A few days ago I did an oil change and drained 3 quarts of Transmission fluid then topped it off. The next day I ran a few errands then got on the highway and heard a terrible irregular scraping sound and some vibrations. I quickly jumped off at the exit narrowly cutting off an upset motorist. When I parked the car and tried to look underneath, I couldn't see anything wrong but I didn't want to risk continuing to drive it because even when I pushed, I could still hear the scraping sound. So I called a tow truck and had it towed to a mechanic. He had the car for a couple days told me my drive shaft was broken and since he couldn't locate a part replacement in the next week, he would just remove it and I could still drive it front wheel drive.

So I'm curious if driving it like this will do anything to the diff or the transfer case. Since they're free spinning now?

Also I've had the car back and been driving it like this for a few days now and sometimes it takes a while before I get the SH-AWD error message.
One time I drove 50 km before it activated and then it cut the power drastically and I had to back off the throttle and then give it gas again and I happen to be entering an on ramp from one highway to another. Truly it seems to happen regularly when entering the on ramp to a highway and each time it occurs during this event I get a power loss and have to stop giving it throttle then ease back on.

I realize this (broken prop shaft) isn't common but does that make sense?

 

This would be the first ever prop shaft failure I've ever seen on this car. I would be hesitant to drive the car with a missing prop shaft but then again I have other modes of transportation...

 

Yeah i think it's rare. Are you sure you didn't hit something or scraped it somewhere?

 

It is possible the Ujoints gave up, froze and broke the shaft. Just a guess but I can not imagine any other way for that to happen.

 

Some odd witness marks on the failed end - looks like it was rubbing on something wrapped around it, rather than just bouncing along the road?

Not heard of a cf propshaft shearing before.

 

Who breaks a driveshaft and tosses it outside without even wiping it down to inspect it?

My guess is that he drained the rear end and did not refill it properly which locked it up and you throttling through it snapped the shaft.

 

I am betting you did a lot more damage to the car than just the driveshaft. I think that part is like $3,000 OEM, however used driveshafts are cheap on ebay.

 

Like projektvertx said. We've heard of lots of RLs whose driveshafts start to make noise. I have never, ever seen an account of one snapping. I suspect a scenario like Heavy's suggestion.

 

I've had the car almost 4 years. Didn't drain the rear end before this happened. Had been on the road running errands. The first photos were inside of the shop that took it out. The last photo on the ground is when I took the smaller part of the 2 broken pieces (the past connected to the front). I had taken it out of my trunk to take a photo of it.
The abrasion on the drive shaft is likely from the fact that the shaft broke while I was in the highway and it wasn't dragging on the ground but it was spinning and rubbing itself around underneath the car which is why I was hearing the sound and feeling the vibration. It never made contact with the ground.
I didn't hit anything on the highway and hadn't gone over any speed bumps in the days preceding. Only driveways, but never at a high rate of speed.