The No8 Audi of Oliver Jarvis Loïc Duval and Lucas di Grassi, then in third, took an unscheduled pitstop on lap 91, two hours and 45 minutes into the race, losing eight laps thanks to a driveshaft problem that advanced the No17 to fifth place – enough for the title could their sister car, the No18 of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, take the win and demote the No7 to second.
The Corolla ran the quarter-mile in 12.07 seconds at 110 m.p.h., but driveshaft problems kept it from further competition.
"When I went to lift it, the increased driveshaft angles caused problems," he said.
Qi said that the T-11 had a slight problem with driveshaft length, which meant that the outside wheel slipped a little on tight turns.
Frank Digiacomo, a motorist's friend, put the Caddy on a lift and immediately spotted the problem: the driveshaft's center support — it is a two-piece design — had come loose, and the shaft was flopping around, slapping the crossbraces of the frame.
It was later discovered that the problem was a driveshaft failure, possibly as a result of his earlier spin.
Recalls begun this month — for a flaw in the braking systems of more than 400,000 hybrid cars, including Prius sedans, and for a problem with the front driveshaft of 8,000 Tacoma pickups — are not being examined.
In bulletin 0115-08 issued on June 23 and 0117-08 issued on June 24, Toyota officials said the thump when stopping or pulling out in 2007-8 Tundrandand 2008 Land Cruisers might be caused by a problem in the rear driveshaft.
For example, when General Motors had a mundane light- truck problem called start-up shudder in some pickup trucks, Spicer Driveshaft, a Toledo, Ohio, division of the Dana Corporation, suggested that the company replace its two-piece steel drive shaft with aluminum.
Therefore, a typical automotive driveshaft system is capable of producing nonlinear response, and thus the assumption of linearity is not sufficient for design validation or problem resolution in this case.
In T.S.B. 0046-12 issued on Feb. 23, Toyota said the problem in FJ Cruisers with 4-wheel drive and 5-speed automatics was most likely caused by a problem with the rear driveshaft.
