Americas Front Driveshaft CV redesign

[Commodore]

Ineos crew, there is an issue with the front driveshaft CV at the transfer case side. The acute driveline angle generates heat causing the rubber on the CV to rip and spill grease. This leads to failure of the CV joint and ultimately immediate loss of forward propulsion. The failures have been well documented. Do you have plans to redesign this part or should owners start looking for their own permanent solutions?

This is a serious safety concern that needs to be resolved.

 

[Greasemonkey]

I haven't read this whole thread yet, so I apologize if this has already been asked, but what is the part I've circled in red? It looks like it might be a point of contact indicating the axle hit the side of the housing (and probably pinched the rubber boot)?

View attachment 7903467

The boot is still in good condition. So far, no cracks have formed. I can't explain the scratches. Actually, there's nothing rubbing there. I'm going to the dealer today to get new locks. Maybe he has an explanation.

 

[Commodore]

Lynn didn't have the answer to hand but we discussed the CV joint boots failing by the nature of them operating at their extremes in terms of deflection. She took it back to her engineering team and they replied today.

Propshaft angle a hot topic from the very early days of engineering the Grenadier – no surprise there. We worked very closely with our supplier on the development and tested it in extremely rough conditions over many miles without any issues. We now see (and thanks for the feedback) that there have been reports on some rubber boots.

We are reviewing this internally, and with the supplier, and will weigh up whether we believe there needs to be a fix. We have some meetings set up to discuss in the coming weeks. The propshaft angle will be even more critical if lifting the vehicle (>20mm).

Thank you for posing the question to Lynn. I do believe that she is going to fix the issues as fast as she can given all the constraints.

So they knew it was an issue from the beginning but thought they could get away with it. I wonder if the suppler provided a joint with a boot made of a different material and later swapped it out for a less expensive alternative for protection. In the current configuration there is no possible way that this wasn’t going to be a problem. Every one of these is going to fail before warranty expiration. They will need to find a solution.

I look forward to hearing what she comes back with soon.

 

[Commodore]

I just noticed that this is marked “solution”. To the contrary, I don’t see a solution but rather a denial of the problem. What am I missing here?