E46 M3 Cracked rear springs (again)

[andyman_2006]

Well yet again i have been advised in my inspection that rear springs have cracked, and the right one in half! What annoys me the most is after getting a price for them from bmw they are now £138 each, and Stratstone are charging £115+ vat an hour fitting - which they advised is a 'discounted rate' i'll be using my usual Indy for sure.

So i'm looking at options (for Springs or spring kit) ideally i dont want to lower the car, but am now considering Eibach sportline kit, but this is looking like it'll lower the car 25mm front 15mm rear. H&R do a set but these lower 40mm which is too much.

Has anyone had experience of this Eibach kit, and does it in reality lower the car much?

Also any other recommendations?

I've just found these from Euro car parts:

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/BMW_M3+Coupe%5EC...

I'm worried these are the same ones supplied to BMW, and may also crack in record time/mileage.

Whats more annoying is that bmw still sell the springs which have a long standing bad reputation for cracking and have increased the price of them by about 35% in last 3 years. I'm on my third set now.

Advice and thoughts welcome.

Andy

[NotNormal]

I feel your pain. After breaking 4 BMW supplied rear springs in 5 years on the M3 I opted to go a different route. Decided to give the Sachs springs supplied by ECP a go as I didn't want to lower the car as its a daily driver.

Your web link is dead but I assume its the ones with Product Code 627113070

The BMW spring reduces in diameter as it gets towards the pigtail and this is always where my previous springs have broken.

The Sachs spring is the same diameter all the way through the pigtail so definitely looks more up to the job. The pic below shows the standard (broken) spring on the left, on the right is the Sachs spring.



Been using since December on the car and so far so good, which is certainly longer than with BMW springs (bear in mind this is a daily so lots of miles covered).

Hope that helps

[Bikeracer1098]

Fed up of broken springs.
Fitted Coliovers on mine

[bennyboysvuk]

I had broken springs on my 328 Sport, Z4M and E46 M3, but I replaced them all myself. Honestly, it's such a simple job, you could do it no problem and save yourself the labour.

[andyman_2006]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

My indy has confirmed 30 mins per side to change and they only charge £66 an hour, rather than BMW £115.

so far i'm leaning towards the Eibach pro kit, but am still considering the Sachs ones pictured in this thread, which look good, i can get those from ECP for £79 each which seems ok.

Not sure i'd have a go at doing them myself, but appreciate the suggestion on labour saving.

Andy

[John Laverick]

I fitted the Eibachs to mine when my rear springs went.

They seemed to lower the car considerably and I never liked the look of it afterwards, I also thought the ride was far too hard.

[Panthro]

Did they replace the spring pads when they changed the springs? If not then that's probably why the keep cracking. Stones and other debris get caught in the pads and impact against the spring. I had cracked rear springs on my last E46 M3, replaced the springs and pads, and cleaned the pads out every few months or so and never had another cracked rear spring.

[andyman_2006]

John Laverick said:

I fitted the Eibachs to mine when my rear springs went.

They seemed to lower the car considerably and I never liked the look of it afterwards, I also thought the ride was far too hard.

---

This is what was concerning me, and why i had asked for some feedback from owners.

Thanks for the feedback.

Andy

[andyman_2006]

Panthro said:

Did they replace the spring pads when they changed the springs? If not then that's probably why the keep cracking. Stones and other debris get caught in the pads and impact against the spring. I had cracked rear springs on my last E46 M3, replaced the springs and pads, and cleaned the pads out every few months or so and never had another cracked rear spring.

---

I'm not sure they were changed last time, so thanks for the heads up.

Mind you the right rear more than cracked it had shattered in half, a right mess and they have done less than 10K miles, i'm not convinced over the quality of the bmw parts, so i'm trying to avoid being back in this situation again, hence my Eibach theory.

I'm very tempted to try the sachs ones ECP offer given they are nearly 40% cheaper than bmw ones and so far i've nothing to prove the bmw parts to be better, in fact so far the opposite.

I'll ask my garage to change the spring pads this time as well.

Thanks

Andy

[IIIRestorerIII]

I have got recurring issues work like this done by BMW simply because of the 2 year warranty...

[ian in lancs]

Ive had rears go on my Z4M at46k and 61k and at 23k on a 2004 Z4 2.5. My theory is the the springs on the E46 and therefore the Z4 are exposed on the underside of the car and the spring seat collects grit. The movement of the spring against the grit penetrates the paint protection on the spring and corrosion starts and eventually a weakness that leads to a stress crack and they snap. All of mine showed such corrosion where they've snapped. Solutions could be grit deflectors, covers, mesh spring seat, better paint etc. In other words the design is flawed. For some reason the RHS is more susceptible and BMW, bless, suggest both are changed on M cars. Its looks easy enough to do ones self but I've never bothered.

Edited by ian in lancs on Friday 23 September 08:25

[andyman_2006]

I've ordered some Sachs ones from Euro car parts, so we will see how they last.

Managed to get a pair for £120 delivered, they look good, i'm hoping they will last a bit longer now my car is mainly weekend use only.

Andy