Discovery 2 Propshaft Court Case - Help Needed

[David Hallworth]

Hi Guys,

I have commenced legal proceedings against Land Rover following their refusal to accept liability for failure of the front propshaft on my Disco 2.

I urgently need all the help I can get from people who know of experts in this field, have experienced similar failures or engaged in legal proceedings against LR.

Also need to identify experts in metallurgy and joint design in driven shaft technology.

I am interested in peoples opinions of the prop shafts fitted to the front axle of the Discovery 2.

Also interested to hear of other makes of 4X4 shaft failures if you know of any?

The Hookes joint on my shaft ran dry and as a result failed on the motorway at high speeds.

Land Rover claim the Hookes joint on these shafts to be lubricated at manufacture and sealed for life.

Questions I have to ask:

1. Has your propshaft failed? Was it the Hookes Joint? Was there any warning e,g. noise, vibration, clunking?

2. Did you contact Land Rover regarding this? If so, what was the outcome?

3. Did an accident occur as a result of your propshaft failing?

4. If your vehicle was inspected by a mechanic/engineers or specialist what were his comments?

Any help you can provide me with would be appreciated! I am a 21 year old fighting Land Rover

Please reply to discoverypropshafts@googlemail.com as this email address is for all correspondence on this matter.

Regards

David.

[LRR219]

you are wasting your time......

[Disco Mike]

"DITTO"""!!
Why?
Yours failed and you didn't know about the problem way before it happened? Take responsibility of not replacing the 2 u-joints prior to their failing.
As to who else has had problems, probably better the 70% of us have.
Do yourself a favor and write it off.
Mike

[brooksa]

I will agree on DM and LRR219 that you are wasting your time with this, if LR won't even cover the 2003 oil pump problem know to puke the engine on some vehicles then they aren't going to to agree to cover the joint situation. IMO

[David Hallworth]

I have also just noticed that the email address in my original posting is incorrect and should be:

discoverypropshafts@googlemail.com

Regards

David.

[rmuller]

Originally Posted by David Hallworth

I have also just noticed that the email address in my original posting is incorrect and should be:

discoverypropshafts@googlemail.com

Regards

David.

Fixed your original post to show the right email address.

Can you give us more information regarding your failure? Did it take out the tranny? Did it cause an accident?

It's a known defect in the LR community, they usually go at around 60-80k miles, first advice given on these boards is to replace it.

[David Hallworth]

My car was serviced 3 weeks prior to the shaft failing and all of the joints given a once over in preparation for it's forth coming MOT.

When it failed I was on the M6 in the outside lane with the cruise control on, there was no knocking noises, no vibrations, no clunking when changing gear or anything like that from my car.

When it failed it took out the catalytic convertor on the drivers side of the exhaust system and has cracked the transfer gearbox casing.

The Hookes joint on the V8 sits very close to the catalytic convertor which could dry the grease in the "lubricated at manufacture and sealed for life" joint.

The other thing that has been highlighted to me is that the air conditioning drain pipe on the V8 (I don't know about the TD5 or not) also drips straight onto the Hookes joint which could effectively wash the grease out. I have had an independent engineers report done which has confirmed mine seized due to lack of lubrication.

I am not trying to take action against Land Rover for my shaft failing, I am trying to prove that there is a design flaw with this shaft, my shaft landed in the middle lane of the motorway as i tried to drift to the hard shoulder, if this shaft has bounced when it hit the road it could of gone through the windscreen of the car behind me, possibly injuring or killing the driver, if it had been flicked up from a lorry's twin track wheels a similar result could of occurred. The other option was for the shaft to punch through the transmission tunnel and injure or kill myself or the occupants of my vehicle.

If I had been on an A road and trying to overtake a tractor and the shaft had failed I could also have been stranded on the wrong side of the road with no drive to move out of the way.

There are many ways that shaft can cause damage or injure one or many people and this is what I intend to try and get across in court.

Regards

David.

[64tbolt@gmail.com]

why sue the manufacturer for your negligence. This is a very common problem and ALL LAND ROVER OWNERS know the problem. I hope you lose your ass. Stupid frivilous law suit. Get a life and move on.

[brian4d]

I'm glad to see someone taking a stand on this issue. I don't agree with frivolous law suits what-so-ever. This really depends how many miles were on the truck when it failed. Let me remind everyone reading this. It's not normal to see prop shaft bouncing down the interstate. I have owned plenty of cars and trucks with 150k - 230k without 1 prop shaft failure.... The design is flawed, no doubt about that. The questions is this. Who pays for this flawed design. You? Me? LR?

Also, negligence??? Really??? I have NEVER owned a car or truck that the second I drive it off the lot I instantly have to perform "Preemptive maintenance" work. And "Every Land Rover Owner Knows about this problem"? Does the salesman run to your car right before you drive off the lot and say, "In a week or two you better get those u-joints changed out." Contrary to popular belief we MIGHT see 5% of all LR owners visit Internet forums trying to educate themselves on their truck. Give me a damn break, the design SUCKS! There is no disputing the fact.... Is a matter of fact I hope he wins and TATA motors has to deal with it. I also hope that injured or deceased get MAJOR retribution from this "flaw". Does a soccer mom even know what a u-joint is? The Pro Land Rover around these forms certainly clouds judgment.....

David, if you look around on these forums you'll read about plenty of people that have experienced this problem. Here in America we refer to this flaw as, "Big Business". For every failure generally your looking at $2,000-4,000 for repairs or more. That adds up pretty quickly.

[Disco Mike]

David,
If you want to sue some one, sue that worthlees mechanic who did not do you any favors. First of all, anyone who has ever worked on Rovers knows that they are an issue, you don't check them over and call it done, you replace them along with lubing all the other u-joints twice a year.
Go jump your mechanic for one and yourself for not knowing how to maintane your vehicle.
Mike

[p76rangie]

The reality is that it will not prove a thing. LR will simply pay up if they really think you are serious about taking them to court. The few thousand in repairs is not worth the tens of thousands to fight it in court with a risk that they might lose. So I am betting that they will pay up on the first serious letter from a lawyer that indicates that you have done your homework on the fault.

[p76rangie]

Originally Posted by Disco Mike

David,
If you want to sue some one, sue that worthlees mechanic who did not do you any favors. First of all, anyone who has ever worked on Rovers knows that they are an issue, you don't check them over and call it done, you replace them along with lubing all the other u-joints twice a year.
Go jump your mechanic for one and yourself for not knowing how to maintane your vehicle.
Mike

Are you seriously attempting to tell people that you replace the double cardons twice a year on your vehicles.

LR do not indicate a life on these parts. Therefore they are to be replaced when required. This implies that there is someway of telling they need replacing before they destroy the car. I believe that this is more the point. Ask LR how you know when to replace them.

[brian4d]

Originally Posted by Disco Mike

"DITTO"""!!
Why?
Yours failed and you didn't know about the problem way before it happened? Take responsibility of not replacing the 2 u-joints prior to their failing.
As to who else has had problems, probably better the 70% of us have.
Do yourself a favor and write it off.
Mike

What??? REALLY!!! How about this? I'm at the airport about to get on a Boeing 737-200. I'm 1 out of 145 passengers. WAIT WAIT WAIT!!! I'm not boarding that plane! I know there is a design flaw with the rudder on this particular aircraft. I'm the ONLY one that knows. 144 other passengers board and the flight takes off. Sound familiar????

Boeing 737 Rudder Design Defect, Airline Safety, 737 crashes, rudder PCU, 737 Colorado Springs crash, US Air 737 crash

[rmuller]

Originally Posted by 64tbolt@gmail.com

why sue the manufacturer for your negligence. This is a very common problem and ALL LAND ROVER OWNERS know the problem. I hope you lose your ass. Stupid frivilous law suit. Get a life and move on.

That's absolutely a ridiculous statement. Not all land rover owners know the problem, hell, I'd wager against the fact that unless it's happened to them, less than 5% of owners know of the issue. Not everyone reads the forums, and probably not everyone who reads the forums knows of it. It's not something the dealer discloses when you buy your new truck, and unless there is a recall, the average owner has absolutely no clue about it.

Replacing a SEALED FOR LIFE u-joint when you have NO CLUE that it is something that will fail is not part of normal maintenance.. DiscoMike -- Do you also replace all of your hubs a couple times a year? I strongly believe that LR is at fault for anything that goes wrong with this by not admitting to the issue and replacing the driveshafts under a recall with greaseable ones, and then issuing a statement that you must grease them as part of normal maintenance.

Now, if you are an active forum reader and/or was well aware of the problem, and didn't do anything to address it, then shame on you.

[brian4d]

Rmuller:

We're on the same page. Just because I self-educated myself on the airplane design flaw means I didn't die in a crash. MAYBE 5% of all Rover owners even visit forums. I hope no one minds my re-post. I would argue this point to my deathbed....

I'm glad to see someone taking a stand on this issue. I don't agree with frivolous law suits what-so-ever. This really depends how many miles were on the truck when it failed. Let me remind everyone reading this. It's not normal to see prop shaft bouncing down the interstate. I have owned plenty of cars and trucks with 150k - 230k without 1 prop shaft failure.... The design is flawed, no doubt about that. The questions is this. Who pays for this flawed design. You? Me? LR?

Also, negligence??? Really??? I have NEVER owned a car or truck that the second I drive it off the lot I instantly have to perform "Preemptive maintenance" work. And "Every Land Rover Owner Knows about this problem"? Does the salesman run to your car right before you drive off the lot and say, "In a week or two you better get those u-joints changed out." Contrary to popular belief we MIGHT see 5% of all LR owners visit Internet forums trying to educate themselves on their truck. Give me a damn break, the design SUCKS! There is no disputing the fact.... Is a matter of fact I hope he wins and TATA motors has to deal with it. I also hope that injured or deceased get MAJOR retribution from this "flaw". Does a soccer mom even know what a u-joint is? The Pro Land Rover around these forms certainly clouds judgment.....

David, if you look around on these forums you'll read about plenty of people that have experienced this problem. Here in America we refer to this flaw as, "Big Business". For every failure generally your looking at $2,000-4,000 for repairs or more. That adds up pretty quickly.