Driveshaft Center Bearing Support Failure

[jrsAudiA6]

I was at the Spring Mountain track for an Audi club HPDE weekend. Beat my previous best lap time for this track configuration by about 11 seconds. However, my center support bearing bushing tore completely around the bearing. This is my second failure. Have not decided yet on what I am going to do to prevent this happening again. The first failure occurred under warranty at about 45K miles. This current driveshaft only has about 22K miles. May try and see if I can get 1 piece aluminum driveshaft which would eliminate my drivetrain weak link. One other interesting point is I was running 100 octane fuel when they both failed, coincidence? maybe. Would the lowering of the car with the KW coilovers have an adverse affect on the driveshaft?

[DoughBoyFreshLV]

I was at the Spring Mountain track for an Audi club HPDE weekend. Beat my previous best lap time for this track configuration by about 11 seconds. However, my center support bearing bushing tore completely around the bearing. This is my second failure. Have not decided yet on what I am going to do to prevent this happening again. The first failure occurred under warranty at about 45K miles. This current driveshaft only has about 22K miles. May try and see if I can get 1 piece aluminum driveshaft which would eliminate my drivetrain weak link. One other interesting point is I was running 100 octane fuel when they both failed, coincidence? maybe.

The event out in Pahrump? I wanted to go to that how much did it cost? Also I had my driveshaft support bearing break on my 64 caddy, it was just a rubber boot that held the driveshaft up and was 149 to replace, is this simular to what broke on your car?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[jrsAudiA6]

The event out in Pahrump? I wanted to go to that how much did it cost? Also I had my driveshaft support bearing break on my 64 caddy, it was just a rubber boot that held the driveshaft up and was 149 to replace, is this simular to what broke on your car?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

The event cost about $485 for the weekend which includes a really good shirt, diner Saturday night and lunch for both days.

Yes, what failed is similar but in the Audi C7/A6 case it can not be replaced separately. The complete driveshaft must be replaced.

[DoughBoyFreshLV]

The event cost about $485 for the weekend which includes a really good shirt, diner Saturday night and lunch for both days.

Yes, what failed is similar but in the Audi C7/A6 case it can not be replaced separately. The complete driveshaft must be replaced.

I will have to check it out next time they have a track day. That really sucks about the deiveshaft, if you could just swap out the support it wouldn't be a big deal but to replace the whole thing that blows! Did you have to get your car towed from the track home???

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[jrsAudiA6]

I will have to check it out next time they have a track day. That really sucks about the deiveshaft, if you could just swap out the support it wouldn't be a big deal but to replace the whole thing that blows! Did you have to get your car towed from the track home???

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

No, I was able to drive back home. I just needed to be careful with my accelerations to minimize the thumping noise coming from the flopping driveshaft. No obvious noise from inside car at moderate acceleration and constant speeds.

[jrsAudiA6]

Here is the update to my driveshaft failure.

I tried to find if there was any info out on the internet about this driveshaft and it's failure rate. Did not find much but did come across a picture of an S6. The picture was of the underneath of the car showing an after market exhaust installation. In the picture I noticed that it appeared to have a heat shield between the exhaust and the driveshaft center support. My A6 did not have this shield. I brought this up with dealer service dept. but did not get any reaction. So I printed the picture and took it to the dealer and showed it to the shop foreman who was over seeing the repair of my vehicle. I also talked to the parts dept. and found what appeared to be shield under my VIN. The shop foreman and I then ultimately determined that my car was missing this shield and that is why the driveshaft center support bearing bushing failed prematurely. So, why was this shield missing you ask. Well, about 2.5 years ago on our trip to Nashville I encountered a fairly large rock on the interstate, I made sure not run over it with a tire, that did extensive damage to the underside of the passenger side of the car. When the car was repaired this shield was not replaced or reinstalled by the repair facility. I have discussed this matter with the repair facility and it turns out that the shield does not show up in their system they use for determining the parts for my vehicle. Since this part was not listed I basically told them I would not hold them 100% responsible. They did make me a financial offer, which I accepted, that defrayed a substantial part of the driveshaft cost.

I have since installed the missing heat shield and hopefully this will prevent the current driveshaft from failing again.

The first driveshaft failed about 6 months after the under side damage was repaired which is when this shield became missing. This failure was covered under warranty so their was no investigation into the cause of the failure.

[agent47]

Here is the update to my driveshaft failure.

I tried to find if there was any info out on the internet about this driveshaft and it's failure rate. Did not find much but did come across a picture of an S6. The picture was of the underneath of the car showing an after market exhaust installation. In the picture I noticed that it appeared to have a heat shield between the exhaust and the driveshaft center support. My A6 did not have this shield. I brought this up with dealer service dept. but did not get any reaction. So I printed the picture and took it to the dealer and showed it to the shop foreman who was over seeing the repair of my vehicle. I also talked to the parts dept. and found what appeared to be shield under my VIN. The shop foreman and I then ultimately determined that my car was missing this shield and that is why the driveshaft center support bearing bushing failed prematurely. So, why was this shield missing you ask. Well, about 2.5 years ago on our trip to Nashville I encountered a fairly large rock on the interstate, I made sure not run over it with a tire, that did extensive damage to the underside of the passenger side of the car. When the car was repaired this shield was not replaced or reinstalled by the repair facility. I have discussed this matter with the repair facility and it turns out that the shield does not show up in their system they use for determining the parts for my vehicle. Since this part was not listed I basically told them I would not hold them 100% responsible. They did make me a financial offer, which I accepted, that defrayed a substantial part of the driveshaft cost.

I have since installed the missing heat shield and hopefully this will prevent the current driveshaft from failing again.

The first driveshaft failed about 6 months after the under side damage was repaired which is when this shield became missing. This failure was covered under warranty so their was no investigation into the cause of the failure.

Good to hear! Kudos to you for going so deep into the matter and getting it all sorted out!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk