2nd Failure: Transfer Case / Front Drive Shaft

[bbh03]

I had this happen back in 2009 at about 90k miles. The front driveshaft splines stripped leaving the car stranded (4.4i). At that time it was repaired under CPO warrantee. Documentation says both the case and shaft were replaced.

Now the car is at about 128k and the same exact failure has occured. It has been less than 40k miles and about 2.5 years on this gearbox.

This time it standed my pregnant wife on train tracks and she and her brother could not push it off with out help. As if that isn't enough, shortly after it failed, the lights came on for an approaching train. Luckily they were able to get help before the train came!

Thoughts? I plan to call the dealer who did the work at 90k today and find out what is the warantee on repairs.

Has anyone has this happen more than once?

[JCL]

It is apparently caused by the air conditioner condensation drain dripping on the splines, causing corrosion. Repositioning the drain can prevent future problems.

Service warranty for retail service work is usually one or two years depending on the servicing dealer. However, repairs covered under warranty do not attract a new warranty. You are covered by your original vehicle warranty for the term of that warranty. If you have a 100,000 mile warranty, and have a failure at 90,000 miles which is repaired under warranty, then you still have the remaining 10,000 of warranty coverage but the clock doesn't start over again. Warranties are written that way to prevent perpetual claims. In essence, the cost to the seller of the warranty is included in the price and in that example, at 90,000 miles you wouldn't have paid anything to fund a new warranty term.

Exceptions can exist if you have a failure soon after the original warranty expires and can show that the repair wasn't done correctly, ie the servicing dealer is negligent. You wouldn't have much of a legal claim, but you could certainly ask for a goodwill consideration in that case. It doesn't hurt to ask, but at 28,000 miles and 2.5 years past your warranty I wouldn't expect any dealer contribution. You might get a discount on the repair though. Good luck.

[bbh03]

I'm aware of the drain thing, thanks, but only recently after searching about this. Only thing of note regarding the quality of the repair is that when I stuck my head under there, I noticed one transfer case bolt had backed out fully. This is the one on the passenger side that cannot be tightened with a regular E-torx on a ratchet due to the subframe.

[bbh03]

Update:

Left several messages for the service manager at the dealer who performed the warrantee repair and never received a call back. A call to BMWNA informed me that they would do nothing until inpected by a dealer and that I could try the service department of a different dealer, however it was unlikely they would cover any repairs for regardless. Messages to a SM at another local dealer also went unreturned. Having owned over half a dozen BMWs and racing the marque, this is pretty disappointing, particularly not getting my calls returned.

Anyway, tired of waiting, we dropped the case and found the front spline was in fact toast. We also found more evidence of a poor install by the dealer (numerous loose bolts on the tcase and exhaust). We found the tcase drain plug was undertightened and slowly leaking, perhaps exacerbated by the grinding of the spline (although since the new failure, the drivetrain has not turned under power for more than 60 seconds total). We had speculated that perhaps the case itself had not been replaced, but once removed the tag conformed a manufacturing date of 2008.

The spline was in fact rusted, although we are speculating the lack of appreciable protection of the conenction from the elements may have been more of a factor than the A/C drain. The spline engagement is only about 3/4" as reproted by others. Tire wear is even so this is unlikely to have much to do with it.

So, I have ordered a new extended front driveshaft and a new female spline/driven gear from Cobra along with seals, etc. and will proceed with the repair when they arrive. We will also relocate/extend the drain and perhaps fashion a splash shield.

A report was also filed at the NHTSA web site due to the nature of the failure.

I'll update when the repair is complete and perhaps post some pictures.

[bbh03]

By the way, to help those trying to diagnose the condition in the future, my buddy posted a of what this failure sounds like.