Front Drive Shaft Update

[Tazzieman]

Do you know what fluid ignited?

 

[Logsplitter]

Some photos. Getting them at the tow yard wasn't ideal and my phone can didn't like trying to focus on stuff

But photos of the driveshaft, wiring. Etc. and one from the dash cam where you can see the passenger flames reflecting in the glass a bit.

These shaft failures are no joke. It's also amazing how much that electrical wire conductor elongated under heat.

@Agile1 much appreciated but not sure what's even feasible right now.

Wow. You’re lucky you had an extinguisher and were able to put the fire out.
Did you loose any gearbox oil ? It looks like the oil cooler pipes maybe damaged also gearbox thermostat damage may have occurred. This may well have the damaged the plastic sump on the gearbox as well. The two larger cables with steel armouring are your transfer box Bowden cables, that will need replacing also.
Looks like your prop is still in place and didn’t completely sheer off ?
Best of luck with getting this sorted.

 

[AFdude412]

Didn’t old mate Reuben from DMW have the same issue with the molten drive shaft? I think he had a YouTube video catching it happen. And all he had was a few water bottles.

Glad you’re safe, OP. Hopefully you’re back on the road soon!

 

[Clark Kent]

Didn’t old mate Reuben from DMW have the same issue with the molten drive shaft? I think he had a YouTube video catching it happen. And all he had was a few water bottles.

Glad you’re safe, OP. Hopefully you’re back on the road soon!

Yes he did but it wasn't a standard driveshaft. DMW did some early testing work with driveshafts but have since gone in a different direction. Hopefully more on this in 2026.
I visited DMW last week and had a good chat to their engineer, Glen. They're doing some impressive work with LC300 and Y63 Patrol chops (for conversion to dual cab utes), Ranger Super Duty and Quartermaster chassis extensions and of course Grenadier and QM suspension work.

 

[hon1nbo]

Wow. You’re lucky you had an extinguisher and were able to put the fire out.
Did you loose any gearbox oil ? It looks like the oil cooler pipes maybe damaged also gearbox thermostat damage may have occurred. This may well have the damaged the plastic sump on the gearbox as well. The two larger cables with steel armouring are your transfer box Bowden cables, that will need replacing also.
Looks like your prop is still in place and didn’t completely sheer off ?
Best of luck with getting this sorted.

There was definitely flaming liquid coming out. Extinguisher was able to get the bulk of the fire out, but not whatever the liquid source was. I wasn't able to confirm it. It would help having the service manual but the web form said up to a 6 week wait, and I think I'm on week 3 since I submitted it.

Yeah didn't completely sheer off the vehicle but it's no longer in one piece; kinda hanging together with a part that's stuck inside itself but it's toast and detached from the upper end. Depends on your definition of sheer I guess.

Multiple wiring harnesses including some 10+conductor harnesses, Temp probes, tc cables, it's a mess down there. Even if the fire didn't melt the sump the fire department likely got water into a number of systems.

I used to teach pyrotechnics with a nonprofit in Texas; fire safety is kind of a thing for me and I definitely practice what I preach.

 

[Zimm]

So…. Gotta ask the owner of the rig… you didn’t hear anything on social media about the drive shaft issues and lifts, before after or during choosing to drive a truck with a 4 “ lift?

And yes, I most certainly AM trying to determine the level of willful ignorance here, being you do admit to being on social media, and the risk is certainly not a secret.

 

[hon1nbo]

Seen nothing on insta, bluesky, Reddit, nor my mastodon. If you're referring to twitter I haven't used that since it became a racist hellhole. Social media isn't a good way to learn about stuff like that; algorithms tune feeds to people differently.

This really isn't talked about much outside niche forums. And like I mentioned in my opening post, I passed over this site initially due to the intrusive adverts and it not being very disability friendly. I'm only here because someone commented on my Reddit post and once I had the specific search terms found this forum thread.

There's not a recall for the driveshaft in general; it's not a common enough vehicle to make the news when something happens; lift kits are an extremely common thing for off road vehicles; the owl kit isn't some fly by night six random letter Amazon name; it was sold to me by a dealer, which in my state has a certain level of requirement that a vehicle be generally safe to drive.

Without having seen something specific I wouldn't have an indicator to go looking at the lift kit with extra scrutiny.


Frankly, the accusation is insulting. You're posting on a niche forum with obvious knowledge already of the issue.

For example searching "grenadier driveshaft" on most platforms returns Zilch or doesn't stand out
For example
Bluesky: no results
Insta: in the top 50 results one thing actually seems to be related, but the video only slows an upgraded driveshaft spinning to music and in the fine print description does it mention supporting lifts over a certain size. This wouldn't have shown in my feed, and wouldn't have been an obvious indicator as the primary post content makes no mention.
Reddit: Reddit threads aren't very active on the subject unless something happens, and in the few months I've owned this vehicle it hasnt happened. There has been one other post I can find in search results (again, algorithm wanting "relevance") that mentions the driveshaft besides mine and the mention is buried in the comments and the explanation is "Google it."
Mastodon: fediverse, so it doesn't have content related to things like this unless I federated specifically with a car instance or follow someone who talks about it.

 

[Tenac]

I bet there are some lifted that have more miles on them then some OEM broken shafts did. I thought there was a thread somewhere tracking that data.

 

[Logsplitter]

I bet there are some lifted that have more miles on them then some OEM broken shafts did. I thought there was a thread somewhere tracking that data.

It seems it’s a lottery whether they fail or not.

 

[Tenac]

It seems it’s a lottery whether they fail or not.

Yup totally agree here with that

 

[Asnes]

I am never lifting my truck. I will stick with 33's stock suspension and call it a safe and reliable day.

 

[LRNAD90]

Some photos. Getting them at the tow yard wasn't ideal and my phone can didn't like trying to focus on stuff

But photos of the driveshaft, wiring. Etc. and one from the dash cam where you can see the passenger flames reflecting in the glass a bit.

These shaft failures are no joke. It's also amazing how much that electrical wire conductor elongated under heat.

@Agile1 much appreciated but not sure what's even feasible right now.

Wow, that is a lot of damage from a shaft that didn't even completely let go. Someone had previously fabricated a drive shaft loop to help contain the shaft if it lets go, but this makes me think that is of little value, if that much damage can be done by the shaft without even completely letting loose..

 

[LRNAD90]

I am never lifting my truck. I will stick with 33's stock suspension and call it a safe and reliable day.

I think that maybe a false security. You may be covered for damages under warranty (though there has been talk of dealers denying for increased tires size even without any suspension modifications), but its pretty clear this will not keep you from experiencing the failure, there have been plenty of failures on non modified vehicles..

My Heart still really wants one, my mind is still on Red Alert over the idea though..

 

[hon1nbo]

Wow, that is a lot of damage from a shaft that didn't even completely let go. Someone had previously fabricated a drive shaft loop to help contain the shaft if it lets go, but this makes me think that is of little value, if that much damage can be done by the shaft without even completely letting loose..

Yeah I'm shocked too; I'm guessing it was bad luck on grinding getting to volatiles causing ignition. If the shaft alone failed I could have disconnected, locked the case, and gotten to a safe lot slowly.

 

[AFdude412]

Seen nothing on insta, bluesky, Reddit, nor my mastodon. If you're referring to twitter I haven't used that since it became a racist hellhole. Social media isn't a good way to learn about stuff like that; algorithms tune feeds to people differently.

This really isn't talked about much outside niche forums. And like I mentioned in my opening post, I passed over this site initially due to the intrusive adverts and it not being very disability friendly. I'm only here because someone commented on my Reddit post and once I had the specific search terms found this forum thread.

There's not a recall for the driveshaft in general; it's not a common enough vehicle to make the news when something happens; lift kits are an extremely common thing for off road vehicles; the owl kit isn't some fly by night six random letter Amazon name; it was sold to me by a dealer, which in my state has a certain level of requirement that a vehicle be generally safe to drive.

Without having seen something specific I wouldn't have an indicator to go looking at the lift kit with extra scrutiny.


Frankly, the accusation is insulting. You're posting on a niche forum with obvious knowledge already of the issue.

For example searching "grenadier driveshaft" on most platforms returns Zilch or doesn't stand out
For example
Bluesky: no results
Insta: in the top 50 results one thing actually seems to be related, but the video only slows an upgraded driveshaft spinning to music and in the fine print description does it mention supporting lifts over a certain size. This wouldn't have shown in my feed, and wouldn't have been an obvious indicator as the primary post content makes no mention.
Reddit: Reddit threads aren't very active on the subject unless something happens, and in the few months I've owned this vehicle it hasnt happened. There has been one other post I can find in search results (again, algorithm wanting "relevance") that mentions the driveshaft besides mine and the mention is buried in the comments and the explanation is "Google it."
Mastodon: fediverse, so it doesn't have content related to things like this unless I federated specifically with a car instance or follow someone who talks about it.

The Facebook owners groups have been a wealth of information. Maybe worth adding to your list.

 

[hon1nbo]

Not on Facebook. Tried to make an account a year or so ago for an emergency mushroom identification group; right after creation account was locked saying it needed selfie verification that I'm not a bot and after submitting one it auto locked saying I'm a bot. Like most large companies there's no way to appeal that crap. Irony is I still have an insta and it doesn't care about that.

A Facebook group isn't that much useful anyway for getting news if one isn't actively on Facebook already. I'd be signing up for a service to go manually check a specific niche group when there are groups on other platforms I already use like Reddit. In this case information and activity seems to be disparate, and honestly if this forum just dropped the full screen ads when I was originally looking at it I would have been on here in a heartbeat. Seems like I get them far less that I'm logged in now.

 

[landmannnn]

Seen nothing on insta, bluesky, Reddit, nor my mastodon. If you're referring to twitter I haven't used that since it became a racist hellhole. Social media isn't a good way to learn about stuff like that; algorithms tune feeds to people differently.

This really isn't talked about much outside niche forums. And like I mentioned in my opening post, I passed over this site initially due to the intrusive adverts and it not being very disability friendly. I'm only here because someone commented on my Reddit post and once I had the specific search terms found this forum thread.

There's not a recall for the driveshaft in general; it's not a common enough vehicle to make the news when something happens; lift kits are an extremely common thing for off road vehicles; the owl kit isn't some fly by night six random letter Amazon name; it was sold to me by a dealer, which in my state has a certain level of requirement that a vehicle be generally safe to drive.

Without having seen something specific I wouldn't have an indicator to go looking at the lift kit with extra scrutiny.


Frankly, the accusation is insulting. You're posting on a niche forum with obvious knowledge already of the issue.

For example searching "grenadier driveshaft" on most platforms returns Zilch or doesn't stand out
For example
Bluesky: no results
Insta: in the top 50 results one thing actually seems to be related, but the video only slows an upgraded driveshaft spinning to music and in the fine print description does it mention supporting lifts over a certain size. This wouldn't have shown in my feed, and wouldn't have been an obvious indicator as the primary post content makes no mention.
Reddit: Reddit threads aren't very active on the subject unless something happens, and in the few months I've owned this vehicle it hasnt happened. There has been one other post I can find in search results (again, algorithm wanting "relevance") that mentions the driveshaft besides mine and the mention is buried in the comments and the explanation is "Google it."
Mastodon: fediverse, so it doesn't have content related to things like this unless I federated specifically with a car instance or follow someone who talks about

I was confused about your post, but then guessed that you were responding to somebody (presumably an 8 year old boy) who I had already blocked.

Every forum has one.

 

[Tom109]

My Heart still really wants one, my mind is still on Red Alert over the idea though..

You should express this directly to Ineos.

 

[agcheck]

Some photos. Getting them at the tow yard wasn't ideal and my phone can didn't like trying to focus on stuff

But photos of the driveshaft, wiring. Etc. and one from the dash cam where you can see the passenger flames reflecting in the glass a bit.

These shaft failures are no joke. It's also amazing how much that electrical wire conductor elongated under heat.

@Agile1 much appreciated but not sure what's even feasible right now.

This appears to be an electrical fire based on the two heavy gauge cables with the insulation completely burned off. What happened first - did the failed driveshaft damage some cabling and start an electrical fire, or did the electrical fire start on its own and ignite the driveshaft grease? Please keep us posted.

 

[hon1nbo]

The vehicle has finally been moved to the Sewell Ineos service center as of this morning so hopefully we can get some answers soon. Insurance wouldn't give me the go ahead to move it to service until after someone was assigned as originally it was instructed to leave at the tow lot for an initial inspection