to do the weld. i decided to do this instead of buy a new axle casing as the casing was £200 for a used one!

oh and my ford focus is playing up, damn superstition.