There may be some confusion as the parts list calls the Guibo a "universal joint" when the joint I'm referring to is actually unlabeled, directly below numbers 11&12 in the diagram. That one is sold as part of the assembly. Make sure you check that piece as well as it can cause vibes on the shaft as it wears!

Gotcha. Thanks for the tip. :) That part of the driveshaft looks good!

Was the guibo bad or did you feel it was time to change it anyway?

I felt slight driveline vibration in the pedal at higher speeds under slight accel. This led me to look at balancing the wheels and inspect the driveshaft. I had already replaced the front guibo a year ago. I have had the replacement rear guibo and center bearing for a year now, hadn't gotten around to replacing it for whatever reason. When I replaced the original (136k miles) rear guibo and center bearing yesterday, the guibo did appear aged and showed cracks if you tried to flex the disk in half. The old center bearing did not show much wear. The wheels were .25 - .50 oz off balance.

There is no vibration now, but I do want to replace that lobro joint at some point soon.

Picked up a set of brand new Bridgestone ecopia to replace the current tires that are warn on the outside fairly bad. I got the Bridgestone cheap on craigslist $300. I did the lower/upper control arm and ball joint this summer but the tires were already warn by then so even an alignment didn't seem to have fixed the uneven wear afterwards. Will get new tires on tomorrow morning and balance them, then take my final and off to chicago for the holidays.

Have a great trip!

bc, have you taken the X out of the garage since the snow/ice here 11 days ago?

Roads here in Coppell are finally clean/dry enough for me to roll the X out.

This morning was the first time out, couldn't stand to wait any longer. As it is I had to start it up over the weekend. I only went to get new contacts about 2 miles away. I'm going to wait until Wednesday to go on any roads where the speed limit is over 50 and will put the bra on the front just in case.

Same here. Fired up & idled to operating temp on Fri. Kept it around town today to avoid the dust.

It wasn't today, however last Friday I had the transmission fluid/filter service done and the transfer case fluid changed. The transmission was doing the 1st gear slam at take off and a little bit of it at the downshift to a stop. I'm not sure if it was low on trans fluid this time, but it was the low first time I had it done at 120k. I did it again at 180k and now at 211k. I was told that the fluid was still clean and no signs of contaminants, etc., but the mechanic was not there when I picked up the X to tell me if it was low on fluid.

The symptoms have since gone away and I have driven the X5 550+ miles North to Ohio. No problems. Even the cold weather here has not caused any problems. There is still a groaning sound coming from the center of the vehicle after initial acceleration. Not sure what that is.