Hello Brickboarders!

Yesterday I had a drive shaft machine shop taking care of a drive shaft vibration.(940 Turbo wagon 1996 with only 125.000 km's) They did a torque test and all the universals were fine, but the support bearing was no good and the rubber housing very soft and cracked. The drive shaft has been electronically balanced too. It now seems that the vibration has virtually gone. (I'm still not entirely happy!) but for all the money spend I got an irritating noise in return. Particularly in 1st gear (auto tranny)and driving slow there is a whining noise. Also when you brake near an intersection or traffic light and the tranny shifts back into 1st gear. Never heard this noise before. I jacked up the car myself this afternoon and loosened the bolts on the support bracket for the support bearing and re-positioned drive shaft. Not much of a change. It's bugging me because I paid good money and got a problem back! Could the new (much stiffer) rubber housing transmit the tranny noise (sort of planetary wheels noise, that was already there, but was not noticed because of the soft and worn out old support housing?? I suppose that a specialist shop aligned the drive shaft properly according to the marks and didn't muck up the sequense of bolts, etc. Has anyone got some ideas??

Baz in Christchurch, New Zealand

I had the same issue happen a several years ago on my 740 turbo wagon. I had my center support changed, then the noise showed up a few miles from the repair shop. At first I thought it was just that the noise was there before and I just did not hear it. After a few days I decided that the noise was related to the new center support. I took the car back and insisted that something was wrong. The mechanic insisted that the noise was some other issue. I asked the shop owner to go with me and the mechanic for a test drive, and the owner agreed that it sounded like a bearing.

They pulled the whole center support down and replaced the bearing that is in the rubber center support carriage. The noise was gone. The shop owner told me that sometime the pre-lubricated bearing sit on the shelf too long and they dry out too much. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

I have been doing all my own maintenance on this car ever since, I now pushing 250,000 miles. I make it a practice to re- lubricated pre-lubricated bearing before putting them in service.

Good Luck
Bill, USA