Slow Guy

My P!g's a '06 S w/ 76k mi. (it's not been a DD). Due to stepfather's death I'll be taking several more trips to Florida (1,300 mi. round trip) over the next several months pulling a utility trailer. My CS still has it's original cardan shaft (driveshaft) and am wondering if it would be a good idea to preemptively replace it to avoid the hassle and extra expense of having to replace it on the road. I did the coolant pipes last year to avoid that unexpected hassle.

What say the forum? How many miles did you have before the shaft went out or are you still driving with the original shaft?

Right now I'm leaning towards replacing it. No plans to replace this vehicle anytime soon.

XR4Tim

I've replaced a couple of them just shy of 70k miles, and one at around 100k miles. The one in the worst shape was one of the lower-mileage ones.

philg3

Replaced mine around 75Kmi, as there were cracks in the housing -- around bearing, and was told by dealer that failure could come at any time (banging sound).

mudman2

I had 2 in 130K. They don't seem to just go, you get some warning if your listening to the vibrations and the noises

How big is the pup now Phil ?

philg3

She's 13 months -- a real pleasure now -- relatively speaking. I saw the picture of yours, that you recently posted, and what a beauty. Assuming that was a recent picture, you sure have your hands filled right now.

mudman2

Hes just coming up to 6 months and is 53lbs, a big boy for sure lol

touareg

05 CS, I think between 80k and 90k, just went when I pulled into traffic out of a side lot.

Slow Guy

Thanks Tim, was hoping that you and one of the other tech would chip in on this. Thanks again.

I did a quick visual the last oil change I did but was not anticipating the mileage I would be putting on it so it wasn't thorough, I'll do another visual asap.

endless_corners

Mine failed at 103k

EnigmaWmn

Bill, go ahead and take the trip. Surprisingly enough, cardan shaft was one of the few things that didn't fail on the 955 during our 130k co-existence



PS. All jokes aside, replace the damn thing!

SeanR

Replaced one on an '06 Turbo S at 49k.

Slow Guy

Just got back late last night from the 1st of what will be several trips over the next few months (NOT looking forward to the Florida summer) and thought about it several times on the trip. I'll most likely be changing it if for no other reason than I don't want to worry about it on future trips.

One thing I don't have to worry about is oil consumption....

XR4Tim

You could save a few hundred dollars by just replacing the center support bearing. I preemptively did this on my Audi a while back because i had the driveshaft out already.

Slow Guy

There was a thread on this about a year ago IIRC (by Scottitude ??) and it looked to be a real PITA to press off/on that bearing. I'd most likely just replace the shaft with one from http://www.coloradodriveshaft.com/porsche_cayenne.htm for $375 and not hassle with the bearing.

XR4Tim

I've heard the Cayenne bearing can be removed fairly easily with a rubber mallet (though I haven't tried). I had a driveshaft shop disassemble my Audi's driveshaft, remove the old bearing, press the new one on, reassemble, and balance it for around $50 or so.
Otherwise, $375 is a great deal for a rebuilt shaft.