Help diagnose driveshaft slap on 332ti!
 

Hello there. I've been a long time member, but just recently purchased a 1997 318ti with a S52 swap. The swap was "professionally" done in 2001, I have receipts that show an insane bill for the conversion. I just recently purchased the vehicle.

The original 318ti transmission and driveshaft were reused during this swap.

I'm having what I can best describe as driveshaft slap under hard acceleration. I am able to lightly operate the vehicle without causing the shake or slap, however under normal acceleration from a stop, it is present. Under hard acceleration its extremely violent. The previous owner thought the issue was the rear subframe and trailing arm bushings. He had this to say about it:

I had several car savvy (and bmw nuts) ride and drive my vehicle. All signs pointed to a worn center support bearing. I went ahead and ordered OEM center support bearing and transmission mounts. Last night, a few friends got together and worked on my car. We found a completely shot center support bearing. The bearing was still securely on the driveshaft but the rubber around that was completely worn off, so basically the driveshaft was free floating in the center support bearing.

We felt fairly confident that the new center support bearing would fix the issue, thinking perhaps the previous owner lied or installed it incorrectly. Unfortunately, this did NOT fix the driveshaft slap.

Some things to note:
- Driveshaft IS new. Still has stickers on it, it looks very fresh. I've sent an email to the previous owner asking for more details on it, i.e. install date, brand, etc.
- Flexdisk or "Guibo" looks fine
- I put the vehicle on jack stands and put it in gear and accelerated, I did not feel the shake. That being said, I didn't exactly beat on it while I was up there. So take that for what its worth.
- While rotating the driveshaft, I noted only the passenger rear wheel was turning. I have receipts for a Limited Slip but have no idea what one is on there. Is that normal?
- Fairly certain this isn't a rear subframe bushing issue. Under inspection they don't look that bad.
- Engine Mounts look fine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

*** If this would be better located in a different section, I apologize. I'm not sure if this may be an issue due to the swap, or choice of transmission. ***

Wheel turning only on one side = not limited slip or limited slip is shot...

Did you check the rear CV joints?

You cant always tell by looking if a guibo is toast.. they can internally fracture..

A variable speed strobe will allow yo to spin the drive and see whats moving sometimes..

Dave

Sounds like what happened to me when my U Joint went

Diff Bushing?

Sure sounds to me like a giubo/driveshaft issue. It doesn't matter how new that driveshaft is, if it was disassembled and not put back together in the proper orientation (out of balance); if it is an incorrect driveshaft; if it was not pre-loaded on reassembly; or if the center bearing was as torn up as you mentioned, all of these things can cause premature wear on the driveshaft/u-joints. The more of these situations that exist, the faster that wear is going to be.

Might not be a bad idea to re-inspect the u-joints carefully and maybe even have a driveline shop put it on the balancer.

I had a noticeable thump when I bought my car, especially 2nd gear under acceleration. It ended up being the u-joint was stiff; it was pretty obvious when I rotated the driveshaft in my hands with the u-joint at an angle as there was a definite tight spot. I replaced it with a rebuilt unit from one of the common rebuilders of E36 driveshafts (Google it!) and the problem was solved. I just sold the rebuilt driveshaft to Wolferj, since I used a ZF trans as part of my M52 swap. Good luck!