Driveshaft - OEM or other?
 

Need a new front driveshaft for my WRX Wagon 100PCD male fitting.

Do I fork out £400-£500+ for a genuine OEM one or get a much cheaper third party driveshaft? And if so, which one?

Alternatively, take a punt on a second hand genuine pair?

For reference, my driveshaft is damaged due to an accident and it's my understanding that the OEM ones don't generally fail unless seriously abused.

Get a genuine one from a breaker like Matty.

I'm guessing that wagon and saloon differ, given their part numbers? WRX wagon shafts maybe a bit thin on the ground but will look.

Subaru want £550 and would need to be ordered from Japan - for one...

I think you're right on that one mate. He might have some, I'm sure he broke a wagon. Or try ebay and facebook people are breaking wagons on there.

There doesn't seem to be much stock of anything in the UK admittedly most of the stuff I was after was for a classic. But thats expensive, the price you were given.

Yeah the guy that I usually get OEM stock from admitted that it was a daft price but they have none in the country as there is never any demand for them.

I not long parted with my Bugeye but I know they won't fit.

I think they are as much in the US, so it's a Japanese pricing issue, rather than UK specific.

You're over a barrel. Buy second hand hand hope they last or buy from subaru. I've heard mixed reviews about JR ones and if it was me I would buy oem,.

I'm not paying £500+ for one, I know that much. I figure I can get a pair of used shafts for £200, worth a punt that one of them will be OK.

Read some old threads on here that suggest that even though the saloon shafts are longer, they still fit fine on a Wagon. Which opens up a lot more opportunities is so. Another poster also said they fitted STi saloon ones without issue. Guess I would need to fit both sides though.

I guess the Classic STi with the female end would fit the earlier Newage Wagon but not my later male input. That's a bugger.

Matty B job done. They don't really give bother.

Yeah it's just determining whether it has to be an 04-05 Wagon, as that's a pretty small pool of cars.

There is one on ebay thats the exact same year.

You mentioned you had an accident so assuming its recent because you sold the other wagon to Dom. How bad was the damage, hope you guys were ok and no injuries.

Attachment 73049

T-boned at junction. Wishbone folded in on itself. No other obvious visual mechanical damage. Fitted new genuine wishbone with ball joint. ARB bushes. Drop links. New top mounts and new tie rods. Went through MoT with no advisories but wheel bearing starting to whine and still get an occasional clonk from front left when steering. Pretty sure it's inner CV joint. Basically the wheel got smacked bang centre 90dg, so the force has gone through all the drivetrain/steering on that side, even though the wishbone was sacrificial and absorbed most of the force.

My wife was driving with baby in back. No injuries.

Seen a couple of cars breaking on eBay that are potentials.

Why didn't you go through insurance or have you bought the car back :)

Glad your wife and baby are ok.

Bought the car back. It was right at the start of lockdown and so didn't get a proper engineers report. They just looked at couple of photos and decided that everything needed replacing and wrote the car off as a CAT S.

If I was doing it again I would replace everything with saloon parts. But I had not long had both wishbones replaced under VOSA recall and I needed the car back on the road ASAP.

Thought you had another crash. Yeah insurance companies try book value and not actual market value till challenged by the sounds of it. They are very quick to write cars off now.

They paid me £3.6 for it and then charges me £600 for salvage. So £3k and the car back. It's cost me less than £500 to get back on the road. Although at some point it will need new panels and a respray.

Not bad at all.