F80 Rear Axle OE Replacement

[Bim_Casey]

I've got a 2017 F80 and the CV boots on the rear axles are beginning to fail and sling grease everywhere. I am seeing OE replacements in the ballpark of $1.5k/per, however, I found replacements from GKN on partsgeek listed for ~$490/per. They are being advertised as OE equipment and everything I am reading says that is correct. Can anyone confirm whether these are of the same quality as the Genuine BMW equivalent? NOTE: I don't plan to push for big horsepower with this car. Link to parts here: https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20..._assembly.html

[SE7EN335]

Originally Posted by Bim_Casey

I've got a 2017 F80 and the CV boots on the rear axles are beginning to fail and sling grease everywhere. I am seeing OE replacements in the ballpark of $1.5k/per, however, I found replacements from GKN on partsgeek listed for ~$490/per. They are being advertised as OE equipment and everything I am reading says that is correct. Can anyone confirm whether these are of the same quality as the Genuine BMW equivalent? NOTE: I don't plan to push for big horsepower with this car. Link to parts here: https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20..._assembly.html

For what it's worth, GKN are the OE supplier for the Genuine BMW axle shafts. It's just the Genuine BMW part has the BMW badge stamped on it with a hefty hike in price tax

[FrankMstein]

Can you not remove the axle and replace the boots?

[FrankMstein]

Originally Posted by Bim_Casey

I've got a 2017 F80 and the CV boots on the rear axles are beginning to fail and sling grease everywhere. I am seeing OE replacements in the ballpark of $1.5k/per, however, I found replacements from GKN on partsgeek listed for ~$490/per. They are being advertised as OE equipment and everything I am reading says that is correct. Can anyone confirm whether these are of the same quality as the Genuine BMW equivalent? NOTE: I don't plan to push for big horsepower with this car. Link to parts here: https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20..._assembly.html

How many miles on the car?

[Pete.J]

Originally Posted by Bim_Casey

I've got a 2017 F80 and the CV boots on the rear axles are beginning to fail and sling grease everywhere. I am seeing OE replacements in the ballpark of $1.5k/per, however, I found replacements from GKN on partsgeek listed for ~$490/per. They are being advertised as OE equipment and everything I am reading says that is correct. Can anyone confirm whether these are of the same quality as the Genuine BMW equivalent? NOTE: I don't plan to push for big horsepower with this car. Link to parts here: https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20..._assembly.html

Wow! you will replace the whole axle over a ripped boot? You can replace the boot by itself, I did it on my E92 M3 axles. It's a messy job, but it's relatively easy. I bought genuine cv rubber boot kit from GKN (the oem manufacturer of the axles for all BMWs), it came with moly-grease to pack in the cv joint too. Easy but messy job. Cleanliness is critical for this job, you don't want to get debris or dust inside the cv joint, as it can prematurely wear out and scour the metal components inside the cv joints.

As long as there is still some grease left inside the cv joint, and didn't run completely dry, it will be salvageable.

Also, don't make pack too much grease in the cv joints too, as they can overheat. If you haven't done it before, just drop the axles at any driveshaft shop, this is a piece of cake for any reputable shop that specializes in this. Maybe they can even source the correct size rubber boots for the F80 cv (looks to be an identical diameter to the E92 M3 rubber cv boots tbh).

[Bim_Casey]

Originally Posted by FrankMstein

How many miles on the car?

It's got 37k miles on it.

[Bim_Casey]

Originally Posted by Pete.J

Wow! you will replace the whole axle over a ripped boot? You can replace the boot by itself, I did it on my E92 M3 axles. It's a messy job, but it's relatively easy. I bought genuine cv rubber boot kit from GKN (the oem manufacturer of the axles for all BMWs), it came with moly-grease to pack in the cv joint too. Easy but messy job. Cleanliness is critical for this job, you don't want to get debris or dust inside the cv joint, as it can prematurely wear out and scour the metal components inside the cv joints.

As long as there is still some grease left inside the cv joint, and didn't run completely dry, it will be salvageable.

Also, don't make pack too much grease in the cv joints too, as they can overheat. If you haven't done it before, just drop the axles at any driveshaft shop, this is a piece of cake for any reputable shop that specializes in this. Maybe they can even source the correct size rubber boots for the F80 cv (looks to be an identical diameter to the E92 M3 rubber cv boots tbh).

I appreciate the input. I'll look into doing it myself, as well as options for local specialist shops. Ultimately, I've been putting off this job for a while now and haven't inspected how much grease remains / what damage may exist.

[FrankMstein]

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=22