Replaced the front passenger side wheel bearing and hub today. This one was waaaaay easier than the driver’s side that I replaced last year, because I had a suite of new tools including a hydraulic puller, air hammer, and a bearing race driver set. From the time I jacked up the car to the time that the garage was fully clean was only 2 hours, and the slight “grind” I had before is gone. Time well spent, but man that’s a messy job.

I had to say goodbye....
 

Unfortunately, we have run out of room/parking for our cars, so I had to put our SAV up for auction on bring-a-trailer with NO Reserve Price. I'm sad to see this go, but hopefully to someone who will appreciate the work that was done.

See here: https://youtu.be/h659iVYN6ZE

Bid here: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2006-bmw-x5-11/

Double post

That’s a testament to having the right tools to make a job go well LA02MAX. And since you are just on the other side of the lake from me, maybe I can rent the lot of them from you when the time comes to do my wheel bearings!

I went out to the garage I belong to today and put the X on the lift for an oil and transfer case fluid change. Third oil batch of oil in the new motor, which has about 6600 mi on it now. The batch I replaced had about 5k on it and was dark, but the motor had only used about an 1/8 of a cup of oil in that time.

With the oil cooler I put on I t takes a hair under 9 quarts of oil and it took maybe 2/3 of a quart of what I Found as the backwards comparable (to III) Dexteon fluid for the transfer case at auto zone. The fluid that came out of the Xfer case wasn’t red, but the dextron certainly was going in. I don’t ever recall doing that job before in 20 year. Which is shameful. It may have been done when I had the remanufactured tranny put in, but who knows.

After a bit of searching and head scratching, I suspect the very bright “ping” I hear when moving from drive to reverse might be the rear driveshaft U joint. I can’t feel play in it, but it really seems like the sound the driveshaft makes when you flick it with your finger, and I don’t know what else might make it when torque is applied. Unfortunately new driveshafts are expensive, and I’m not sure if that joint can be rebuilt.

That sound you hear is most likely your front driveshaft splines getting ready to strip where it goes into the transfer cast! I would suggest doing your research and getting it done before it leaves you stranded in the middle of an intersection like happened to me last month! Lot's of info here and elsewhere on this subject. I would encourage you to keep it simple and just have the longer spline solution done. Lot's of people make this a lunar moon landing project, it doesn't need to be. But, get it done sooner than later.

I added new splines when I swapped the new motor in last year. I got an extra half inch into the xfer case without pulling it. I do notice a very tiny bit of play of the shaft splines in the transfer case when I work the driveshaft in a circular motion. Very, very slight, but I never did this to my OE shaft before chopping the old splines off. So who knows what is normal.

I have a long term plan to buy a cheap used xfer case off eBay and rebuild it. I’ll likely put a “new” OE lengthened driveshaft in at that time. I recall reading that at some point BMW fixed this problem.

Every day I start my car up in -2F and the CCV doesn't cause the engine to explode, I breathe a sigh of relief.

You can always do a CCV delete. I did, but added a catch can to the original set up.

Slapped the M56 valve cover in. My PCV failed and was both causing a vacuum leak and draining oil down the side of the block.

I did an "abandon in place" type install for the moment, so the old PCV hardware is still there. When I get around to doing the manifold gaskets / hoses, I'll remove it.

The worst part of the install is definitely getting a cap on the PCV drain on the dipstick tube.

I don't love the oil cap location, but it's workable.

Wow, I was just about to post a reply to Fifty150hs's comment about how would like to do an M56 valve cover upgrade in the next year or so, rather than a catch can. (I replaced all the CCV equipment with cold-weather gear a little over 6 years ago, so it's going to be time soon to do it again.)



The catch can requires regular draining and I would prefer to the "set it and forget it" approach of the M56 valve cover.



Nick, you should post up a thread on the upgrade including part numbers and the twists and turns you experienced, maybe when you are all finished with it.