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I mentioned in 2022 that I had never experienced driveshaft problems on my cars during 40 years of driving. That was until the nearside driveshaft on my 2004 Toyota Corolla Verso snapped in half. A new replacement was bought from a company on eBay. The service was great, and the price was also pretty good.
Driveshafts have come to feature in my life again in 2024. Three times in fact! One of my MINIs – the only one roadworthy at the moment – failed its MOT on a split inner driveshaft gaiter.
For a split inner boot, it’s easier and quicker to buy a whole new driveshaft, because you’d also have to remove the outer gaiter and renew/regrease that.
As I was in a panic time-wise to get this work done before the 10-day retest deadline, I asked my local garage if they could help and if I could use their ramp for a few hours – they agreed. For quickness, I bought a driveshaft from one of the large Motor Factors. I knew the price that my garage could order an offside driveshaft for, so when the supplier gave me a price over the counter, I asked for a bit more discount – and got it. £96 all in.
During the job you must undo three 10mm bolts that hold the support bearing housing to the car. The old shaft came out OK, but after laying the old and new shafts together (see pic below), the support bearing housing didn’t come with the new one. That meant using some big circlip pliers to remove a heavy-duty circlip holding the housing in place – and then sliding it down the shaft towards the gearbox end. How were we going to get it onto the new shaft was the next question. Fortunately, the dust cover plate you see on the left was removed by hand and we could then slide on the housing over the new bearing and refit that circlip.
With new front brakes pipes made up, a brake l
