quattro20v

You may recall that I pulled my driveshaft out last weekend to replace the CV joints. Upon inspection, the CV joints were actually fine, but the center mount was sagging.

Here is a picture of me pulling off the old bearing.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/52091/dscf1259.jpg">


So I ordered a center bearing mount from 034 and had it shipped it 2nd day air.

Upon inspection, the 034 mount is quite a bit less substantial than stock. The outer casing is made from very thin metal, about half of the thickess of stock. Also, the rubber is very thin and allows quite a bit of movement and flexing.

To top it off, the quality of the welds was very poor, one weld had very little penetration and the bearing was tilted to one side.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/52091/dscf1264.jpg">


I decided to take it to a friends machine shop and we cut off the welds and re-weld it. After cutting off the good weld, I used hand pressure to break the 2nd poor weld.

In desperation, we decided to reposition the bearing in the correct plane and re-welded it. It was a little tricky as we didn't want to put too much heat into it and melt the rubber.

After re-assembling the driveshaft making sure I lined up the my registration marks, both radially and length-wise, installed it back in my car. I even made up a jig to make sure the driveshaft was perfectly straight when installing it and I shimmed the bracket with spacers.


<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/52091/dscf1267.jpg">

After a test drive I noticed the knocking is still there on-off throttle, and know it vibrating under load.

I have a suspicion that both the u-joint and center mount is contributing to the vibration and knocking.

I have contacted 034 and waiting to see what they can offer, the problem being is that the center support is now in my car and I can't send it back easily for verification.

Meanwhile, I'm bracing myself for a new driveshaft from Audi for ~$1200.

Tornado //S6

At this point, I'd try the 38$ bmw bearing, reweld it in there and see if that helps - there was nothing insubstantial about it when I did my rebuild a while ago(if anything, the rubber seemed more robust). Right now, mine vibrates slightly(and has been for the past year) at around 40mph and is starting to clunk again during abrupt load/no load conditions but it hasn't been getting progressively worse for a while so I don't know. In my case, it could be the rear cv joint is going bad, could be my stupid custom bracket worked itself loose... I just haven't had time to investigate. It could be the u-joint too - the car has almost 230k on it. I'd also look into rebuilt/reman shafts and used shafts from A6q's from similar year/vintage - 1200$ is still ridiculous, no matter how you slice it. Again, sorry to hear about the bad luck and definitely keep me posted.

turbos4audi

I can't believe that came from 034. It looks like a home made job or something. It's far from quality.

Good luck working things out.

DutchVDub

Ouch, 1200$? Can't you just get the carrier bearing from Audi?

SilberUrS6

Talk to Javad. He'll fix you up.

Tornado //S6

nope, audi shafts you by selling you whole shafts only, not parts

UrS4boy

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AndrewWK

I'm not sure about the quality of the center bearing vs 034 replacement.<ul><li><a href="http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=F5C1105-B">driveshaft rebuild kit</a></li></ul>

MiniMan

If you decide not to rebuild that one, just have a custom one made up for $500-$600

yodasfro

there's always the one piece DS option.<ul><li><a href="http://www.advancedautomotion.com/product_info.php?cPath=69&amp;products_id=43">http ://www.advancedautomotion.com/product_info.php?cPath=69&amp;products_id=43</a</li></ul>