Has anyone had a drive shaft failure on a motorhome?

[Janeanne1965]

I just wondered if anyone has experienced this on a Fiat Ducato chassis.

 

[ivorantony]

Driveshaft failure is mainly due to a CV gaiter getting damaged and loosing all its grease,
It’s rare for a shaft to get badly worn even with high mileage unless it’s been mechanically damaged in some way,
This is a fail when being MOT so useably picked up before damage to the CV ( Constant velocity Joint)

 

[Janeanne1965]

Ours is 8 months old. Apparently we have a faulty clip which has split the drive shaft in two. Game over. We couldn’t go forwards or backwards. We are on Corsica awaiting a new drive shaft to be delivered. I guess there are worse places to be but this has seriously disrupted our schedule.
We only have 2300 miles on the clock. Would you complain to Rapido to get some recompense or is this just bad luck? For £115k I thought these issues would be a few years further down the line.

 

[Figaro]

Surely it's still under warranty ?

 

[Al n Val]

Rapido didn’t fit the drive shaft, Fiat did and it sounds like they’re sorting it for you

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[The Coops]

It should be covered by the Fiat warranty its European wide Its nothing to do with the converter, its a Fiat issue, you could try for a free service as a good will measure

 

[Landy Andy]

From your description I can only assume that the drive shaft has come out of the CV joint. If so it is not a common issue and must be a bad assembly from the manufacturing line.

 

[Janeanne1965]

Surely it's still under warranty ?

It is under warranty and Fiat are paying for it.

 

[Janeanne1965]

From your description I can only assume that the drive shaft has come out of the CV joint. If so it is not a common issue and must be a bad assembly from the manufacturing line.

The mechanic has told us a clip has failed which has split the drive shaft apart. It is a faulty clip from manufacture.

 

[Janeanne1965]

It should be covered by the Fiat warranty its European wide Its nothing to do with the converter, its a Fiat issue, you could try for a free service as a good will measure

Cheers

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[The Wino]

Surely it's still under warranty ?

I think the op is thinking about some compensation for it breaking down in addition to getting it repaired. I don't think anyone has actually had that in any post I've seen.

 

[Landy Andy]

The mechanic has told us a clip has failed which has split the drive shaft apart. It is a faulty clip from manufacture.

There are only two things which would be classed as a “clip” on the drive shaft. One is to retain the drive shaft into the gearbox, but this very unlikely to fail, and drive shaft doesn’t have enough room to come out of gbox unless lower ball joint is separated.
The other clip holds the drive shaft into the CV joint. This requires less room to separate, and would cause the drive shaft to the effectively be in two pieces. I assume this is what has happened to yours.

 

[Janeanne1965]

There are only two things which would be classed as a “clip” on the drive shaft. One is to retain the drive shaft into the gearbox, but this very unlikely to fail, and drive shaft doesn’t have enough room to come out of gbox unless lower ball joint is separated.
The other clip holds the drive shaft into the CV joint. This requires less room to separate, and would cause the drive shaft to the effectively be in two pieces. I assume this is what has happened to yours.

The drive shaft arrived 17 days after the breakdown. We had to re-hash our plans. We cancelled our ferry bookings to Sardinia and Sicily. Instead we caught a ferry to Livorno instead. As for Fiat, we got nowhere asking for compensation for a ruined trip. I just thought it was worth a try.

 

[BillandHelen]

I just wondered if anyone has experienced this on a Fiat Ducato chassis.

The chap next to us on ille de re has also had a similar failure. It’s under warranty, so he drove slowly to a Fiat Professional dealer near La Rochelle. They confirmed it needed replaced, but quoted s 2 month waiting time for parts, your 17 days, though bad is better! He repacked the grease in the driveshaft himself and has set off home slowly. Hope he gets there under his own steam rather than a recovery truck.

 

[meanders]

Any legal claim would against the dealer assuming it was bought in the UK. It would then be their responsibility to reclaim it from Fiat. I would speak to Citizens Advice when you get home but keep all records and receipts.