Doing this job right now
 

I started this job yesterday, even had a helping hand.
Dont let the easy pictures fool you. This is difficult job, even for a person like me who likes to do almost everything on this car.

So far everything is slow and difficult, Drive shafts not coming off easily
bolts hard to turn and reach,

will see, Im already starting to wish I had paid a mechanic to install a rebuilt transfer case, even though I can t really afford it.

If you dont need your car for 2-4 days then by all means do it and have a good variety of tools.

It is a big job But trust me it is worth the blood sweat and tears. The dealership wanted 7k$ to do this job. It's wasn't that bad. Having an extra person helps especially when dropping the exhaust. The only problem I ran into was putting back the drive axels and tightening the bolts on the rubber union. Took me about 8 hours to do the job. Preparation is the key. If u don't have the right tools and materials then it'll slow u down. The drive shaft will spin on you when u try to loosen the bolts that's connected to the rubber union. I had someone hit the brakes to get more leverage.

Thanks alot superblue for your comment!!!
Truly appreciated...
Yeah like you say, it is a pretty heavier job to perform specially
for those who doesn't know too much about mechanic or probably just begin
to learn about vehicles. Althought, I'm Not a mechanic guy, I'm just
the same like any other BMW"s owner outhere. I've learned and done
all this heavy jobs above from this forum and thanks to other BMW's folks
outhere who have worked so hard to share those pictures to others..

I just believe that with passion, you can learn to do anything...
There are alot of guys outhere "claiming to be the professional just
because they have a peace of paper, but the bottom line is, they dont
know that much. Imagine BMW's stealer wanted: $3,265 to perform that job
above, and when it only cost me just: $50 dollars to replace all the gaskets myself.

This looking Better
 

Ok so I put back everything and have not driven it yet.

Here are some things to look out for in this job:

Remember mine is a 2003 3.0 X5 , most likely the last month they put a NV-125 transfer case.

Pulled out case.if you are replacing Chain and the plastic inner pilot bearing then you can probably get away with not even taking the case out as long as front shaft is somewhat loose and not rusted at the splines and back shaft can be half removed by removing bolts near case and center holder of shaft.Car needs to be jacked up high.

You will need special pliers to remove ring blah blah look at youtube video by cobratransmission . I advise taking the case out.

Car needs to be on 4 jacks so all tires can rotate,very important.
You do not need any type of pullers, no need to remove rear triangle thing that is held down by 36 mm bolt, no need for case puller, on the case there is actuality a place where you can put a screw driver to split the case.

No need to remove shift linkage, you can drop transmission down enough to get your hands in there to remove case bolts.observe that you are not putting too much pressure on the cable that runs form transmission to your shifter up there.

the open end ratchet wrench will be the only way to remove case bolts!!!!, must be short in length, previously stated used was 1/2 inch, mine was 3/8 dont know why ? half the bolts you can only feel.So get ready to make love to you case.

For this job get a range of deep sockets 10mm,13mm,15mm many times short ones wont work,

You will probably need 2 people to put exhaust back , and where exhaust is connected to (near sensor) use screwdriver to separate pipes so they fit in, something like that.

By the way transfer case itself is easy to work on, you need at least those special pliers that open that ring. So I looked at mine and guess what no visible signs of anything wrong, no stretched chain, no bad splines, gears and bearing great.

Shoot so what was that noise ???? mechanic verified it was the case.
But I visually verified nothing was wrong, anyways I changed the chain and the plastic bearing, I did not change the big bearing because they lookend new.and was told they almost never go out.besides it looks like big headache to change them.

anyways while down there I found that both front boots were cracked and grease dirty and almost gone,so I will repack those and fix later. Possibly small engine and front transfer case leak.

what joy it is! Don't do this job if you dont have a wide range of tools and you cant jack up the car high enough!

The exhaust doesn't have to be removed to do this job, at least not on M54 X5. You can loosen the bolts for the tcase crossmember and tilt it out with the exhaust in place. The crossmember bolt holes are slotted for this purpose and with it out of the way there's plenty of room to pull the tcase off the back of the trans.

hey guys, i was wondering if this is normal :confused: (i will post pictures).

transfer case is not leaking and transmission seems fine. But the area all around it is wet and moisture.
But not too long ago, i was approaching a stop sign up on the hill. As soon as i accelerated, boooom like somebody hit in the back. and since then no problems.

few weeks later noticed this wet area at the transfer case.

Already set up an appointment with San Diego Bmw , would like to know what to expect.

Thank you guys

I dropped off the car today, was told will be getting a call tomorrow with the overpriced solution :)

Anyone ?!

I have no answer but am curious what they find. Let us know.

Transfer case isn't the problem :) It was seal in the transmission .

Amazing!