What is this?

[Dave]

Can someone tell me

 

a) what this part is,and

b) how concerned I should be about its condition

 

Many thanks,

Dave

 

[Rojie]

4 minutes ago, Dave said:

Can someone tell me

 

a) what this part is,and

b) how concerned I should be about its condition

 

Many thanks,

Dave

 

 

I'm no mechanic; but it looks like a drive shaft coupling.

 

Is it driver's side or nearside ?

[Dave]

It's near-side.

Yes, it does appear to be joining two pieces of drive shaft. I'm wondering what it's called in case I need to get one.

It doesn't appear to be in the greatest of condition to me but it must have been like that for some time and the car has just got through its mot with no issues.

I'm hoping someone will tell me that it's fine!

 

 

[Gamith]

I would assume its a 43474E Damper, Front Drive Shaft, LH but you will want to check amayama.com to make sure. For 18UKP (plus postage) I would be tempted to get one anyway - the issue will be disassembling the driveshaft to get the old one off and the new one on - put a day or two aside for that, or take it to a friendly garage of course. As to whether you actually need it I can't say but I would assume that if you did need one you would know when driving it.

[Dave]

Agreed -  for the price it'd be worth doing although I don't feel so inclined from the point of view of removing the drive shaft and the disassembling that in order to slide the new piece on.  It'd be nice if it had been designed with a slit so that it could simply be opened up and put round the shaft and clamped.

 

Now I know what it is (i.e. not something joining two sections of shaft) I'm no longer concerned about it per se.  It should be providing essentially the right mass in the right position.

 

I'm more concerned about the possibility of serious shaft corrosion inside the damper.  I've seen some terrifying images of this on the internet;  not on an Alphard but the principle will be the same.  Anyway, I need to stick to the job in hand for now and get back to caliper cleaning...