# Driveshaft flex joint



## Chuckmeister87 (Nov 10, 2009)

Has anyone (modded or not) ever had this part go bad on their car? Mine just ate **** and I thought it was the wheel not being properly torqued down (recently had front tires replaced). 

Looks like this:









Mine is torn the **** up. The same end of my drive shaft is now worn a little from grinding on metal and the bearing inside the drive shaft on that end is shot. The mechanic says the entire drive shaft has to be replaced because the first half isn't sold anywhere without the second half to it.











I'm wanting to just replace the first half (the right half in that picture) if it NEEDS to be replaced. Says a used one would be $900 and wouldn't have a warranty, a new one from Germany would be $2100 with a 2 year warranty. I just found a site where I could get a used shaft with a 6 month warranty (excellent condition shaft) for $349.


Not only that, I asked if he could remove my O2 sensor while he was in there and use my electronic cleaner on it to see if it would fix my lean code. He's charging me an hour and a half labor for that.... :screwy: Pretty sure he's ****ing me over and that I should have had my car towed to DBC instead:banghead:



To reiterate the initial question:
Has anyone ever had a flex joint go bad on them? Has anyone replaced one after xxx miles?


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

Dude.. RUN! That's bullsh|t!!


No, mine hast gone out. But when I saw it I wondered if it would ever be a problem. When I worked for MB we had to replace those at around 70-100k miles.


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## Dowski12 (Nov 2, 2011)

Dont pay him a damn thing. When my wifes car threw a code for faulty injectors, I took it to a shop to have them look at it. After, he told me I needed new ones and he could get me a really good deal on some refurbs for only $625. If I wanted new ones, he said they would be upwards of $1200:sly:. Knowing that I got my ID1000's for $471 shipped, I called bullsh!t. He then told me that they were so expensive because they were for a Mitsubishi. I just laughed at the guy and went home and found some refurbs for $60. 

They will always try and sell you on whatever BS they think they can get away with. Take our advise and RUN!!!


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## Chuckmeister87 (Nov 10, 2009)

warranty225cpe said:


> Dude.. RUN! That's bullsh|t!!
> 
> 
> No, mine hast gone out. But when I saw it I wondered if it would ever be a problem. When I worked for MB we had to replace those at around 70-100k miles.


I'm glad I'm not the only one having to replace one. Do you use the same drive shaft over again even if it gets a little beat when the joint goes?


I'm running, but you havent even heard the wrost part. The mechanic said I wouldn't be able to drive it until I got it fixed and didn't want to let me go without putting a replacement shaft in there. I argued with him for 20 mins before he decided he'd be ok with letting me sign some paperwork saying any accident that might be caused by the back wheels not getting power from the engine would be entirely on me and he would have no responsibility. Dude is whack:screwy:


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

I'm confused. This is the end piece or the middle piece? Any chance you can weigh the entire driveshaft? My buddy had a custom carbon driveshaft for his 3000GT and saved ~50 lbs. Granted that's a much heavier car with a more powerful drivetrain, and I don't know size comparisons to know if ours is similar, but his was a two piece style like ours with a coupling in the middle so I'm wondering if a carbon shaft would benefit us. This ones for you Eric! :laugh:


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

20v master said:


> I'm confused. This is the end piece or the middle piece? Any chance you can weigh the entire driveshaft? My buddy had a custom carbon driveshaft for his 3000GT and saved ~50 lbs. Granted that's a much heavier car with a more powerful drivetrain, and I don't know size comparisons to know if ours is similar, but his was a two piece style like ours with a coupling in the middle so I'm wondering if a carbon shaft would benefit us. This ones for you Eric! :laugh:


Lol, I'd make it out of unicorn horns and pixie dust.


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

warranty225cpe said:


> Lol, I'd make it out of unicorn horns and pixie dust.


And wrap it in suede. 

Just found their website, and it was a 30 lbs savings on the 3KGT. If OP could measure the weight for us it would tell us if there were gains to be had. I have a spare shaft I can send to the company, but these wouldn't be cheap. I probably wouldn't buy one unless the OEM unit was toast, but with the power, age, previous owner's neglect, and track time I'm planning for in my 225, it would be a benefit. 

http://www.pstds.com/

Also, I noticed while my engine was out recently that the rubber is starting to crack in the end coupler on my 180Q. Nothing to worry about yet, but not a good sign.


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

20v master said:


> And wrap it in suede.
> 
> Just found their website, and it was a 30 lbs savings on the 3KGT. If OP could measure the weight for us it would tell us if there were gains to be had. I have a spare shaft I can send to the company, but these wouldn't be cheap. I probably wouldn't buy one unless the OEM unit was toast, but with the power, age, previous owner's neglect, and track time I'm planning for in my 225, it would be a benefit.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a cool idea. I'm sure there's some pretty good weight savings possible I wonder what the weight of the stocker is. You should weigh it for is Adam. Maybe we can get a group buy going to help with cost. As for the rubber failing, I've seen these fail on Mercedes vehicles a lot. When I first saw this on the TT, I wondered how often they go bad. I would love to see the benifits of a CF unit.

I'm wondering if the vibration dampner is even necessary with a CF shaft..


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

warranty225cpe said:


> You should weigh it for is Adam. Maybe we can get a group buy going to help with cost. As for the rubber failing, I've seen these fail on Mercedes vehicles a lot. When I first saw this on the TT, I wondered how often they go bad.


Well, my extra is still installed so it would be easier for the OP to weigh the one he posted the picture of.  Most of their carbon driveshafts retail for ~$1000, so like I said, I probably wouldn't be in the market at this time unless I break one soon. I don't know how much discount there would be on a GB since there probably isn't much of a market for them anyways at that price. You said yours has failed, what was cost to replace it?


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## Chuckmeister87 (Nov 10, 2009)

20v master said:


> I'm confused. This is the end piece or the middle piece? Any chance you can weigh the entire driveshaft? My buddy had a custom carbon driveshaft for his 3000GT and saved ~50 lbs. Granted that's a much heavier car with a more powerful drivetrain, and I don't know size comparisons to know if ours is similar, but his was a two piece style like ours with a coupling in the middle so I'm wondering if a carbon shaft would benefit us. This ones for you Eric! :laugh:


There's the rubber flex disc on both ends of the drive shaft. In the picture, the right side of the drive shaft is the part that connects to your trans and the left part connects to your haldex. The joint in the middle of the drive shaft is a CV joint kinda thing that can rotate and move around. The actual joint is on the first half of the shaft coming from the transmission and the second half of the shaft is just the housing for the joint.

I'll weight it when I get a new one.. IF I need a new one. The second half is going to remain in place and only the first half is removed. Sometime this month I should have enough for the replacement parts and labor to get it all squared away and I'll weight it then :beer:


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

:thumbup:


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## Chuckmeister87 (Nov 10, 2009)

Is there anyone out there with ALLDATA who can tell me the suggest time it takes to replace the driver shaft and O2 sensor? I know these mofos are overcharging me labor and I want to bring them down to the labor hours they should only be charging me for.


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## Marcus_Aurelius (Mar 1, 2012)

20v master said:


> Any chance you can weigh the entire driveshaft? My buddy had a custom carbon driveshaft for his 3000GT and saved ~50 lbs. Granted that's a much heavier car with a more powerful drivetrain, and I don't know size comparisons to know if ours is similar, but his was a two piece style like ours with a coupling in the middle so I'm wondering if a carbon shaft would benefit us. This ones for you Eric! :laugh:


I had my car on a lift at the driveshaft shop to see what could be done. After looking at it, they said that our driveshaft is very unconventional and was designed with weight/space restrictions in mind. The heavy parts in our shafts are the joints, and they would have to remain unless going for single shaft design (they don't recommend that on the street, only a trailered car because the chances of twisting a single shaft is much greater). Conventional shafts on AWD cars are much bigger in diameter and longer (we only roll on a 96 inch wheelbase), so the weight saving won't be as drastic if attempted. It could definitely be done, but much more difficult and expensive for a lot less results. It has to be noted that the driveshaft shop don't do carbon fiber, but aluminum conversions (they did one for one of my EVO and I loved the results). 

I never got a chance to get our shaft on the scales, but I would love to have an option for our cars (especially when carbon could net more weight saving then aluminum). Adam, it is worth investigating the possibility, I guess the first step would be to find the overall weight of our shafts combined. opcorn:


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

Marcus_Aurelius said:


> Conventional shafts on AWD cars are much bigger in diameter and longer (we only roll on a 96 inch wheelbase), so the weight saving won't be as drastic if attempted.


3000GT wheelbase is only 97.2".


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## Marcus_Aurelius (Mar 1, 2012)

20v master said:


> 3000GT wheelbase is only 97.2".


I should have mentioned "of this era" knowing that you were part of the conversation! I wasn't looking at ancient and extinct dino stuff, where engineers had a different ideology. If you look at all the old school stuff, they are all shorter (EVO, STI, 323 GTX, Focus WRC, Corolla all-track WRC, Celica GT4, Peugot 206 WRC, VR4 3000GT, etc. of that era ). The "Theta golden ratio" of chassis building praised back then was 1.618 (wheelbase/track width). However, things changed circa 99-2001 towards increased high speed stability (fewer crashes and lawsuits), but at the expense of transition quickness and raw fun.

If you look at most platforms in the new millennium, you'll see the trend moving towards 102"+ wheelbases (except a few low production exotics), and those are the ones I was making a blanket statement about. 

Now back to working on getting a lighter 2 piece carbon driveshafts made for our platform!


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

..300ZX, RX7, etc etc. Someone weigh one please!


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

opcorn:


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## Chuckmeister87 (Nov 10, 2009)

My new (used) drive shaft is coming through FedEx. 86k miles on it and a lifetime warranty for only $349 + $119(for the warranty)

FedEx says it's 25lbs, but I'll try to get a more accurate rating without the box and packaging when it gets here if you'd like. :beer:


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