Volkswagen California driveshaft replacement, made easy
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Our expert insights into driveshaft replacement
What does a driveshaft do?
The driveshaft isn’t a single part in your car, but rather a series of rod-like components. These parts work together to transfer the rotational power produced in your engine to your wheels so your car can move. Essentially, your driveshaft allows you to drive!
What are the symptoms of a bad driveshaft?
Below are the top three symptoms that could indicate you need to replace your driveshaft:
Scraping, squeaking and rattling sounds from underneath your car.
Intense vibrations coming from underneath the car.
A significant shudder when accelerating from low speed or a stopped position.
What happens during a driveshaft replacement?
Our certified mechanics will:
Safely jack the car so they can inspect the driveshaft.
Replace the faulty or damaged driveshaft if necessary.
Check any related components and advise if any need to be replaced.
Double check the drive assembly and test drive the car.
Make any final adjustments, if needed.
How Fixter works
Simply book online and we'll handle the rest
Upfront, fair pricing, with free collection & return and no hidden costs. Our in-house experts will then choose the ideal garage to work on your car.
A fully-insured Fixter driver will pick up your car, whenever and wherever works for you. (If you’d prefer to drive your car to the garage yourself, that’s not a problem!).
Our in-house experts will keep you updated, and your card is only charged once all work has been satisfactorily completed and approved by our team. Your driver will then drop the car back when it’s convenient for you.
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What does a driveshaft do?
A driveshaft is essentially the component that “drives” a car by transferring power from a car’s engine to its wheels. It has a tubular design and is usually made from aluminium, steel or carbon fibre to ensure it's both strong and lightweight.
Front-wheel drive vehicles don’t usually have driveshafts. However, because in four wheel and rear wheel drive vehicles the gearbox and differential are separate units, the driveshaft is needed to transmit the turning motion of the gearbox to the differential. As the output shaft of the gearbox rotates it spins the driveshaft, which then turns the differential ring gear to rotate the wheels.
Driveshafts are a very precisely balanced and weighted component because they rotate at very high speeds in order to turn the wheels. When the driveshaft has an issue, it can instantly affect the drivability of the vehicle.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (often shortened to VW) is a German automobile manufacturer founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front, a Nazi labour union.
Volkswagen is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, who in turn is majority owned by Porsche. They own and operate a vast number of cars under other brand names—at the time of writing, they have 342 subsidiary companies.
How popular is Volkswagen in the United Kingdom?
Possibly its most well-known model of the current generation, the VW Golf, was the 2nd best selling car of 2018, behind the Ford Fiesta, which consistently takes the top spot year after year.
The Golf’s 64k registrations in 2018 added to the vast tally of 3.4million Volkswagen cars on the road today.
High quality, highly rated, appropriately priced cars
VW cars achieve consistently strong reviews and are highly respected by critics and drivers alike. They are renowned for investing more money into research and development than almost any other marque and distributing their wealth of motoring knowledge across the many partner brands under the VW Group umbrella.
The Volkswagen Beetle: The ‘people’s car’
A classic of its time, originally named the Volkswagen Type 1, it soon became nicknamed the Beetle due to its unique shape, and subsequently the bug. The unique looking car was designed by Ferdinand Porsche for Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap and simple mass-produced car to travel around his country’s new road network.
The new model Beetle, originally launched to celebrate the original classic in 1997, and with an updated successor in 2011, was designed around the VW Jetta platform sharing much of its build with the Jetta and Golf. VW announced in 2018 that the Beetle would finally be removed from production in July 2019.
How often should a driveshaft need replacing?
There is no set lifespan of a driveshaft, but it shouldn’t need to be replaced for at least 75,000 miles, unless it gets damaged. It’s important to note that this can vary a lot depending on the car, driving style and habits. The driveshaft will need to be replaced sooner if it gets damaged. Because driveshafts are very precisely balanced and weighted, when there is an issue, it will instantly affect the drivability of the car.
What happens during a driveshaft repair?
Our certified mechanics will:
Safely jack the car so they can inspect the driveshaft.
Replace the faulty or damaged driveshaft if necessary.
Check any related components and advise if any need to be replaced.
Double check the drive assembly and test drive the car.
Make any final adjustments, if needed.
What causes a driveshaft to break?
Since drive shafts must rotate very quickly in order to do their job, they must remain weighted down and balanced exactly right. Therefore even the slightest damage will prevent the drive shafts from operating properly. This damage is usually due to an accident or can occur whilst driving over a bump or pothole. In most cases, when the driveshaft becomes damaged the car will become very bumpy and difficult to handle.
When should a driveshaft be replaced?
While there is no set lifespan of a driveshaft, it shouldn’t need to be replaced for at least 75,000 miles. It’s important to note that this can vary a lot depending on the car, driving style and habits.
The driveshaft will need to be replaced sooner if it gets damaged. Because driveshafts are very precisely balanced and weighted, when there is an issue, it will instantly affect the drivability of the car.
What are the symptoms of a bad driveshaft?
Usually, there a few signs you can look for:
Scraping, squeaking and rattling sounds from underneath your car.
Problems when turning your car is a tell-tale sign of a bad driveshaft.
Intense vibrations coming from underneath the car.
A significant shudder when accelerating from low speed or a stopped position.
What happens during a driveshaft repair?
Our certified mechanics will:
Safely jack the car so they can inspect the driveshaft.
Replace the faulty or damaged driveshaft if necessary.
Check any related components and advise if any need to be replaced.
Double check the drive assembly and test drive the car.
Make any final adjustments, if needed.
What is the average life of a driveshaft?
There is no set lifespan of a driveshaft, but it shouldn’t need to be replaced for at least 75,000 miles, unless it gets damaged. It’s important to note that this can vary a lot depending on the car, driving style and habits.
Can you drive with a bad driveshaft?
Driving with a bad driveshaft is not recommended. A damaged or faulty driveshaft will severely affect the drivability of your vehicle, making it very difficult to handle and potentially dangerous on the roads. If your driveshaft is damaged you will experience issues when turning, shuddering when accelerating and intense vibrations when driving.
What happens if you don't replace a bad driveshaft?
Failing to replace a bad driveshaft could result in further, more expensive, damage to the car. If you begin to experience any of the above symptoms, we recommend having your driveshaft inspected and replaced if necessary. Having your car regularly serviced will ensure that any issues related to the driveshaft are picked up and dealt with early.
Common questions about booking at Fixter
Common questions about booking at Fixter
All of our drivers are fully insured and your vehicle is always protected.
We put our drivers through rigorous vetting and training before they are able to drive your vehicle. All of our drivers must have at least 3 years of driving experience, hold a clean driver's licence, be over the age of 21, capable of driving both manual and automatic vehicles and pass a criminal background check.
Your vehicle will be assigned to a driver who is responsible for collecting it from your home, delivering it to the garage and returning your vehicle once all work is completed.
Sometimes we might coordinate with a garage for them to send their own driver to collect your vehicle. In this instance, you are protected as you would be if it was a Fixter driver.
One of our in-house mechanics will factor in the make and model of your car, as well as the work that needs doing. They will then allocate your booking to the most appropriate Fixter garage in your area, and we’ll email you to confirm.
Here’s why only 1 in 20 garages pass our selection criteria:
We only choose garages registered as a Limited Company, with a minimum of 3 years of trading.
We assess each garage's various established affiliations (e.g. Bosch / Unipart / Garage).
We perform an online audit: Fixter only selects garages with at least a 4 star customer rating.
We make sure to visit each garage in person. Our in-house mechanics evaluate the quality of equipment, staff qualifications, capacity, and technical capabilities of selected servicing centres. Fixter only works with garages which strictly use manufacturer-equivalent parts.
After all requirements are fulfilled, we negotiate preferential terms with each selected (including parts, labour, oil, and MOT test rates), so we can pass it along to our customers.
All parts used in repairs and services carried out by Fixter are either manufacturer parts or equivalent. This guarantees that only the best quality parts are used in your vehicle. We offer a 12-month warranty, meaning that should anything should go wrong with the parts or labour we’ll take care of it, free of charge.
We take your card details when you book online, but nothing is charged to your card until all the work has been approved by our in-house experts, and satisfactorily completed.
No extra work will be carried out without your consent. If additional work is required, one of our in-house experts will call you to walk through any diagnostic reports, recommendations or additional quotes from the mechanic working on your car. We check every quote to make sure the work is required and has been fairly priced.
Note: If you need to update your payment details to pay for your booking, the team will send you a secure link to add the new card details.
If your car fails its MOT at one of our garages, but you believe that your car should have passed, you'll have the option to take your car to another garage to do a new MOT test. If your vehicle passes the MOT at another garage, we’ll refund you for the original MOT test that you carried out with us. Collection and delivery fees are non-refundable.
All Fixter bookings are covered by a 12-month warranty on parts and labour.
If there’s a problem (with either parts or labour) up to 12 months after your booking date, we’ll sort it out for you, completely free of charge.
Just email support@fixter.co.uk or call our team on 0330 808 9527 and we’ll take care of it.
Note: this doesn't apply to an air con regas as leaks can occur at any time.
We understand that things change.
If you need to cancel or change your booking, please let us know asap. Our agents spend time finding you a top-rated garage, which is then booked to take care of your vehicle. In many cases, parts are ordered in advance. As a result, we operate a 72-hour cancellation policy. If you have a confirmed booking with us and need to cancel within 72 hours of the appointment, a cancellation fee of £20 may be applied.
We want to avoid that so our agents will work with you to try and find a new appointment instead. To discuss changing or cancelling a booking, please email or phone on 0330 808 9527.
Our team works Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.
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