E53 rear half shaft removal

[X5-D-Sport]

Question :

My X5 Diesel has heavy duty coil springs as replacements for the rear suspension air bags...

Possibly due to being coil springs (possibly needing Compressing), it is proving impossible to remove the rear half shafts to fit new CV boots..
SO
If the vehicle still had air bags, is it NORMALLY possible to remove the complete half shafts incl CV-Joints WITHOUT having to take the rear suspension apart ?

Thanks in advance

regards

[X5Sport]

No requirement to do so in the book, but it does say that you need to have the suspension under ‘load’. This is achieved by raising the rear wheel carrier by 20mm.

It does say you need a hydraulic press the shaft out of the drive flange.

I think it’s been done a few times on here so there ought to be a thread somewhere.

[X5-D-Sport]

i have looked for threads on this, but no joy yet.

many thanks Richard

[X5Sport]

Just been looking myself under what I thought were the right keywords, but nothing yet. Press definitely needed to get the old ones out and new in to the drive flanges/bearing carrier.

[X5-D-Sport]

lots of you tube vids for front shafts, & the rear shaft should separate from the CV with a firm thwack i would have thought.... As i was pondering yanking the shaft from the outer cv joint, then fitting a new boot if the CV couldn't come out, & fitting the boot to the joint in situ from under the vehicle & fighting it thru the suspension parts

[X5Sport]

If it helps….

IMG_3150.jpeg (106.5 KiB) Viewed 3239 times

Press out tooling …

IMG_3151.jpeg (75.89 KiB) Viewed 3239 times

IMG_3152.jpeg (91.35 KiB) Viewed 3239 times

IMG_3153.jpeg (95.21 KiB) Viewed 3239 times

[henrym3]

I would have to say there are some fancy looking tools there which would probably cost more than a drive shaft, I’ve had them out years ago using a fairly hefty brass drift. Dropped the shaft at the diff onto a piece of wood just to stop it hanging and then knocked it out of the hub. Did have to fiddle with a jack to move the suspension but don’t remember exactly the sequence. Of course you could just be unlucky and those splines are stuck. If you know the cv is in good nick I still favour you cut the boot off and separate the cv joint or worse case scenario get one of those boots you cut to size and have a groove for glue. If the splines don’t slide out then your not using a big enough hammer LOL.

[X5-D-Sport]

Hi Henry Sir, how re you chap - all good i hope.

Re shaft removal... and the specific bit of raising hub 20mm - this proved impossible due to me having +50mm lift heavy duty hard springs on the rear, so, I got some 300mm spring clamps that I have cut down to 140mm long, just enough to get the sodding things in the available space to squeeze the springs & make the hub straight in-line with the diff & shaft etc to pull the shaft out intact in one chunk....
this is a Saturday job.

re splines - problem solved with a foot chunk of 30mm nylon rod & a sledge hammer - no problem getting the splines to move at all lol.

I am currently lube-ing the outer CV joints with a thin 1/4" tube on my grease gun & getting it 60mm into the guts of the CV joint & squeezing 50cc of grease in every week, & due to the CUP shape of the CV joints it seems to keep a lot of grease in place for several weeks.

[X5Sport]

BMW will always have ‘special’ tools so as to justify their ‘special’ pricing. No one outside a dealer or specialist Indy is likely to have them so as suggested, brass and a suitable hammer, maybe even a slide hammer might do the job for less faff and cost.

[X5-D-Sport]

Yes, I have a slide hammer... excellent for trapping a finger lol

[henrym3]

Good that you got the job done, I wasn’t actually thinking "sledge hammer" but any self respecting Diy’er has a good range of hammers. The list is getting smaller, before you know it you’ll have nothing to do at the weekends and then you’ll be vulnerable to ideas from her indoors??

[X5-D-Sport]

Hello again Henry Sir,
As soon as I get a minute, I will ping you a text & maybe we can have a chat to discuss disgusting X5's & all matter of vehicular woes lol.
The middle of car clicking noises is some sort of bearing, doesnt seem to be vehicle centre - centre prop bearing...
so maybe rear prop UJ.... the half shaft CV joints i wouldnt think make this twinging noise, as CV joints normally produce a much deeper rumble/banging.... but hey - we will soon see I guess.
The simplest way is to swap out the whole prop.... and the only remaining possibility is rear hub bearings, or half shaft CV joints.

if it is rear hub bearings, i am unsure if the hub centre is an unboltable sub unit with bearing - will look it up.

[X5Sport]

Is there any slack when you try to counter rotate the two halves of the prop shaft relative to each other? That would point to the spider joint going (I think). Could be the same at each end if you can lock the prop.

Might the diff failure have over loaded something ‘upstream’ is where my mind is going.

[Leslie]

Hub bearings would be more of a drone id have thought , front cvs click on full lock ( my passat ones are knackered and make a good noise on turns ) rears dont go though the same range of motion so not likely to make much noise . It can be very hard to locate noises as they echo through the body but spinning up a hub by hand when raised up should locate a grumble if its bad.

[X5-D-Sport]

Ok, I have pinpointed the noise, pinging sound when going from fwd to reverse a few inches, using an engine stethoscope

The twanging tinkling sound is so obvious now too.
It was difficult to pinpoint initially as the noise was from the rear spider bearing UJ infront of the diff.

The twanging bearing sound echo'd along the whole prop shaft length of the hollow tube making it hard to locate the origination point.

So, gotta order a used prop off ebay...