Bottomed out E53 via INPA susp changes, blew CV.

[jayarc]

My phone camera is so terrible I could get nothing but shots that look like hoth underneath the car where it's located. With my phone flashlight it's clear that the outer CV blew apart, found one of the three pivoting bearings in the road after the mishap.


I've ordered a new CV and I'm hoping once things are open I'll find I haven't messed up the splines in the transfer case, we'll see. Learning from my mistakes.


If any of you know which resource is the most in detail for air susp ride height calculations with INPA I'd appreciate it. The whole process is translated and can be ambiguous IMO in terms of what to punch in at times. A good guide for doing that with INPA I'd appreciate much, I'm going to get searching again as well.


So for now I've ordered the front right axle with new seal, the other front looked ok. I'd also like to order bump stops for the fronts but parts sites like ECS/FCP aren't completely clear on which part may be right. Some just say "not for sport susp." 4.8is has all-4-air and sport suspension from what I gather. Anybody know which front bump stops?


Thanks again for your help guys, this forum is a super resource

[jayarc]

Found the bump stops

[jayarc]

So after getting her back to the house and it sitting on my garage floor I see an oil leak that made a five foot long pool after a night sitting. I'm going to assume that's coming from the diff seal and I'm wondering if that's more of a sign that the transfer case/diff took some of the torque damage :/


My indy friend says it doesn't happen a lot that the transfer case gets chewed up but the oil leak suggests some movement occured in the area. If the CV is broken apart and hanging down, I wonder if that alone would make that seal leak out. More news after the new year when the axle parts arrive.

[andrewwynn]

If the CV broke and floppes around, it could have damaged a line that carries oil making your leak I would track down the exact source

[jayarc]

So I'm finally more down the road with this. It turned out the PO/Dealer had different front air struts on each side. Drivers side was a remanufactured Arnott BMW strut and the left was a Suncore air strut. I called Suncore because that was the side that created the breakage and they told me outright that their air strut would allow bottoming out to happen. Maybe the bmw/arnott on the other side would have broken as well if it was Suncore. All in all surprising to me that this was possible on top of my bad INPA calibration numbers.


I replaced the axle, seal and my sway bar links up front while I was at it. Drove it around trying to calibrate it a little bit being extremely careful to not bottom out. The calibration was difficult, I had a feeling something wasn't right. Then I turned on the Analog readings while I was backing down my driveway. I could see the rear height numbers moving according to which wheel was high/or low they look good, the fronts never changed value, somehow the front height values were locked in place or the height sensors disabled, who knows. They weren't working like the back sensors.


The short, I decided I'm not going to have my kids riding around with any suspension this could happen to, scary. I ordered a spring conversion kit for all 4 from ECS, FCP didn't have anything or anybody else. I went to a pick your part and got two front strut assemblies off of a 4.4 and I'll have more updates soon.


Also, after I got the axle in I found out the leak I was seeing of diff fluid was not the old seal getting ravaged from the CV breaking but the nice little o-ring behind the axle bracket on the passenger side. Got the axle back in and tried it out only to look under the car the next day and see all the gear oil back on the floor. Joy! It's pretty obvious that the diff oil is coming out from behind that metal bracket. I have to take all four wheels off for the spring conversion anyway and apparently there some way I can spare myself taking the new axle out of the hub.


I'm slowly learning that the largest problems with cars are not the cars, but the people who've touched them. I'm still gonna fix her up nice.

[e39 4.6]

Originally Posted by jayarc

I'm slowly learning that the largest problems with cars are not the cars, but the people who've touched them. I'm still gonna fix her up nice.

+1, I've had to fix lots of bad work on my x5

[jayarc]

New developments mean I'm doing more work but the positives are I'll take care of nearly every oil leak this E53 commonly has.


I got the new axle in there and there was still a leak from behind the passenger axle bracket, my assumption was o-ring.


I received my air to springs conversion kit and was ready to take the axle back out and address the o-ring leak. I got the bracket off and one of the tabs the bolts go through was broken when it came off, good thing I ordered another bracket in case the o-ring area had been damaged. I was wrong about the source of my leak, and I knew I thought the stuff on the floor looked too much like engine oil than new gear oil I just put in.



It turns out the CV axle breaking broke the bracket AND left a hairline crack in the upper oil pan, rats! I got lucky and there was a salvage yard 20m away that had a 2004 4.4 pan for $160.


Since I'm doing all that the upper panjob requires, I should probably tend to some other things at the same time because it's new to me and @ 160K.



- Alternator bracket stuffs
- Oil filter housing gasket
- Engine mounts
- Both axle seals again
- Passenger axle bracket o-ring
- New fluids for engine, diff, transfer case


I'm also planning on doing a trans/mechatronics valve body update with new sleeve, seals both rectangular and the cylindrical ones and the trans pan gasket. The solenoids seem ok because I haven't had any lights come up. Reason for this is a slight 2 to 1 downshift harshness.


While it's opened up what else should I do?