Is my diff completely done?

[Casa de Mesa]

There are splined shafts on the drive flanges (#8 below) that mesh with the spider gears inside your diff. They slide into the diff and are held in place by a cir-clip/lock ring (#12 below) internally in the diff. It looks like your axle has somehow pulled away from the diff, taking that splined shaft/drive flange with it. It could be from a failed lock ring or potentially something else. You likely have metal inside the case and possibly damage to some parts of the diff. Only way to know is to pull it out. You could pull the diff cover off with the diff still in the car, but you might not be able to see what's happening on the inside.

Sorry man, was hoping for the best for ya'.

For reference RealOEM: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1065

[Casa de Mesa]

Here's a shot of the drive flange and some other pics to give you a better idea of how it all fits together, hopefully. You can see the recessed groove for the lock ring on the drive flange/splined shaft. It's quite literally just a spring loaded lock ring and the L/R diff seals that keeps those drive flanges held in place. Something has pulled yours out.

Driver side drive flange:


Driver side on left:



How the axle/CV joint would bolt to the drive flange:


Inside of the passenger side:

[sapote]

The damage

It's hard to say from the static pic. Better with a video showing the wobbling.

[Casa de Mesa]

It's hard to say from the static pic. Better with a video showing the wobbling.

Agree a video would make it easier. However, from this pic, it looks like the drive flange is about 0.5" / 13mm pulled out of the diff. The outer metal dust cover plate should be closer to the diff housing.

[sapote]

Agree a video would make it easier. However, from this pic, it looks like the drive flange is about 0.5" / 13mm pulled out of the diff. The outer metal dust cover plate should be closer to the diff housing.

Good eyes. Then OP is lucky that the issue is just the drive flange popped out from the side-gear. All he needs to do is pushing it back into the diff until the C-clip snapped and lock it in place. But OP need to check the RH side suspension as to why it allowed the half shaft to pull the flange out too far.

[sapote]

Casa: OP should have the V1 diff with the shorter flange on the RH side. Yours seems to be a V2 diff with the longer flange on the RH side; can you confirm?

[sapote]

But before pushing the flange back in, OP should remove the half shaft and the RH side flange, then inspect the opening hole on the diff and clean out any metal bits casualty from the war between the flange splines grinding on the side-gear. Post a pic of the spline end of the scratched flange.

Use a magnet to pick the bits.
With the flange popped out this far, the oil seal must have leaked badly. Check to see how much oil left.

[Mattn1192]

Would love to show video but for some reason this site doesn’t let me. Keeps saying “error”.

[Casa de Mesa]

Casa: OP should have the V1 diff with the shorter flange on the RH side. Yours seems to be a V2 diff with the longer flange on the RH side; can you confirm?

I have some side by side shots of the drive flanges. I didn't realize there was a difference (V1 vs V2). How much longer is V2?

Short of pulling the flange (which is currently assembled and in my car ), is there another way to determine? I may have a shot of the serial number sticker on the top of the diff. Would that tell us?

But the bigger question is, what would knowing this info tell us as it relates to the OP's problem?
I looked, these are the only photos I have from when I replaced the seals and refinished stuff.

[Casa de Mesa]

Would love to show video but for some reason this site doesn’t let me. Keeps saying “error”.

can you upload to Youtube?

[sapote]

But the bigger question is, what would knowing this info tell us as it relates to the OP's problem?

Post #17 you wrote that the short flange is the driver side, LH side. The PO has the wobble flange on the RH side and this is possible that the spline shaft popped out of the side-gear only if he has the V1 version with the short RH side flange.
As to verify yours is V2, a pic of the oblong hole on the LSD "ball" would help. V1 "ball" only has round holes.

Yours is '05 or '06 year?

[Mattn1192]

can you upload to Youtube?

Good idea.

https://youtube.com/shorts/zQsKs4l9kBI?feature=share

[sapote]

OP, try to pull the RH flange out to see how far it can move. If it moves out then the C-clip had popped. Pull it out and suck up the metal bits with a magnet, clean up the flange splines profile and it should be OK to use again.

[Mattn1192]

Another https://youtube.com/shorts/oC06-GP26vQ?feature=share

[Casa de Mesa]

Yours is '05 or '06 year?

My car is a 2003. But in Feb of 2005, the original owner had a remanufactured diff put in under warranty, part number: 33 10 2 282 481