Driveshaft center support bearing again

[Mike80911]

The center support bearing on my 04 gave up January 2012 with 90,000 miles. After looking at the options I decided on replacing the drive shaft with the rebuilt Vertex drive shaft. Well the other night I was driving home and I started to feel a vibration I thought I had a flat so I pulled over and checked all of the tires and they sere all fine. Having had past experience with bearing failure I immediately knew what the problem was. The new shaft only had about 15,000 miles on it but the warranty is only one year so I was out of luck.
This time decided to go with the ECS "permanent fix" bearing available from our host. I just finished swapping out the bearing and it was an easy fix. Following the directions on their website the job took about 45 minutes. I took it for a test drive and it feels fine. The major difference in the new support and the old is that the new one is actually a metal race that the shaft rides on instead of a rubber bushing.
Hopefully this solves the problem for good.

[ninelevenick]

Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for the tip on the ECS bearing!

[Determined]

I already bought mine just in case, I agree the install is not difficult.

[Mike80911]

The hardest part of the install will be cleaning the rubber off the shaft bearing. I did not have to since I had a rebuilt driveshaft. There was a metal sleeve over the bearing that I simply had to cut off. This saved me about 30 mins of cleaning time. t has been in a week now and I drove about 500miles and fingers crossed but all is well as of now

[klober23]

My CTTS has 70K on it, and my plan is to do this swap next month, so glad to hear some positive feedback. Thanks

[Thorleifur]

Hi have you heard how Drive Shaft Clamping Bearing Support Mount permanent fix from vertex is working ?

[mplatt911]

I bought the replacement bearing for $100 and changed it out myself over two years ago. I think those add on devices are a gamble . It was a little messy but straightforward and required no removal of exhaust . There are good suppliers out there. I even showed my handy work to the local Porsche dealer techs and gave them info. Seems they are actually looking for lower cost options for their customers. A new shaft installed at dealer is well over $1000. A few hours work comes in way under that.

[klober23]

My CTTS just started with a random "jerking" around 70 mph... it has 75K miles on it.. Is this screaming for a bearing replacement as well?

[mplatt911]

That was not the symptoms I had. I felt a vibration under the center armrest. It's easy to check. Raise vehicle to off road position so you can crawl under vehicle. Follow driveshaft out of transfer case and you will see the support bearing. Just grab the driveshaft and move it up and down. If you see the shaft moving and the rubber section is no longer attached to bearing, that's the problem.
Good luck!