I can not believe this part failed at 58,000 miles, maybe 100,000 miles would be OK. The problem is with the plastic gear inside. I could have replaced the gear for $7 which is quite involved and I did not want to get into it. So I replaced the whole actuator. At the dealer this would have costs me about $2000. I paid $400 for the complete part. I see the replacement gears are of some composite material now.
The 328XI AWD model uses a transfer case actuator to control how much power is transferred to the front wheels versus the rear wheels. The problem is, the motor assembly that does this uses PLASTIC GEARS. Who puts plastic gears in a transmission part?
When the parts starts to get stripped and fail, the first sign is you hear a weird grinding noise after you park the car and turn the engine off.
Then randomly you get a weird 4X4! warning on the dash with no explanation of what the problem is. Eventually the grinding noise gets worse and you will have to remove the transfer case actuator and either replace the whole assembly or buy a 3rd party metal gear to install because BMW still only offered PLASTIC GEARS.
Another horrible design by BMW. Again I could under stand something like this failing at 100,000 miles but not 56k miles !!!
- srrav1981,
Austin, TX, US
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I can not believe this part failed at 58,000 miles, maybe 100,000 miles would be OK. The problem is with the plastic gear inside. I could have replaced the gear for $7 which is quite involved and I did not want to get into it. So I replaced the whole actuator. At the dealer this would have costs me about $2000. I paid $400 for the complete part. I see the replacement gears are of some composite material now.
- Leon S., Sandy, UT, US