Replaces
Part Details
TRQ CV (constant velocity) drive axles are manufactured using premium raw materials designed to restore original performance. TRQ CV drive axles are new, so there is no core charge with your TRQ purchase. TRQ-designed drive axles utilize neoprene boots, moly grease, stainless steel clamps, and heat-treated ball tracks to ensure extended service life. Each TRQ axle is application-specific so each spline and thread will mate properly for a seamless fit. All products are fit and road-tested in our Massachusetts R&D facility to ensure we deliver on our promise of Trusted Reliable Quality.
Product Features
CV axles are designed to transmit the power from your vehicle's drivetrain to the wheels while being able to flex and pivot to the demands of the steering and suspension systems. If your vehicle is making clicking noises at lower speeds or when making turns, it may be time to replace your CV axles with our 100% brand new assemblies.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Created on:
Tools used
What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to replace the front CV joint on this 2001 BMX 325XI. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1Aauto.com.
I raised the vehicle. We're using a two-post lift. If you doing this at your house, you can use a jack and jack stands. I'm going to remove the tire to gain extra access. It's going to make it a little bit easier. I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and an air gun. You could always use a breaker bar. Take these lug nuts out or lug studs out. When I get to the last one, I'm just going to hold the wheel so it doesn't fall. Take the last one out. Grab the wheel. Pull it off.
On this nut, there's these two little tabs that get pushed in so that this locks the nuts. So what you can do is take a file or a punch or a chisel and a hammer, and just tap them out. Just a little bit so that when you go to loosen up this nut, it doesn't get caught right there. So do that. Spread those out a little bit. Now I'm going to take this axle socket. We actually sell this at 1Aauto.com. This is a 12 point axle socket. It's a 36 millimeter, and I'm going to use my air gun to take this off. If you don't have an air gun, you can do this with a breaker bar and just use a pry bar, put the two bolts in here, two axle bolts, and you can stick a pry bar in between there to prevent the rotor from spinning. I'll just take those off for this because I'm using the gun. I shouldn't need those.
Loosen it up. Take that nut off. So I want to take this nut off. So I'm going to use some rust penetrant, spray it down, soak it for a little bit. Now I'm going to take a 18 millimeter wrench, go over this nut. I'm going to loosen this nut up. Once I get a couple turns on the box side, then I'll switch to the open side, and take this nut off. Get that nut loosened up, and sometimes you can't get it off because the axle's in the way. And we're just going to leave it loose like that. So I'm going to separate the ball joint from the knuckle right here. You can do this a couple of ways. Sometimes there's a clamp that you can slide in there and it pushes down on the ball joint. What we're going to use is a fork. We're going to try that method. You could also take a hammer and just tap on the knuckle itself. Just be careful. You don't want to break anything.
Just going to use this pickle fork and a hammer. Don't worry about that. Slide that in there, and we'll separate it. Now the reason why you might not want to use a pickle fork is generally it rips the boot on the lower control arm or on the ball joint. So keep that in mind if you're going to reuse the ball joint, you might not want to use this method. There we go. It's separated. Pull that nut out of the way.
Just going to spray some rust penetrant on the threads right here, the axle. If this moves pretty freely, then it's no big deal. You can take a hammer and just give it a tap. You don't want to hit it too hard. You're better off taking a punch and sticking in the center there and then hitting it because you don't want to mushroom the end of it. What I mean by mushroom is you don't want the threads to get thicker because the hammer smashed it down.
Just going to take a big punch and a hammer, give it a tap. It's on there pretty good. I'm just going to use a air chisel. Make sure you wear hearing protection and eye protection. So I am going to use a hammer on just on the end of it. Normally you'd want to be concerned about mushrooming the end of it, but we're replacing the axle anyway. So it's not a big deal. There we go. That was easy.
All right. So I'll slide that out of the way. Sometimes those can be pretty difficult. As you can see, our boot is ripped. So that's why we're replacing this axle. So I want to pop the axle off on this side. I'm just going to use a long punch. Get right in there. If you have a pry bar that you can hit the end of it, use that and then a hammer. Just git it a tap. There you go. The axle's coming out. I should be able to grab it. Sometimes it helps if you twist it a little bit. I'll give it a couple more taps. There we go. Some fluid is coming out. So keep that in mind. You might want to put a drain underneath. Just grab the axle and slide it out.
Here's the old part. Here's the new CV shaft from 1Aauto.com. The size is the same. Comes with a new nut, has the same CV joint and boot. It has the same tripod joint, has the same axle sealing surface right here and the same shaft link that goes into the front differential. Get yours at 1Aauto.come and you'd be ready to rock and roll.
Now I'm going to slide this in. Now the passenger side has a different length shaft. This shaft goes through the front differential on the driver's side, it's shorter. So that's the major difference between the passenger side and the driver's side. So we're just going to slide this back into the differential. Just be careful. It's a good idea to replace the seal, but if you don't, just be careful to not hit it with the drive shaft with the axle. All right. Slide that back into position. Sometimes these can be tricky to get back in.
So there's a little lip right here. You can just take a pry bar. You can try giving it a little tap on the end of it, just be careful. You don't want to hit it too hard. You don't want to break anything. If that doesn't work, just try spinning it again. There we go. Before I slide the axle back through the hub assembly, I am going to use just a little bit of this copper anti-seize. This is just going to prevent it from seizing in there if I ever have to take it out again. Just a little bit, nice thin coat. That's good. Slide this out. Get that lined up. And there we go. Take the nut, get it started. We're going to line up the lower control arm, ball joint through here. Get the nut, get this started. Right. Then I'm going to take a 19 millimeter wrench, tighten this nut right here. Now it's next to impossible to get a torque wrench on here. Maybe if you used a crow's foot, you might be able to torque this. But you're going to want to torque this to 48 foot pounds. So just do the best you can.
Now we need to tighten this axle nut. What I'm going to do is take a pry bar, put some of the lug studs in there, take my torque wrench. I'm going to tighten this to 213 foot pounds. Be careful this is a lot of torque. All right. We're good. Take that out. Take these bolts out. So the axle came with the new axle nut. If you're reusing your axle, it's a good idea to replace the nut. Now there is these two indentations on the axle itself. What you need to do is take a chisel and a hammer and just tap down. This is going to lock the nut in place, prevent it from loosening up. Just like that.
Now I'm going to put the wheel on. Just line up the holes. Take one of the lug studs, get that started. I can grab the other ones, and I'll just tighten these down. Then I'm going to lower the vehicle and torque them. Now I'm going to use the 17 millimeter socket and a torque wrench. I'm going to torque these lug bolts to 95 foot pounds. I'm going to torque them in a star pattern so that the wheel gets tightened down evenly. And I'm just going to go around again, just double check. Good to go.
Thanks for watching. Visit 1Aauto.com for quality auto parts shipped to your door, the place for DIY auto repair. And if you enjoyed this video, please click the subscribe button.
Tools used
What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to replace the driver side front axle on this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description, head over to 1AAuto.com.
All right, I want to loosen up these lug bolts. I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. Loosen them up. Now I'm going to raise and support the vehicle. We're using a two-post lift. If you're doing this at your house, you can use a jack and jack stands. Now we'll take these lug bolts out. Just use the socket to help you get them out. I'm going to just hold the wheel with my other hand so it doesn't fall. Take the last one out. Then I can grab the wheel and slide it off.
I want to remove this axle nut. I'm going to take a little punch. It is peened over a little bit right there and right there. That's just to prevent it from loosening up. Just take a punch and a hammer. Just try to punch it back a little bit. Once you get that all set, you're going to take a 36 millimeter 12-point socket. We actually sell these at 1AAuto.com.
Slide that on and then use an air gun. Take this nut off. Just like that--comes right off. I'm going to use a little rust penetrant in there. Let that sit for a little bit. Then I'm going to take a punch to just try to get this to break free a little bit and hit it with a hammer. I don't want to slam it out completely, but you want to be careful when you're hitting it like this, because you could mushroom the end over and then you won't be able to get the nut back on there if you're reusing the axle. We're not going to be reusing the axle, so it's not as crucial for us. I see a little movement, so that's good for right now.
Now I'm going to take an 18 millimeter wrench, and I'm going to take this nut off the ball joint right there. Loosen it up. And take the nut off. Having trouble getting the nut off a little bit, so I'm just going to spray it with some rust penetrant. Let that soak. It's a little bit of a pain, but I got that loose and sometimes you can't get the nut off, but I was able to get the nut off. There it goes.
Now there's a couple of different tools you can use to release this ball joint. You can use a pickle fork or there's some others that you can get in there and push down on the ball joint. What we're going to use is a pickle fork--you just got to be careful of damaging the boot. I'm going to replace this control arm anyway, so it's not a big deal for us. But keep that in mind if you're going to re-use your ball joint. If I wanted to avoid breaking that lower ball joint boot, I could try to tap on it right here. But it's just best to use a pickle fork and a hammer.
There it is. And it did rip the boot. But that's okay. I'm just going to support the brakes and the knuckle and just give this a tap. Just grab a pry bar. Try to pry this and it's not going. There we go. Slide that out of the way. I need to get the axle out from where it attaches to the front differential. Just move that like that and then take a long punch and a hammer. Give it a tap. Be careful not to hit the differential. There it goes. Got it to break free. Make sure you put a drain bucket underneath because some of the fluid may come out. Pry it up. There we go. Pull it right up. Just like that.
You want to check the seal. It's a good idea to replace the seal. I'm not going to replace the seal in this case, but it's actually pretty good. There's no rips in it or anything. Just make sure it feels good so that's good, but it is always a good idea when you're placing an axle to replace the seal.
Here's the old part. Here's the new front driver's side axle from 1AAuto.com. Comes with a new nut. The shape is the same and the length is the same. The boots are the same. Get yours at 1AAuto.com and you can do it yourself.
Before I slip this in, I am going to put a little bit of grease on the end of this. You want to be careful if you have a limited slip differential. You really don't want to be adding any grease because it might not mix with the gear loop properly. But a little bit of grease on this one. Make it go in a little bit easier. I'm going to slide this in like this. Try not to hit the edge of the seal. Looks pretty good. Let's get that lined up over there. Should be able to click it in place. When it clicks in place, you might not hear the click, but just double check to make sure it won't pull out. Take a look at it and make sure it's all the way on. Looks like it's all the way down. That looks good.
There we go. Slide that in position and get the ball joint lined up. Take the nut. Get that started. I'll tighten this nut up. Because I replaced the control arm, this new nut is a 19 millimeter. The nut you have might be different. And if you have a castle nut, you're going to want to put a new cotter pin in there. And tighten this down snug. Now the torque on this is 48 foot-pounds, but I don't have any way to use a torque wrench on this, so I'm just going to do the best I can.
Now I'm going to put the axle nut on. This comes with a new axle nut, so we'll use the new one and I'm going to take two lug nuts: one here and one right here. Now with a 36 millimeter socket and a torque wrench, I'm going to torque this axle nut to 214 foot-pounds. And what I'm going to do, to hold this from spinning, you could try to have someone step on the brake for you and see if that works for you. Sometimes it's not so easy, and then take a pry bar. Position it like this, that will hang up like that. Torque this to 214. That's not the easiest thing to do. You can always position this close to the ground and have the pry bar pushing on the ground while you torque it. That's a little bit easier.
To prevent this from loosening up, just take a little chisel and a hammer and just peen the end over, right in this area near the axle. Just like that. Same for this side. Here we go. Now it's not going to loosen up. You're good to put the tire on. Now I'm going to install the wheel. Line it up with the lug holes. I'll hold the wheel on. Grab a socket with my lug bolt. Get that started. Now I can lower the vehicle and torque the lug nuts.
Now I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and this torque wrench that we sell at 1AAuto.com. I'm going to torque these lug bolts to 95 foot-pounds in a star pattern so that it torques the wheel down evenly. We'll just go around again.
Thanks for watching. Visit 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts shipped to your door. The place for DIY auto repair. And if you enjoy this video, please click the subscribe button.
