Good day to all who reads this thread. I have a 2015 LR4 with a drive shaft center support and the center support grommet is worn. I have it with the dealer who discovered this during a full inspection. They want to replace the entire drive shaft and was hoping to see if anyone has successfully replaced just the center support as I do see them for sale. However, the ones I am seeing state only up to the 2013 model LR4. If it's possible to just replace the center support and not the entire drive shaft, I could manage the myself this spring and save 3K dollars. The below picture shows thew center carrier minus thew worn rubber grommet.

Many thanks to this forum for any guidance!

 

You can just replace the the center support, but it is a ton of work, and you still need to pull the drive shaft, to change the bearing and inspect the all the joints anyway. So labour wise it is likely not worth it for a shop. A drive shaft from atlantic british is about 600.00, and any independent shop can do the work. 3K is nuts, but the is oem parts and dealer labour.

 

Richard, thank you for the quick reply and insight. I see now what you are saying about just replacing the center support. Jumped on the AB website and you're right in the ballpark, $565 plus shipping. Mush appreciated!!

 

I have done 3 of them and had one successfully last. When you take the cover off, it typically gets bent up to the point its very hard to get it back together. The only other option I have seen that works well is the 2-piece kit that is more expensive than most of the cheaper driveshafts themselves, and its still no walk in the park to cut your old carrier bearing off.

 

I have yet to see a main driveshaft that has a worn out center support yet still has other joints that are in spec. If you plan to keep it, I would get a new shaft. Pretty easy to swap. Otherwise you can buy a support that does not require removing the shaft, as gunsrovers mentions. And they are pretty expensive anyway. If you get a shaft, OEM only which would be LR boxed but those green stickers are very expensive. So GKN/Spicer branded is fine, which is OEM. Just do not get from Lucky8 since they will sell you GKN but ship you a cheap Chinese one. GKN/Spicer shipped from UK is $730.00 USD but also has 81 of that price in tariffs......

 

I had a center bearing in the garage and figiured I'd try it again (last attempt was a failure). Found both the rear joint and center CV were both notchy and I tried removing the rear u joint to see if it is possible. Not really possible to remove it and even if one did the caps are swaged in and I doubt my 12 ton press will swage them back in.
I bought a cheapo Amazon driveshaft that has been working so far.