It depends on the vehicle if there are drain plugs or not on the diffs. My X5 has drain plugs however my 335d does not.

It really makes no difference in labor if they have drain plugs or not. I've changed both styles. To change one without a drain plug just requires the use of an extraction pump, which are like $10 to buy

Personally with the shitty location of the fill plug on the front diff, its a huge pain to change. 2x if you have adapative drive as they route the solid metal oil lines right in front of the fill plug... draining no problem


I've done it to my x5 and 335d