How to Replace Front CV Axle 2003-10 BMW X3

You wanna keep in mind, when you're doing this job, after you're done, you're gonna wanna go to a local garage and have the vehicle aligned so you don't have premature tire wear.

Gonna take the wheel off. Use a 17-millimeter socket. Take these lug studs off. So, I'm gonna hold the wheel on. Take that stud off. And then, grab the wheel and take if off.

We're gonna take the shield off. There's all these screws, all along here. They're 8-millimeter. There should be one there and one there and then the same on the other side. Use an 8-millimeter socket, take all these out. All right. And then, pull this down, slide it back.

I'm gonna take this axle nut off. I'm gonna use a chisel and just bend these tabs back over so that I can loosen up the nut. I'll use a 36-millimeter 12-point socket, remove the nut. Then, I'll just take a punch so I don't mess up the threads. Just give the axle a tap, try to break it free from the hub. You don't have to press it completely out. Just get it loose.

All right, to get this axle, you need to move the knuckle forward. What you can do is either take this ball joint out, which sometimes is difficult if you don't have the proper tools, or you can take this bolt out and just swing the whole arm.

All right, now I'm gonna use a 16-millimeter wrench to hold the bolt and a 18-millimeter socket, remove the nut. Give it a tap. Try not to mess up the threads on the end of it. Slide that out. Just take a pry bar, get in between here, just pry it out. There we go. All right, now, just move the knuckle out and just slide the axle out right there.

Take these two little bolts out, I'm gonna use a 8-millimeter socket. Then, I'm gonna take these bolts out. There's four of 'em. Gonna use a 16-millimeter socket. When we get to the last one, I am gonna support this. And slide this down.
All right, now from back here, I'm gonna take a punch and just try to get an area where you can hit it and just give it a tap. There's a snap ring in there. You're trying to get it to pop out of the snap ring. There we go, got it to pop. Get a drain bucket underneath just in case anything comes out. Use a pry bar and just slide the axle. Be careful of the seal if you're gonna reuse it. A little bit of fluid came out, not too bad. That's where the snap ring clip is, there.

All right, take the new axle, if you want to, you can put some lubrication on the end just to help the splines go in a little better. And just line it up. Try not to hit the seal. And just twist it a little bit. All right, that seems good. All right, carefully, you can use a rubber mallet or a plastic dead blow and just give it a tap. Just be careful. And it's starting to move, so that's good. And it's bottomed out and just give it a wiggle, make sure that snap ring is snapped in, and it's good.

All right, now, before I put in the axle shaft into the wheel bearing, I'm just gonna just a little anti-seize on this area right here. You don't wanna use anti-seize on the shaft going in. You wanna use more, like, a grease or even, like, a Vaseline would work. That's good. That's just to prevent it from rusting in there.

All right, just slide this in position. All right, that's lined up. That's good. All right, before I put the nut on the axle, let's get this lined up. Just take a hammer. Can always take a screwdriver, just get this to line up. There we go. There we go. And put the nut on. I'm gonna use a screw jack underneath the control arms to position this control arm so that it's at about ride-height level. What is ideal is to have the wheel on it and torque this bolt while the wheel is on the ground, but it's very difficult to do that, so I'm gonna use screw jack and raise it up as close as possible. That's good.

I'm gonna use a 16-millimeter wrench, 18-millimeter socket, torque this to 74 foot-pounds. All right, after you torque that, you're gonna wanna go an additional 90 degrees, so you can use an angle meter if you have one. If not, do the best you can. And that's about 90 degrees. Now, I can lower the screw jack. Now, we're gonna take the new nut, get that on. Now, to prevent the hub from spinning, I'm just gonna take a long screwdriver, slide it into one of the slots in the rotor. Just have it right up against the caliper bracket. And then, we're gonna torque this nut to 310 foot-pounds. So that the nut doesn't loosen up, there's these little tabs. What you need to do is just take a punch and you just need to peen over the nut just like this. Just like that. just fold it over a little bit and then same on this side.

All right, take this plate, slide this back in position and put the bolts in. Now, tighten these up and tighten the little ones up. Now, reinstall this panel. Just get it lined up. That's good. Take all the bolts, get those all started first. Now, just go around and tighten them all down.

Take the wheel, put the wheel back on. Get the lug stud. Now, I'm just gonna torque these lug bolts to 110 foot-pounds. I'm gonna do it in a star pattern so that it tightens the wheel down evenly. And just go around again, double-check.