Asking as I have to decide whether or not to try to nurse it 7 miles across a city to our garage, or call recovery from the get-go, and risk being stuck waiting for the RAC for 6+ hrs.

I have a 2011 MkII Fabia Combi, 1.2 TSI, manual gearbox, 157.000 miles on the clock.

 

Is there any way for me - a moderately confident but risk averse DIYer - to make a judgement as to how likely this clunking is going to:

a) result in something falling out of the bottom of the vehicle on my way to the garage

b) damage other parts on the way, even if it gets there in one piece?

It's gone from the commonly-experienced clicking/clunking on lower speeds (worse on medium to far right lock), to making a significantly louder clunking, which I could feel through the floor - centrally - when I drove off on Saturday morning. I turned around within 100m and came back, and haven't moved it since.

I can't get under it properly to see what's going on, and I don't really know what I'm looking for anyway - I know my way around the engine, but have very little hands-on experience with the suspension or transmission, as it's not work I can generally do myself without a garage, driveway, living on a hill etc etc.

Looking with a torch, I can see what I thought was (yet another) oil leak, but considering how much ££ I've just put into leak-related repairs, I'm wondering if it's actually from the transmission / suspension. 

Context / history: OS drive shaft started making clicking/clunking noises (worse on lock and low speed, familiar story) a few months ago. As part of investigation of that, garage found source of an oil leak which meant that had to be prioritised (top cover, sump, rear valve, threw timing chain in for good measure). Booked in to do all of it at once, then they discovered they couldn't get drive shafts anywhere. Even original parts were on back order with dealers, with no estimated delivery date. 

So I sourced used parts from a supplier (VAG group specialists with decent reviews), triple checked part numbers, and also asked for mileage. They told me 68,000. When they arrived (late) at the garage, they called me  to tell me 3 ball bearings rolled out of the parcel, so NS shaft unusable, and the other one was "no better than the one we've just taken off".

As car was already in pieces, I had little choice but to ask them to fit it anyway, put our old NS one back on (it wasn't as bad as the OS) as we were about to go on holiday. 

The good news is that its probably the bolts that have come loose from what you have described.

 

The bad news is that if I am right they will be wearing a hole through your transmission casing if you continue driving.

 

I suggest that you jack the car up and remove the undertray to check visually before driving any further

RAC 6 hours +.  

How far north are you @MijIsTired?

 

At least you will get £10 refunded if they take over 70 minutes to get to you

13 minutes ago, J.R. said:

The good news is that its probably the bolts that have come loose from what you have described.

 

The bad news is that if I am right they will be wearing a hole through your transmission casing if you continue driving.

 

I suggest that you jack the car up and remove the undertray to check visually before driving any further

Thanks for sharing the instinct, @J.R.. But on that basis, as I can't jack it up where it is (too steep, too in the way), and I won't get home for another hour anyway, I'll get it recovered tomorrow, to the one garage that thinks it can get a pair of drive shafts. As I haven't troubled a breakdown service for years (before the last 9 months anyway), it's about time I got my money's worth. 

Follow-up Q: if it is loose bolts, can that be down to the crap condition of the shoddy used drive shaft we had to use? Or might I have to have a serious chat with our otherwise exemplary mechanics..?

I appreciate that may be impossible to take a guess at. Again, asking just cos I have no prior experience to draw on. 

Who knows, it happened to my next door neighbour after work carried out by a mechanic who he has great faith in and has used for 40 years, he helped me out once and I rate him highly.

 

I can't recall how I found the problem  a couple of the bolts had departed, the others were loose and one of the linking plates missing a bolt had thrown out with centrifugal force and was chewing the casing, I got new bolts and plates from TPS and did them up proper tight.

 

I remember now, they had repaired his gearbox casing after a Sachs clutch had chewed through it removing the gearbox to drain it to do so, a year later he found spots of oil and asked me to have a look.

17 hours ago, Ootohere said:

RAC 6 hours +.  

How far north are you @MijIsTired?

 

At least you will get £10 refunded if they take over 70 minutes to get to you

That was our experience a few weeks ago, but that was on a Sunday and semi-rural.

 

Today looks like less, at least I’m in a city and only 5 miles from the garage I want to get to. Let’s hope they take my recovery request at face value, and don’t decide to send a patrol that can’t tow first. 

Thanks @J.R.