Drive Shaft Clamping Bearing Support Mount for Porsche Cayenne & VW Touareg - THE ONLY PERMANENT FIX 95542102015EPS / 7LO521102MXEPS

This was the second time the bearing support had failed on me, the first was at 58k miles and was covered by a warranty that replaced the propshaft per VW standard procedure, this was only 32k miles later & the warranty was no more. This time I decided to go the permanant fix solution way & replace the bearing carrier with the split bearing carrier by EPS, which at $395 was <25% of the last repair.The procedure is written up in other posts here and shown in the video linked from EPS website and listed in the box the parts are delivered in. The only things I would add is DO use a cutoff tool, using a hacksaw is a real pain - I couldn't find mine so had to use a hacksaw so I know! When you have almost all the rubber cut off the bearing race, so it's only a very thin layer, use an ELECTRIC DRILL WITH A SMALL WIRE WHEEL to clean the residue off the bearing race - it cleans it off quickly and really well and doesn't damage the race at all.I decided not to replace the rubber flex linkage as it still seems to be in good condition, likewise the bearing race felt like it was still well greased inside, so I've left that for another 30k miles or so...It took me half a day with lots of time spent searching for my angle grinder and re-hydrating 'coz I'm in AZ and it was running over 100F. Also wondered about the best way of getting the residual rubber of the bearing race for a while before going for a wire wheel, that I then had to find - time to rearrange my tools in the garage! Without the messing about it should be easily doable in a couple of hours.Something else I noticed was that I had had some steering wheel vibration at freeway speeds that I had assumed was because I need new tyres, after replacing the part the vibration has gone - I'm thinking that this was because the OEM support bush was failing/was not damping the propshaft very well and wonder how much of the steering wheel vibration felt on the Touareg may be down to poor propshaft damping?Well worth the money, easy to do yourself or inexpensive to have fitted.

I was about 70 miles away from home when the bearing support on my Touareg gave up life. I have owned my Touareg for around 9 years now, I love my Touareg, I thought that the repair would be more than the value of the vehicle as it is now. I usually give the vehicle to VW for everything to keep it in tip-top shape but, with a repair potentially this costly I started to look at buying a new Touareg, or Q7. I stumbled across this part, read the reviews and thought "why not". The part arrived and I was done in around an hour. Undo some bolts, drop the mounting plate, cut off the old support surround, clean the rubber off the bearing, bolt up the new support, bolt the mounting plate back on..........JOB DONE!!I have a compressor, cut off tool and air impact wrench. However, this is easy enough to do with handtools it will just take a bit longer.......it depends on how desperately you want to give VW $1500 to $2000.The longest part of the whole job was getting the molded on rubber of the support bracket off the bearing. You need all the rubber off - no it is not impossible, I did it. It took me 12 box cutter blades, laying on my back with a light shining on the part - take your time, wear gloves so that yo do not cut your fingers when that blade inevitably jumps at you. Just slowly, slowly, do not rush and it will happen quickly enough.Seriously, an easy job and money saved.

This worked perfect for my wife’s cayenne. I paid a local auto body shop in town $500 to install it because I didn’t have a lift or a gear puller

I own two 2009 Porsche Cayenne’s, and having spent $1544 at the stealership to replace a driveshaft in one of them only 6 months ago, I was not looking forward to making this costly repair again; at least not this soon after the other. The stealership told me the driveshaft in my wife's vehicle was bad and needed to be replaced. They did not offer any alternative. The thumping in the area of the center console was very bad and the vehicle was not driveable, so I went ahead and had the repairs made. With the new driveshaft installed, the vehicle drove well; noise gone, so while a lot of money, I was happy to pay it, until I came across the EPS drive shaft bearing support mount.At $399, for a permanent solution to the common cardan shaft problem that Cayenne's and Touareg's seem to have, the EPS mount looked like a good option, so I ordered one for my Cayenne. The part arrived quickly with Amazon Prime. I was surprised a flex disc was included because, although shown in the product description on the Amazon.com website, there is no mention of it in the written information, and I wasn’t able to find a EPS/Vertex video showing its installation. Installation of the flex disc is straight forward; remove the 6 bolts, carefully pry off with a flat bar or screwdriver and slide the driveshaft back to remove it.On removal and inspection, the factory bearing support looked as bad as the one shown in the installation video, with the rubber completely eaten away. I was surprised I didn’t hear more thumping than the brief rumble I was experiencing on acceleration from a stop, at about 20 mph.The minimum tools required for installation are a #6 hex to tighten the 4 bolts on the EPS mount, 13mm and a 15mm sockets to remove the bolts on the bracket to the existing bearing support, a hack saw or pneumatic metal cutting wheel to remove the existing bearing support, 2 – 3 razor blades to slice the rubber off the bearing, a small flat head screwdriver or other pokey device to remove the seals on the bearing, a good quality bearing grease to repack the bearing, gloves, and safety glasses/goggles to keep the dirty bits of this and that from falling into your eyes.As others reported, the majority of your time will be spent shaving and cleaning all of the rubber off the bearing. Some of the rubber can be removed with your fingers, but the majority of the removal will require a razor blade and a copious amount of time, persistence and patience. After installation of the EPS mount, I took the vehicle for a drive and, while the 'rumble' is completely gone, I experience a vibration at 30 - 40 mph that can be felt in the headliner, which was not present before installation. I removed the EPS mount and reinstalled it, making certain to firmly tighten down the bolts, however the vibration is still there.I contacted EPS/Vertex and spoke w/ support in the hopes they could offer a solution. To eliminate the possibility of a defective mount, they shipped me out a new one, which I installed, which cured the vibration I was experiencing at ~30 mph, but now there was a brief flutter at ~40 mph (feels like driving over a rumble strip). I again contacted Vertex and informed them of the issue I was now experiencing and they sent me out a rebuilt driveshaft that is pre-balanced and has an OEM flex disc and bearing mount pre-installed. I had the rebuilt driveshaft installed by a local shop (not an authorized Porsche service station) for $150 (1-1/2 hours labor), which completely restored the ride quality in my Cayenne. If you can get away with installing an EPS mount, and it works for you, purchase that, but if not, I'd recommend spending a bit more money and replacing the OEM driveshaft with a rebuilt one from Vertex.On a side note, customer service at Vertex is excellent and they promptly responded to all of my email and telephone calls.