HALF SHAFT FAILURES

[PETER MUMFORD]

The half shaft let go on my Caterham scholarship car at Snett last weekend. Caterham accept no liabilty on the basis that it is not covered by any warranty, although in my case with a car less than a year old that has only done two races and a handful of track days it is not too impressive. I am fitting the uprated replacements. Any advice?

[mark.hall]

Peter

I would go back to Caterham and ask how they know that there isn't some sort of manufacturing defect with the half shaft without (I'm assuming here) inspecting it. Manufacturing defects (I think) would allow you to claim for a new part as part of your stautory rights as a consumer, without prejudice to your warranty, as the part is not fit for the purpose for which it was sold. Was the half shaft new or reconditioned when it was fitted, and is there any way of checking? It may be worth a bit more research.

 

Mark

[PETER MUMFORD]

Thanks. I have written to Caterham after speaking to them, but their initial response was very unhelpful. The half shafts for all the scholarship cars are reconditioned, starting life in a Morris Ital, but they now manufacture "uprated" new versions which can be fitted instead. There have been several failures in the last year, Caterham admit to two but others have told me there have been eight or so. It is worrying that others may be racing with potentially the same fault, and also that Caterham seem unwilling to fit the uprated versions free of charge.

[mark.hall]

Peter

The fact that they make 'uprated' half shafts shows that the 'standard' ones aren't up to the job and that they know it! I would definately persevere. After all there is no need to uprate anything if it has proved to be up to the job in standard form.

 

Mark

 

[Tim Sture]

Peter

What oil did you put in your back axle? Did you use the Comma (GL5) stuff? I'm doing the Academy this year - at present I've got some Castrol GL4 stuff in the axle and am contemplating getting it out and replacing with Comma GL5 (as well as the additive I've bought from Classic Carriage).

 

Cheers

[PETER MUMFORD]

The car was built by Classic Carriage, and I am pretty sure that they use the Comma Oil you mentioned. I don't think for a single minute that oil was the problem. My advice is to chat to Derek see what he thinks.

[Tim Sture]

I've already spoken to Derek and he was rather non-committal on the subject... (wouldn't recommend firmly one way or the other - it seems to be a bit of a grey area). I'm sure CC would have used the Comma oil on your car so it seems that using that doesn't guarantee protection anyway. Derek has said a number of times that the rear axle is the weakest point on the car - he seems to say that using the right oil is the only thing you can do to help it (apart from not doing too many circuit laps at one go).

 

Regarding the warranty, I understand that using the car for competition purposes renders the warranty invalid. Not wholly unreasonable, but as competition is the whole purpose of the Academy/Scholarship car it does seem a bit odd.

 

Tim