Bit of a tangent....Seth what kind of cat's are you using? No CEL's?

They are plain jane standard universal cats. No service engine lights. I'm very pleased with them. $175 total expense

Seth - what did you cut the end of the driveshaft with? That must have taken some time.

2002 X5 244,000 miles
2004 325i 109,000 miles

I used a big cutting wheel on a grinder. It took about 3 minutes maybe.

I ordered a rebuilt drivers side CV axle from Rockauto.com. I'm pretty certain it is worn out. The boot has been shredded for awhile and I had the wife move the steering wheel back and forth while I looked. It definitely moved around too much.

Rockauto doesn't have everything for these vehicles but what they do have comes right away. They already sent me a shipped confirmation after a couple of hours.

I hope you kept it cool with frequent water quenches. Any reddenning from the heat of the wheel would have softened the steel up nicely.

2002 X5 3.0 244,000 miles
2004 325i 109,000 miles

Good job. Thanks for the detailed posts!