Freelander 1 Propshaft Center Bearings Gone

Well i have just done the year trip to Norwich to take the in-laws for the hols.. Going there 1st trip to drop them off was fine...through out the course of the week before i headed back to pick them up again.. car started making some strange cluncking sounds.. every so often.. hit and miss to when it did it.. but on the way back up the following week.. didnt think much to it .

The following week came to go back over to pick them up..on the way back the no clucking but there was a slight humming..OK.. wasnt to worried as it was only slight,
just outside Kingslynn humming got worse as i went on.. then vibating like hell, at that point I pulled over ASAP near middleton golf course...Rang AA..told them i had two passengers and one was disabled and was in a damagous spot, So they had to call the police for saftey reasons...10mins later police turned up ..brilliant..

2 1/2 hours later recovery arrives...OH JOY
got recovered to the nearest saftey point Mc D's 10mile down road.... There was AA Waiting to check over the car.. Prop shaft Center Bearings gone..I asked them to remove the prop shaft to we couldget how.. NO SORRY WE Not allowed.. WTF... only to my horror to also find out they carnt do any more as my recovery is only the basic one.. shock horror... I HAD TO UPGRADE to get home..As I had recovery service through the bank.. unknowing to me its only the basic.. when i was told i had th full package.. So I wasnt a Happy bunny at all.. got fleesed for near £200 to get home.. 3 recovery trucks later I get home... WHY 3 you ask...

1 to pick us and car up from breaking down point to 10mile down road..2nd from there to Peterbou..and then from there to home.. WTF...finally got home around 20:30ish.. oh the joy...
in the morning rang the a mobile machanic who came out to remove the whole prop.. £50 hours labour.. which took him approx 10mins to do it .. FFS.. so the prop is sitting in the back garden under covers..

car back on road... NOT HAPPY BUNNY.. any thing else to go wrong... then the car is going to the scrap yard.. PILE of 5H1T....

Unfortunately a lot of peeps think the free breakdown cover provided by banks is the full ticket. It's rarely is. More often than not it doesn't cover relay home, anything more than basic repairs or distances greater than N miles. Catches a lot of peeps out. I guess they wouldn't remove the props/vcu as they consider it dangerous as they have taken away 4x4. They would be responsible to some extent thereafter in their minds, even if it's only by a small amount, so they won't take the risk. There's a few on ere who do recovery work and talk about limited miles they can take you and area's they cover, under the rules. Also having to relay peeps home by swopping them to other vehicles when they need to go past their boundary/miles limit. It's good to know yer home and safe. At east yer didn't have to push it...

Yeah I was one of those victims who didnt know about it .. the joys of it ...
Am i right in thinking i have to notify my insureance as removing the propshaft is classed as a modification ??
i can sort of see how it may be .if my insurenace is higher cause of it .. i will get it fixed and put back on then ..
i am hoping it would be cheaper... no such luck there as we all know how insurenace groups are money grabbing gits ..
fleese people for every penny they have ..
i am hoping the VCU is ok and not damaged in any way .. i am not sure how to check it .. apart from visual checks..while it is off the car.
but when it was off the low loader i had to park it in a gap ...but there was no noise or anything then but i wasnt moving more than 10mph lol

Removing the vcu/props changes the vehicle so you will need to tell yer insurance. Most don't charge. They just make a note of it.

Thats good to know .. i am hoping they wont sting me for the admin fee.. £20.. robbing gits ..