During last week’s clutch change operation it became apparent that the propshaft centre bearing required replacement, and the differential was leaking from all three seals. So yesterday, it started all over again.

Getting the exhaust off was much, much quicker than last time, but it still takes about 40 minutes to get the car up in the air and have the exhaust completely clear. Robin and Ben got going on removing the propshaft.

While I set up the TIS reference system:

Note our trusty lever/chisel bar bottom left there – vital for so many recent operations! The propshaft was soon off:

As you can see, the outgoing bush had seen better days!

It certainly required replacing by the time we had removed it!

The actual bearing was removed using a three legged puller. I had to nip back to Woking in Ben’s M3 to fetch this – see my comparison of the M5 and M3.

While all that man fun was taking place I decided to clean the exhaust so that future leaks will be apparent. The leaking differential oil had certainly left its mark on the exhaust.

Soon came up a treat!

We realised we could replace the differential’s front seal with the diff in the car.

Next we went to work on the side seals. We removed the half shaft bolts, but soon realised we couldn’t get each half shaft out of the way enough to get at the flange. Here’s where we took the wrong decision that cost us hours: we chose to whip the suspension apart to permit the half shaft to be pulled further from the diff.

This took ages, and didn’t help. So we took the diff out of the car, which didn’t take very long, and made progress a whole lot easier!

We gave it a good clean, replaced both side seals, and replaced the oil. A fully serviced diff – excellent!

We got the diff back in the car just fine, but could we put the suspension back together? Hell no! It was late, we all had other things to do in the evening, and we really needed some spring clamps. Incidentally, the M5 is the first car I’ve owned with coilovers on the back. Anyway, we wimped out and went home. This left me in charge of the Subaru for the night – my thoughts here!

This morning we returned bright and early with spring clamps and after much swearing got the suspension back together. Can’t say I fancy trying to replace a suspension bush any more than I’d fancy doing the clutch again! In any case, once all was put back together the underside of the car looked far more appealing.

Overall I’m really pleased with this and last weekend’s progress. All vibrations have gone, the clutch is excellent and the improved standard of all drivetrain components is excellent peace of mind. The parts bill for this escapade came to about £110 which really isn’t bad at all. I must also mention that Dave Reynolds, parts advisor at Vines BMW of Guildford, has once again given excellent service. He provided a couple of extra parts I hadn’t realised I needed (butyl tape to cover the centre mount which damps vibration, and the diff front locking plate), sourced the correct differential oil and provided up to date fitting instructions. So, thanks must go to him, and to Robin and Ben for their help!