Rear Drive shaft length differences
 

google is failing me, vin into realoem returns 2 different possible rear drive shaft length, 1325(52.16") 1347(53.02") for a 2004 3.0L auto

I climb under and measure, I get 51.2 with a tape measure, now that is to the hub on the rear diff(part is inside that, and to the bolt mating flange on the flex disk)

Does the official length include the pilot bearing tip that is inside the front flex disk?

Now I did find the 2000-2003 shaft 26107510001 1273mm/50.12 but ebay stores are calling it at 51.4

This X 5 is one of the ones with that oddball front shaft that was short and needed the longer one so I am not trusting much

I'm fairly certain that the longer one fits all e fifty three and the short one tends to self destruct by not engaging into the TC far enough.


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This is the REAR drive shaft, not the front, already fixed that about 10yrs ago.
I also had the odd ball front length

Oops sorry yeah Im only aware of difference when 6 vs. 8 cyl model.

From what i see, the longer one is for automatic transmission.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d652247bf4.jpg

What is the issue with your Rear DS?

U joint is done. and in BMWs infinite wisdom, they dont have replicable joints

Unless someone knows something otherwise

pulled out the driveshaft to do the mid bearing and didnt notice when I had it apart that the joint was loose. Still had the strange noise/vibration and upon further investigation, found it

YouTube is your friend.

You can in fact cut out the bad u joint and replace. The only tricky part in my opinion is cutting the circlip groove.

That is the problem, and since my buddy sold his mill(STUPID) makes jobs like that really hard as the caps need to be located pretty tight tolerance.

good catch on the manual/auto part, missed that at first.
They must be including the front pilot bearing as the overall length

Rear Drive shaft length differences
 

You leave the welded in caps in on two sides and I'm betting you can cut the grooves with a side cutting Dremel bit and use a dowel as a spacer you can get ± two thou tolerance. See if you can find YouTube video. The main problem is it'll be impossible to get the size until you pull out the old one.