catastrophic prop shaft failure

Hi, I had my front prop shaft on my 2000 p38 replaced 8mts ago with a britpart one. I was on the motorway yesterday when it failed catastrophically. It put a hole in the floor and cracked my gear box. I was lucky though, as the rear hardy spicer failed first, if it had been the other way around the shaft could have gone through the floor into the rear seat where my 12mth old baby was. Has anyone heard of this before and what are britparts like to deal with this kind of thing, i.e. will they say it is not there problem and **** off or will they replace the part and pay for the damage.

All parts should carry a warranty of at least a year......I think if they have any sense they will pay for the complete repair of the rangie rather than risk you going to the paper or court action.

you need an enginers report that it was correctly fitted first...then it needs to go and be inspected (prop) by an independent specialist..

assuming correctly fitted and faulty prop then you sue their arse...

do not give the prop to britpart..."it could get lost"...

you will also need to be sure viscous coupling is not seized or patially seized as this can strain components as well as tyres, it must have had some symptons before ,also check both ends were in proper alignment ive seen new props 90 degress out even though that wouldnt be your fault it could be used against you ,ive never had any more problems with britpat props than any other but i have had customers with same problem but it was allways an older prop ,i replaced gear box casing from unrebuildable gear box cost about £300

That's a bit worrying - I too had a Britpart front prop fitted about 8 months ago...

Did you have any warning symptoms?

kooky_guy said:

That's a bit worrying - I too had a Britpart front prop fitted about 8 months ago...

Did you have any warning symptoms?

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Symptoms are a blue box with 'Britpart' written on it and a receipt.

There was a small bit of vibration but no noise. I thought it was my wheels and was going to get them balanced when i got home.

storm99 said:

Symptoms are a blue box with 'Britpart' written on it and a receipt.

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:hysterically_laughi

dapper_dog said:

There was a small bit of vibration but no noise. I thought it was my wheels and was going to get them balanced when i got home.

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Oh dear. That sounds slightly familiar. I checked them both a couple of weeks ago though and they both seemed ok.

I only bought Britpart by accident - I thought Island 4x4 only sold decent parts but evidently not. Still, I've kept my original one - just need to get the UJs replaced on it.

Yikes, mines getting fixed today under warranty. Wonder what will go on. It's a front one too.

Thing is why did you replace entire propshaft. Why did you not just replace Spicers in old one. If old one was too badly worn to do that it points to something else causing stress on prop. Seized VC for instance. Who fitted new unit, was it done properly. Which part of prop broke off. Flange, spicer or weld in tube.

:nopics:

i take it my hardy spicer joints you just mean universal joints as britpart will be cheap chinese ones rather than ones made by hardy spicer

storm99 said:

Symptoms are a blue box with 'Britpart' written on it and a receipt.

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i wonder if britpart can make anything right, i guess you may be ok with a pair of their spotlights ????

G-man said:

i take it my hardy spicer joints you just mean universal joints as britpart will be cheap chinese ones rather than ones made by hardy spicer

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I did not say Hardy Spicer but you are correct cheap copies more than likely. I use Spicer as a generic term for U/J no more than that.

klf400 said:

i wonder if britpart can make anything right, i guess you may be ok with a pair of their spotlights ????

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Think again! I bought a Britpart fog light for my SIII. It was so poorly made that it just didn't work. The electrical connections weren't even soldered - one of the wires was just wrapped round the spring that holds the bulb in.

Guy

In answer to Wammers question I didn’t know you could replace the UJ so I got a whole shaft. The splicer broke and that caused the flange to split. Island 4x4 said they would replace it or give me my money back but the need the shaft back. They will not give money towards the repair so I will have to take them to court along with britparts and prove that the damage was caused by the failed part. That is no problem but as I am in Ireland I have to take the court action in the UK which is a bit of a pain.

dapper_dog said:

In answer to Wammers question I didn’t know you could replace the UJ so I got a whole shaft. The splicer broke and that caused the flange to split. Island 4x4 said they would replace it or give me my money back but the need the shaft back. They will not give money towards the repair so I will have to take them to court along with britparts and prove that the damage was caused by the failed part. That is no problem but as I am in Ireland I have to take the court action in the UK which is a bit of a pain.

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Ok but think it is far more likely the knuckle holding the U/J split first because of undue load caused by axle windup, effectivly twisting the prop apart. Check your viscous coupling.

kooky_guy said:

Think again! I bought a Britpart fog light for my SIII. It was so poorly made that it just didn't work. The electrical connections weren't even soldered - one of the wires was just wrapped round the spring that holds the bulb in.

Guy

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i also bought a fuel tank sender unit for my defender 90 , guess what it didnt work, took it back tried another , didnt work had money back bought a genuine land rover unit ,it works
you would think some things are so simple such as your fog light and my tank sender how can they get that wrong.
i would never buy a britpart steering or suspension joint including propshaft.
i did buy a washer jet for my 90 that did work

Some of the reconditioned prop shafts I have seen sometimes have the old worn uj's machined out to take bigger bearings then staked in not using circlips, these are prone to fail as there is less metal in the bearing eye to take the strain of the torque put upon it?

It may be worth giving trading standards a ring in your situation as they may allready have Britpart or their suppliers on record for supplying sub standard products.