Bah - clutch gone!!!

[Murphy]

It was relayed to me that the DMF was "obliterated"...

Where did you get it done in the end?

[LeeT5]

Clutch on mine was replaced around 88k. The previous owner never got any change out of £1700. Trust me, i have the invoice. All the correct parts were replaced. Oh, that wasn't a dealer either!

[T5Rdragon]

Where did you get it done in the end?

Oh god this has turned into a nigthmare!!! They did the clutch by the middle of the week after and sent it back to my Volvo man. But he noted a body-shake between 20 and 30MPH - so it was sent back to the clutch man (in Cleckheaton if anyone knows who it's likely to be), who said that the "prop shaft centre bearing has gone" - a few days went by before I was left a voicemail from my Volvo man who said "The centre bearing isn't renewable, and you need a new shaft, but they can't find one" - this was 2 weeks ago now.

I've actually been flat off my pegs with moving my entire house into storage, relationship issues and lots of work, so I;ve not chased my Volvo man in these 2 weeks. But I'm just about on top of things again and will chase.

But I have questions

1) How feasible is it that the propshaft centre bearing has gone, at the same time as a cluitch and DMF, all with absolutely no symptoms before the clutch failure?

2) Is it true about these bearings not being replacable?

3) How hard is it to source a shaft????

I fear when I chase this tomorrow, they are gonna tell me a story...

[v70torslanda]

So. If I've got this right . . .

Your clutch goes. The man you take it to farms the job out. You get the car back but there's a vibe which wasn't there before. The centre bearing has 'gone'.

It won't be anything to do with the prop being left hanging from the centre bearing. No it couldn't because they do the job properly. Of course they did.

The prop is not going to give you change from 1500 quid IIRC. I'd make damn sure that bill isn't coming your way.

[STEVO RRR]

So. If I've got this right . . .

Your clutch goes. The man you take it to farms the job out. You get the car back but there's a vibe which wasn't there before. The centre bearing has 'gone'.

It won't be anything to do with the prop being left hanging from the centre bearing. No it couldn't because they do the job properly. Of course they did.

The prop is not going to give you change from 1500 quid IIRC. I'd make damn sure that bill isn't coming your way.

Not sure of the costs involved but agree that the prop has been left hanging/bending the shaft instead of being removed from the car.Crazy and not your or the cars fault.

Steve.

[T5Rdragon]

Anyone got any advice how to handle this? They will I'm sure deny everything, and I guess my Volvo man will start wishing he never got involved and will not want to fight it with the outsource people...

How can I prove that they may have caused this? What recourse do I have? I'm waiting for a call back from my Volvo man with an update as I still dont actually know whats going on but started having bad dreams about the car in last few nights lol so I need to get it sorted!

[STEVO RRR]

Anyone got any advice how to handle this? They will I'm sure deny everything, and I guess my Volvo man will start wishing he never got involved and will not want to fight it with the outsource people...

How can I prove that they may have caused this? What recourse do I have? I'm waiting for a call back from my Volvo man with an update as I still dont actually know whats going on but started having bad dreams about the car in last few nights lol so I need to get it sorted!

Gaz,tell them there was no problem with the shaft when you left the car and say any damage to it is down to them.a faulty clutch with an `obliterated DMF WILL NOT HAVE BENT THE SHAFT BEARING.The original garage you dealt with are at fault AS THEY ARE WHO YOU MADE THE `CONTRACT` WITH..It is NOT your responsibility to deal with the second garage.Threaten them with trading standards and be prepared to follow through with this action.If they were incapable of doing the job to OEM standard they should not have taken it on.These are not your standard Volvo.Be prepared for a lenghty battle but dont get heavy too early.Give your Volvo man a chance to rectify the faults but give him 7 days ONLY.
Good Luck
Steve

[jay30h]

I know people who have used and recommend thease guys , maybe there is a similar outfit nearer to you ?

http://www.propshaft-services.co.uk/index.asp

[T5Rdragon]

I can't blame my Volvo man - he passed it on in order to get the car sorted for me - he could have sent the car back to me once he realised he couldn't do it, but instead he's being man in the middle as a favour. The comments about the shaft not being removed is interesting, as my Volvo man (something I forgot, but he reminded me of the other day) already said that he has seen that the shaft got undone at one and, but not the other. In a phone call he had with the Cleckheaton garage when he had the car back and discovered the rumble, my Volvo man suggested they maybe didn't put the prop back on in the same way as it came off and aparently they said that can't be the case because they only undid it at one end. My Volvo man is going to chase it for me (and I really appreciate that), and he reckons that the Cleckheaton lot are actually quite a fair bunch and not people out to rip people off, so maybe, just maybe they'll put their hands in the air on this one... Anyway, I saw an old thread on here last week where someone got a prop centre rebuilt - I'll point him at that. The Clckheaton lot still claim they haven;t been able to get a shaft...

[Porcine_Aviator]

Gaz just to be totally of topic. The link in you address looks right, but the background link is showing .cv.uk

After seeing your prices Mrs PA has just started whinnying and wants to know if you have any appointments?

[T5Rdragon]

Gaz just to be totally of topic. The link in you address looks right, but the background link is showing .cv.uk

After seeing your prices Mrs PA has just started whinnying and wants to know if you have any appointments?

Thanks for that! Never noticed!!! I do have appointments, but it depends on where you are - your profile location seems to be down in Weston-S-Mare? If so, that's unfortunately waaaaay too far for me, unless you have a yardful to do I'm based in South Yorkshire, and although I travel quite a long way day to day, W-S-M is a bit tooo far

[T5Rdragon]

Right, main update to this, is that it's still not done, the place it's at is claiming they CANNOT find ANYONE who can repair or supply a replacement prop (other, I guess than Volvo) Is this right??? Surely this car isn't so special/rare as to not have replacement parts around? Can anyone advise anywhere that can provide a prop for this car???? (P2 V70-R AWD) This is doing my nut now, as my Range Rover is on last legs, in the middle of buying a house and I a) need a car working and b) cannot afford mega amounts on top of everything already spent with buying car, and then clutch etc. Also, we know for a fact the prop was removed only at one end when the clutch was done (they admitted this to my Volvo man, who had also spotted bolts only having been removed at one end). People on this thread have strongly indicated that this is the likely cause of the prop problem and even that Volvo procedures say this must not be done. Is there enough evidence in this to definately lay the blame on the company who did the clutch, by legal means if required? Is there ANYONE on this list in my area (South Yorkshire) who has the experience in this particlar model (and the tools), to give a truely independent opinion and maybe fix the thing once and for all (and if theres enough evidence to support a claim, chase this other company for the money from small claims?) Really need help before I lose the will to live.

[Dangerous Dave]

I find it a bit odd that the centre bearing has just 'gone', I've had mine off loads of times (ok its an older model but they can't be that dissimilar) and left it hanging and thrown it about a bit and its fine. Who diagnosed the problem as the 'centre bearing'?

I did read in a Volvo tech bulletin that the propshaft is balanced to the angle gear (and diff), if they have not put the prop back onto the angle gear the same way then it could cause vibration, which is probably likely if they are generic 'clutch' people and not Volvo techs. Also there are different length bolts used to fine tune the balancing (in some cases), so the same goes for them if they haven't put them back in the right order.

Just an idea.

[Flatout Phil]

Sometimes it good to have an 850! Mercifully devoid of such technical nightmares.

[T5Rdragon]

The people who said it is the centre bearing are the same people who said the DMF was "obliterated" - this supposedly specialist company in Cleckheaton. The odd thing is, they said it was the centre bearing, and immediately had a figure that was passed to me to fix it - how can they have a price to fix something, and then keep it for months before deciding they cannot fix it at all?

I don't know if they are "specialist" in general 4 wheel drive, or specifically Volvos, I got the impression from my Volvo man that they were at least aware of the specifics of the newer 4WD Volvos and of course they seem to have all the special tools needed for the clutch...

But if they don't know specifically about the Volvos, and they don't know about this gear, or balancing bolt then who knows.

My Volvo man relays the symptoms as being a definate vibration between 20 and 30MPH, then it stops and car runs find aparently. Bearing in mind I haven't seen the car for 4 months now, I cannot confirm whether it's as specific as that.

[T5frankie]

sorry to hear of your problems, when mine went last year i got it done by mr clutch in northampton ( who did a brilliant job) which consisted of a new 3 peice clutch and fitting costing £576 less 10% cos i had a discount card which cost £20 so saved 37 quid, as for the flywheel i bought a second hand one which i had sent direct to them (still on an engine) which they took off and fitted for free, then they put my newly aquired secondhand engine strapped up in my boot, couldn't ask for a beter service, in fact they have done loads of other work for me since all with no problems.

[siamblue]

If you need the car on the road asap, take the prop off and run it as 2wd, at least you will have the car running, then you can sort the other problem out with them at a later date.

hth Gary

[T5Rdragon]

Thanks t5frankie. They already did the clutch - they had that done within 4 days nearly 4 months back. The issue is since then, there's this vibration between 20 and 30 MPH which they say is the propshaft because the centre bearing has gone. I cannot confirm or deny whether this is true, since the car never came back to me between the clutch being done, and it going straight back to them when the vibration was discovered by my Volvo man

[T5Rdragon]

If you need the car on the road asap, take the prop off and run it as 2wd, at least you will have the car running, then you can sort the other problem out with them at a later date.

hth Gary

That's an option I never considered. Although I don't want to give them any potential ammo to say "we wont honour any warranty on the clutch as you have modded the car" (in case the vibration comes back to being the clutch and this whole prop thing is smoke and mirrrors because they dont want to strip the clutch again? I dunno)

I might get my Volvo man to get them to take the prop off and run the car to see if the vibration goes. Or even get it back to my man and let him do that...

I guess now the clutch has been done (and assuming it isn't the source of the vibration), we're away from Volvo special tools and so my Volvo man ought to be able to do more? Would that be right?

[Dangerous Dave]

TBH, I dont think there are many 'special tools' required for the clutch job, in its basic form its just a gearbox bolted to the engine and an angle gear bolted to the gearbox, nothing that a good tech wouldn't be able to deal with, its just the little things like making sure the prop goes back on in the right position, etc, that gets missed.

The prop again is just allen key bolts (on mine at least, not sure on later models), the only special tools Volvo use are a holding clamp to stop the shaft turning whilst the bolts are undone and balance checking tools. The bolts aren't that tight though.

I would have thought if the centre bearing had gone then the vibration would happen all the time, or at least all the time over 20mph.

It all seems a bit fishy to me