2002 x5 transfer case/front drive shaft problem

[x5pete]

I had just over 100k miles. The vehicle is a 2001 x5 3.0 that I 've owned for almost 8 years.

There were no warning signs. I was at a stop light. I attempted to go and a grinding sound came from under the car. The car would not move. I had it towed to the dealer who gave me the estimate indicating that it was the transfer case and the front drive shaft that needed to be replaced. He wanted to get only new parts, 2500 for the transfer case and 900 for the front drive shaft and then labor totaling 4300. For a car with 100k miles, I said no way and I towed it to a local shop (non-BMW) who dealt with transmissions and he said it wouldn't be hard to fix. I got the transfercase on line a transfercases.com I believe for about 1k and then the shop called some junk yards and found a good condition front drive shaft from a junked x5 for $300. Actually, I googled the part and there are cheaper ones available on line (about $250 or so).

I would have done the repair myself and I'm not a mechanic but I don't have access to a lift so I though it would be a little too challenging so for $400, the mechanic did the labor in a morning. I now have about 104k on it and no problems. I am in NY and the junk yards seem to be around NY where they found the used front drive shaft but I don't know which yard. Also, I tried to locate an aftermarket part and nobody seems to make a replacement front drive shaft.

[racemalibu572]

You most likely have stripped splines where the drivehaft goes into the case. I fixed mine with a custom made shaft that has a 1" longer spline. Bmw only uses about 1/3 of the spline in the case, about a 5/8"-3/4". The seal goes bad and the splines start to rust and eventually wear down till they strip. I am going to be making replacement shafts on an exchange basis for around the same price as a new aftermarket shaft (that wont help unless you buy a reman. case) You will have to remove the case for a minute to install the new shaft because of the longer splines, but it will save you around $1000 for a reman. case and used stuff will probly do it again in the future. I did mine on a lift so it was pretty easy, you should be able to do it on some good tall jack stands. If you can change a water punp, you can do this, just have a helper when you slide the case back to install the shaft. My setup uses a good inch+ of clean spline and the 1/2 splines that are still left, way more than bmw used. I'm still waiting for my blanks to make another shaft, I've been testing the prototype (beating the crap out of the x5) for a few thousand miles with no problems. If your interested, you can call for more info 262-749-0689 8am-6pm cst.

[racemalibu572]

A couple of pictures.
the prototype is two parts tig welded together, the new parts will be one piece and have the lip for the factory seal. I made a seal that I had laying around work because of time.