It's not good noise....you can hear the transmission parts moving when you shift gears and you can hear loads of engine noise including a loud whine (not the supercharger) between 75-80. It's annyoing as heck.

 

If you pulled the shaft and the two boots, you would see exactly how they went. Kind of hard to explain. One of them flips over the outside edge of the other(thats what I put the adhesive on) then the assembly is like a large grommet with a bushing in the middle(for the shaft to go through), and gets inserted into the firewall.

 

It's like driving an old 225 Buick Electra with a hole in the floorboard that you hear the exhaust through

 

I connected the boot on the inside of the cabin to the firewall, but it did not connect to the other part of the boot since it connects from the outside. Do you have to lift the car up in order to do this successfully? I hope that connecting one end of the boot will help the noise level a bit until I get to the dealer. I wish I could just do it myself since there is no way for me to check if the dealer will do it right. Maybe one of the experienced techs at the dealer will know how to do this properly.

 

I think it is almost a must to do it from the bottom side of the car. Not a fun job period. Just has to be done correctly to seal up. What dealer do you go to??

 

It's Ferman MINI in Palm Harbor, FL.

 

That sounds awesome. I'll try moving the rubber boot this weekend.

 

In this case they definitely didn't do it right on my car. Because, he went in, installed the lower part to the firewall and came out in 30 seconds. I've gotten used to the "extra" noise I guess, because I've been driving like that for the last 30Kmiles Note that the "improperly" installed part also cuts some of the noise, but may not be all...

I'll ask the local MINI shop to take a look at it next time I go there for an oil change...

 

You'd be surprised. Tampa MCS is right. It is not a type of engine noise that you want to hear. Lots of grinding, hiss, clicking, whine, etc; normal engine noise, but just too much of it with no filtering. It is like having your in laws talk to you constantly "in your head"

 

You mean you'll try RE-moving?

Your so hardcore

Chad

 

The first time I mic'd a MINI for my VacuCams, the resulting sound was VERY unMINI like as you could hear all kinds of sounds that you normally don't hear from a MINI. I've got a sound clip somewhere..but I can imagine that hearing that all the time would hurt the MINI experience!

 

Just got back from the dealer and it took the tech a good two hours to get that boot back on correctly. Don't want to think about how long it would have taken me.

I'm sure that technician will never forget to check the boot after he installs a DMF.

 

Wow! 2 hours! The tech who worked on mine is a mutant then, because it took him only 30 seconds
I definitely need to get it installed correctly during my next visit to a local shop, since I cant go back to the dealer anymore (car is around 80Kmiles).

Thanks for the update.

 

The boot on the inside takes about 30 seconds, but the one on the outside connects to the boot on the inside through the firewall. That's the fun part.

 

He won't have to check it!!! He will know exactly what sound it is right before he says "Shiiiiiiiiitttttttttt" and then does this . But your right, he will probably make sure the steering shaft u-joint collar is totally disconnected from now on.

 

In this case, he only connected the part inside... I wonder where the outside part is now Could it be that I am missing the outside part and just have the inside seal? If that's the case, what are the consequences?

In the diagram that you posted in this link, the #6 is the part where is connected from inside right? And there is another part that (ring shape) that "sits" on #6 (it has a white ring). Where is the "outside" part?
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...79&hg=32&fg=30

Thanks for the valuable information Chad!

 

There's no way it can go anywhere...It has a hole in it that the shaft goes through even on the other side.. Probably not any big long term effects, it would just be annoying. Oh, maybe an easy place for a rodent to get in through.

Chad