Black grease just started showing on front left wheel

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

The GKN Loebro boot kits should be $20 per side - pop the joint out of the hub and take the outer joint off, disassemble and clean completely - takes a bit more time but its worth it as you don't want to muff up your OE axles -

Do both sides.

If you going to take the cv joint out of the hub you may want to buy this tool to remove the CV joint off the axle. It makes removing the CV joint off the axle a lot easier than using a dead blow or sledge hammer to remove it.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzEuu2F-tX8

[Babytank]

Or bolt on brake rotor and use 3 jaw puller.

[squidzilla]

I went to the website that sells that tool.. They do not list it as on of their products anymore. Too bad since it looks handy.

[upallnight]

eBay is your best friend for this tool.

[80stech]

There is lots of those on Ebay, looks very handy, I think I'm going to get one. How about a tool to pull the axle stub back into the hub? Should be like sleeve that threads over the axle nut part and also has external threads to pull the stub in far enough to get the axle nut started.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by 80stech

There is lots of those on Ebay, looks very handy, I think I'm going to get one. How about a tool to pull the axle stub back into the hub? Should be like sleeve that threads over the axle nut part and also has external threads to pull the stub in far enough to get the axle nut started.

BMW have a special tool for pulling the CV joint back into the hub, but I think someone on this forum made his own and may rent it to you.

You can see how the special tool is used to pull the cv joint back into the hub in this youtube video.

If you don't want to see the entire video the tool start at 7:00 into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TCe1Cc4KGk

[80stech]

Haha, Awesome! that's exactly what I was thinking! I'm more of a "buy the tool" guy though, I don't like to rent. Maybe someone could make a batch of those for sale While we are talking about front axle, is there a slide hammer adapter that will fit the slots in the inner joint to pull the shaft? I know there is such a thing for other vehicles but wondering if it's the right size and if it works for the E53 ?

[squidzilla]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

The GKN Loebro boot kits should be $20 per side - pop the joint out of the hub and take the outer joint off, disassemble and clean completely - takes a bit more time but its worth it as you don't want to muff up your OE axles -

Do both sides.

Any idea how much more time doing that extra step will add? I figure a noob like me will need an hour or two just to do the "30 minutes" option. I am trying to get an idea of time exposure so I can plan this on the right day. If I do the second step, I am going to get that special tool that upallnight mentioned.

I only need to do the one side since the passenger side axel was replaced at the BMW dealer almost two years ago or 7k miles max. Goes to show that they tend to fail in pairs since this one just went in the past 20 miles I bet.

[Ricky Bobby]

It will probably add an hour or two - IMO you could do the "30 minute reboot" option if you caught it before the boot split and started spewing grease - however you want to get the joint out and the contaminated grease out of the joint so you dont end up at BMW replacing the whole axle again.

Biggest problem is pulling the axle back in the hub when done - some people just hammer on the hub with a block of wood -

When i did my wheel bearings (and cv boots too since it was out of the hub anyway as preventative) I pushed the axle out of the hub with a slide hammer/hub puller kit which had the flange that went over the hub and locked down with wheel bolts and then used the threaded rod with a 6 sided end and wound the rod into the center of the axle to push it out - worked easy and the tool rental was free at Pep Girls/Advance Auto Parts