Driveshaft oil seal leak – warrantee job?

Been noticing a dirty patch appearing on the drive where I park my van. Underneath today and had the undertray off, and there’s definitely a weep from the offside drive shaft oil seal. Shaft is damp, (other one is bone dry) and there’s a dew-drop on the bottom of the casting – photo’s.

Van is still under 3 years, and c. 50k miles, Transit Connect. Is there likely to be any argument about this being done under the warrantee?

Shouldn’t be any argument. Warranties don’t cover normal wear and tear but this clearly isn’t normal wear and tear.

Should be, unless it’s been wheel spun lots (i.e. stuck in mud/snow and spun) and worn the shaft carrier in the box, so the shaft is now flapping around. In which case it’ll be more than a seal and not warranty.

When you book it in, emphasise it’s dripping on your drive, otherwise they could justify the leak as permisable weepage.

unless it’s been wheel spun lots

Unlikely, it was a decorators van so unless they drove like idiots… Not by me either.

Good point about laying it on about the dirty drive.

I have a ford cmax with an ecotec engine, and took out an extended warranty

Leaky drive shaft seal was noted on the last service. Repair cost about £400 (dealership prices). The part itself is cheap but it involves taking half the engine apart.

They then said it wasn’t covered under warranty. I checked and it does explicitly say that seals and rubber parts are not covered in the small print, which made me feel like a right numpty for paying for a worthless warranty.

I complained, called, emailed, many times, and it took months actually for them to resolve. They dealt with it so poorly that was worse than the actual original issue with the car! Eventually they agreed to cover the cost.

My arguament was that the warranty was mis-sold. At no point did they explain the potential high repair costs for the things that the warranty excludes. You assume (and this is how it was sold to me by the dickhead salesman) that all expensive repair bills will be covered – obviously not brakes, tyres etc.

Hope you get it sorted. If they try telling you it’s not covered by the warranty then it’s well worth making a fuss about it.

An aftermarket extended “warranty” is merely an insurance policy against major breakdowns. Its very different to a manufacturers warranty and your statutory rights

Quite right TJ, but certainly some years ago the warranty beyond the first year on new vehicles was dealer backed, not a manufacturer statutory thing. Not sure if that’s still the case, but if it is I’d expect the slippery gits to be trying to wiggle out of it.

Update – it went in for assessment yesterday, and while they had it the seal was replaced with no charge to me.

So, good work Evans Halshaw, (this time, not so much when they last serviced it).