Drivers side driveshaft

[SPIKEY]

Well the unfortunate happened yesterday. Decided to take the kids away for the weekend and 7 miles from our destination we lost drive.
Car is a manual tdi and had no issues apart from a slight hesitation  at town speeds which we put down to the injector wiring loom.
Pulled away from a roundabout and heard a loud grating metallic noise and no drive. Car will select all gears but just won't drive.

We got recovered home and on inspection it looks like drivers side driveshaft, I can see what looks like oil and grease on the shaft end that goes into the car.
3 disappointed kids and a truck ride home.

Silver lining - it was suggested our hesitation could have been this part failing so fingers crossed when we have it fixed the hesitation will be no more

[insanitybeard]

That's unfortunate, sounds like the common intermediate shaft spline issue, if it is hopefully it won't be the whole driveshaft that needs replacement, just the intermediate & stub shafts, though cost wise that's bad enough. How many miles has your Galaxy done?

[Chrispb]

Hi Jim
I'm doubtful that the drive failure is related to the hesitation you've been getting, it looks like you've covered all the likely things that could cause the problem.
I would suggest once the drive line has been repaired that you collect some live data (log file) start with measuring blocks 003. 010. 011
You will need a person in the car with you to do this so you can press the marker key on the exact moment the stutter occurs, hopefully we may be able to see some change at the point of occurence.

[SPIKEY]

Insanitybeard the car has done just under 109,00 and is  53 plate In hindsight I should have realised something wasn't quite right as occasionally when putting it into first I would get a slight clonk but I became too engrossed with the hesitation issue

Done now though, just concentrate on getting it into a garage and fixed.

Chrispb I think it's wishful thinking that it's connected to the hesitation but was suggested it could be connected. As possible lag/missing the splines.
Strange that I only get it at town speeds and not at motorway speed.
I shall remain positive.

[SPIKEY]

We have the car back and a wallet emptied for Ã,£595.
We had to have the drive shaft and inner joint replaced as the splines in the shaft were rounded off and the inner part was pretty much the same.
One of the parts were direct only from fords.

invoice shows:
inner joint 1313097 Ã,£253.23
Inner drive shaft 654598611 Ã,£124
Gear box oil and labour
not sure if these numbers are part numbers or generic garage codes.

Price aside the car feels completely different, really smooth on acceleration and seemingly faster, no donk when engaging 1st and well  just different.

[insanitybeard]

The 7 digit number you quoted is a Ford FINIS (part) number for the gearbox stub shaft, so they've used a genuine part for that. The longer number you quoted for the intermediate shaft definitely isn't a Ford part number so it's probably an aftermarket reference/ part they've fitted. The failure of the joint is caused by wear to the splines on both mating parts so when it fails, both parts need to be replaced.

At least you've got it sorted anyway!

[SPIKEY]

Cheers for your help, granted not cheap but I knew that from the sound it was making stuck at the side of the road and once recovered to a garage I'm kind of limited to them fixing it.

Just glad it's fixed and back to ferrying the kids about.
I still can't believe how different it feels to drive