XSeries-forum

Was driving the 40d home today and noticed some vagueness when pulling away and a slight clunk noise but never thought much of it. Got home and when reversing to park on full lock there was a metallic crunch noise and the car wouldn't move.....unless forced with more power when there were banging noises. The noises seemed to come from the front of the car. I have parked it up in disgust and will have a look in the coming days but worried that the front diff has suffered catastrophic failure.

Thinking back to earlier in the day I clipped a kerb quite badly and wonder has that maybe caused the initial damage? I also recall when driving home a very subtle speed related tapping type noise which only happened when free wheeling and would disappear when throttle applied.

Might also be driveshaft CVJ on one side. It would take a fair whack to break a diff from kerb contact given the independent front and rear suspension. A lot cheaper than a diff!

Yes that would be a bonus just never seen a cv joint fail without quite a bit of warning

Nor me, but BMW transmission parts seem to be made of cardboard tubes! Here’s hoping it’s less serious than you fear.

The splined front driveshaft on e53s would chew the splines eventually leaving no drive wonder if it can still happen the e70 given the high miles on your car.

The rain here hasn't stopped so as yet waiting to get under it. Cant wait

Could it be the front drive shaft? But that alone should not limit drive ability really. Hope for the best.

So had a crawl under the car today and the front prop-shaft has snapped at the joint nearest the transfer box. I now need to hunt down a shaft and cant help wondering what has caused the failure. I am aware that some cars had a recall on these but mine seems to have missed it. It seems to be 2011 cars.....strange

Wow! At least it didn’t flail about and wreck the bottom of the engine as has happened with some other victims of that failure.

That shaft it definitely the type that fails. Many were checked and found to be ‘acceptable’ only to fail later, in some cases BMW fixed them for free as long as they were being serviced by a main dealer.

New (revised version) part number is here: 26208605866

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/partxref?q=26208605866

There's a Febest version at around £165-175 In various on line stores. BMW want £800 for one

It was very lucky that I was parking and not on the move or the damage could have been substantial. BMW want £650 for a new shaft supplied so I think I will be looking elsewhere

Just spoke to dealer in Glasgow who were less than interested. They advised me to drive the car in ....wtf .... and they will look at it and make a decision on whether it will be replaced under warranty. Needless to say i will be sourcing one myself and fitting it as if they think it can be driven with such a component snapped I dont want them anywhere near it.

I explained that the vehicle was undriveable for obvious reasons and they said that any recovery would be down to me. The cost of recovery would probably be similar to that of a replacement shaft from a local supplier it turns out.

Well sorry to be right. Now as other said you are really lucky.
If you still need the car and have the right tools you can go ahead and remove it meanwhile the new shaft arrive.
A friend had the same failure, the car was not under recall... A 2011 X5 also... Mine is a 2011 also and the recall was dome previously as when I bought it.
Best thing to do is keep an eye over it from time to time.

Remove it and use it if you want. No problem with that except for RWD only.

BTW extremely expensive quote! Do a further search have seeing some genuine down to less that 200 usd new.

I thought that the original recall reason was to do with an air con drain venting into the UJ and causing rust and premature failure. Given yours had gone at the rear, unless there’s a drain in that position then that reason doesn’t sound right. Corrosion or grease loss are both listed as ‘replace’ reasons.

I noted on newtis that although it is possible to drive the car with a faulty, doing so requires the transfer box to need recalibration.

This instruction looks like the recall notice actions (copied from the E71 but has the same issue and my prop shaft was replaced ... https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e71- ... 1VnYfMxH37

Having removed the shaft, the front joint is also just about to self destruct and barely intact. What surprises me is that there was no noise prior to the failure, other than a very slight noise minutes before it failed.

I have spoken to a local propshaft manufacturer who is going to rebuild it by welding new ends and balancing.

I now just have to remove all the plastic crap allowing access to check and see if the rear is in a similar state.