Thank you for your commit! I made this video to payback the community that helped me repair my e53 and without their videos it would of been much harder. As they get up in the mileage and age it is becoming impossible to find good 2nd hand parts like diffs, as they all have 150k plus miles on them. So I hope this video helps people rebuild their diffs and save money too.

Thanks you for taking them time to comment. What did you decide to do? 👍

Thanks you for commenting. It’s nice to know someone might find the information useful. The whole point of making this video is to help others rebuild they’re car. Our cars are getting older and higher mileage and it’s becoming impossible to find good used parts like diffs. For the work involved in removing it I would hate to put it all back together just to find out the used one is failing too.

It’s not used by factory and had 150k miles on it without problem but I don’t see why you can’t add some to be extra safe. 👍

Thank you for the feedback! It’s nice knowing how the video will be useful. I just looked it up and it looks like the front differential is the same as in the facelift 3.0d 3.91 ratio. I would buy that one as they cost about the same as the 4.4 diffs. If I’m right the part number is 31507512665 Or you can delete the front diff for now and fix it later.

Thanks for the reply and It is currently deleted. I live in the states, we never got the 30d

Ah. I did a eBay search from the USA and with postage you can get a 3.91 front diff. Might be worth a look as you already have it deleted you might have the time to wait for postage. Search: e53 front diff 3,91 Do keep me updated. I wound love to know what went wrong inside your front diff to pass the information on to others. So far I only know of the bearings failing and have not seen or heard of one with ring and pinion damage etc

Thanks you 👍

Great to hear! 👍

Yeah that would work perfectly 👍

Glad it helped 😀

Thanks for commenting! Glad you enjoyed it. 😀

Thank you

Glad you enjoyed it!

You married guy might wanna ok with the wife before hand

Thanks for sharing this info! It was a pain to get them in and this would make it a lot easier.

The e90 has the aluminium version of this differential. It uses different bearings and has a lower preload spec. The rebuild is very similar tho. Don’t ignore it for too long tho 👍

Thank you for letting me know you appreciate the video 👍

I used eBay and www.hendersonbearings.co.uk to get all the Parts. I hope that helps. 👍

@@Thisbmwlife if you still have the links, especially to the crush sleeve, that'd be super helpful!

Here are some torque spec from racingdiffs official KZfaq channel. It’s not for that diff but they all use ball bearing style. Try and see if the what bearings are the same size or close and pick the preload for that. 168L 0.2nm to 0.4nm 188L 0.4nm to 0.6nm 215L 0.6nm to 0.8nm I’d say go with 0.4nm as it covers 2 diffs of similar size and I know the ball bearing style diffs use a lower spec then the one used in this video. Good luck with the rebuild.

I could not find the part number from anyone but was told it’s the same from the 1 series rear differential, so that’s the one I ordered and it was the right one. So if you google or eBay “type 168 preload”. It will show you the one you need, as there the same for the front differential on the X5.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck over the past year. With your car being the facelift model, If all else fails you can always just make it rear wheel drive by taking the front prop shaft out or taking it all out e.g diff,prop, cv axles. (keep the cv hubs in tho). There will be no lights on the dash either. I got my parts from Henderson bearings and eBay. Don’t recommend buying a kit as you have no idea what bearing manufacturer they picked and they cost over 100% more then just getting the parts yourself. All the info needing is in the description. Im glad this video will help you rebuild your diff and was worth making. Good luck with the rebuild and if you have any questions just ask.

Hi Purely down to original diff pinion seal failure but due to underbody trays not visible and sound deadening absorbed the oil all three failures have been high speed motorway cruising no warning other than James bond smoke screen out the back of the car and then the noxious stench of burning gearbox/diff oil. Takes weeks to get rid of it from the interior of the car. Attributed all failures to the unseen plastic breather pipe melted so will be replacing it with metal to inner wing then rubber up to high level and visible instead of factory plastic which is hide under the alternator and intake manifold with a big slab of BMW plastic trim to hide everything. Brilliant video. Does it make any difference if yo set the preload after full assembly or as you show with just the pinion gear installed. Not knocking BMW owned the car for over 5 years and this year has been awful due to a small hidden plastic pipe so I hope this helps other owners😊 Cheers Brian D.

Im glad after all that, you still like the car. Mine has been a pig to maintain but I still love it. There is something about the e53. The preload has to be done as shown with just the pinion installed.

From my understanding the e90 uses the aluminium version of this diff, that uses different bearings and has a lower preload then the iron version. I don’t know the precise spec for it.

Same way to rebuild it but it uses different bearings and the preload is lower

The problem with using the incorrect preload, is the diff will suffer in the long term. Too tight and it will wear out sooner and too loose it will make noise. For me on this differential, after taking up all the play I still had another haft a turn or more before it started to read on the gauge. So I would not rely on it feel alone. I’d recommend taking it apart and setting it correctly.

Thanks for your reply and advice I appreciate it. I can do it on the car by removing the driveshafts yea I know the ring gear will be in there and not give a super accurate reading but will be near enough for the application it’s in. As I’m sure your aware the diff itself was a pig to get out and back in position so it’s staying put! I have the same beam torque wrench coming tomorrow as you have so il allow slightly more on the gauge for the ring gear in place

Don’t blame you for doing it that way. It was a royal pain to get in and out. Hope all goes well. 🤞

So that would be the same design as this but made of aluminium and different bearings? If so I believe it was 0.4nm from when I did research about preload for this diff. Please do try and find more info to confirm but that’s the info I found on it at the time. Hope that helps.

So my X5 is a 2004 3.0d (had 3.91 diff) but the differential in this video is from a 2002 as it’s a very well known issue for the face lift cars rear diffs to explode without warning. So I got a used set of 3.71 diffs off the pre facelift 3.0d and swapped both over to make the car more reliable for long trips away from home. Your difference ratio is 4,10 or 3,64. but the bearing are the same for the front diff no matter the radio or year. If you look in the description you will find all the part numbers you will need. If you need anymore help feel free to comment and I’ll try my best.

Thanks, The front diff for the f series is very similar to this but made of aluminium. The rebuild is almost the same but you need use different bearings and I believe it uses a lower preload spec of 0.4nm.

@@Thisbmwlife I see. I'm trying to build a Fseries front diff with the bolted diff carrier from the older models, so I can put in an LSD. I ordered both since they're fairly cheap second hand now, it'll be interesting to see the size differences

@TheChumzo I would love to know the differences between them, please keep me updated on how it goes. 😀 Did you buy the metal diff found in the e53 like this one or the e70 aluminium diff? The more I look into this all 3 are different but the rebuild should be the same. there might be some issues with swapping parts form one to another. Would love to find out in witch way they differ.

I got an E90 aluminum diff and an F22 aluminum diff. What size socket did you use to remove the pinion gear? It looks like its 30mm but mine is too fat to fit in that small space lol@@Thisbmwlife

I used a 30mm chrome socket. It just fit in perfectly. I would think a 30mm impact socket would be too big and require some grinding down if it’s a cheap one. Do keep me updated on how it all goes Im very interested in the differences of them. 😀

Have you checked the centre bearing on the main propshaft and flex disc? When the front diff starts to go you will hear a whine coming from the front end. From what you’re describing it could be the centre propshaft bearing and the propshaft flex disc. Very common to go and not very expensive to replace. Is the 4x4 light always on? If so it could the the gear in the transfer case motor or the clock spring in your steering wheel with any luck. If not it could be a fault with the case itself. I more then happy to help but please give me as much info as you can.👍

@@Thisbmwlife @Thisbmwlife changed the worn out gears of the motor from the Atc500 because 4x4 light. If I weight transfer the car, the noise will not get louder. On the highway it feels a bit like the car hoping forward and backward like unbalanced wheels. It's extremely shaking driving downhill, also when I change shifter in neutral. If I speed up it's getting louder. Center bearing is not getting warm, and it have no clearance in that bearing. I was driving in the garage downhill and the left front wheel vibrate as if it going over curbs on the race track so I changed oil in the front diff, no metal shavings but I missed 60% of the oil... The prohershaft to the rear end have a lot of clearance inside of the Atc500 if I rotate it clockwise and counterclockwise, wonder if this is OK. I know in my race car this is still normal because it have sequential Shifter and a dog Box :) thank you for helping me here I don't have another X5 to compare.

Saw on my car lift the Atc500 is jumping around if you speed up...

The x5 e53 facelift is 100% rear wheel drive as the main shaft in the transfer case connects directly to the main propshaft flange. It only becomes 4x4 when commanded by a the car and the motor on the side turns to active it. I would recommend removing the front propshaft and taking the car for a drive as then there will be no load on the transfer case itself and very little on the front diff. The play you feel in the transfer case itself is likely the chain stretch. When you put the car in gear with a new chain it will no longer make a clunk noise. You it can be ignored if it’s not skipping. The shacking itself could be from many things, worn out bushing, cv, failing bearing etc I would start by having a good look at the bushing and removing that shaft. You will require 8mm socket, 16mm spanner for the propshaft and reinforcing plate. Very easy job and when putting it back together the flex bolt torque spec is 64nm. You can’t drive these cars on a lift as there brake control system is never turned off. So it will always try and activate the 4x4 and abs. That could be the shaking you’re seeing. The only way to over come it is it pull all 4 speed sensors off and run the car for a bit till it fault codes the system and defaults to dumb mode. Then you can drive the car at full speed on the lift. Keep me posted and I’ll try my best to help.

@@Thisbmwlife cv you mean CV joint on cv axle? 🤔 Sometimes it makes cracking noise from the front, when I turn the wheel hard, and circle into a parking lot. The x5 now have about 300000km done

Been almost a year now but I would start by looking everywhere online and phoning different rebuild places and see if you can get a nice shop to answer you. I was told the aluminium version of this is 0.4nm as the ball bearing style requires less preload. You can always take a preload spec before taking the pinion out and compare but do remember it will be lower then spec as the bearings wear down. Here are some torque spec from racingdiffs official KZfaq channel. It’s not for that diff but they all use ball bearing style. Try and see if the what bearings are the same size or close and pick the preload for that. 168L 0.2nm to 0.4nm 188L 0.4nm to 0.6nm 215L 0.6nm to 0.8nm Without checking and going off what they recommend and what I was told. 0.4nm seems like the best bet.

@@Thisbmwlife Amazing, thank u very much! Have been looking through forums and a lot more. Found a guy rebuilding the diff, including all the parts but no information about preload or anything like that. I can start with 0.4nm. It's still gonna be better than damaged ballbearing on the pinion right now. At the same time i'm not sure but seems like the diff does not have preload spacer, instead it's hard washers and distance rings. That way it should be just to torque it down and everything should be right as long as bearings have the same width. :)

Glad I could help, thanks for keeping me updated. Yeah the bmw diffs uses large spacers and as long as your using the same bearings spec then your diff will be fine. The only time you would need redo the shims is if you replace the ring and pinion gears themselves. Best of luck with the rebuild and don’t forget to order that o ring from the diff to the oil pan housing. 👍

I believe it’s smaller on the front but I didn’t measure it.

@@Thisbmwlife thank you.

Had a quick google and they both seem to be the same but being unfamiliar with what the R means. I would go for the same ones that came out. That would be m86649/m86610. Hope that helps 👍

@@Thisbmwlife in your video the M86649 has an RYR-N stamped on, my bearing also has it. Found some Koyo bearings, which have that RYR written on their box, perhaps I should try that one. Maybe you still have the original bearing’s box or remember what was written on it? Thanks

Sorry the box is long gone and I don’t remember what was on it. I did however check the measurements before installing and it matched the old one. I would say both would work. Go with the one you would like to use, As long as the measurements are the same I would not worry about it.

There is no torque spec for the main nut. It’s all about preload setting of 0.6nm to 0.8nm. You need to measure it with beam style torque wrench as showed in this video. The measurement is taken as you move the pinion around not the torque it take to Start moving it but the torque it makes as you move it round.

Thank you for your answer now i understand better about this preload. if this preload is wrong, how to set it ? what could be wrong apart bearing installation ? @@Thisbmwlife

The only way I can see the preload being wrong is if you under tightened the nut or over tighten it. To loose and the diff will make a sound on acceleration and deceleration and too tight it may or may not make noise at first but will go through the pinion bearing a lot faster then it should. E.g way too tight will lead to the bearings wearing out very soon and a little over tight will lead to the diff requiring a new set of pinion bearing sooner then it should. To set it you would need to have just the pinion in and measure the torque required to keep turning the input shaft. Should be 0.6 to 0.8nm.

Sounds like it’s most likely the chain in the transfer case from what you’re describing. The pre-Lci cars used the nv125 transfer case and the car is always split 40/60. So the chain wears out alot faster as it’s always engaged. Put the car in d and then r, if you hear a clunk noise then it’s the stretch in the chain. The front differential tend to fail as they get very hot and have very little airflow so the oil breaks down, it all seems to be down to how often the diff oil has been changed to how long they last. I have changed the front differential oil at 10k and it has been jet black. So I won’t say it’s any model or ratio that are more common to failure. It’s just bad design. I would fix the transfer case sooner rather then later because if they chain fails completely you will be stranded in the pre-Lci x5 Hope that answers your question 👍

@@Thisbmwlife I am pre-lci and have changed the transfer case fluid recently. While I was down there I turned things by hand and felt slop on both ends, but the pinion side felt worse and I believe was making the sound I hear while driving. The transfer case fluid was still red and had some black bits in the drain plug but nothing notable in the fluid that came out. I need to replace the boots on my front axles anyway so I’ll try a junkyard front diff and see if any of my issues go away. If not I’ll be shopping for a transfer case soon it sounds like

@@Thisbmwlife Can I actually put an X-drive t-case in my X5? I know I would need to manually control the motor on it but if it bolts up that would help my front differential wear and maybe save some gas? Just thinking here, I know maintenance is the most cost effective solution but I do enjoy having a longer range than any other average vehicle

When changing your front differential, don’t forget to buy a new o-ring for between the sump and the diff. Part number: 31511213527 Axle nut torque spec 410nm Diff to sump 45nm Flexi to front prop shaft 60nm If you need anymore info, feel free to ask.

No they don’t match up. The nv125 mates up to the 5 speed auto box and the atc500 mates up to the 6 speeds auto box. They used different bolt hole.

I got it off Amazon but eBay sell it too. It’s called “Laser 6379 Drip Tray” costs £10

@@Thisbmwlife legend

No, the e90 front differential has the same design but is made of aluminium and uses different bearings and preload specifications.

I see, I have found a rebuild kit for the e90 front diff. Is it worth it at all? A new one is over 3k

All depends on the damage. The aluminium version of this diff is known for breaking the Center. If it’s just the bearings then I would rebuild it. The rebuild is very similar to this video but the preload spec is lower.

If you have a facelift model and money is a problem or you can’t get it fixed. you could always make it rwd by removing the front propshaft or by removing propshaft and driveshafts but leaving the old diff in place and keeping the cv joint in the hubs.