Output Shaft? - BMW Forum

Matty · 12-21-2006, 08:55 PM

So I took my car into my local BMW Shop for unrelated maintenance, and of course they give me a list a mile long of everything else that needs to be fixed on her (85 318 with 212000 miles). Anyways, one of the things they mention is that my Output Shaft seal is leaking, which I kind of already knew. So Im going through the paperwork for all the estimates and it says I need a whole new Output Shaft and that it'll cost $700 dollars! Does this sound suspicious to anyone else? How likely is it that the whole shaft would need replacing and if so how difficult is it? Because I sure as hell don’t want to pay that much when the car didn’t cost me too much more than that?

Starmavin · 12-21-2006, 09:31 PM

That is totally absurd. 700$ for less than 2 hours labor? Yes, something is very wrong there. It shouldn’t be that much even for a rear main seal...

Matty · 12-21-2006, 09:39 PM

That’s exactly what I was thinking. I have gone to this shop for a while and they are great. And the mechanic just told me about a leaky seal, but the estimate includes the out shaft in the parts list at $484. It also includes the shift rod seal but that’s only $8. And it says it would take 2 hours. Would it take only two hours to replace the actual shaft? I am wondering if the girl who typed the estimate up made a mistake.

BMWJNKY · 12-22-2006, 10:29 AM

The shift rod seal is not fun. I just replaced my friends last weekend and you should have the special tool for reinstalling it otherwise the chance of damaging the new one is pretty high. I work at a shop with all the special BMW tools and replacing that shift rod seal sucked. You have to take a part most of the shifter linkage so it is out of the way.

The output flange seal isn't that bad, its just an O-ring that goes around the flange and a radial oil seal in the diffcase. It can be replaced with basic hand tools, just follow the directions in the Bently. I would call the shop and ask them what their reason is for wanting to replace the whole output shaft.

gotKRAUT · 12-22-2006, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMWJNKY

The shift rod seal is not fun. I just replaced my friends last weekend and you should have the special tool for reinstalling it otherwise the change of damaging the new one is pretty high. I work at a shop with all the special BMW tools and replacing that shift rod seal sucked. You have to take a part most of the shifter linkage so it is out of the way.

a very grateful friend for your assistance

haha