BMW X-Drive Front LSD Differential

[shushikiary]

Great.... I wonder then (obviously we only have a few data points for the front) if all front diff's are welded then. At least that means everyone needs gears possibly? lol

 

[finallall]

So is this for manual or auto front diff?

 

[Cheezy]

So is this for manual or auto front diff?

We're trying to develop it for both

Great.... I wonder then (obviously we only have a few data points for the front) if all front diff's are welded then. At least that means everyone needs gears possibly? lol

@battlehawk stated that his front was bolted, so there are bolted fronts

 

[shushikiary]

I'm sure everyone on here is more than willing to go pull their front diff just to help collect data (obviously sarcasm).

I was hoping we'd have a clearer course of action, but it seems the best course is to either develop a 3.46 bolted gear set, or develop both a 3.46 and 3.08 gear set, exactly like has already been talked about.

I'll still take one either way. If I have to get an Mfactory rear LSD in 3.46 as well I will.

 

[RSTECH]

Add me to the list please
1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
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[Twisted Tuning]

Yes, the 535i's follow the same convention as the 135i/335i. If it's an E6X AT, then the "rear" is 100% bolted

If the front diff that I have is from an AT 535i, then yes, that confirms that the front diff does NOT follow the rear

i'd assume they are all probably welded. But its hard to get any documentation. The only part number differences i see on realOEM is for differentiating the gear ratio from 3.08 and 3.46

EDIT: missed the post where someone said they had a bolted Front diff

 

[Twisted Tuning]

1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
7 Tim Bies
8 Duane Pugh
9 Brennan Wallman
10 Michael Rooney
11 Erik Chik
12 Maniac0908
13 Bsimmi15
14 Btxbimmer
15 The Banshee
16 Mistajay
17 Taron
18 FOXYZ
19 shushikiary
20 Brian Antic
21 scrllock
22 Rstech

 

[shushikiary]

So did Mfactory stay with the 30 number, or was there any way for us to move forward with the now 22 we have?

 

[scrllock]

Ok guys, I just need to confirm a few things as someone mentioned there was a "bolted" version?

1) If we make an LSD only, this actually only requires 10 sets (at the original $999.95 price). We would need a "bolted" oem sample to take measurements from though. I believe someone posted this up earlier in the thread? Of course, this is of no use to those who are "welded" though, unless they wanted to try find a "bolted" front diff from a breakers/scrapyard?

2) If we can get the "bolted" sample (will need both the diff and ring & pinion to verify measurements), I will check to see if the overall dimensions are the same as the "welded" sample that we have here. If it is, then we only need to make the 1 LSD that will work with both fitments.

3) For the "welded", we would still need to make a ring & pinion. For this, we originally required 30 sets, but if we can get 20 sets @ $1500 (inc. LSD), I will foot the bill myself and keep the extra 10 sets as stock

4) Someone also mentioned that the AT and MT are different ratios (I'm talking about the front ratios, not the rear)? If so, that introduces another problem; A new ratio means an entirely new ring & pinion = min. 20 sets

I don't think they're requiring 30 sets now, but I don't think we know the count on each ratio or bolted vs. welded diffs.

 

[shushikiary]

Ok re-reading that several times, just to make sure I understand...

1. We need to find someone with a bolted sample to send them.

2. We need to figure out how many people in the group are manual vs auto, we know for sure the rears are different ratio's, and given the transfer case needs front and rear tire size to be within 1% I'd say that's hard evidence the front and rear are very likely the same ratio (not sure I've ever seen a transfer case that allows different front and rear diff ratio's).

From there, we need to figure out if everyone is willing to pay for new gears, even if they have a bolted diff, or else we don't have the 20 no matter what, but if we have 10 bolted diff's on the list they could still get an LSD made.

Then, once we know if the majority is auto or manual (likely auto) are enough members of the minority willing to switch out both their front and rear ratio's to get to 20?

To me it sounds like we REALLY need to figure out how to identify if a car has bolted or not by the VIN / build date or something similar. We also need people to state if they are manual or auto.

Obviously I'm manual as already stated.


Ok so from http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=VD53-USA-04-2008-E90-BMW-335xi&diagId=31_0718

So it seems the auto and manual have different part numbers, and look at "i" it shows 3.08 or 3.46, so we KNOW for sure auto and manual have different part numbers, and thus the ratios. This is for an E90 no LCI update. Note the E60 part numbers are the same.

The LCI update cars seem to have the same part numbers? But there's a comment on part numbers from build date 08/2009 for the auto transmission cars.

That starts to give some interesting hints that we might be able to tell welded vs not welded (and obviously gear ratio) by part numbers...

 

[scrllock]

The part number for mine (31507601768) looks like it should match up with the 3 and 5 series autos, though realoem lists a different part number for pre sept '09 cars, and yet another for ones prior to 07/2008 (which would be battlehawk's I assume, since he mentioned having an '07). They list the same ratios on realoem as they do for the rears.

I would definitely not mind paying for a welded diff if that's what I need to do, but I'm personally not interested in switching to a 3.08 in the rear as well.

I think we probably need to get build dates/VINs from people in order to get a list of part numbers and see what our counts are for welded, ratios, and carrier housing sizes (that could vary as well, I assume).

 

[shushikiary]

We'd better PM the vin numbers to twisted, not sure everyone wants that to be public.
Build date... he's exact info for mine 2008 335xi manual 04 of 08.

Interesting, the manuals use the same part numbers for all years of E90/E60: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/par...35xi&mg=31&sg=15&diagId=31_0718&q=31507575785

But the auto's have 2 breaks as you mentioned: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/par...35xi&mg=31&sg=15&diagId=31_0718&q=31507601768

I'm wondering if the manuals ALL have either welded or bolted front diff. We already know the rear being bolted or welded does not correspond to the front being that way.

If we could get a junk yard front diff, or maybe get info from BMW its self directly, one from 04/08 to 10/09, and one from 03/05 to 07/08 (ideally up to 03/08), we could likely figure it out. I'm willing to bet that 04/08 to 07/08 is the "transition period" we see similar to the rear diff of the manuals between bolted and welded.

MFactory is right that we also need to make sure there isnt a size difference between the auto and manual like we see on the rears.

Let me shoot BMW an email and see if they would be kind enough to help us figure this out.

 

[Cheezy]

I'm gonna go ahead and commit to this so I can be cool. Also cause I'm confident I'm breaking my diff this season

1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
7 Tim Bies
8 Duane Pugh
9 Brennan Wallman
10 Michael Rooney
11 Erik Chik
12 Maniac0908
13 Bsimmi15
14 Btxbimmer
15 The Banshee
16 Mistajay
17 Taron
18 FOXYZ
19 shushikiary
20 Brian Antic
21 scrllock
22 Rstech
23 cheezy

 

[RSTECH]

Mine is a 2010 n54 E90 lci don't think it will make a difference but BMW is so weird how they did the lci on the e90 and not the e92 on the 09 and 10, I have an auto transmission.

 

[Cheezy]

Also, since I need to change my oil pan gasket, I am willing to remove my front diff, open it up and find out what type it is for the furthering of this thread. It is a 2008 335xi auto. Production month 11/07. I'm expecting a welded type based on previous information in this thread

 

[shooter26]

You Read it correctly. We are teaming up with @MFactory in our quest to further solidify the prior neglected X-Drive drivetrain found in our beloved BMW. We have worked with M-Factory in the past on Mazda oriented products and have had amazing results. So we are at it again.

We already have Rear LSD Diffs available so lets seal the deal with a Front LSD. M-Factory has agreed to take on the project of producing their Forged Helical LSD for us in Front Diff Fashion.

PIC For Attention:
View attachment 8379

We need 30 confirmed buyers for this to happen. No Flakes, only real buyers. We will also need a sample stock Diff which i will take care of and get sent to M-Factory once we have our 30 confirmed buyers.

MSRP is similar to their Rear LSD offerings: $1500
(50% deposit, then 50% when the rest are due to ship)

CONFIRMED BUYERS:

1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
7 Tim Bies
8 Duane Pugh
9 Brennan Wallman
10 Michael Rooney
11 Erik Chik
12 Maniac0908
13 Bsimmi15
14 Btxbimmer
15 The Banshee
16 Mistajay
17 Taron
18 FOXYZ
19 shushikiary
20 Brian Antic
21 scrllock
22 Rstech
23 Shooter26


Copy and paste the list and add your name if you're in 100%, no maybes!!

 

[shooter26]

You Read it correctly. We are teaming up with @MFactory in our quest to further solidify the prior neglected X-Drive drivetrain found in our beloved BMW. We have worked with M-Factory in the past on Mazda oriented products and have had amazing results. So we are at it again.

We already have Rear LSD Diffs available so lets seal the deal with a Front LSD. M-Factory has agreed to take on the project of producing their Forged Helical LSD for us in Front Diff Fashion.

PIC For Attention:
View attachment 8379

We need 30 confirmed buyers for this to happen. No Flakes, only real buyers. We will also need a sample stock Diff which i will take care of and get sent to M-Factory once we have our 30 confirmed buyers.

MSRP is similar to their Rear LSD offerings: $1500
(50% deposit, then 50% when the rest are due to ship)

CONFIRMED BUYERS:

1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
7 Tim Bies
8 Duane Pugh
9 Brennan Wallman
10 Michael Rooney
11 Erik Chik
12 Maniac0908
13 Bsimmi15
14 Btxbimmer
15 The Banshee
16 Mistajay
17 Taron
18 FOXYZ
19 shushikiary
20 Brian Antic
21 scrllock
22 Rstech
23 Shooter26


Copy and paste the list and add your name if you're in 100%, no maybes!!

 

[shushikiary]

Well, emailed BMW, they said to call the local service center... called them and all they could see was some breaks in part numbers that didn't line up with what we've already seen... called some local BMW indy's and same deal. I asked if there was an email I could use that would get me further information from BMW corporate its self, but to no avail.

Seems like members and junk yards are our friends in figuring out what build dates / models have bolted vs welded ring gears.

Is perhaps the best course of action to just assume everyone will need gears? lol.

 

[Twisted Tuning]

1 Twisted Tuning
2 Travis Harre
3 Ivan Sanchez
4 DrWeedLive
5 Jesse Cameron
6 Alex Peterson
7 Tim Bies
8 Duane Pugh
9 Brennan Wallman
10 Michael Rooney
11 Erik Chik
12 Maniac0908
13 Bsimmi15
14 Btxbimmer
15 The Banshee
16 Mistajay
17 Taron
18 FOXYZ
19 shushikiary
20 Brian Antic
21 scrllock
22 Rstech
23 cheezy
24 shooter26

 

[N55_nps]

Is this suitable for both manual and autos? Will this work with a 435i x drive auto? If so then I’d love to join the list