Replacing the front drive shaft
 

Sorry if this has been asked before, for some reason, using Safari, when I search it goes to a blank white page and never returns any results. I hate to ask questions already answered, I know it's annoying. Sorry about that.

I was changing out the oil level sensor this weekend and it's really the first time I've spent any time under this car (2006 with 3.0L). I was pleasantly shocked when I took the stiffener plate off and found no leaks. I sure didn't expect that.

However, as I was looking around, I looked at the transfer case and thought "What the heck does that splined coupling go to". A quick look forward and I realize that the car has no front drive shaft! In the research I could do, I'm guessing someone wore the splines off the shaft that go into that end I was looking at and instead of fixing it, they just told them to remove the entire drive shaft. So I have no front driveshaft and I'd like to fix that.

In my searching for help, only thing I can find is people doing fixes to the shafts, some with the transfer case off the car. Is this something I'm going to be able to buy and just slide the splines in and then bolt the front together? Or do I need to get the transfer case to slide back enough to put the splined shaft into it? Should would be nice to be able to just buy the shaft and install it without ripping 1/2 the car apart.

Anyone know how that all works?

I think once I'm finished chasing all these things out of this car, I'm never going to sell it because everything on it will be new :)

I know on the 4.4 that it’s a total interference job, exhaust, heat sheilds, sway bar, nearly everything under there is in your way, I believe it is the same way in the 3.0. My guess is someone had a problem, probably cut the old shaft in two pieces to get it out and quickly learned the replacement wasn’t a “push in” fit...

Sadly, the shaft is easy enough to find but I believe you’re in for a solid bit of work getting it reinstalled ☹️

Easier to search the site I find on a pc, simple search this site for 3.0 front drive shaft and I’m sure you’ll find what you need.

Good luck with that!!


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I haven’t looked specifically but rumor has it there is a two piece front shaft that slides into the t-case, bolts to the front diff and then has three or four bolts in it that hold the shaft together.

Again, I haven’t seen one but I did see a guy on YouTube working with one on an E53 - looked interesting!


Search: BMW X5 Front Drive Shaft 2 Piece- Easy Removal


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Are you getting any light on the dash such as DSC or 4x4 or ABS? I'm surprise that the system will work if the front drive shaft was removed.

Post facelift the front can be disabled by puling the fuse

Put your VIN into real oem. Make sure the car wasn't born two wheel drive. I dont know what type of programming can eliminate the 4x4 disable light on the dash if front is disabled


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I'm pretty sure I've seen people say you can get the drive shaft in there without cutting it or backing off the t'fer case.

If you remove the front giubo from the front diff (probably already missing!), there is enough room to fit the front shaft. Fully seat the shaft into the t'fer case, then fit the front giubo to the front diff (three bolts) then side the shaft forward a hair to fit into the front giubo, then bolt up the other three giubo bolts.

This Pelican parts article shows the process...

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

With the front giubo out, there is a ton of room to pull the shaft forward to remove the splines from the t'fer case...

https://cdn4.pelicanparts.com/techar...mall/pic07.jpg

A number of manufacturers make replacement shafts, some with longer splines - although I think the LCI shaft was longer anyway?

https://cobratransmission.com/images...Prop-Shaft.JPG

https://cobratransmission.com/BMW-X5-ATC500-Drive-Shaft

And while I think the solution below is "overkill" - it's a novel idea!

https://beattys.co.nz/wp-content/upl...t-post-pic.jpg

https://beattys.co.nz/bmw-drive-shaf...lems-resolved/

OK - further to what I said above about the LCI front shaft being "longer" the the pre-facelift... it may well be, in terms of t'fer case engagement length but they are VERY different overall lengths and are NOT interchangeable (according to RealOEM).

The shaft used with the NV125 t'fer case (pre-facelift) is 774mm long.

The shaft used with the ATC500 t'fer case (xDrive, LCI cars) is 657mm long.

The VIN decoder shows it as "All Wheel Drive". Nope, no 4x4 lights on the dash at all. I've been chasing down and fixing codes and other things on this car since I bought it but I've never seen anything about the front wheel drive being disconnected. Knowing it's not there now, next time I run this full scan, I suspect I'll see what I've been overlooking from my lack of knowledge.

I saw a number of "fixes" for it but several of them required cutting the shaft and having a new piece welded in, which doesn't really apply since I don't have the old shaft.

Thanks for the help so far. I'm also not aware of any missing fuses. When I was troubleshooting my wiper motors, I printed out a schematic of the fuses and tested every fuse and I don't recall any fuses being missing.

.....and the plot thickens :)

Oh, it's a production date of 6/21/06. Is that pre or post facelift? I'm new to BMW's so I don't know.

Facelift 03/04 timeframe I have 01 (two actually). So I'm not exactly sure.

I'm wondering if you can code out the front axle to transform from all to rear drive to explain no errors.

I've read of numerous cases where somebody had enough problems on the front axle the just defeated it. Can't do that with 01 the TC and difs all free wheeling.

The deeper spline fix I think applied to the pre facelift and the two part shaft I don't think it's necessary as mentioned above it's basically just as easy to remove the guibo (joo-bo; not based on English, named after the Italian inventor).

In the early models there was a change in the supply line I have seen two different shafts, and I suspect that they changed to a shorter one to make assembly easier, and 17 years later the reduction in spline engagement started causing problems.

If I had a spline slip issue, I would modify the spline end to allow deeper engagement, add some spacers and longer bolts on the guibo side and fix for about $6.

Everyone seems to make note to mark the driveshaft and then the flange so it goes back in the same orientation as it came out. Without having a driveshaft, and picking one up from wherever, I wonder if this is going to cause me a problem. Last thing I want to do is spend money and introduce a vibration that isn't there now.

I have to laugh at myself because we got about a foot of snow a few months back and I took that thing everywhere, powering through the snow like a plow. Never once got stuck or came close to it. All the time, I thought that was because the all wheel drive was doing it's job :) lol

I do question if it's worth doing at this point. My guess is that the splines wore out and someone pulled it off because they didn't want to pay to fix it. In looking at the history of this car, it had one owner up to about 90,000 miles and then it had 2 or 3 owners from 90,000-120,000. There was evidence left in the car from owners and I googled 2 of the last owners and they lived in lower end housing, so my belief is that they got sticker shock on items and sold it to the next person instead of fixing things.

Having said that, I do fear that it was something deeper and putting that shaft in is going to highlight some other issues that I don't know about, but I guess I'll have to roll the dice and fix those issues if they do arise.