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To finally close this out: bought a new one from BMW. Was about 1000 bucks shipped. Fixed the issue. There were ~20 of them in Germany when I ordered mine in Q2 of 2026. -
First driveshaft I got from these guys came from VA (these are made by powertrain industries it seems). The u-joint was basically locked up and had a crack in it so I sent it back. They were super easy to deal with. The made me another one that shipped out of Nevada. U-joints felt as they should. I installed it in the car and got a hum on closed throttle decel. I can't tell if it's the driveshaft or it's amplifying worn bearings in the diff but based on how the car ran with the stock one (mostly a hum over 90MPH) I'm inclined to say this one has some other issue. I'm not a driveshaft expert so I'm not sure if it's a balance issue or some sort of unmitigated harmonic in their design (which is different than the OE one). At this point, I'm inclined to say this was a failed experiment for me but I am going to take it to a local shop and have them spin it and see what they think. I'm glad it worked for OP. I'll update when I have new info.Leave a comment:
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I just bought one of these - we'll see if it shows up. I'll report back when it's installed. I pulled the diff out to rebuild it due to a noticeable hum above 70 from the rear. I had it in my head pinion bearings were likely shot (I had another iX with the same noise as well). I got the car with 100K on it and put 60 on it so far over 5 years and when I dumped the diff fluid yesterday, it was like brand new looking after that 60K miles so I just don't think it's eating bearings (non scientific). The rear u-joint is pretty stiff though (only in one direction) and also has a tiny bit of play. I noticed this when I went through the whole drivetrain and suspension when I got the car but was kinda lazy about it thinking all iX's made some noise which, in retrospect, BMW wouldn't sell them with a hum in the rear. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what shows up.Leave a comment:
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Damn, just replaced my rear (325iX) driveshaft with a used OEM. Good to know this is available for future replacement.Leave a comment:
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$315 325ix driveshaft with replaceable u joint
$315. I'm not even joking. It's great. If you have an IX you should buy one. I thought there was no way it was going to be legit for $315, but it really was. I highly recommend it. My driveline is now very smooth and the best part is that if the u joint ever dies again, I can simply replace the u joint. I destroyed 2 u joints trying to replace the staked u joint in the OEM driveshaft.
Apologies for the messy work bench.
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