Thanks Merchy,
I might give that a try, I guess it should fit without it being centred a certain way?

Was hoping there would be a solution with leaving everything in place not having to remove the wheel, wheel liner brakes etc.

Wonder how this might have happened, maybe with replacing the front strut in the past but never noticed since. 2012 4.4 TDV8 Vogue
2010 3.6 TDV8 Vogue
2003 3.0 Vogue - Gone
1998 4.6 HSE

Not sure with everything still in place, I had removed the entire strut, everything, the reason I started the job was to replace the wheel bearing which was failing, I ended up replacing most parts, then the same on the other side.

Doing it this way allowed for the drive shaft to be lined up perfectly prior to giving it a tap in the way described. As the car was on the bump stops by then, refitting all parts and fitting the new hub to the drive shaft was quite easy.

Rom wrote:

Hi All,

After searching the source of a few drops of oil under the car, I am came across a 2cm gap on the righthand side driveshaft, near the differential. The oil seems to come from there but are stuck with 2 questions. What could have caused it? and How to solve/still safe to drive?

Have not noticed it before and it looks shiny i.e. recent, nothing has been hit that I know of both wheels looks aligned and the same distance compared to the wheel arch. It drives fine and have not noticed anything, vibrations or anything out of the ordinary.

Would you think it is still safe to drive or could it pop out or ruin the differential?

Could I just use a pry bar like mm289 but afraid to damage something, not sure if it needs to be lined up correctly?

Cheers,
Rom

I had the same problems with my OSF driveshaft last year. The boot split on my original shaft at the hub end and I decided that as it was the original driveshaft, I'd buy a new one from site sponsor AF - not an original part but OEM.

Like others I had a hell of job getting the new shaft in at the diff end - it would go in ok but leave a 3 to 5mm gap at the diff. This with a new circlip around it too. I tried the old driveshaft and that just slid straight in with no issues and no gap....

So, my thinking was that the splines didn't extend enough or were not deep enough on the new shaft. I then filed each groove down a little with a small triangular metal file, checked the circlip was still 'springy' and slid it back in.

This time it went all the way in with a gentle tap. Gavin

2005 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.2 Supercharged V8
1998 Defender 50th Anniversary - GB168 - preparing for sale

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