mxquattro

My beloved CS is starting to show its age a little. I have about 80K On it and up to know has been 100% maintenance free. I elected to do a couple things on it before they became problems however (water tubes, coil packs) and do all my oil changes myself.

Today it started two new tricks.. both well known problems so Im not too worried about it. Get on the gas hard, I feel a rumble on the floor pan. Feels like cardan shaft to me! I get underneath it tonight and it feels like its just the center support bearing. The rubber flex joint looks brand new as does everything else. Is it possible to just replace that center bearing? Or do I need the whole damn shaft? I did a search here and found suppliers etc, thank you!

Second, on that same goosing of the gas, the headlights go out and I get a dipped beam error. When I got home I decided to check out the headlights to check the connector sockets since thats a pretty good start. I started with drivers side since I knew my H3 cornering light was toast anyway. Well the headlight socket looked as fresh as the day it came out of the factory..both male and female parts. I didnt take the other side apart yet though. Is it possible maybe its just one side causing both? If the other side looks good, where do I look next?

Im also thinking of putting dielectric grease in there to prevent future corrosion. Good idea? Bad idea? Ive had luck doing that before with other cars.

I must say, I open the hood to take the headlight out and said "No freaking way, I have to disassemble the car to take these out". Well let me tell you Porsche really has their stuff together. I read the manual and dont you know, 10 seconds later the headlight is out. Nice! The manuals might be expensive, but worth their weight in gold.

Anyway, thanks for any tips the shaft bearing and the headlight!
bob

seankrider

80K maintenance free is pretty impressive.

EB_1920

I have the same problem with the headlight.

Here are a few good threads on the topic:

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index..._p__163813__hl

https://rennlist.com/forums/porsche-...ght-error.html

Good luck. I think I'm going to try disconnecting the harness connector and manually attaching it to the back of the headlight before I push it in.

mxquattro

Thanks for the links, very nice. Helped a lot. I replaced the H3 cornering lights, reseated the headlights and all is well now.

Any final word on if I can replace the center bearing on the drive shaft vs buying it complete? I see I can buy just the bearing, but that may not mean much.
bob

ltc

I would suggest becoming a contributing member of Renntech, since you could probably use the TSB's for things like this ... FWIW, there are several regarding the headlight problems.

SCOTITUDE

you have to replace the whole shaft. Before replacing my shaft for a 2nd time, first time was factory part @ $700. i bought 2 bearing assemblies @ $50 each and scored a trashed shaft from the dealer thinking I would just replace the bearing myself. After tearing apart the trashed shaft to find out how its assembled, I found the bearing appears to be pressed on and crimped with special tools. not for the DIY'er or any indy shops unless they have specific driveshaft experience and tools.

mxquattro

Well I did my Cardan shaft bearing today. I figured I had nothing to lose since a reman one is only $359, if I totally screw it up Id just get one of those. Instead I bought the $50 bearing and gave it a shot. Job went pretty well and only took a couple hours. Taking the exhaust off helped a ton, and thats 8 quick bolts and it all came down in 2 minutes. Love it.

OCNYPORSCHE

I thought you need a special tool to install only the bearing? How did you press it in?

mxquattro

Its held in with a circlip. Dont get me wrong, it was a bit of a pain in the *** but not too bad. Getting the old one out was a bit of a challenge since its been on there so long but I finally got it. To get the new one on, I just cleaned up the surface, put on a light lubricant and put the shaft upright on the bench. Put the bearing on it, and got a 1" pipe (or so.. can only touch the inner race) and lightly tapped it in with the weight of the short section of pipe. Didnt even need to hammer it in.

yeldogt

Too bad no pictures !

How does one get the bearing ? Porsche only sells the whole part correct?


What year is yours ..... Mine is an 06

mxquattro

I almost took pictures but my hands were so loaded with grease and dirt. But it isnt that difficult. I got mine at rockauto.com I think it was $65 plus a $3 discount or something like that. It was an exact replacement and fit absolutely perfectly. Ive always had really good luck with them. Mine is also an 06.

SCOTITUDE

ok, ya got me stumped. how did u get the support onto the driveshaft? did u split it? take off end cv?

mxquattro

Split it. Took 2 minutes. When you have the drive shaft in your hand, use a screwdriver (or whatever) to carefully peel back the CV cover. Then you can separate the 2 shafts. Under the CV is another circlip, spread that and the cv slides off the spline shaft. It didnt easily fall off in my hand, I had to lightly tap the center shaft while applying pressure with my other hand to the cv. Now you can take the old support bearing off and slide the new bearing on.

yeldogt

When you get a rebuilt one for $399.99 - are they only doing the bearing?

What does it have ...two universal joints and the center bearing? Or did Porsche use two CV joints. I have... thankfully ...spent very little time under the truck. But I am going to have the oil change in the next couple of weeks and I want to give it a good look.

mxquattro

Yeldogt, there is only one cv joint on it