E53 2-piece front driveshaft story

[rslatara]

Just wanted to give a shout-out to USARepairs in Texas who makes the 2-piece front driveshaft with longer splines.

I initially thought it was transmission and dropped it into an Aamco. They quoted $5,000 (rebuilt parts) and then $3,000 (used) for a new transfer case and shaft. I decided to not have them do it after they offered me $500 for the car, as a mechanic wanted a project car for himself. The cost of diagnosis and towing was about $364.

I parked it up and then had my regular mechanic quote me, and he was about $1600-1700, much better than 3 or 5k. I mentioned the 2-piece to him, and he agreed to fit, but no warranty on the parts. You can leave the flex disc on.

There wasn't much info to go on, and I got Charlies email via the Youtube video. He was doing PayPal for Family or Friends, but I went with standard transaction and paid the extra PayPal fees.

For the process to go smoothly, remove your old driveshaft, then you must provide tracking for that to him before he ships to you. That took a little longer that I would have liked. I wasn't clear on the process at the beginning, so maybe he should make a web page or list the steps in his description.

The driveshaft looks well made, but I will admit I had the heebee geebies as it was for my wife's car and if it went sideways I would have not heard the last of it LOL.

The mechanics watched the video and figured it out and had it in after a few hours. I am glad to say it drives just fine.

I am making this post for anyone else who is wondering about this particular driveshaft. If you have a way to raise your car, you could probably fit yourself if you are handy with a wrench.

Here is the video, email in description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B4uRLruWCU

[Henn28]

Genius. Would be nice to have some feed back from someone who's put 20k on the thing. But it does look bullet proof. I seem to recall that BMW changed the driveshaft length for the better at some point, but I dont recall the build date. Nor can I read the part number on mine. It looks fine and the AC line is slightly offset and therefore doesn't drip on the splines at the t-case, but I worry about it stripping on the highway.

[bnfaustin]

Originally Posted by Henn28

Genius. Would be nice to have some feed back from someone who's put 20k on the thing. But it does look bullet proof. I seem to recall that BMW changed the driveshaft length for the better at some point, but I dont recall the build date. Nor can I read the part number on mine. It looks fine and the AC line is slightly offset and therefore doesn't drip on the splines at the t-case, but I worry about it stripping on the highway.

I had the same issue and replaced my drive shaft with the longer spline length one. It was completely straight forward, just ordered the one with the longer splines had it dropped shipped to my mechanic and he installed it in no time. I can look up the part number / website that I ordered it from, but want to say that there was a thread about this issue where I found the info in the first place.