[NoSole]

After experiencing some vibration in my '08 335xi related to the driveline, I discovered that my front CV joints are shot. I need to drive the car but don't wanna risk catastrophic failure, so my simple question is this: Can I just remove the front drive shaft and run it as RWD?

Why? What are my motivations?... Well, for the short term, I just wanna be able to drive the car at least until I can order some new axles and install them. Beyond that I've got about 145k miles on it, so I'm entering a mine field of failures/repairs in the next couple years. I really only need it to last me about another year and a half. The residual value is crap (it's worth waaaaay more to me than what KBB says someone will pay for it) and BMW's are so g'dam expensive to maintain, I don't wanna keep dumping money into something that I know is on it's way out somewhat soon.

[stephen335xi]

Yes

[matteblue3er]

Removing the front driveshaft will effectively remove the load on the front axles/CV joints, which will most likely stop the vibration. If the vibration only happens under load (under acceleration) than the vibration will most likely stop.

However it will not stop the wear. The bearings in the joint will continue to deteriorate.

Word of advice, don't get aftermarket axles. They typically fail within a few hundred miles or sometimes much less. At the very least, get a used OEM axle and reboot it. Boot kits are around $60 for each joint.

[NoSole]

Originally Posted by matteblue3er

Removing the front driveshaft will effectively remove the load on the front axles/CV joints, which will most likely stop the vibration. If the vibration only happens under load (under acceleration) than the vibration will most likely stop.

However it will not stop the wear. The bearings in the joint will continue to deteriorate.

Word of advice, don't get aftermarket axles. They typically fail within a few hundred miles or sometimes much less. At the very least, get a used OEM axle and reboot it. Boot kits are around $60 for each joint.

Yeah it only happens under load. That coupled with the fact that I'm no longer taking it up to the snow, I don't really have any need for AWD. It's effectively a commuter car since our Suburban is now our workhorse. So yeah, I don't really care about the continued wear since the CVs are effectively trash at this point.

Good to know about the aftermarket axles. Will take my time and keep an eye out for OEM shafts on the cheap cuz those things are stupid expensive from BMW! Will fix them later before I get rid of it.

Thanks guys.

[rothwem]

I've actually thought about this a little bit, I'll bet you could disassemble the CV axle and basically just pull the shaft and leave the tulip joint in the front diff and the fixed joint in the knuckle and roll like that for a while.