mp333

Hello,

I have been dealing the front passenger axle for a bit on 535xi sedan. I have replaced two front passenger axles with GKN brand which is OEM to BMW in 12K miles. On both of them I have experienced same symptoms. The grease leaks out of the inner boot only right above the control arm. Outer boot does not have any leaks, but seems stretched. There are no tears in the boot that I can see.

Also the both inner and outer boots seems collapsed as if the air is sucked out of them. I wonder if the axles are pulled more than usual, causing the boot to stretch as in the picture? Could the axle be slightly shorter?

The car seems to be driving fine with no vibrations.

Any thoughts...
Thank you

audiophool

Yeah, those bellows don't look good. Here's what mine look like.

tttomttt

Interesting. Hopefully purchased @ FCP. Perhaps call the place of purchase or GKN themselves to see if this is a known issue.

mp333

Yours looks like original BMW axle. The original BMW bellows has more pleats (can't remember the right word) than GKN.

mp333

I did both of them roughly a year apart. And same problem. They did ask if the car's frame is out of whack. I would imagine if that was the case it would be pulling in one direction.
The other thing I was thinking is buying a original BMW and GKN from FCP to compare and return one of them. NO known issue according to them.

mp333

I have measured the distance between the front two tires and the rears while the car was on my four post lift. The tire were sitting on the lift runner under cars weight.
The rears are about 3/4" wider than the front. I would have thought the front would be anywhere from 2 to 6 inches wider than the rear with the issue I am dealing with.
This has me baffled....

kd7iwp

Sorry if this is unhelpful. @jadidaskv had a thread a while back about his replacement front axles being too short so he asked me to measure mine while I had it out. Maybe measure yours and see if there's a problem there?

mp333

Thanks. I just replied to his thread.

Tetonfiber

Same Problem with my 2009,535i XDrive-Touring. I am on my second set of GKN Drive lines. The CV boots on my GKN shafts appear the same as pictured above. They are collapse and they are over extended and collapsed. The tear is on the inner boot and on the first set the CV boots tore on the outer. This is a problem and the distributor of GKN
drive shafts acknowledged this problem. I drove the car 1500 miles on the second set of GKN half-shafts and the inner boot tore on the passenger side this time. My Mechanic is working to replace the boots with rubber because the GKN boots are plastic. I want BMW shafts at this point.

I do not believe that GKN can solve this issue. Funny side note is that the driver side shaft has BMW stamped in the shaft. Can anyone provide their solution or additional information.

mp333

What did GKN have to say? It's mind boggling that is the weak point. I have used them on e46. No isssues.

Both the boots itself does not have enough bellows..The boots also seem shorter than Original BMW axle.
I see two possibility. Replace both the boots with BMW or release the clamps on each side of the boot to let some air in so they don't collapse after couple hundred miles.
I did talk about this with local BMW shop foreman and he did offer to compare to original BMW next time if I do replace.
I am driving this till its an issue before I replace. I have already replaced one thru FCP. Getting tired of replacing them.