anyone drive around without the front axle connected?
 

i know the axle go into the tranny and the tranny fluid can leak out...but has anyone tried this on an x5 because i know of alot of people who do this to there jeep cherokee's for summer... save gas and have that nice rwd effect... im thinking about doing this... of course with something preventing the fluid from leaking out

on a '01 all the power to drive the wheels would disappear out the disconnected front shaft. Fluid won't leak out if you disconnect the front drive shaft from the transfer case.

I have never tried this or even heard of it and I would have to suggest you don't try it.

OP: You're kidding, right? :confused: ... :rofl:

:iagree:

well considering i do mechanic work on the side and know of alot of people who do this... it would sound common to me but not common to others... and why would u suggest i dont try it? cause no one has ever done it before? i guess its so common for everyone to do as there told so they follow... ok just wanted to see if anyone tried it... i'll let u know how it works when i do it next week... thanks

Yup let us know how it works out. Seems interesting.

Its pointless. You may be thinking of efficiency but the transfer case still has the drag of its gears and you're still pushing the front differential gears. You won't see any real benefit worth the effort.

But I'm guessing you're more interested in putting all the power to the rear wheels only...for some other purpose? Just be sure to shoot lots of video.

Not trying to be mean or offend anyone here, but that just sounds like a bad idea and a waste of time/money regardless of your mechanical capability, IMO. You know a lot of "Jeep Cherokee" people who do this, but why would you want to alter the way one of the best handling SUV's drives so drastically by removing the drive to the front wheels? The handling on the X5 is far superior than any Jeep Cherokee.

I am fairly capable of doing mechanical repairs and I know many people who are more capable than I and I would venture to say that none of them would recommend doing this to a perfectly good X5. Not only is it pointless, but you are taking a chance doing some sort of damage or causing something else to break that you weren't expecting. Sh!t just happens when doing things like this that aren't proven on a particular vehicle. Just because this has been done on Cherokees doesn't mean you will have the same results on an X5. It is a completely different car. I was just trying to help.

I am not a follower, I just don't do dumb, pointless mods to my car just to say I am thinking outside the box. You said "I know a lot of people who do this" so it sounds like you are the follower my friend. To each his own though. Have fun doing it and let us know the vin number so nobody here accidentally buys your X when you go to sell it.

I don't own an X5 (yet), but is it driftable with 4WD?
I've been told it has 75% power on the rear wheels?

Edit: Because I think that's the only reason the TS wants to have all the power on the rear wheels...

E53 (pre-facelift) is 38:62 F:R, with up to 50% front IIRC. Xdrive (post facelift) is more variable, but still retains the 38:62 split in normal driving.

I should point out that the main difference between the X5 and a JC is that (at least my JGC and LR) the transfer case is lockable, vs the open Transfer Case on pre x-Drive X5's.

This particular transfer case is not designed to have a single output, as it will spin the open side twice as fast, if you somehow block off the FWD portion of the Transfer Case the Rear will spin twice as fast as normal, for example. That was my experience with mine anyway.

I'm not discouraging you because it will be interesting to see your results, have fun and let me know! It'll be neat to see you nailing some sweet ass drifts and smoke shows if you get it done! LOL.

I'm highly opposed to this bad, bad idea. All wheel drive cars are designed AS SYSTEMS, and as such will not function as the manufacturer intended when critical subsystems and/or components are removed or disabled.

At a minimum one would need to figure out how to disable the X-Drive software (if you have it) and/or the DSC software. Both are active technologies that will automatically intervene in direct wheel control when slippage or an understeer/oversteer situation exists. If the software cannot actively connect to the wheel because you've PHYSICALLY DISCONNECTED THE HARDWARE, then you're asking for all sorts of trouble. I guarantee you that disconnecting the front axle was NOT one of the test-case scenarios that the BMW engineers had considered during their development/testing phase and without X-Drive and DSC working for you whatever minor advantages you were hoping to gain by disconnecting the front axles would be FAR overshadowed by the dramatic reduction in handling (and safety).

Additionally, if you're hoping to put all of the torque to the rear wheels understand that you cannot even physically do this in an X5 prior to the introduction of X-Drive (2003/2004), as NON X-Drive systems can only send a maximum of 50% of the torque to the rear wheels due to the purely mechanical nature of the transfer case (whereas the X-Drive systems can send 100% to the rears due to it's more efficient hydro-electromechanical design).

Don't f*ck with it...:thumbdown

I thought X5's were 35% front to 65% rear on power? And aren't cherokee's a 4X4 where you can disengage the front drive, where you can't with the X?

If you turn off DSC, then the X drive on post facelift X is off to.
Isn't the car pushing on rear wheels only then?
I think that i have seen it somwhere in X3 instructions and also when driving faster then 180KMh

I see many people driving around with their brains disconnected.

I beleive that's true about the DSC. I can only do donuts in the snow with DSC off :p. Come to think of it now, can we leave the DSC off, if we wanted to, long term? Wouldn't that be 100% rear drive?

I'm pretty sure turning off the dsc is just turning off the traction control. Its still all time 4 wheel drive.

well if i have the time i will try it soon... i dont see the harm in it.. if it prevents the car from driving then i will reconnect them. its not rocket science. the words trial and error keep playing in my head so why not... you can think im crazy, stupid, ignorant or anything u want. i've been building cars for the past few years and i know that there might be a part where the computer says hey i dont notice something happening with the front wheels and it disables it or whatever but from experience i've noticed the computer turn off every bit of the 4wd system when i put a 17'' wheel as a spare and the rest 19"s, it jerked a few times and then disabled itself... soooooooo time will tell laddies... but believe me i will post a video for u guys for sure when its said and done ;)

:bustingup :iagree: Try riding a motorcycle....every woman in an SUV/truck or we've all seen that chick driving her little bastard children to soccer practice, completely clueless she made a lane change while beating her little shits in the backseat...makes me watch them even closer.

I would be more concerned about the computer and handling controls reacting poorly to the disconnection of the front driveshaft. These cars aren't like a 70's K5 Blazer. I'd be interested to hear how this goes though, just out of curiousity.

Let the man try it, it's his car. I'm pretty curious about the outcome myself.

What effect is this exactly?

Way back in the 70s and 80s some 4 wheel drive vehicles had front wheel hubs that could be locked and unlocked manually.

The knob was at the wheel.

Unlocking the hubs was recommended for summer use to reduce tire wear and improve gas mileage..maybe 1 or 2 mpg.

Pulling the front drive shaft has a similar effect since it elimantes the parasitic losses of the front differential...the rear is doing all the work.

The question is how will the computer react.:dunno:

My guess is the car will throw a transmission code instantly and the ABS/Traction control will flip out and the car will go noplace, but hey I'd love to hear what happens for sure.

I applaud your curiosity and desire to take things apart just for the fun of it. In the I.T. world, you'd be a hacker. Many on the Porsche forums detach the front drive wheels on their turbos. Do it. And share the knowledge.

P.S. The world would be a boring place if everyone just stuck to what it said in the manual.

I have a really bad feeling that somebody is going to get hurt doing this! :tsk:

Don't be the passive sheep that everyone else is being, do it! It took someone doing something that everyone said wouldn't work to create some of the best things we've got in the world today. While disconnecting your axles is a far stretch from saving the world, but if it saves 2-3mpg at $4.00 a pop, I'd do it all day long.

Me and a friend drove his Escalade to Vegas....the AWD system sucked ass at high speeds, made me wanna pull the damn axles on the drive so we could go over 85 w/o the truck wandering all over the highway from TOO much traction.

just do it do it ........and post

oh i def will... just waiting for some time... im working 6-7 days right now, work is killin me

Hey Flekz, so what ever came of this?