Advice on 118d expired diff unit

Bossk128

Bossk128

Bossk128

Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2006
Posts
1,379
Location
Tayside
Hi all, specifically BMW gurus,
My 8yo 118d (70k miles) has got a diff unit with bearings on the way out. Drivable at the mo but on borrowed time. I've been quoted a new OEM unit at £1400 plus hundreds to fit. This is rapidly approaching the limit to spend on a car of it's value IMO, considering other things may break as time goes by. My options as I see it:

1: Bend over and get a new one purchased and fitted.

2: Get a unit from the breakers, and get it fitted. Cheaper but not by much (as advised by the non-BMW garage), no guarantee.

3: Trade in and be honest, take the financial hit.

Anybody willing to offer ideas about which is the better option, or if you have better ideas please offer 'em. :p
 
A used diff is somewhere around £150-250 so seems like quite a saving over new? :confused: Just buy a used one and get a garage to fit it - not the hardest job in the world.
 
commited said:
A used diff is somewhere around £150-250 so seems like quite a saving over new? :confused: Just buy a used one and get a garage to fit it - not the hardest job in the world.
Click to expand...

All the quotes I have at the mo are well over £500. Still a huge saving though!

Fitting also appears expensive at the mo, but I need to get more details (I wasn't at the garage) or phone about.

As far as option 4 goes: I'm not averse!! Just not sure if they would pick it up on a test drive, it's like a gentle whine/hum from the back that disappears when dropping out of neutral. If work is required at trade in (if being honest) do you lose as much on trade in as it would cost to repair?
 
Tbh I'll bet it would live on for years and years anyway, but just replace the whole thing they tend to be pretty bulletproof.
 
Bossk128 said:
All the quotes I have at the mo are well over £500. Still a huge saving though!

Fitting also appears expensive at the mo, but I need to get more details (I wasn't at the garage) or phone about.

As far as option 4 goes: I'm not averse!! Just not sure if they would pick it up on a test drive, it's like a gentle whine/hum from the back that disappears when dropping out of neutral. If work is required at trade in (if being honest) do you lose as much on trade in as it would cost to repair?
Click to expand...

Type E87 diff into eBay and they start at £150. Source the part yourself and then ring around for labour costs.
 
Bossk128 said:
All the quotes I have at the mo are well over £500. Still a huge saving though!

Fitting also appears expensive at the mo, but I need to get more details (I wasn't at the garage) or phone about.

As far as option 4 goes: I'm not averse!! Just not sure if they would pick it up on a test drive, it's like a gentle whine/hum from the back that disappears when dropping out of neutral. If work is required at trade in (if being honest) do you lose as much on trade in as it would cost to repair?
Click to expand...

Nobody will drive your trade in, if they do it'll be round the car park
 
rodenal said:
Nobody will drive your trade in, if they do it'll be round the car park
Click to expand...

Some do, some don't. When my girlfriend px'd her car they took it for a good old drive, but this was a smaller trader. When my friend px'd his knackered mk4 Golf at a main dealer they only started it up.
 
According to Autodata, R&I for a final drive is under 2 hours!

Now, Autodata can sometimes be wildly wrong, and the 1 series may be subtly different, but when I have changed diffs on BMW's in the past, I have never found the job particularly taxing.

I would generally rate as an easy DIY job actually!

(The worst bit is manhandling a heavy diff over ones head while trying to get the bolts out/in :p)
 
My diff (57 pate 530d) has gone too (120k) but it won't ever fail totally, it will just get uncontrollably loud and annoying. A used one for me is £350. A new one is £2400 on an exchange basis.

Good job I have a warranty on the car as that's what is happening. My total cost on a £500 a year warranty (over 4 years) has just been spent in one blow on a rear diff.
 
Double check which one you have, a mate's 118d recently had a diff go bang and upon inspection, it was 4 bolt flange one rather than the usual 3 bolt one (or vice versa), which meant that his particular diff was as rare as rocking horse doo-doo!

I believe he's only this week sent the old one away for refurb so he can sell it on and make some of his money back.
 
Buy used one off ebay and get it fitted by small local garage. I have a good mechanic here who only charges about 35-40 an hour so you should be able to find someone with reasonable rates.
 
pepsilol said:
My god man, have it rebuilt. It will have all of a tenners worth of bearings inside! Some new seals for another tenner. Some labour and you can probably get it done under £100!

A bit like this

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1592551-320is-Diff-Rebuild-(Pic-heavy)

The labour to remove and fit cant be more than £200 either.

Go get a quote from a manual tranny specialist, they usually do this thing all the time
Click to expand...

I was going to say this, don't companies recondition/refurbish these items any more? Back in the day there were companies that did recon gearboxes/engines/diffs. The often use the original casing and replace the internals with a non oem so they tend to be fairly cheap but still reliable and come with a warranty!
 
I've got quotes for the breaker diffs ranging up to £700.

I'll quiz about fitting at the local garage, and I've got a number for a local BMW dude. I'll update when I'm sorted!
 
This is starting to border moronic. Have you actually gotten a quote to rebuild this very simple straightforward diff?

What's stopping the used diff doing the same 6 months later?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom