CCC123

Hello.

With sufficiently extensive mechanical experience and a Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) E60 sedan owned and a local junkyard with an X-Drive (AWD) E60, I wanted to ask opinions of this forum regarding the conversion from RWD to AWD.

First I will write my assumptions; then, I will write the facts determined from the Bentley Service Manual - these will be compared. This will help any beginner mechanic get an idea of how easy it is to make a mistake. I’m certainly a very good mechanic, but I recognize there are thousands of people far more advanced than me.

What I assume:

(1) I assume the All Wheel Drive (AWD) N52 engine has the tubular hole in the oil pan for the Front Wheel Drive (FWD) system’s axle and certainly a differential somewhere there.

(2) I assume the chassis is similar enough for the Independent Front Suspension (IFS) to be swapped to an All Wheel Drive (AWD) front suspension system.

(3) I assume the automatic six speed GA6HP19Z transmission is the same.

Now, to compare the assumptions to fact:

(1) in the attached photographs, it will be seen that there are a few Internet pictures from eBay and O’Reilly auto suggesting two different types of oil pan for X-Drive E60s. Some photographs of the Bentley Manual also show the details of the system with a much more official view… the most certain method to confirm is of course to actually go to the junkyard and dangerously lift the vehicle to see what’s actually there.

(2) certainly, the chassis seems similar enough and even the AWD front suspension components generally look similar to the RWD components… but that’s not a good enough answer. All it takes is the factory shifting a tool one inch and drilling a bolt-hole in a different location for the original parts to be incompatible for this conversion. Maybe the swap is possible, and I wish I had more time, however, it seems very unlikely that it would be a simple procedure to convert a RWD E60 to AWD. Lastly, it also could easily be just as simple as changing the steering knuckles and hubs to those which are AWD E60 parts. Yet, there would have to be serious work done to get the transfer case, driveshafts, and front differential to all work as original from the factory. Not to mention basically making the ECU unusable without extensive computer knowledge and a lack of errors.

(3) the book says the transmission is the same… but the transfer case needs to be mounted on there somehow and that will absolutely take either fabrication or the utilization of an originally AWD transmission with all components already there! And imagine how bad it could be if the RWD chassis doesn’t have room for the transfer case!

thanks for reading. Happy to hear any opinions. Even if you didn’t read anything but the first sentence, I’m happy to hear of anyone who’s attempted this conversion or has any ideas about it. Good day. God bless

neilv

Nothing is impossible but this is close to it.

You'll need the full front suspension including control arms, subframe, swaybar and steering rack, plus the axles, shocks, hubs etc. Oil pan, differential and front axle. Trans will need to be replaced with the auto trans that has the transfer case. Rear hubs will have to be swapped to match the offset of the fronts (awd is different). Then there is all the wiring and modules that need to be added (transfer case) or swapped out for awd specific ones.

honestly it would be at least 10x cheaper to buy an awd car