Question about axle brands

[AceEngineer]

Found a busted boot on the rt front of the E53 today. Looking on the internet for replacement axles uncovered a whole bunch of brands priced around $100 and above with the BMW brand at close to $600. Does anybody have any pertinent experience with different axle brands? Also, does anybody know who is the OEM supplier is to BMW?

AceEngineer

[x5Alpine]

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...kn-31607565314


These are the OE ones

[oldskewel]

I believe GKN is the OE Supplier of these (boots, joints, axles), on my 2001 3.0i, at least.

Boot kit PN for me, front outer boot (same for L+R) is 31607565315

Links for those (kit comes with grease + clamps + clips) in both the GKN and BMW versions are here:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...15-31607565316

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...er-31607565315

So as you see there, a factor of 3x difference in price for things that could be argued to be equivalent. I've used the GKN brand, but am curious if anyone has done a careful comparison with those two actual parts in hand to see if there is really anything different other than the brand (GKN vs. BMW made by GKN).

[80stech]

I paid the big price for the BMW and got a BMW "value" white box part that looks the same as the GKN! neither looks as good as the original boot and I just had to replace mine after about 100,000 km when the originals went twice that. I have all the tools now though so boot replacement is not a problem and not really complaining about 100,000 km life span. I now have a "Rein" boot on one side though because of having to replace one when I wasn't expecting it, so will see how that goes!

[AceEngineer]

Thanks for the advice guys. It confirmed the conclusions I had somewhat arrived at. I ordered the GKN from FCP Euro today, to be delivered on election day. I found GKN's on eBay for almost half FCP's price, but FCP is a known factor and I've been shipped knock offs from Amazon and eBay before, so I pay for the peace of mind.

Thanks again,

AceEngineer

[cn90]

If the joint does not make any noise, you can clean it, re-grease and put new GKN boot?

[Happy]

Originally Posted by cn90

If the joint does not make any noise, you can clean it, re-grease and put new GKN boot?

I wish I would have done that, before my prior indy stuck a Chinese model in there. Mine only had 71,000 miles on it. I got a GKN in there now.

[Attacking Mid]

I've read a number of reports on forums of people using cheap axles with decent results. When I discovered a torn boot and couldn't wait to order a GKN boot, I put on a $65 Carquest axle from Adv. AP. That was almost 2 years ago, and it's been working fine. I kept my old axle with a torn outer boot and plan to clean it up and re-boot it so it's ready when the cheapie axle fails eventually.

AM.

[AceEngineer]

I too will keep the old axle just in case I need it. I just ordered the whole axle because both boots were getting hard and I would have to reboot both ends of the axle. The labor saving was the reason I went with replacement rather than rebuilding the old axle. I saw a uTube video where the guy removed the inner end of the front most suspension link to get the room to remove the axle. His method didn't require breaking a ball joint or releasing the shock from the knuckle. It looked by far the easiest way I've seen to remove and replace the axle, with the added bonus of being the least likely to screw up the alignment. It looks like it will take less than 2 hours to do the R&R myself. Rebooting and regreasing the old axle will just wait until the axle is needed if ever.

AceEngineer

[80stech]

Trying to change the whole axle instead of just the boot can come with it's own set of challenges. Make sure you read up on that and for sure keep the original axles!