Hi all, new here and looking for help. I searched this forum extensively for replacing the front driveshaft of AWD M35/45's and only found a couple good leads. I've already got my M45x up on jacks and bought the replacement driveshaft. The old driveshaft is unbolted and harnesses moved, but I'm stuck. Looking for advice on the best way to remove the old driveshaft.

The service manual calls for catalytic converter removal, but is super vague, and the general consensus here seems to be two options:
1) Removing the passenger side exhaust manifold/catalytic converter and dropping the transfer case a couple inches, then sneaking the driveshaft out.
2) Or dropping the steering rack. Which seems risky, lots of suspension bits nearby, and it still seems the transmission brace has to come out.

Any advice for a M45 newbie? Thanks in advance!

Hi there,

Unfortunately if the FSM is vague, you may have to go with one of the two options you listed above. This is not a very common repair, which is why there isn't many posts about it side from a few threads. Perhaps someone who sees this thread will chime in but I've been round these parts a while and this is a rare subject.

I commend you for DIY'ing this. I'd probably give up and take it to the shop for anything that requires that much work...and as you can see by the HowTo thread, I'm inclined to DIY stuff myself.

Thanks Ilya, I appreciate the info. I figured it was an uncommon repair, but hoped I'd get lucky. I'm going to stick with the FSM and pull the passenger manifold. Any tips for getting to the bolts? Maybe pull the passenger wheel and liner for access?

Unfortunately I do not have any experience with the Y50 V8, so I can't help there . If it's anything like the V8 in my M56x, there is virtually no room to do anything. For example, I have a P0420 code which requires replacing the cat...problem is the cat is part of the exhaust manifold. To remove the exhaust manifold, you have to pull/drop the motor. Insane. Good luck sir! Hope you have enough space!

Fair enough, well thanks for the insight so far. Still helps. What I'm most nervous about is removing the exhaust manifold. Are there any good threads for DIY manifold replacement? I'm sure it's been done since the cat failures are a thing. (Been searching, no good results yet)

Cheers