suspension

Driveshaft woes

The culpritAn annoying noise started to plague me not long after the last trackday at Brands Hatch. The symptoms were a whining, grinding type noise that increased with wheel speed. Dipping the clutch/putting into Neutral when moving caused the noise to appear instantly. This seems to point to a driveshaft or brake problem. The offside brake disc was getting hot on the back which pointed to a binding brake caliper.

A visual inspection revealed a damaged rubber caliper boot but nothing that won’t last until I sort larger calipers in a month or two.. I decided to take off the caliper and give the brakes a good clean.

Happily, this solved the binding but the noise was still present. It was difficult to locate when listening under the car, but it seemed liked the driveshaft was the next logical culprit.

Having placed the order from Peugeot for a new offside driveshaft, not only was my wallet was considerably lighter but I was told there was a 2 week lead time! Luckily the part arrived next day, and I could set about fitting it.

Sub-zero temperatures didn’t make it an enjoyable task but the swap was straightforward apart from the wishbone balljoint needed a lot of persuasion to come out. I refilled the gearbox with transmission oil, and took it for a test drive.

Noise gone! Result.

An inspection of the old shaft showed little of interest, other than a jubille clip had been used on the outer joint instead of the correct clip, which can’t have helped. I hadn’t seen a worn driveshaft display symptoms like this before, as they either usually shake the gearstick or cause the steering to pull if the CV joint is badly damaged and lost its grease. Of course, trackdays put extra stress on suspension and drivetrain components so work like this is not unexpected.

Peugeot employ a exchange policy on driveshafts so the old shaft is now winging its way back to them for some TLC to see use on another 106 one day 🙂