Driveshaft Vibration up to 20mph in 1st and 2nd gear

[egrabruck]

My first thread on this forum...I have a 1991 535i 5sp with 109000 miles. I have read most of threads about driveshaft/center bearing/guibo problems but I am sill getting (in fact worse since repairs) vibrations. I now have vibrations in 1st and 2nd gear up to 20 mph. It is worse when the car is cold (I'm in Detroit, so it's cold), but doesn't completely go away. I used to have a vib. at around 40mph under hard aceleration and because of it have replaced the guibo, centering bushing/sleeve, the center bearing and trans mounts. Since center bearing replacement (I did this 2 months after the guibo) I have gotten the vib at low speeds I have described. I have since gone back in and re-preloaded the ceter bearing to see if that was the problem and it is better, but still there, unlike before I replaced it. My question (finally) is 2 part: should I try to preloaded it again, and if I did it wrong the first time did I damage the center bearing (only put about 150 miles on it since repl.) and should I buy another one. Other suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Sam-Son]

so you replaced the guibo and teh center bearings and trans mounts and you checked the preload settings on the center bearing.....
well you've got everything that would have caused said problem I honestly cant think of what else it could be did you read through bentley?

[BigKriss]

maybe its the cv joints on the half shafts. i have the same problem

[Ross]

Are you sure the guibo is in correctly?

[egrabruck]

No, I have not looked at Bentleys, but I work at a BMW dealer and I have one of the tech's do all my service on the car. He is willing to go back in a third time and see if he pre-loaded it correctly but not sure how you can tell for sure. And again I am wondering if I have damaged the center bearing by not pre-loading correctly since replacing it the 1st time 200 miles ago.

Per the suggested guibo installation idea; how could you do it wrong? I used new bolts and self locking nuts. Could the new centering sleeve I installed for the new guibo cause any problems?

[Jon K]

Center bearing and guibo, done.

Just diagnosed this problem last night on my mothers E30. I've now done this repair 6 times :( Mom needs a loaner so the deeeaaaaler is doing it. Eeek. Pre load that thing carefully and you should be fine.

[Ross]

The guibo has arrows on it that should point to the flange.

[egrabruck]

I have now got a copy of Bentleys and they talk about proper centered alignment of the driveshaft in tunnel with little deflection angles from trans to rear support, or can get vibrations. Mine is not centered at all, and can't see how you can adjust this. Where it is is where it is. Any thoughts?

[DanH]

You can also get vibrations if the center driveshaft spline was reassembled differently to make it unbalanced. I would check that too.

[egrabruck]

OK, I have finally fixed the problem by replacing the whole driveshaft with a new one from BMW because taking a closer look at the CV joint determined it was almost shot. It started to make noise and the vibrations steadly got worse. But I did discover an interesting thing while comparing the 2 driveshafts on the ground, the new center bearing I put on 6 or so weeks ago was installed backwards!! I don't know if this pushed the CV joint over the edge of it's life, but that is when the low end speed vibrations started. So the past attempts to preload the center bearing were futile.
Good news problem fixed (knock on wood), bad news I spent $750 in a new driveshaft and DUPLICATE guibos and center bearings.
Just wanted to let people know and maybe will help others in diagnosing similar problems.
Erick