Garage mistake

dearface

I recently had my motorhome MOT’d at a garage. It failed due to a split gaitor (rubber boot) on one of the front driveshafts. The garage replaced the gaitor on my instruction (the garage sourced the replacement gaitor, not me).

After approx 500miles of normal use I noticed the gaitor had come loose on the wheel end, meaning the CV joint was no longer sealed - because of this joint grease had been sprayed out of the joint. On closer inspection there was no evidence of any retaining clip on the gaitor in this area - it may never have been fitted or it may have fallen off.

This joint is sensitive to ingress/contaminates - that’s why you have gaitors. A seized joint can be catastrophic, causing an driveshaft lock-up whilst at speed. This is of course worst case, but given the joint has been exposed to the elements for 500miles I don’t want to take any chances.

I contacted the garage and stated that because the gaitor hadn’t been fitted properly there was now a risk that the joint was not properly greased or had even degraded/worn mechanically (ie shortened its life). The garage responded saying they would refit the gaitor and clip to retain.

i responded saying that I’d rather have the entire driveshaft replaced now because the joints condition was not known. I offered to buy the shaft at my expense and asked whether they would fit the driveshaft at their expense to settle their mistake. I’m of the view that’s not too unreasonable - the labour cost to replace a shaft is a few hrs, pretty much in line with what I paid for the gaitor replacement in the first place.

The garage subsequently responded stating they wouldn’t fit the shaft at their labour cost. Instead they’ve now offered to refit the gaitor and clip AND now also regrease the joint.

However this still doesn’t address my concern about the joint’s condition. Their point that it’s ‘unlikely’ the joint is significantly more worn than before may be true, but it’s also now entirely possible that I get an earlier failure of the joint because of their negligence. It frustrates me that the risk and accountability as a result of their !!!!!!-up is shovelled on to me.

Is my proposal for them to fit the shaft (which I buy but they fit) unrealistic?

Any thoughts on where next to go on this? Approaches to take with garages?

400ixl

The risk you talk about is very extreme and very unlikely to occur. Their offer to clean, re-grease and fit a new clip is reasonable IMO.

To do their resolution is 15 minutes of work, you are asking them to take on more than 1 hour of extra work, regardless of you covering the additional parts.

mattyprice4004

I'll go against what I expect will be the grain - I think you offering to supply a new driveshaft and ask them to fit for free is a good solution, and one I'm surprised they've not taken. 
CV joints shouldn't be ran dry of grease, and who knows how much water / grit got in the joint while the boot was loose. 

TELLIT01

I think you are over reacting.  You have no way of knowing if the clip came off immediately or just before you notices its absence.  The gaitor itself was still in place, and that would have prevented the ingress of much muck.  Any damage to the joint is far more likely to have happened in the possibly thousands of miles driven before the original split in the old gaitor was notices.

If they agree to replace the driveshaft they lay themselves open to you claiming later that they caused other damage when doing that.

born_again

I don't think you stand much chance. Given it failed MOT due to split gaiter which you have no idea on how many miles you did on it.

Same with replacement. You have no idea how many miles you did with in it's current state.

IvanOpinion

Maybe the clip just snapped (they can do that sometimes) or maybe something got flung up that damaged it causing it to break, neither of which would be the fault of the garage - or maybe you took it off deliberately yourself in the hope of getting them to fit new driveshafts for free (not saying you did, but that could be how the garage views it).

dearface

Thanks for your responses. General response is that it’s not worth pursuing any further with the garage.

cymruchris

What if the original gator had split a week after the previous MOT? It might have lost grease/gained dirt for nearly a year before it failed the most recent MOT. I would say the garage rectifying it and cleaning re-greasing would be sufficient in the circumstances.