Just putting this out there for anyone who might also own the same vehicle as my wife. Took her 2006 Saturn Vue AWD down to the shop late this morning to check brakes, rotate tires, misc. maintenance, etc. I also wanted to take off her “peeling” chrome step bars. I originally thought they were metal as the dealer re-installed them when we bought it for the peeling issue going on with the one’s already on it. Turns out they’re plastic instead.
In any event, poking around checking things out while it was up there and HOLY SHIT, I find this:
The carrier bearing (or driveshaft center support) is FUCKING GONE!! Not on it’s way out or in need of attention, the driveshaft is freely moving around inside the bracket! I decided to make a call and Advanced around the corner had a replacement for 150.00 (Gold plated I assumed. Rock Auto has it for 80). I got the shafts out and thought I could wrap it up in a couple hours. Turns out, the center yoke and old assembly has to be pressed off the rear driveshaft and my press doesn’t have the geomtery to make this happen. By default, my wife gets to drive my beater F250 around for the next couple days. This genius design basically has a stiff rubber bushing that “supports” the driveshaft instead of a carrier bearing hard mounted to a bracket.
This is what it looks like new.
If anyone has a Vue, I would suggest taking a look. My wife’s has about 40,000 miles on it and I couldn’t begin to guess how long it’s been this way. And if you ask how I could drive it like that and not notice, it didn’t make any vibration large enough to make it noticeable, if you can believe that. Anyone have suggestions who can press off / on the new assembly on a 36" +/- driveshaft? (Southtowns area). Internet post on this repair shows using a bearing puller on the yoke in conjunction with a press. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It’s extremely common with the vue/equinox platform. Fleet pride presses them in including a new carrier bearing for 160 if you bring them the driveshaft
Gonna check Klispies tomorrow as I’m working around the corner. If not, I’ll go Fleetpride. Then I’m gonna web search the mechanical moron that came up with this friggin setup, hunt him down, and…
This is the problem with having vehicles sold here that were designed by Brits & Germans for low altitude areas in Europe, cant hold up to our Snowy Winterland’s saltine muthafuckin roads :\
As far as corrosion on the undercarriage it’s really in good shape. The design of this “bearing support” is just really ridiculous. Had a couple other low mileage issues but overall I’d say we’re 89% happy with it.
Is that because you have the V6 with a Honda motor in it? My domestic loving uncle loves his Vue and I have to constantly remind him that it has this motor.
It does have the Hiroshima V6 in it and I can’t complain about the motor. Only major issue we had was with the right front wheel bearing shitting the bed at about 20,000 if I remember correctly. Bearings shouldn’t go bad that soon. I think the bearings in my Z have over 140,000 on them and still good. And yes, I would’ve been really pissed if I had to do this on the creeper. This is not the vehicle I intended to have on the lift most often but it’ll get it’s chance. Klispies came through like a friggin hero. $ 22.00 total bill, dropped it this morning at 9:30 and got a call to pick it up around 2:00. They even sandblasted / cleaned the yoke and u-joint collars. Everything back together and the princess seems happy. Don’t think she liked tooling around in my 99 F250 with the pillow behind her back cause she couldn’t quite reach the pedals.
Ever since I head the carrier / support bearing installed, I’ve had a vibration which is definitely drive-line related. I wanted to investigate sooner, but time didn’t permit. I’ll try to be brief, yet descriptive.
Vibration started around 35-40 mph and continued up to 60 mph. Still there beyond 60, just less irritating.
Took to my shop and figured maybe I didn’t install the driveshaft correctly and it was a little “off”. Marked the shaft and yoke (4 bolts) and rotated 90 degrees, re-bolted. Test drove and it seemed a little better. Took back to shop and figured I was headed in the right direction. Rotated another 90 degrees and I think I’m back where I started.
My thinking is that my rotating of the shaft shouldn’t have an effect because the shaft yoke and rear pumpkin yoke have a male / female type insertion ring which, in my mind, would allow the shaft to be centered to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
My conclusions at this point:
There is something I don’t know about positioning / mounting the shaft that I hope someone can point out.
The new carrier bearing was bad out of the box and would have to be replaced. Not likely, but possible. Also, based on the design, I would have to say this is not the issue as the rubber mount allows the shaft to “float” in the mount. Also, when the rubber portion of the bearing was totally deteriorated (see previous pics) there was no vibration. I only found it because I happened to be poking around under there.
Note: I did replace the front u-joints at the time I had the new carrier bearing pressed on. I didn’t replace the rear due to lack of time / patience, the existing one moved freely, and the joint had less than 50,000 miles on it.
Any suggestions or possibilities would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for responding. Not sure what you mean by “out of phase”? The center yoke was pressed on to the rear portion of the shaft and the two connected by the u-joint. What would Klispies be doing when they “re-phase” the shaft? I am assuming I’d have to pull the u-joints back out again.
I’ve also seen the yokes crack and bend being removed b/c they’re absolute shit, or the shaft could have thrown a weight or have been damaged after the bearing went bad, or caused the bearing to fail… chicken, egg… chicken shit.
