Darren Wade

Well my Christmas present from my CS is a dying cardan shaft bearing. Typically this is the type of thing that I would avoid driving the car completely and drop it off at the dealer right away, however, that is obviously going to be a bit of an issue since they won't be open for a few days. I've called and all the nearby rental car places are closed or out of cars and it just so happens that I dropped my other car off last week for upgrades and modifications. Add onto this that my preferred dealer is about 70 miles away in Colorado Springs.

How far can I drive with the cardan shaft like this? I have quite a few things left to do before Christmas, so I expect I'd need to put on 170-200 miles before I can get it into service on Wednesday/Thursday.

Thanks,

D

69gaugeman

it depends on how fast you intend to go. around town it should not be too much of a problem. of course your idea of a thump might be just at the beginning of failure or the end. worst case is you get a tow home.

Darren Wade

Well... I hope that it is only the beginning. How does the failure progress from the beginning of the thumping? How would speed effect it differently? I need to get the car down to the springs which means a bit of highway miles. If I go 75 will it throw the shaft through my floor? Isn't stop and go the real killer?

I found that if I accelerate really slowly and manually go into the highest gear it will let me, it doesn't go thump, but I do hear a high pitched squeak as described by some others.

touareg

With mine, I couldn't go above 30 mph or so without thumping LOUD. With the bearings gone, you now have a rotating shaft that is out of balance, faster will cause more centrifugal force, louder bangs, deteriorate it faster. I personally would not drive unless needed and keep it slow, as I suspect it would just let go at some point and make a hell of a racket at 70 mph. I don't think it would rip through the floor, but how would you feel about someone beating you with a pipe revolving fast enough to propel a truck at 70 mph

Brit6

Can't find the answer to the question on here, but i know we can use Turbo S lower control arms, and Turbo S tie rod ends on a Turbo model, how about using a Turbo S Cardan shaft on a Turbo?

ciaka

Turbo S and Turbo have different shafts, not interchangable.
I think the Turbo S cardan shaft is longer than the turbo or S model cayenne. So I don't think you can do this.

ciaka

When the cardan shaft fails, it is usually the bearing that is the point of fail.
When this happens, the job of the bearing is not being done. Its job is to keep the two parts of the shaft in alignment with each other.
So when the bearing fails, the two rotating parts of the shaft are no longer condentric when spinning. This creates a wobble at the bearing location, that you perceive as a 'midget inside your console, banging away with a hammer'.
If you get under your car (raise suspension to special terrain to allow easy access, then lock out to prevent auto lowering!), you will notice that you will be able to move the shaft up/down and left/right at the bearing location. That is the issue.

The fail progression differs in each case. Greatly depends on how you drive the car too. If you are always gentle and drive slowly, it may take a long time. If you accelerate harder, it will likely get worse quickly. The wobble causes further damage to bearing under acceleration, causing more wobble, causing more damage, etc, etc. When wobble gets bad enough, the two parts can break resuling in a ride home in tow truck as mentioned above.
Going up hill will also help accelerate the failure due to load on shaft changing.
In my opininon, if you notice the wobble, stop driving and make preparations to replace asap. Some said that it may cause damage in bearing on the tranny too if bad enough, thus putting you in a world of more expensive trouble.

You can have mechanic to this (saw rates from 1000 to close to 2K for replacement), or you can do it yourself (very easy due to easy access).
If doing yourself, need 12mm triple square bit (can buy at harbor freight for 15 bucks), small hammer, prying tool, wrench.
Then you will need a drive shaft (new or rebuilt - many had good luck with colorado drive shaft - coloradodriveshaft.com). With rebuilt, you send the bad part back to get $100 back.
Rebuilt method will cost you $375 after getting core charge back.
New method will cost you about $600 (and you keep your old part).
Some say to replace flex disc too at same time, but I have also heard these parts almost never go bad...so I am not sure on this one. Make sure your drive shaft has been balanced before you buy (unbalanced shaft will still wobble and you will have to spend another 160 or so to balance it). Colorado drive shafts come balanced already.

Hope this helps.

996FLT6

My 2006 cayenne s Cardan shaft failed when I was towing my gt3 to the track : (. Luckily Porsche dealership was close by. 30 minutes and $1500 later I was back on the road. The thumping was freaking loud as speed increases- thought it'll blow thru the floor of car. Mike

ciaka

Just posted a DIY for the cardan shaft repair on this forum.
Should help next person with this issue...
CLICK HERE

2gofast

For the sake of accuracy to the forum - the shafts are not different.

tifosiv122

Agreed. Apparently only the v10 VW uses a different one.

Erik

Brit6

So why don't we just put Turbo S cardan shafts in? Wouldn't they be a little more durable like the front control arms?

Slow Guy

If there is no difference between them then they're already installed.....

Raymond May

I have a 2012 turbo that snapped right behind the trans. It doesn't have the flex disc so how does it disconnect from the tailshaft? Is it a c clip I can't see? It just looks like the bell on the end of the cardan is hooked straight to the tailshaft. No visible bolts clamps clips or anything?

deilenberger

Raymond - your 2012 has a completely different design driveshaft than the one being discussed in this thread. I'd suggest posting about this in the correct forum - which is the "958" forum (Cayenne from 2011-2018).. https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-958-2011-242/

And since this is about unheard of on a 958 - I think it might be best if you start a new thread. Photos are always helpful.