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Thread: Little piece of metal found in rear Diff???

  1. #1
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    Little piece of metal found in rear Diff???

    Was starting to change all the fluids in my 99 M3 I just bought and found this piece near the drain plug. Fluid that was drained was actually pretty clean. Not new but not real dirty. I don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to knowing the internals of the differential. Anyone have an idea of what this is. The car drove great for the 200 miles I drove it so far. No grinding or whirring noise in the rear at all.A7EC247A-BB98-4CE1-B227-4F7A6F2455C9.jpg

  2. #2
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    I would pop the cover off for a closer look.

  3. #3
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    The carrier cap bolts loosen up and can come out and the cap can crack or break. You will likely have much worse problems soon.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by troy19bimmer View Post
    Was starting to change all the fluids in my 99 M3 I just bought and found this piece near the drain plug. Fluid that was drained was actually pretty clean. Not new but not real dirty. I don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to knowing the internals of the differential. Anyone have an idea of what this is. The car drove great for the 200 miles I drove it so far. No grinding or whirring noise in the rear at all.A7EC247A-BB98-4CE1-B227-4F7A6F2455C9.jpg
    That's the cap breaking. You need to stop driving it right now. If one of those ears has broken off, you've sheared all the bolts but one - and that last bolt broke the ear rather than breaking itself. Ask me how I know.

    You're living on borrowed time. The good news is that if it's still functioning, you've likely caught it in time to save it.

    It's not too hard to remove (both the diff and the LSD carrier). You'll have to extract the bolts with vice grips or something, and you'll need new grade 12.9 bolts (I got mine at Bel-Metric, but don't remember the size off the top of my head) which are decently inexpensive. I'm sure there's a DIY around here on it.

    But I'd stop driving it immediately if you want any hope of saving your bearings. This is an easy Saturday project, maybe even a half day if you're decently experienced.

    49b6b32d-a1d0-4024-aa3e-60eadbafd24c.JPG

    -Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.

  5. #5
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    I have not driven this car in over a month. It has been sitting on my lift at my shop, as I have been replacing a lot of parts/maintenance items. Like I said I don't know much about the internals of a diff so that's why I posted this. I will have to drop and remove cover and inspect from there I guess. I have enough common sense not to drive the car once I discovered this. I am glad I decided to change all the fluids in the car so that I did discover that broken piece in the diff.

  6. #6
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    What is the technical term for that flange/cap?? Do they sell them aftermarket or am I stuck buying right from BMW?

  7. #7
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    Try bimmerdiffs but you don’t have to buy from them or bmw. Just use the correct size and grade bolt. Unfortunate since your cap is damaged, you need to find a good used one.

  8. #8
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  9. #9
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    I'm not sure you can buy the internal parts of a diff at your local auto parts store. I would ask at the transmission shop. There are distributors that sell to the transmission shops, they would be the source for differential parts also. You have one of those parts where you take it into the shop and drop it on the counter and say, "I need one of these."

    I bought a rebuild kit for an old NP-435 transmission once upon a time. There was a transmission supplier that I found on the 'net that was on my way home from work. I forget the name of them, but you should be able to find a parts supplier that has an office that's just a FedEx truck away.

  10. #10
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    https://www.difflab.com.au/BMW-188mm...air?search=cap
    This looks like what I will need. I guess Ill remove diff and see if this is something I feel comfortable doing once I get it apart. If not, I have a trans shop I send work to once in a while that would install it for me.

  11. #11
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    The bolts are no big deal. You can get them from a lot of places if you know the size. The cap is obviously harder to find.

  12. #12
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    Will keep you guys posted. I already have the drive shaft and exhaust dropped already because I was replacing the shifter and other parts so I am not too far away from removing the differential. Will also post pictures as well. Thanks for the help so far.

  13. #13
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    DRIVESHAFT POINTERS

    You should mark the two halves where they separate in the middle at the slip joint. You should also mark where the yokes bolt to the transmission and differential. The transmission end has a flex disc, the disc has arrows on it that point to the front of the car and the screws that bolt the shaft to the transmission alternate directions. You should replace the center support bearing, there is a rubber piece that suspends the bearing within the holder, the rubber rots and comes apart. Push the bearing support forward in the mounting holes.

    The u-joints must be re-aligned so they are in phase (on the same plane) with each other. If the u-joints are not in phase, you can get some driveline vibrations that will make you crazy. There is a u-joint on both sides of the slip joint.

  14. #14
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    Yeh that stuff is all done already. That part of the reason I dropped out exhaust and drive shaft already was to replace those items and the quibo(was all torn up and had random hardware not installed properly). I got all new bolts and nuts to install the new guibo. I unfortunately did not mark the driveshaft at the rear diff and the front at trans so I guess I will see what happens when it all goes back together.

  15. #15
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    Marking it just makes it easy to see that you have the parts all aligned. If you did not mark, then you must check else all hell will break loose and you have to take it all apart again. It's far easier to look now, and correct the assembly if it's wrong.

    TIP for making marks
    Go to the hardware store and buy a bottle of Appliance Touch-up Paint. It comes in a small bottle with a tiny applicator brush built into the cap. Clean the surfaces where the paint will be applied, and the paint will remain for years.

  16. #16
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    I just took the diff out and one of my techs did mark the drive shaft in the front at the trans and at the rear diff. I also marked the axles so they go back in the same spot as well(don't think that really matters but did it anyway. Going to send to a trans shop I use and have them install the new cap and bolts. Just don't want to wait two weeks to have it shipped from out of the US. Anyone have any other sources within the US and know what bolts to order if the cap doesn't come with them?

  17. #17
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    Also just saw the subframe has a crack in it. Can this be welded or repaired without removing it?4627FB67-CD57-4226-9AE1-929AC34996A1.jpg

  18. #18
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    Looks rusty, I think you would be better off swapping it out for a clean used one, they aren't expensive

  19. #19
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    Something to consider in order to avoid this happening again, a powder coated and reinforced subframe... they aren't cheap by any means, however. But something you could easily do on your own, locally.

    https://store.garagistic.com/e36-rei...-rear-subframe

  20. #20
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    Yeh I found that site Team Neverlift and that's actually not too expensive in my opinion. I just bought this car and haven't even driven it more than 5 miles. I was hoping to maybe attack the rear sub frame next Winter when my shop is a little slower. I just want to make sure the car runs and drives good for a summer before sticking another few grand into it like I recently have. I guess I will let it ride for the meantime unless I hear some really bad noise or clunks back there. I can always throw it up on a lift pretty quick and inspect it periodically.

  21. #21
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    If you can get that crack area cleaned up, mig it and maybe add some reinforcement. Then next year pull the subframe and blast it and paint it and reinforce it or buy another one.

  22. #22
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    Yeh I may do that before I re-install the diff and everything else. I like the idea of replacing the entire subframe and installing all new bushings in it as well. I'm in my 30's now and I bought my first e36 when I was 17. It wasn't any fun back then because I couldn't buy all sorts of parts for the car. Now that have a business and make pretty good money, its more fun to own an m3 vs. when I was a teenager.

  23. #23
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    If you have the time and money, redo all your rear bushings and mounts now and reinforce the subframe and do RTAB pocket reinforcements and rear subframe mounting point reinforcements. Use M3 spec outer rear control arm bushings and subframe bushings. You will transform the feel of the rear end.

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