Renault Scenic RX4 - Various Questions

SVJ · Jan 10, 2011

My last post in this thread. From the horse's mouth:

Dave Mac Propshafts in an e-mail I received today said:
The vibration dampers are steel rings, like a flywheel. However they are not securely fixed to the rotating propshaft. They sit on a rubber cushion which means that their mass (inertia) damps or actually absorbs some of the peaks and troughs in the rotation of the item(props). When the rubber becomes worn they are no longer held correctly in the centre of rotation and so become very heavy bob-weights causing severe vibrations.

When you remove the propshaft bolts and remove the propshaft and rubber coupling, you will find that both the front and rear damper, as in your photo, are secured with 3 (each) top hat type bushes.
Just tap these loose with a chisel or screwdriver (eye protection should be worn). The dampers will come away from the prop/diff respectively.
Remove the 3 bushes from the dampers and re-use these (i.e. replace them from where they came in the diff/prop WITHOUT the damper). These then act a spacers taking up the space where the damper
was.

OzRX4 · Jan 10, 2011

Good reply from DMac.

If I offended by my comments, sorry but you need thicker skin.

I was only lamenting what I'd been told first hand. I hadn't heard of or even thought you would be able to do much with those.

Will keep an eye on the ones in my Rx4 too.

Your post helped me at least.

Let us know what it's like without the dampers please.

SVJ · Jan 10, 2011

I will post the results. It shouldn't be much of a problem, Dave Mac has apparently serviced dozens of propshafts this way.
Sorry, but it was like 3AM when I posted that. I had had correspondence with Dave Mac as well as a few other message boards on this matter, writing the same stuff over and over.
English is not my first language either, just wanted to get those details cleared out and done with

SVJ · Jan 17, 2011

OK, here we go!

I just picked up my RX4 after my mechanic had removed the vibration dampers and put in the new stronger rubber coupling.

The vibrations are gone! Like night and day!

There are some residual vibrations at 80 km/h to be specific, I bet it's because the former owner drove MANY miles with the propshaft vibrating. Perhaps it is slightly tweaked ...

But nevertheless, tremendous difference!

OzRX4 · Jan 18, 2011

That's a great result. Mine was the same after I replaced the rubber coupling.

Renault Scenic RX4 - Various Questions

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