Thank you for making these videos. Very exciting to see how it is owning a car that is so special and has 213.000 miles on it. The rumors has it that these are a big money pit in maintenance. The timelapses are a great help if someone is going to do this themselves, and also fun to watch how big of a struggle it really is. Keep up the good work and hope to see some videos of the E38 and E39 in the future :)
Carlsius8 thanks for watching! I'd be doing this stuff either way, I love cars! I just figured I can help people out by filming my car adventures- people think that BMWs are these mysterious money pits, but I'm trying to show that they're really not that complex with a little bit of know-how.
Thank you for this video, and excellent job with the explanation. My 08 X5 sport premium 4.8i with 115,242 miles. The teeth on the front drive shaft spun. I hope the output shaft is ok. I put it in drive and nothing but grinding, but it moves forward and backwards with light push on the gas. The tow truck driver backed it up onto the flat bed. When I heard the crack and pop, I was going 20 miles per hour thank GOD, and I stopped immediately. Put in park, and called AAA to take home. I’m glad it happened at slow speed. Also when I looked at the differential, and transfer case their were no leaks visible. Very clean. I jacked up the front and manually turned the shaft and the wheels moved, and I turned each wheel no grinding, but a different story when on the ground and put into drive or reverse. Lesson learned for everyone. Put a new drive shaft on the x5 part of the ridiculous continuous issues.
Been watching your videos on this X5 and it's looking great! FYI, it was never going to move without it's front driveshaft, yes that car is 4-wheel drive, and yes it sends roughly 67% of it's torque to the rear wheels (correct me if I'm wrong but I think it is 67) but there has to be resistance through the front wheels if enough torque is going to reach the rear wheels to make the car move. It does not take any force (very very little) to turn the disconnected part of the transfer case, (where you just removed your driveshaft) maybe just a couple of newton meters. Lets say it takes 3 newton meters to turn that disconnected front driveshaft, that means that only 7 newton meters are making it to the rear wheels. That is never going to move that X5, and therefore the car doesn't move. That's not exactly how it works but it's close enough. When you disconnect a driveshaft there is only one type of transfer case which would allow the car to move. It would have to be a mechanically locking transfercase, that would lock the front and rear shafts together and they have to turn at the same speed. I don't think any BMW's have that sort of transfer case , only some cars with a low-gear transfer case and some other "proper" off road vehicles have that. The exact same thing would happen to almost any other four wheel drive car, including Audi Quattro's.
I don't know about you, but that's always a big sigh of relief when you find out (on a BMW) that your problem is not electrical, but mechanical. Mechanical fix is so much easier, especially when you can physically see and confirm the root cause, as you did with the stripped spline. (btw, love that you have a E39 wagon -- I got into this craziness cos I was about to buy a wagon and the seller flaked out and I happened to see a listing for an X5 and thought, hmmm, I always like the way those drove, even though I hate SUVs with a passion-- and the rest is history: I have 2x E53s now).
I have 2002 3.0i and since I don’t have the need for awd so I have had the idea of doing RWD conversion for some time now. There should be two ways - make the transfer case differential lock up somehow or remove it alltogether and get the rear driveshaft going straight from the gearbox
Good stuff. Like the idea of hoping for RWD only. If you think about it that wouldn’t have worked otherwise you wouldn’t have broke down. Just wouldn’t have had rwd and front grinding.
thanks for the posted keep coming. I got a stupid question 03 x5 3.0...the front differential took a went. The suv right now won't go forward or reverse. I can feel the front differential is holding it..I can't get the nuts on the drive shaft out...can I cut off the front driveshaft so I can move the car..since the front differential ain't good. Do I need to look at other things in the car that could have went bad cuz of this issue
Having the same issue with a 2001 just bought it today. They make it 2 piece driveshaft aftermarket don't know why you would need two piece if you can just get it in and out like you did just with a longer shaft. Did that resolve your issue with that vehicle?
Just watching all your videos as I just acquired a 2004 Range Rover with the M62 TU engine. Prior owner drove it with the timing belt slapping. Finally the motor stopped on him one day. I’m not sure what all damage is done yet. Just getting into the BMW engines. I have a lot of auto mechanic experience but new to me are the BMWs. My question is would I use the same dish software on the Range Rover or is there other software for them? Thanks for all your efforts. Much appreciated! Clay
Dude.. engine's in front; removing linkage from front to xfer case would nvr make it RWD. But cool video.. enjoyed sharing your stripped splines. Now know what to look out for on ours. Nice work!
At the date of this video there are 3 generations of X5 with a couple of dozen engine options. The X53 is the first generation, this is very specific to the 1st generation and whatever engine it has.
I have a BMW X5 2005 I'm having problems with the transmission the transmission is not shifting right 3rd and 4th is slips and when it does that it goes into safe mode can you tell me what to check or what do I have to do thank you by the way all your videos are awesome
X-drive would have worked as you were hoping. It starts with no power to the front and engages under load. I'm not sure how it figures out to keep the power off but I've pulled the front drive "propeller" from x-drive car before and it will run rwd. Flex disk aka giubo is pronounced Joo boh (named after joint in Italian, not sure why they didn't spell with J in English).
Hey it looked fine I went to replace mine and the weebo has a nickel pin on center of weebo and that doesn't let me remove driveshaft is that pin in the center of weebo necessary or can I snap it of?? Any one have advice.
@@TheBloatedPony I'm not aware of a differential inside the transfer case, just a clutch and chain. You can remove the front driveshaft without any ill affects, except perhaps an error being triggered (and obviously converting it to RWD), but nothing will be damaged - in fact, you'll likely extend the life of the driveline.
Danny. I hope you see this message. How in the world were you able to separate and move the drive shaft out of the transfer case? I couldn't budge the front drive shaft to push it rearward so I can replace the guibo. Well, now the X5 is completely down because I think the front driveshaft spline rounded. I get the mechanical grinding noise when I put shift into any gear except for Park. Car rolls regardless if it's in Park or any other gear. I have to use the handbrakes.
I don't remember fully, but I'm pretty sure I just undid all the bolts on the giubo and was able to wiggle the driveshaft out. If that doesn't work, you could just remove the transfer case since the driveshaft usually kills the splines in the transfer case necessitating a rebuild or replacement anyways.
Thanks, Danny. Yikes, rebuilding the transfer case is going to be costly and time consuming. Sucks when you no longer have a garage, driveway to safely park so the car can be worked on.
A giubo is a flex disk, not just known in the BMW community... they were invented in Italy 70 years ago and have been used in almost every make of car... “guibo” is a mispronunciation of giubo
BMW's have all kinds of computers and sensors in them,since they are AWD,the computer senses through the transfer case the front drive shaft is out preventing transmission from going into any gear to keep from damaging the transfer case,no expert on these but to me that would make sense,since every think is computer controlled and not mechanically controlled!
The reason you not getting to drive is you only took one shaft out need the two out the dif still puts all drive the missing side if you take the two out it will run on rear wheel
It's not super serious, but boy is it expensive! I plan to get an extended driveshaft ($310), new transfer case chain ($82), new transfer case seals & bearings ($100), and a new transfer case front output shaft ($400). That should fix the driveshaft issues for good!
Funny you mention that- the previous owner paid $5k for a tranny rebuild + new torque converter shortly before the engine started having chain guide issues. The transmission worked great until the driveshaft issue came up. It shifts super smoothly with zero harshness. Since I only paid $3500 for the 4.6, I'm not even mad about having to fix some stuff haha
Have you done some research on the 4.6is yet? You'll want to buy more of them. I know I do. Only 3200 or so of them made. It's a prototype. I've got #819
I'll do the rear airbags when they start to have trouble, right now they're holding air just fine. The 4.6 has been parked for like a month now while I finish some other projects and the rear hasn't sagged at all. The suspension bushings are all in good shape, the previous owner replaced a lot of them- I found a whole stack of receipts in the glovebox after I got the 4.6.
Yeah, I'm well aware of the 4.6's rarity, that's why I wanted a 4.6 as opposed to a run-of-the-mill 4.4. I previously owned a 2004 Range Rover with the M62tu engine and it was just so slow so I wanted something quicker. I'm on Xoutpost, are you on there? It's a great resource for all X5-related stuff.
