View Full Version : My Busted Up Driveshaft - Pictures


90BerettaGTZ
07-10-2005, 03:27 AM
Well.. Here are the pictures of my broken up driveshaft on my Cobalt SS... A couple weeks ago my car just stopped moving and under further inspection I found that my driveshaft was busted up.. So I take the car to the dealer and they fixed it.. Well the mechanic comes back and they call me to say my tranny is leaking so I say ok and they tell me they need to look at it.. Well a day later I get another call and they tell me my tranny needs to be replaced or fix.. Well under inspection they found some gears and such were broken and can't not explain why any of this happened... So they had to order me a brand new tranny.. So they order a tranny from "Source" who supply's the tranny to GM.... Well 1 week later they call me and say that they have been told they have to order it from Saturn.. So I am getting a little pissed off that this is taking so long and I will be calling GM head Office.. Cause since I got the car I have had problesm with cosmetics and then now this... So I am not a happy person when it comes to this car right now.. I love the car and all.. I don't regret buying this.. But I am alittle unpleased about this particular one...


Sorry for some dark pictures.. some were night pictures (when it first happened) and some were the next day I went for more snaps.. But its hard to take pictures under there and hold the camera straight and still.. But you get the point..

Here are the pics

Some pictures of grease all over my wheel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay013.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay014.jpg


The broken driveshaft and grease again

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/90BerettaGTZ/My%20Cobalt%20SS/Broken%20Driveshaft/EngineBay009.jpg

The other 3 pictures I left out.. they were night shots and arn't important.. cause you can see the damage from the last 4 pictures..

Vendian
07-10-2005, 03:35 AM
Wow, that totally sucks. Perhaps you could get a whole new SS over that 'lemon' law. If you've had lots of problems, it would be worth looking into.

bredick
07-10-2005, 03:41 AM
Wow, that had to suck! Looks like it busted right at the CV joint, the tranny may have been screwed up from the busted shaft, I've seen diffs get totally trashed from driving with a "compact spare", I can't immagine what suddenly only having one wheel to drive would do.


Edit: Just thought of something, perhaps it could have been the transmission getting chewed up that caused the shaft to break? Were you driving along and suddenly crunch followed by rapid deceleration? Or (ac/de)celerating and crunch gradual momentum change?

90BerettaGTZ
07-10-2005, 04:00 AM
Wow, that totally sucks. Perhaps you could get a whole new SS over that 'lemon' law. If you've had lots of problems, it would be worth looking into.

Yeah a friend of the family told me about that.. Up to 6 months of getting the car.. I was debating about looking into that.. I may just have a look at that tomorrow..

Do you know any specific sites?

cvenom2122
07-10-2005, 04:26 AM
is a drive shaft a axle?

bredick
07-10-2005, 02:56 PM
is a drive shaft a axle?
Technically that is an axel, or halfshaft to be more specific.
FWD cars do not actually have driveshafts, unless there are any mid/rear engine fwd cars. :lol:
A drive shaft would connect transmission to differential, which in our cars is in one unit, technically known as a transaxel.

T-bone
07-10-2005, 07:51 PM
Damn that sucks ,sorry to hear of your misfortune. that looks exploded not broke.just driving along or tried to catch second gear and boom!!!??

90BerettaGTZ
07-11-2005, 12:14 AM
Tried to catch 2nd gear basically.. a little wheel hop and boom

JCX
07-11-2005, 03:19 PM
Wheel hop breaks axles. Period. I'm sure this one won't be the last for the SS's. Sad but true.

How beefy are the SS's axles? Anyone have solid mounts yet?

Nightcrawler
07-12-2005, 10:18 AM
Wheel hop is very stessful for your car. It's one of the worst things you can do to it. You should avoid wheel hop whever possible. Wheel spin is less stressful.

It seems the SS gets alot of wheel hop unless it's on nice even road surface.

rallyracer
07-12-2005, 01:28 PM
Would having the G85 LSD help a lot in preventing this from happening?

alleycat58
07-12-2005, 03:49 PM
Would having the G85 LSD help a lot in preventing this from happening?

Probably not, mostly because of the explaination above...wheel spin is not as bad as wheel hop. From the experience I've had in vehicles with LSDs is that the LSD reduces wheel spin but can sometimes increase wheel hop, which is actually harder on the driveshaft than wheel spin.

Nightcrawler
07-13-2005, 10:17 AM
Would having the G85 LSD help a lot in preventing this from happening?

I'm not qualified to answer that. I will say I still get wheel hop with the LSD. In fact, I've gotten some pretty bad wheel hop a time or two. I try to immediately let off the gas when I feel any wheel hop. It seems to be most closely related to uneven road surface. When I gas it on a nicely paved road, it spins instead.

Chevy4Life85
07-13-2005, 12:06 PM
Sounds to me your lucky they didnt try to blame this on you.... they could just say you were abusing the car and not fix it. But that wouldnt be fair since you bought a car that was "made" to be driven. Check into your lemon laws it cant hurt

JCX
07-13-2005, 02:19 PM
Probably not, mostly because of the explaination above...wheel spin is not as bad as wheel hop. From the experience I've had in vehicles with LSDs is that the LSD reduces wheel spin but can sometimes increase wheel hop, which is actually harder on the driveshaft than wheel spin.

Agreed for the most part. I recently saw a couple guys who broke axles w/ LSDs on their car. Wheel hop was the culrpit.

JapEatr
07-13-2005, 10:31 PM
my axle on the left side had been leaking grease to and when i had the wheels of i looked for cuts didnt see any but i think they should be a recall on the cv axles being too weak LOL