Absolutely agree! Have you checked it?

I'm on the second one after only 84K miles on my W201. First was on warranty and the second was about 1000 miles ago. The first occurance was obvious as a growling sound was coming up from the center consul, which indicated a spalled bearing.

The second was weird. There was a squeaking noise coming from the same area, but only at about 15 MPH.

The center driveshaft bearing is mounted in a rubber cushioned steel pillow block. I had to remove the catalyst heat shield to see it, but it was easy to remove the three screws and work it out. Then I grabbed the shaft near the bearing and could freely move it. Closer visual inspection reveled that portions of the rubber were missing. Heat from the catalyst was probably a factor, despite the heat shield.

This wasn't a job I wanted to tackle with the car up on jackstands, but I have a good indy near me in Hermosa Beach, A & R German Motors. I drove the car down first thing in the morning and Ralph went right to work. Labor was two hours, and the total job was about $330 including a new bearing and pillowblock. He let me watch and inspect the driveshaft when it was out. The front "flex disk", which is really a torsional vibration damper (replaced at 60K) was in good shape as were the front and rear flex couplings. The u-joint had a very slight notch, but given I only drive the car about 500 miles per year Ralph said it was okay for now. Had the u-joint needed replacement he would have had to send the driveshaft to an outside shop for a full rebuild.

While doing my inspection for the noise, I highlighted the matchmarks on two driveshaft pieces with a yellow tire crayon to be sure it got assembled with proper indexing. The dealer who replaced the flexdisk didn't do that, which resulted in a slight vibration. They got to redo the job!

The center driveshaft bearing/pillowblock isn't discussed much here, but I've had to do two replacements in a little over 80K miles. It should be inspected every time the car is up in the air for service - just grab and wiggle the driveshaft as close to the center bearing as possible to check if it flops around.

Duke