Flex-Disc (Guibo) DIY

[bblars]

Hmm.. I thought that the bolts were M10, but I may have been mistaken. Guess I should get back under there and tighten things up.

[Ron Stygar]

Hmm.. I thought that the bolts were M10, but I may have been mistaken. Guess I should get back under there and tighten things up.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...05&hg=26&fg=10

[enigmalss]

I checked with BMW parts locally by giving them year, and model then having them give me the part #. They concurred with Willscam on the part # which kinda confirms that the bolts are M12. Plus, Ron said so...and that's good enuf for me

[enigmalss]

The replacement went well I'm happy to report. I ended up getting all new bolts simply because they didn't cost much and i didn't want to be stranded with a stripped bolt and my car on a borrowed lift.

Having a lift is awesome but not necessary. Just be advised that if your lift works from the tires/wheels (as mine did), you'll be unable to freely spin the driveshaft to access the bolts. I had to loosen 4, then lower it onto a jack, spin the shaft, and lift it up again to loosen the remaining 2.

But tightening the bolts in the manner that BMW specifies (only from the flange side, not the guibo side) is a PITA! Some it's relatively easy for the driveshaft flange side, but the tranny flange side...

Some nice offset box end wrenches (18mm) would have made a world of difference. Otherwise I could only get about 1/8 of a turn on each try before I had to reposition the wrench. I did this while holding the torque wrench on the driveshaft side of the guibo, and turning the tranny flange side nuts (as specified to avoid guibo preload and early failure). The tranny support beam is in the way and prevents easy turning of whatever you have on the tranny side nuts.

I DID NOT REMOVE EXHAUST, TRANNY SUPPORT, OR DRIVESHAFT. After unbolting, just push the driveshaft back enough to swing free of tranny shaft...or use a lever to help...that's what I did...gently though

Pretty straightforward...now let's see if I can post a photo of my pretty cracked guibo...

[willscam]

[LooRob]

Finally replaced mine. No more "knocking/rocks in tranny sound" when depressing the clutch pedal and releasing all that torque load. Overall, not that bad of a job. I was unfortunate enough to not have the drive shaft slide out (I "levered" the crap out of it with no luck) so I removed the heat shield and exhaust. It was a breeze after that. Thanks again guys for the write up and follow up comments/info. It really helped. Next project on the list: tranny and diff fluid flush...lol.

[das borgen]

sexy writeup

impact guns FTW

[s52e368]

fyi old discs make perfect jack pads

[E368 S52]

Went to do my guibo replacement last night and after breaking all 6 bolts loose, I tried to slide the driveshaft back to remove the guibo. It slided back about 1-1.5 inches but the guibo wouldn't come out. I'm just not sure how everyone else was able to get it out by just sliding it back an inch. I would say it has to slide about 3 inches in order for the guibo to come out. I guess I would be able to pry it out if I really wanted to but it would be impossible to get the new one in.

So just out of curiosity, how many others really had to drop their exhaust and everything to do it? This thread makes it seem like I'm one of the minority that has to go through this. Thanks for all the helpful info especially from the OP.

[dsuraci]

I thought the same thing when I did mine (how am I going to get this out and the new one in place??) My driveshaft slid back about the same distance and after finagling it for several minutes, I was able to remove it. Same went for putting the new one in place. The issue I had was getting the driveshaft to move back forward to bolt up the new one. I ended up using a rubber hammer to "tap" the driveshaft to move it.

Good luck!

Edit: I did this without dropping the exhaust.

[E368 S52]

Well I removed the exhaust. I figure it'll be easier since I'm replacing all the shift bushings as well. It definitely made it a lot easier to remove the old shift bushings and also the leaking shift selector seal.

[bblars]

I am now replacing my flex disc for the second time. It lasted about 3 years. I did not drop the exhaust and torqued everything from one side. Maybe that's why it failed relatively quickly. Has anyone else changed out the flex disc this frequently? Mine looks to be pretty close to failure.

[George K]

I have a brand new guibo sitting in a closet, with all the bolts. If anyone is interested, I'll let you have it for half the price I paid for it, plus shipping. For a 2001 2.5.

[nieuwendyk25]

New guy here, but I've been looking at info here for while. Just replaced the giubo on my '99 M Roadster! Thanks so much for all the info...it was a piece of cake thanks to you! Hoping this will fix my vibration at 65 mph, the old one was about to go. The worst part for me was jacking the car up, I am a 4WD guy...Jeep, 4Runner, Sequoia...so all my stuff is tall. Luckily I bought the low profile jack...my jack stands were almost too tall though...

Great write up!

[persian451]

Could someone confirm that the center sleeve MUST be greased? I've spoken to a handful of BMW techs and no one has heard of greasing the center sleeve of the new bushing

[Jeremy]

Could someone confirm that the center sleeve MUST be greased? I've spoken to a handful of BMW techs and no one has heard of greasing the center sleeve of the new bushing

Didn't grease mine, and it has been fine for over a year.

[persian451]

Didn't grease mine, and it has been fine for over a year.

yea that's what I thought... the Molykote is pretty tough to find.

Say, did you have enough room to remove the guibo without removing the center support?

[2kredz3]

Could someone confirm that the center sleeve MUST be greased? I've spoken to a handful of BMW techs and no one has heard of greasing the center sleeve of the new bushing

<-- i say this with a smile so don't take offense. . . why not just believe the techs as that is their job to know things like that. I would think that after the 2nd tech confirmed what the first said that would have been enough.

edit:

thought we were talking about the center bearing. . .

[persian451]

<-- i say this with a smile so don't take offense. . . why not just believe the techs as that is their job to know things like that. I would think that after the 2nd tech confirmed what the first said that would have been enough.

edit:

thought we were talking about the center bearing. . .

You know I live by that thought when it comes to cars... However, I failed to mention I called the only BMW techs in San Diego that are the best. If you live in San Diego, you would know that Shane @ Euro Auto Spot and Ben @ APEX are #1.

Let's just say... I didn't call the stealership or Aamco for advice


Yea, I guess I just wanted to make it clear to the DIYers that when doing this, you may not need to tract down the Molykote if it is not required...

BTW... i'm loving the Amsoil MTF

[2kredz3]

You know I live by that thought when it comes to cars... However, I failed to mention I called the only BMW techs in San Diego that are the best. If you live in San Diego, you would know that Shane @ Euro Auto Spot and Ben @ APEX are #1.

Let's just say... I didn't call the stealership or Aamco for advice


Yea, I guess I just wanted to make it clear to the DIYers that when doing this, you may not need to tract down the Molykote if it is not required...

BTW... i'm loving the Amsoil MTF

glad the MTF worked good for you

As a service manager i get a lot of customers that come in saying "I was told on the forum. . . " and while the Z3 community here is actually very good about having accurate info i would say that most other forums have a lot of none sense on them. particularly honda forums, anyway if you actually get to speak with a tech i would go with his info ;-)

[jalewis]

Thanks for the good write-ups everyone. I can confirm this works on non-M version Z's as well. Just did my 2001 Z3 Coupe today. PTA so close to the ground (I'd recommend finding a lift), but didn't have to remove exhaust or drop anything else.

Previously I had a really bad vibration / binding / catching sound when I accelerated under high torque in 2nd gear. Just did a couple runs and it's gone! Hopefully it didn't destroy anything else before I changed it

Cheers, J
1167316_10151607494297869_1186896287_o.jpg

[Outrider]

Not to drag up a dead thread, but it's DIY time.

Looking to replace my guibo in our (5MT) 2.8 Z3 coupe as well as for my son's S52 M Coupe. Pretty sure both guibos are 16+ years old...

Are the guibos the same part? I'm looking at aftermarket Lemforder and Febi, but would consider others. Strangely enough, when you order by model, you get different options, but when you look at the fitment list for each part, invariably, both the M and the Z are listed.

What about replacing the center shaft bearing? If so, are there good OEM parts out there? Many aftermarket parts are about a quarter the price of a stock countershaft bearing assembly. That doesn't scare me, but it makes me skeptical.

Anything else worth doing when it's up in the air for this?

Shift linkage refresh, clutch line replacement/slave cylinder replacement?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[PbFut]

Just don't get caught up in the marketing hype slanted towards harder disc. They will do nothing but cause problems.

[Outrider]

Looks like the Z and M do use different guibos.

[kornfeld]

Bump. Just used this DIY to replace my giubo. I was able to fully retract the driveshaft along the splined portion near the center support bearing, and it still wouldn't clear the little snout on the transmission. I had to lower the CSB to give enough wiggle room to get the driveshaft out of the way. Aside from that, all good.