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I took the Cayenne in to my trusted mechanic, and told him I was pretty sure I had a bad tire, and could they check it, and quote me on two new rear tires (as the sound was definitely from the rear.
A day later he calls me to say it's the cardan bearing support, and I was in disbelief. I told him I had just checked it, and he said come on in and talk to the tech. I did, and he put the car up and sure enough, a lot of play in the driveshaft, even though the rubber was still intact. They refused to do the Jimi-Fix even after I showed them the links to this forum, due to liability concerns. (I understand, I am a lawyer, and I would likely advice them not to do this fix either).
So I took it home, and just completed the job myself. It was not as easy as some make it to be. Removing all the rubber from the bearing and the support bracket is a PIA, and messy with all that junk dropping on your face. Not much clearance, as I just put one side up on my 3" ramps. But I got it done, and got cleaned up, and about to take it for a test drive and grab some dinner.
While it was about an hour and a half of work for me, it does beat the $2,000 plus estimate I was looking at from my shop.
Thanks for the help and support on this forum!!
wondering if there is any benefit to using products like vinylex to prolong the life of the rubber around the center support shaft.
Not really. Once the rubber degrades... it becomes a cascading slope to failure. I've tried black 3M WindowWeld with limited success. It still did not prevent the inevitable. Cardan Shaft is simply not an IF event... but a WHEN occurrence.
While it was about an hour and a half of work for me, it does beat the $2,000 plus estimate I was looking at from my shop.
$2k? They were trying to rob you. A rebuilt shaft is a $450 part, and it shouldn't take a competent shop more than an hour to replace it. Hell, it shouldn't take much longer to do it in your driveway.
Jimi'd my driveshaft this past weekend! It failed on my 08 GTS at 107k last week. Didn't want to spend $400 after reading about this fix. Went to O'Reilly's and bought two feet worth of hose.
Parts Bought:
5/8" Gates (Part Number 28411) Safety Stripe Heater Hose- Link https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b.../28411/4348898
12 in long 1/4" in thick zip-ties from Amazon (You don't need to buy this many but price was cheap) -Link
I cut 8 pieces of the hose into 1.5 in long. Zip tied four and four together to make it easier when inserting them in between the bearing and support. I used 16 zip ties in total as discussed in the thread. So far it works like a charm! There are no vibrations present at any speed and I like to drive at WOT a-lot of the time... Before I used to have my steering wheel shake a little bit when driving over 80 and now it is dead still. Most time consuming part of the fix was removing the old rubber but easy if you have a sharp knife. Seems like a robust ingenious fix and I'm betting it'll last a long time. So cheap and cost effective that if it ever fails I'll most likely end up performing the same fix! Beyond pleased with it!
08-24-2017, 10:31 AM
forum!!
