portland driveline sucks. their csb last about 8 months. no autox. just normal drivin

[richardkeith97]

just had my car looked at by a bmw/mini specialist. they shower me my csb and it has no hubber around the edge. this was replaced in july of last year. theirs no reason for this. i baby my car and have never autox it. i just contacted them and they said their call me back. either way im not paying anyone to put their $20 support bearing on my car.

[Danny]

Sometimes parts fail.

[FredK]

Depends on the CSB. I've had a Uro Parts CSB fail in 600 miles.

[richardkeith97]

well they told me over the phone it was a bmw part. it def is not

[dashboardmonkey]

Did you replace the whole drive shaft or just the csb? You cant blame the csb if thats all you replaced. A csb failure is usually due to bad u joints or guibo failure. Guibo failure is usually due to bad u joints too. All the components of a drive shaft work with eachother, one part failing is usually due to another component failing.

[FredK]

Well, Portland Driveline remanufactures driveshafts.

[richardkeith97]

bought the complete portland driveshaft and got the guibo from blunt. they just use a cheap csb. i called them and told them and i have my receipt. they said i had a year warranty and theyd call me right back. never called back

[richardkeith97]

got a csb from bmw. cost $200. hoping i never have to do with job again. mechanic said ujoints and guibo lookn to be in like new condition (6 months old).

[FLG]

Why did you pay $200 for a $30 part?

[Jean]

Lol! $200?!

[richardkeith97]

bmw dealership. obviously a $30 csb only last les then a year. i domt have off street parking so im limited to what i can do myself. charging me $250 to install it. id rather not go withour a car for a week and pay the extra $170 for peace of mind

[SkiFree]

This sounds like a bad situation all around, a lot of coulda woulda shoulda.

The center support bearing is no longer a $30 part for a decent one, however nor is it $200 (and yes, bmw list price is now at $195). Febi's are good (been using them on mine and on the race cars) they are still available around $38-$45.

I have seen el cheapo CSB's appear on the market in the last couple years, had more than one MTC piece have the rubber deteriorate within a couple hundred miles (and yes everything else was done to the T). In general try and stay away from MTC, Uro, and Karlyn rubber parts. They tend not use rubber fit for the application.

[FredK]

Yep. I've used a Rein center support bearing for 30K miles. It is in great shape, and it also costs less than the Febi at around $25.

[Todd Black 88]

http://www.bmaparts.com/ShopByVehicle.epc?q=&makeid=bmw%40%40BMW&yearid=1988%40%401988&modelid=m3%40%40M3&pttypeid=drive-shaft-center-support@@Drive+Shaft+Center+Support&mode=PA

Febi, $30 at bma

[richardkeith97]

well the jobs done. i also didnt have time to wait for shipping. bmw had the part in stock. atleast i know i got a good part and i shouldnt have to deal with this again for a long time. i have the old one and the rubber just cracked and seperated. either way the point of this thread was so tell people to stay away from portland unless you want to replace the csb before installing because they use a cheap csb.