I replaced my cardan shaft few years ago. Guess what. Driving to work the other day, bang bang bang. Hear the all too familiar banging noise.

Barely got home that evening. Tonight went under the car and took some pics.
Has anyone had their flex disc torn? I have never heard of it. It was OEM (at least was claimed to be).

Now my questions are:
1. With the flex disc gone, does this mean the shaft is in need of replacement too? I was hearing that banging sound from under my car seat area when driving (even slow speed, when accelerating).

2. What other hardware do I need (aside of drive shaft and flex disc) when doing the replacement? Do not recall anymore.


Thanks. Here are the damage pics of the flex disc, and the shape of the support bearing. The shaft is moving up/down inside the bearing about a couple inches when I press hard with hand, but that's likely due to the bearing having rubber bushing. Advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

if anyone can chime in with advice as to whether it is better to replace whole shaft and flex disc or just the disc, it will be greatly appreciated. Trying to order if I have to before weekend, so parts gets here asap. Thank you.

 

Replace flex disc and Jimi Fix the support bearing. DONE..

 

I concur, you can replace just replace the flex disc.

I got a new one for about $107.00 w/tax in 2015; plus labor.

 

It really doesn't look like the bearing mount is on it's way out - yet.. so just the flex disk (called a GUIBO in BMW worlds.)

R&R probably requires moving the driveshaft back from the transmission an inch or so - usually this design has a center pin coming out of the driveshaft that goes into the flange on the back of the transmission - it's there in case the disk fails completely to keep the driveshaft from falling and jacking the vehicle up when it catches on a pavement joint. I actually saw this many many decades ago - old 1950's Buick - shaft dropped due to failure of the front U-joint, caught an expansion joint, rear of the car went into the air - then fell down when the rear axle ripped out. I was impressed. And have kept an eye on U-joints and flex disks ever since.

Note that the disk has a front and rear side - and it's important that it be mounted the correct way.

 

The flex disk suffers when the cardan shaft starts going. specifically the bolts stretch. It should have been replaced w new bolts when you did the shaft. I would buy the Vertex kit and replace both as the kit includes the flex disk and bolts with the shaft bearing. Just did mine and its an easy fix.