CV Boot Replacement - DIY (Update After Completion)

[Meestahbig]

I finally changed the CV boot on my driver side 2003 X5 3.0i. I have asked many questions on the board relating to this repair and also studied the Bentley manual as well as the DIY posting on this website. Let me begin by saying this is not an easy task for a beginner. Sure I've changed my battery and I did the ipod aux connection, but this is a whole nother ballgame.

Luckily I had the help of my friend's brother who is an ex-mechanic with a boatload of serious tools and a mindful of know how. I would not have been able to do this without his help. I am certain of this. I might now be able to do the other side without him, but I even doubt that.
Here is the procedure we followed. Although I brought the DIY from the site and other threads, and the Bentley manual, we did not reference this even once. Despite this being a BMW I do not think this procedure is any different from another modern SUV.

1) Jacked up the driver side and put it on jack stand (at the sub frame right next to where the front control arm mounts to the chassis).
2) Removed the tire - zip, zip... air tools are nice.
3) Seperated the rear control arm ball joint . The 22mm nut came off very easily but this ball joint is very difficult to access and not easy push out using a ball joint seperator. What we did was use a crow bar to put downward force on the control arm (being mindful of the ball joint rubber boot) and then he whacked the side of steering knuckle with a medium sized dead blow hammer. pop, it popped out and we were able to pull the arm down.
4) Seperated the front control arm ball joint using a puller tool as shown in the other threads on this side (very easy).
5) Used a hammer and chisel to open the tabs holding the axle nut on.
6) Used an air impact wrench with 32mm 12pt socket to remove the axle nut (save the used nut to pull the axle back in later).
7) Used a ball pin hammer and hit it with another hammer to push the axle most of the way.
8) Used an air hammer to push the axle fully out of the steering knuckle.
9) Now the steering knuckle can be pulled out of the way enough to get the half axle out with the CV joints, we did not need to disconnect anything with the brakes or rotor and did not have to disconnect the tie rod.
10) Used a slide hammer to disconnect the splined shaft on the inner side from the housing. I do not think it is a good idea to hammer off the outer CV joint with the axle in the car. This will put a lot of force on the inner cv boot and could pull the inner cv joint out of the socket.
11) Now we brought the entire half axle over to the vice grips and were able to work on changing the boot.
12) Cut off the old boot and the wire clamps.
13) Hammer off the outer CV joint and then clean it out
14) I was told not to disassemble it completely (don't let the balls pop out). If you do when you put them back you will put them into different holes and it will cause the joint to wear much faster due to the mating of the wear patterns. So I just cleaned it out best I could.
15) Slip new boot and ring clamp onto the axle.
16) Fill boot with grease, fill the joint with grease.
17) Change circlip on the axle that slides into the CV joint
18) Hammer the CV joint back onto the axle and fit the wide end of the boot into the groove on the CV joint. Clamp the large ring clamp.
19) Bring the half axle back to the car, pull the steering knuckle out of the way and line up the half axle with the housing on the inner side. Now use the half axle as a hammer and bang the axle back into the housing, you will hear it click.
20) Line up the outer splined axle shaft with the steering knuckle and try and push it back through. You will have to make sure the control arms are out of the way as they will be in the up position.
21) This is where it gets hairy. you need to force the ball joints back into the steering knuckle. This is not very easy to do and you do not want to ruin the threads. We finally got the ball joints into the steering knuckle but the axle shaft still needed to be pushed back through the knuckle enough for a few threads to enable you to put the axle nut on and pull it through. This is very very hard to do.
22) We did not want to hammer like thor on the steering knucle as this sends huge impact into the transmission side of the car. My friend just refused.
23) Seperated the tie-rod ball joint.
24) We clamped a c clamp onto the axle which is solid metal. We then hammered the end of a crow bar on the c clamp and the axle stub pushed through enough to put the old axle nut on enough to pull it through.
25) We then tighted up the ball joints using new nuts from BMW.
26) Used a new axle nut
27) Put the tire on and torqued the bolts
28) Lowered the car and drove home. No alignment issues at all...

This took us a total of about 3.5 hours going slow and him letting me fumble around...

Good luck. I suggest having a friend there who knows how to do this. I also think it is risky to disconnect things from the chassis side unless you are prepared to load the suspension when tightening the nut and bolt for the control arms on the chassis side. The axle nut should essentially be about level with that union. A BMW mechanic suggested using a bottle jack. We did not go down that route.

[mrtm2008]

Nice...cost us $763.27 from the stealership! Had to have it just done about 3 weeks ago!

[mywidebody02]

I just did both sides on mine. It sounds alot worst than it is. after the first side the second was a breeze.