I am replacing the axle seals in the differential of my '91 318is and have a question regarding the installation. My Bentley manual and a BMW service manual on CD that I use both say that I should drive the seal in until it bottoms out in the housing but if I do that the seal will cover up a small cross drilled hole in the housing bore that looks to me like it is probably a vent hole. I also think that driving the seal all the way in will put it deeper into the bore than the ones I removed but I failed to measure before I removed them so I'm not sure. One of my manuals does reference a special mandrel to be used to drive the seal in and it occurs to me that the mandrel might have an oversize shoulder on it that would bottom out on the housing when the seal was at the proper depth but this is pure speculation on my part. Anyone out there knowledgeable on this subject??
- posted
18 years ago