bent drive shaft?

The Oily Bits S1 Specific Topics
1

hello chaps,
i am being very busy in the garage at the moment, and one of my jobs is to sort out what i think is a wheel bearing. Symptoms of pulsing vibration felt through the car and speed related, reducing significantly on left hand corners.

so i concluded after spinning the wheels by hand, slight noise on RH rear and no play either side anywhere, that the RH bearing is shot. so i have taken the brakes off and then rotated the hub and i can clearly see the drive shaft wobbleing out of line. when i chock up a reference point to the shaft and rotate it there is about 2-3 mm movement at the outboard end.

i have not had a hard hit, although been doing a few track days. can the bearing give such strange symptoms or is the CV joint boogered. i am at a loss here. any ideas?

2

I had a drive shaft go on me after a few weeks (bearings collapsed, manu defect). Lotus said they’d never had that happen on an Elise variant. It’s symptoms were the whole rear end of the car wobbling under any significant power (over 25% throttle).

I’d be surprised if it was bent, I’m not sure the car really has the power/torque, unless you’ve been hitting things.

Ian

3

If it’s just moving as you rotate it, but it doesn’t have play (feels solid) I would say it’s a bent shaft.
Never seen that happen though.

4

It’d probably be easier to just take the shaft off and check it seperately from the car and hub… IMHO.

If you look from the back of the hug you can just see the bearing and see if there’s any play in that area?

5

Lotus said they’d never had that happen on an Elise variant.

!!! Thats hysterical !!!

6

!!! Thats hysterical !!!

It blooming wasn’t heading in to a roundabout when the whole car started to wobble so much my vision blurred!

Ian

7

right then, i will pull the lot off the car and check the shaft is straight, the bearing will be done anyway while it is all apart.

to the batcave robin.

8

I’ve got a set of used drive shafts off my 26,000m car that are available for a couple of beer tokens. cv joints and boots are intact.

9

I’ve got a set of used drive shafts off my 26,000m car that are available for a couple of beer tokens. cv joints and boots are intact.

thanks very much for the offer carsten, i am changing the bearing tomorrow morning and then i can review the driveshaft when it is all apart. i will let you know if you are to be getting drunk soon!

10

sorted! just changing the bearing has resolved the driveshaft wobble. it must have been pretty boogered. thanks for the advise and kind offers of parts.

11

Was this just a speed related wobble???
I’ve got a wobble at80+mph which has not been cured by 2 sessions of balancing.
And then there’s the problem with the car…