charles 200TQ

Okay, I've become a little confused. My car has a rumble, mostly noticeable on acceleration in the lower rpms (~2-3k rpm) in 1st and 2nd gear, as well as when decelerating in 5th. It's a very noticeable vibration, felt all through the car. I had a buddy ride with me who had said he had the same problem on his 5000, and mentioned the "center differential bearing". He said it was costly to fix, and the part is hard to find but his mechanic was able to modify a used one from a bmw.

I spent many hours searching this forum for this "center diff bearing" and never found anything. Upon some recent browsing, I saw the "center support bearing", did searches and saw tons of postings on the issue, but have seen both terms "center bearing" and "center support bearing" and now I'm a bit confused.

Is there both a "center bearing" and a "center support bearing", or is it the same thing? If this is the case, does this mean that the bearing on 034 Motorsports will be the solution to my problems? And if this is true, just about how hard is it to do this job myself?

Thanks alot,

Charlie

pgutier1

The are 1 in the same...It is the Center Support Bearing. The 034 product will work...never done it myself always had my mechanic handle this.

Kneale Brownson

You're talking about the PROPELLER shaft between the tranny and the rear diffy.

<img src="http://www.vagcat.com/p/B119/521100.png">

The center bearing is the round fixture in front of the universal joint with the "1" symbol. the "1" is the part marker for the entire shaft, which is the only way Audi sells the assembly. You can buy the center bearing with its rubber webbing and support frame from O34, as pgutier1 mentioned, or use a variety of Mercedes and BMW center support assemblies with some modification.

However, before you do that, be certain the center support is bad. You could have a problem as simple as bad exhaust system hangers or, more complicated, bad transmission/engine mounts.