Propshaft donut

[Gavnr]

Last service a few months ago, Main dealer service advised that rubber donut was cracked and needed replacing.

What sort of life do these things have? I need to get under the car to have a look myself but how bad does it need to be/isn't it natural that rubber shows cracks but develops over time.

2013 w204 c63 on 50k miles

 

[ray_hennig]

What sort of life do these things have?

Mine were replaced at 417k Km.

You definitely do NOT want one of those to break. But 50k miles doesn't seem reasonable, unless you bang the clutch out at every opportunity.

But I suppose a 63 engine gives them rather more grief than my 300-24 engine and auto box.

RayH

 

[W1ghty]

Last service a few months ago, Main dealer service advised that rubber donut was cracked and needed replacing.

What sort of life do these things have? I need to get under the car to have a look myself but how bad does it need to be/isn't it natural that rubber shows cracks but develops over time.

2013 w204 c63 on 50k miles

Get an Indy to do things like that , half the labour price of MB

 

[optimusprime]

Gavnr Do get it done asap ,and take it easy till its done .This is what you get if its not replaced .

 

[Gavnr]

Thanks, will certainly check out properly with an indie.

TBH the main dealer didn't sound convincing when I asked them about how urgent it was which made me think it was one of those scaremongering advisories that they like to bend you over for.

 

[Spider10]

Mines on 52k and its fine, obviously depends on how the car has been treated its not a major job in any case
I had 1 go on a cortina year's ago they go with a bang

 

[clk320x]

Have a look underneath; doesn't seem like a common fault; mine hasn't been changed on one of mine with 270k miles

I changed the one on my W212 trying to get to the bottom of an odd vibration at certain RPMs (it had a small amount of surface cracking on the rubber)... made no difference and the problem was to do with something else..!!

If you do change it; when I did mine the MB part was around £200, Meyle was £50...

 

[markjay]

The only car I've ever replaced prop shaft dounuts on was a 1979 Alfetta, but on these cars the engine is at the front and the gearbox is at the rear, meaning that when you redline it (as you do with Alfa) the prop rotates at 7k rpm... which is why the dounuts work hard.

But on normal road-going cars, these dounuts typically last for the life of the car. They definitely shouldn't go at 8 years and 50k miles, not even on a C63 driven with gusto (and I am not suggesting yours was).

From the way you describe the dealer's response, I would hazard a guess that the dounut is showing signs of fatigue, perhpas some cracking or the rubber drying-up. I am assuming/hoping that if it looked like it was going to disintegrate any moment, they would have said as much....

 

[Riva811]

MB Chelsea suggest I replaced it in 2018, I didnt and they havent mentioned it ever since. So worth checking it out yourself.

 

[markjay]

The only car I've ever replaced prop shaft dounuts on was a 1979 Alfetta, but on these cars the engine is at the front and the gearbox is at the rear, meaning that when you redline it (as you do with Alfa) the prop rotates at 7k rpm... which is why the dounuts work hard.

This explains it well...