I just replaced mine. If yours is '04-06 you have more options that I did; that said my custom shaft with easily replaceable joints is cheaper than your price.

Giubo, Carrier bearing and rear u joint

Giubo, Carrier bearing and rear u joint

Recently I've noticed some rubber band effect when getting on and off the throttle, not enough for anyone else to notice but enough for me. So, with 168k miles of NY winters, I figured it's time to drop the shaft to replace the giubo and have a look at the carrier bearing and u joints too. The...

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I’m curious why or how they said you needed a u joint? The entire shaft is hidden above a heat shield and not accessible without removal or manipulation.

I read in your other thread that yours is an earlier one; you can get a new replaceable u joint from Rockford Drivelines for $27 that uses c clip retainers on the inside faces of the shaft yoke. The joint is shared with the 7 series (I forget which chassis).


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"I'm curious why or how they said you needed a u joint? The entire shaft is hidden above a heat shield and not accessible without removal or manipulation."

Maybe I'm not calling it right, but I can see it if I poke my head underneath the car. There is a little play in it

 

Based on price and other recent threads, I assumed you were talking about the rear shaft; are you talking about the front shaft? Driveshaft Specialists (where I got my rear shaft) has new front shafts with Spicer joints for under $400 IIRC.


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Based on price and other recent threads, I assumed you were talking about the rear shaft; are you talking about the front shaft? Driveshaft Specialists (where I got my rear shaft) has new front shafts with Spicer joints for under $400 IIRC.

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Front

 

I just replaced mine with a Dorman one for around $175 on sale on Amazon. I think they are normally around $325 retail.
Turner/ECS sells a remanufactured front drive shaft for a little under $800. SO maybe inline with what your mechanic installed 5 years ago.
Jack up the front wheels and you can check for play. Likely the rear U joint by the transfers case, which was the case for me. Also look for that redish/brown dust that likes to form when U-joints start going bad. An easy DIY- no more than 1 hour taking your time.

 

I replaced my front drive shaft on my 2004 X3 back in June with a cheap (presumably Chinese) shaft from this site: 2004 BMW X3 Drive Shaft - BMW X3 Driveline - Free Shipping (wholesaleimportparts.com)
It was $172 w/shipping at the time but I bought the bolts separately. So far so good on the new one. The rearward u-joint on the old one abruptly dislodged at about 150K miles. It must have been failing silently for a while.

BMW advises to replace the output seal and drive flange on the transfer case whenever the front driveshaft is replaced. I haven't done that yet but I think it's a good idea. The way the u-joint failed and dislodged (and then knocked against the transmission) would have definitely stressed the output seal, but it's a wear item anyway.

Last month I also finally replaced the rear driveshaft because the center support bearing had been dry for a very long time. I went cheap again and put in RockAuto's "house brand" which comes from a variety of sources. The one I got looks like it's a Dorman but the slipjoint is a bit different and the collar doesn't lock like the OE version does. The quality of the giubo and center support bearing are fine, although I think the shaft itself is a bit heavier than the OE. But it works fine. At 150K it made sense to replace the assembly rather than just the bearing, and I might rebuild the old shaft at some point.

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This (bad Rear U-Joint) has been discussed many times here before. I plan to work on the Rear DS soon.

My questions are mostly academic...

1. Can a bad DS with vibration at let's say 40-50 mph cause damage to the Rear Diff?

2. How about TC bearing?

Just wondering if the constant vibration causes damage to adjacent parts...