Danny's X5 4.6 Thread

[semcoinc]

Great planning for an >200K miles vehicle Danny!

When you get around to it I'm sure you'll be giving that tranny some attention.

Mike

[dannyzabolotny]

So it's been about 3 months since the X5 broke down, and I'm finally getting around to fixing it. Life got in the way for a while— I moved to a different house in a different part of town (no more HOA!), worked on chain guides for a 740i, did a heck of a lot of work on my 540i touring, worked on a Mustang GT with a friend, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I had the X5 towed to my new house, and it just kinda sat in the backyard for a while. I ended up using my 540i touring to push it further into the backyard so that I could access the garage and use the backyard for parking other cars.





It's desperately in need of a wash, though it's got a coat of sealant on the paint so the paint should be okay despite sitting in the sun for months. It also hasn't been super hot until recently so that's a good thing. Amazingly, the battery only died recently— I was able to lock/unlock it last month when I needed to get something from it. The last time I started it was in March, but it started just fine.

In any case, I found a person parting out an X5 4.6 with much lower miles than mine, and he sold me the transfer case so now I don't have to reuse my questionable 214k mile transfer case. I also bought a new transfer case chain and an extended driveshaft from Cobra Transmission, so everything should come together nicely once all of that stuff arrives early next week.

[xbimma]

Does that guy still have side mirrors?



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

[dannyzabolotny]

Originally Posted by xbimma

Does that guy still have side mirrors?

It's one of the guys on here, jcorreanyc. Shoot him a message about it.

[xbimma]

Originally Posted by dannyzabolotny

It's one of the guys on here, jcorreanyc. Shoot him a message about it.

Never mind. I missed those already. Thanks though.



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

[dannyzabolotny]

The X5 lives again! Huge thanks to jcorreanyc for selling me a 4.6is transfer case (apparently the 4.6 has a special LWX-500 transfer case) and shipping it all the way out from NYC. That was one heavy sucker!

The full writeup is coming later today once I can get everything off my DSLR, but let's just say it was quite the job! The transfer case is quite heavy when you have a foot and a half of clearance under the vehicle and the exhaust is quite fun to maneuver into place.

I replaced the transfer case, replaced the chain inside the transfer case, and replaced the front driveshaft with a brand new 1" extended one from Cobra Transmission. Fresh Dextron (5?) fluid inside the transfer case.

It's still quite filthy from sitting outside for the better part of 4 months, but it drives great. No check engine lights, no warning lights, and the drivetrain is super smooth. I took it on a shakedown at like 2:30am last night and everything went quite well. The engine fired right up and initially had a lifter tick from sitting for so long, but after a drive it sounded pretty good.

I drove it to work today and it was awesome. I forget how quick 4.6's feel, even though they're not all that quick on paper.

I documented the first part of this repair job in this video on my YouTube channel (shameless self-promotion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBy1HcVHOrM

[740iS]

Congrats on the repair and the smooth running X after all these months

[sharkk001]

Congratulations on you truck

[dannyzabolotny]

Alright, so here's the full story of my 4.6 resurrection.

I started by pulling the X5 back into my carport so I would be able to jack it up on solid ground (jacking up a vehicle on gravel is sketchy).



I then dropped the middle section of the exhaust, which was quite easy compared to dropping the whole exhaust on my 540it.



After that, I removed the heat shields and the transmission cross member while supporting the transmission with a jack. Then I undid the guibo bolts and the CSB to get the rear driveshaft out of the way. I didn't have to remove the driveshaft completely, I used another jack to keep it lifted so I didn't put any strain on the rear CV joint. With all of those things out of the way, I was able to lower the transmission a little bit to gain access to all the bolts holding on the transfer case. They're E14 external torx bolts usually, but whoever worked on this X5 previously had gotten crafty and used a 17mm bolt in one place. Once the bolts were loosened, I wiggled the transfer case a little and it came right off:





With the transfer case removed, I brought it to my workbench in the garage and cracked it open. Same E14 bolts all around. It's a pretty tight fit so even after removing the bolts the transfer case stays together. My solution was using a rubber mallet to tap it loose, that seems to have worked well for me. Here's what my 214k mile transfer case looked like on the inside:





The only indication of its mileage was in how loose the chain was, otherwise all of the gears looked really good. One thing to note is that unlike the regular 4.4 X5 that uses the NV-125 transfer case, the 4.6 uses an LWX-500 transfer case. It's pretty similar but has a few key differences, like in the way the internals are put together. The LWX-500 has all the gears just pressed into place so you can take it all apart by pulling on the components, whereas the NV-125 has snap rings holding the pieces together. Also, the NV-125 has a chain retainer spring piece whereas the LWX-500 does not. The transfer case chain itself is the same though— it's a Borg-Warner chain with one blue link.

While my 214k mile transfer case looked good internally, the front driveshaft output spline was totally stripped by the bad front driveshaft and that piece alone costs about $450 from Cobra Transmission, so I elected to get a good condition used transfer case. I found a forum member that was parting out a 4.6is with 141k miles and bought a transfer case from him. I opened it up, replaced the chain, and re-sealed it with black RTV, allowing the RTV to cure for about an hour before torquing the bolts down. Visually it looked identical to my 214k mile transfer case, proving that these units really were built to last.

With the transfer case ready to go, I took it back to the X5 and installed it, along with a 1" extended driveshaft that I bought from Cobra Transmission. It was quite tricky to line up and install the transfer case since I had to line it up to both the transmission output shaft and the front driveshaft at the same time. That's the only way to install a 1" extended driveshaft, by installing it with the transfer case.



After that it was all just reassembly. The only thing I did different was firing up the engine before exhaust was installed. I wanted to verify that the transfer case was working correctly before I went to the trouble of reinstalling the exhaust. Anybody here ever run a 4.6 without the exhaust? It is LOUD. Like, louder than my straight piped Mustang. I'm sure my neighbors appreciated me doing it at like 11pm on a Sunday night. Oh well, that's why I live in a non-HOA neighborhood!

Upon firing it up, everything worked perfectly. The engine fired up immediately, and once I put the transmission in gear I saw that all of the wheels were turning and in the correct direction. Relieved to see everything fixed, I finished reassembling the X5. The exhaust went back on pretty easily, and I finished the job off by reinstalling the stiffening plate (re-using the bolts, of course).

Dropping the X5 down to the ground, I took it on its maiden voyage, which I am happy to report was a success. No weird sounds, no warnings, and no CEL. After a thorough shakedown run I went to sleep, satisfied with my victory.

This repair took me most of a weekend, so in the grand scheme of things I guess it wasn't too bad. It was a lot less work than an average timing chain guide job, that's for sure!

I made a three part video series on my YouTube channel if anybody cares to see the job in more detail:

Part I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBy1HcVHOrM


Part II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjoimSevCE


Part III:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m8HcobIvsQ

[smokeyyank]

Nice! Glad you got it hammered out.