Sparklet
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advice about driving lorry to repair place and rough estimates of the cost. Thought I would update on how it all went.
My lorry sharer drove the lorry and I followed in my car - so that I could give her a lift back later. Knocking noise was rhythmic and audible driving down the main by-pass towards the town.
As we hit the main town traffic the noise got louder but every metre driven was a metre nearer the repair place so she soldiered on. I turned up my radio to drown out the noise because it was making me nervous. She said every time it got too bad she put her foot on the clutch as it seemed to ease when she did so. Together we nursed poor old lorry along until we finally made it.
Quizzed our repair man on likely cause, cost, timeframe etc and he said it was probably the prop shaft, they had a second hand on in the garage and we could have it back the next day. He said very very rarely the same noise could be due to the differential which would be very costly and nasty job to fix but he doubted it would be the problem. Took my number and said he would give a proper price during the morning.
Phone rang later, how wrong he was - it was the rare problem and it was costly. The differential had gone - he had located a second hand one 100+ miles away but the total including fitting would be £530.
Just picked it up - perfect. Poor bloke gave me the quote before he realised he actually had to strip the spare part differential off the lorry before he could return and fit it to ours. Considering the messy job, 200 mile round trip, fitting etc it probably isnt that bad a price.
Hopefully no-one will tell me that there are shelves full of lorry differentials at Halfords for £2.99
My lorry sharer drove the lorry and I followed in my car - so that I could give her a lift back later. Knocking noise was rhythmic and audible driving down the main by-pass towards the town.
As we hit the main town traffic the noise got louder but every metre driven was a metre nearer the repair place so she soldiered on. I turned up my radio to drown out the noise because it was making me nervous. She said every time it got too bad she put her foot on the clutch as it seemed to ease when she did so. Together we nursed poor old lorry along until we finally made it.
Quizzed our repair man on likely cause, cost, timeframe etc and he said it was probably the prop shaft, they had a second hand on in the garage and we could have it back the next day. He said very very rarely the same noise could be due to the differential which would be very costly and nasty job to fix but he doubted it would be the problem. Took my number and said he would give a proper price during the morning.
Phone rang later, how wrong he was - it was the rare problem and it was costly. The differential had gone - he had located a second hand one 100+ miles away but the total including fitting would be £530.
Just picked it up - perfect. Poor bloke gave me the quote before he realised he actually had to strip the spare part differential off the lorry before he could return and fit it to ours. Considering the messy job, 200 mile round trip, fitting etc it probably isnt that bad a price.
Hopefully no-one will tell me that there are shelves full of lorry differentials at Halfords for £2.99
