Front differential
 

Has anybody tried rebuilding their front diff?

What's happening to the X now is there is a rattling sound coming from the left front side as it slows down and coming to a stop. Noise will go away if I hit the gas again. Upon checking underneath, you could move the left output shaft upwards. Quite a huge play actually. The right output shaft is intact.

Now I'm hoping it's just the shaft seal.

Is the movement at the differential or closer to the wheel? I would lean towards a worn out CV joint first.

2002 X5 3.0 238,000 miles
2004 325i 106,000 miles

At the differential side.

If there's no evidence of fluid leakage from the differential, then the seal is probably okay, as would be the bearings. So the movement would be the result of excessive clearance between the end of the half-axle and the "socket" it fits into on the differential. Best case scenario is you only need a replacement of the half-axle. Worst case is both the axle and differential. Either way, you're probably going to have to pull out that axle for a complete inspection.

2002 X5 3.0 238,000 miles
2004 325i 106,000 miles

I had to be in the office so I didn't really see what the mech did .. He said he changed the bearing ... But some occasions, I still hear it or maybe just paranoia .. haha .. Anyhow, it burned $140 inc. labour from my pocket. :D

so you had bearing play in the diff and all he did was straight up replace the bearing?

he didnt check the runout on the ring/pinion? wow, kinda shady if you ask me. makes me wonder if the rattling you hear is from excess wear to either the ring gear or pinion gear due to the bad bearing tossing off their contact patch.

though, it could also be from wear in the transfercase....which could be coincidental and you just happened to notice the front diff issue.

http://cobratransmission.com/index.p..._transfer_case

Shaky indeed... I had to back to the garage as the problem came back after 2 days. I made sure I was there when they started removing stuff and inspect them.

So it was the inner CV joint that was making noise! We brought it to an axle repair specialist and advised it's beyond repair. So a rebuilt one had to be purchased.


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