[n3985]

Anyone do it yourself yet?

Wife's car has a torn outer boot on driver front and debating shop route or attempt to DIY.

Dealer gave estimate of $670 to replace the boot and $1700 to replace entire axle.

FCP Euro sells the OE GKN axle for $299 with lifetime warranty which is tempting or the OEM boot repair kit for $77.

Only video on YouTube showed the guy draining front differential fluid while replacing his driver front axle which I don't understand since TIS makes no mention of fluid replacement.

Any tips or experience would be appreciated!

[cdmulders]

Sorry, I don't have a DIY to offer. For what its worth, my car is going into the shop tomorrow to have a CV joint and boot replaced. My local indy is charging me $1300 CAD for the entire job (less than $1000 USD these days), and just the boot alone would have cost about $700 CAD, which of course is mostly labour charges.

[Joel_MD]

I have not tried it on a BMW, but once I rebuilt the outer CV joints on the front axle of a Saab 9-5. It was surprisingly easy to do using a YouTube video that showed how to remove the joint from the axle. I bought aftermarket Moog CV boot kits that included the boot, clamps, and grease. Instead of using the included grease I bought a tube of Red Line CV joint grease. The first joint took me about 90 minutes to rebuild. The second one took about half as long. The hardest part of the process was removing the brakes and breaking loose the axle nut, which takes either an impact wrench or a long breaker bar. I also bought a special pliers for crimping the new clamps, was around $15 if I recall.

[partymartyy]

I bought the part myself, went to a local German shop. They knocked it out in 2 hours for $250.

[sesh1957]

Did mine, not too bad. Watch out for the you tubes on this, don't need to disassemble the wheel assembly. You can get the shaft out by removing strut to the lower control arm and the ball joint. The ball joint is a little tricky, got mine off hitting a socket on the loose nut. Use a short 2x4 to hold the wheel assembly up out of the way, push the lower control arm down and push the strut in front of the lower control arm. If you jack the car up hit on the side, you don't loose oil out of the transfer case, also turn the wheel to expose the back side of the wheel. Found mine prior to contamination so used the boot kit from FPCeuro, $20, shaft assemblies there are about $300. I think by only detaching the ball joint alignment is not needed. You need to remove the skid plate and front cover under the radiator to pop the shaft out of the transfer case, just enough room to get a large screw driver in and pry the shaft out against the transfer case.

[moosebeamer]

Im having both my fronts replaced tomorrow. My mechanic steered me away from a rebuild because, he found too often it didn't hold up. Told me BMW charges like $1200 per axle. Sticker shock. Turns out the company that makes them for BMW can sell them to you directly for substantially less. Nearly half the price. So my '12 528xi with 140K miles is being fixed as I write this. I have a bit more work being done in that area. It's a good time to open it up. Hoping for another 3 years on the car

Barry

[sesh1957]

The FPCeuro is made by GKN the OE that makes it for BWM, you can buy that or the BMW there, $300 vs $1000.

[BurrNinja]

Originally Posted by moosebeamer

Im having both my fronts replaced tomorrow. My mechanic steered me away from a rebuild because, he found too often it didn't hold up. Told me BMW charges like $1200 per axle. Sticker shock. Turns out the company that makes them for BMW can sell them to you directly for substantially less. Nearly half the price. So my '12 528xi with 140K miles is being fixed as I write this. I have a bit more work being done in that area. It's a good time to open it up. Hoping for another 3 years on the car

Barry

Both my fronts have torn boots, gonna be replacing boots soon.

[sesh1957]

FPCeuro has the boot for $22, need the bolt for $14, each side. Don't wait, if sand get in it wears them quickly.

[Sedoy]

I recently did mine without taking axle out for about $60 using generic flex silicone CV boot and OEM joint grease. So far works great.

[sesh1957]

How does that work?

[Sedoy]

Originally Posted by sesh1957

How does that work?

Originally I purchased CV boot kit from FCPEuro but upon installation I quickly realized that it will require removal of entire axle as it's almost impossible task to remove outer CV joint without taking whole axle out. So instead I got flex generic CV boot which stretches over outer CV joint. Something similar to this video, keep in mind that mine CV boot had pretty small crack and internals were clean of debris:

[AngeloR96]

Originally Posted by sesh1957

FPCeuro has the boot for $22, need the bolt for $14, each side. Don't wait, if sand get in it wears them quickly.

By chance do you know the part number for the bolt? Can’t seem to find it anywhere.

[sesh1957]

Go to realoem.com and put in your Vin, my 2012 takes 31206795249,

[AngeloR96]

Sweet! Thank you. Also, did you replace the inner seal when you did yours? I’ve read Somewhere that some people do and some people don’t.

[sesh1957]

No I did not, seemed fine, the outer gets much more movement with the turning of the wheel. The clamps in the kit have a pinch crimp for the smaller and a plier type for the large, two different tools needed. Next time I'll use these from Amazon for the so both are the pinch crimp type.

Febrytold 12 Pcs CV Boot Clamp, 6 Pcs Small and 6 Pcs Large Stainless Steel Universal Adjustable Stainless Steel Drive Shaft CV Boot Clamp

[BrandBMW]

I did the whole axle. My outer CV boot was replaced by the previous owner (he went to a shop) 19k miles ago and then the clamp lost tension, allowing the boot to slide off. The replacement clamps are softer than factory clamps.

I bought a GKN front driver's axle from FCP and figured if there was anything wrong with the GKN part, they have a lifetime warranty. I also bought an axle bolt, a front diff seal where the axle slides in, bolts for the lower aluminum pan, upper pinch bolt and nut, nut/bolt which connect the strut to the lower arm, and diff fill plug. I was trying to follow the TIS directions, but didn't end up so.

I started by popping the center wheel cover off and then breaking the axle bolt loose while the wheel is on the ground. I removed the nut to the tie-rod and pinch bolt to the upper control arm. For some reason, my inner CV could not slide past the lower EDC strut. So I removed the strut, which was easy. Changed the differential seal for the axle (ensure the seal is straight), popped the new axle in, and made sure the diff fluid was topped off in case any dripped out. Installation is reverse. I did replace the diff seal because, at 92k miles, I figured I am already there and would hate to have to remove an axle just for that seal at a later date.

I did end up having a small hiccup as the axle bolt hole in the CV is open, meaning if you squeeze the boot, grease will come out onto the threads. So, make sure you don't squeeze the boot when you align the axle to the hub. I also added a little bit of blue Loctite to the axle bolt for peace of mind and then hand tightened while the wheel was off. Newer blue Loctite is oil resistant (double-check on the bottle or Amazon for the exact one). With the wheel bolted on, the center cap removed, and on the ground, I tightened the axle to spec. I do have some 1/2" short extensions I bought at Harbor Freight which worked well in this application.

I've put over 3k miles on the axle since and no clicking while turning. I'm glad I did this as the previous replacement boot clamp did loose tension allowing grease to leak. So, now I have a new axle and don't have to worry about the boots for a while. The first time took maybe 4 hours, the second time will probably take me 1.5hr, lol.

[rkstar9]

at how many miles are you having your boots replaced?

mine is at 100k no issues.

[sesh1957]

My outer boot on the driver side failed at 98K or so. I do not think this is a mileage related issue, but the outer boots are more exposed and have the most movement. The clamps on the large diameter are difficult, I can see why they failed above, use the generic pinch clamps or buy the tool to use the OEM clamp.

[John H.]

Today, I noticed grease on the inside LF wheel. Got under car to inspect. Sure enough, the outer boot is torn. About 15k miles ago, I had the RF replaced under warranty; however, my CPO warranty has done expired. Doh!

[rkstar9]

My Front right boot has a small crack and grease everywhere at 109,000 Miles
Anyone know what is the diameter of shaftt and cv joint? was thinking of using a split generic cv boot and gluing it together.

[Tomjrau]

I just performed this task on my wife 2014 535i xdrive with 68k miles. It was my first time changing out a CV axle on any vehicle and it took me just under 5 hours. I disconnected fewer components and didn’t lose any oil during the axle removal so I didn’t t bother refilling the dif.

My steps:
1. Jack up and support front of vehicle.
2. Remove wheel.
3. Loosen axle nut 17mm hex (have helper apply brakes to stabilize hub).
4. Remove 2 18mm caliper mounting bolts and support on jack stand.
5. Remove brake rotor and metal heat shield.
6. Remove underbody splash shield and aluminum reinforcement plate under car.
7. Remove lower wishbone bolts at subframe and the pinch bolt attachment to strut (both 21 mm I believe, with easy clearance to get an impact wrench on them). No need to remove the ball joint at the hub. No need to touch the upper A arm, tie rod or tension strut unlike what I’ve seen in other videos.
8. Pound out the axle using combo of pin punch or pry bar.
9. Replace with new axle. Hand tighten the axle bolt into hub and use this to apply force to engage the splines of new axle into the diff. Rotate while pushing axle into diff ensure it fully seats.
10. Reassembly is essentially reverse. I used a jack to raise wheel hub and preload suspension before tighten down wishbone bolts.

That’s it. Not sure if I got super lucky and didn’t lose any diff oil so I didn’t have to bother topping off the difficult to access fill plug. Maybe it was angle of elevation of the front end when I raised it.