e46 rear subframe floor tear

[kevburner]

hi all,

been browsing these forums for years but never actually posted anything , but i just had to let fellow e46 owners know about this.

over the last few weeks been getting some strange noises from rear of car ,got so bad that i took to my local garage got it up on the ramp and had a good look around and to my horror discovered 2 7 inch tears in the floor around the near side rear subframe mounting bush, had a browse on the web and it seems that if you have an e46 upto 2001 there is a high chance that you will get this problem as well even higher if you have 6 cylinder engine.

mostly bmw have fixed this for free as i suppose they dont want bad press about it, took my car to Broadoak canterbury bmw dealer today and they know that these cars have this problem and that in germany it was a recall and a stronger floor was fitted but for some reason they never did this in uk, they comfirmed that rear subframe mount has torn the floor , they have took some photos and are sending them to bmw uk to se if they will fix this for nothing , service man did say that the few that they have fixed bmw footed the bill.

i am now waitnig for phone call to say they are going to fix it for free,

my car is a e46 328 saloon 1999 with 80000 miles

if anyone else has had this problem please can you let me know how you got on.

will keep post updated.

thxs kevburner (p***ed off bmw owner)

[< FORZA WEST]

Saw this quite a bit whilst in the dealer network. Not uncommon.

We did see one last year which was repaired by BMW so you should hopefully be ok for a free repair

[kevburner]

how old was the one you saw last year, and how long did it take to fix , and what was involved, sry for all the qustions!

[< FORZA WEST]

It was a T 98 with if i remember correctly 69000.

They remove the boot carpets and the rear suspension.

A reinforcment plate is fabricated over the effected area (cant rember if they cut out the damaged area or just fit new over the top)

Then they treat and prime the area.

It took a few days...I would allow a week, but they will give you time scales. It depends on the work load they have in.

[pstruck]

There is a lot of info about this on a BMW forum I use. Seems a lot of owners of similar age cars are suffering the same, but mostly the fix seems to have been sorted and paid for through the dealer network.

Does anyone know if a permanent fix/re-design was implemented by BMW after a particular model year?

[Deano_BMW]

as far as i know (certainly on the coupes) the affected dates were all cars made up up to march 2000. All cars after that had the reinforcement plates or a revised suspension support.
BMW never really accepted it as a problem but i havent yet heard of anyone who has had to pay for the repairs out of their own pocket.

[Mroad]

Also a problem on the Z3M's too.

[roofer]

See here if you need ammo to resolve. Its a common problem, well documented.

http://forum.bmwcarmagazine.com/viewtopic.php?t=41...

[Dunk76]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - always treat any pre-facelift BMW as a Beta version.

With regards the early E46 floorpans - according to my local service manager, the worst are the 6cyl manual trans coupes, then 6-cyl manual saloons, then automatic 6 cylinders (uncommon, but not unheard of), then the four cylinder cars.

[phelix]

I've got a scanned copy of the service info bulletin on this problem - send me a PH mail with your email address and I'll send you a copy.

It must be getting to the point on the early cars where BMW offers to buy the car for fair market value and scrap it rather than pay for the repair? My 99 E46 328i saloon is still going strong at 136K miles but it must be worth less than 3K now.

[Bill Carr]

Does this affect the Touring's as well?

[f1stoxfan]

We had one repaired ourselves on a 328ci that we were selling,a dead easy repair,only takes an hour or so with a bit of plate and a welder,nothing to worry about too much

[Dunk76]

I think there's an element of each case on merit as well. If you spend a significant amount of money at the dealership on servicing, then I think you'll find them more willing to argue to the case to BMW GB for the repair to be paid for, than if you just rock into the dealer with your chavved up Indy serviced E46 and start demanding free floorpan fixes

[kevburner]

this is what is worrying me my car is nearly 10 years old now, surely it wont be long before they wont fix it, but then again bmw only making a cars that have major structual weakness and are unsafe.surely bmw make cars that last longer that 80000miles. on car that have not even covered 80000 miles , i know of a 1 case and the car only done 69000.

i hope that my car being serviced at broadoak canterbury will help my case, 1700 pounds for inspection 2 was the last service 10000 miles ago,

and yes this dose affect touring models as well effects all e46es , i have even heard of 330 2002 model with same problem.

Edited by kevburner on Wednesday 29th October 14:04

[roofer]

I wouldn't worry to much, they know its a structural failing and have been correcting it. There is enough evidence available that makes it fairly difficult for them to avoid it.

The complete subframe has to come down, and a repair panel fitted, a two bob patch welded over it would not be my idea of fixed.

[soprano]

OP, I had this problem on my 1999 328Ci at the end of last year, mileage was about 70-75k or so. BMW were very good with me, although I think it helped that the car had a full BMW service history. For those saying that you can weld on a floor plate in half hour or whatever above, not sure I agree.

I have an invoice for £2800.00 (picked up by BMW UK). My car was away for a month if I remember correctly. I accept this is probably at the higher end of the time scale, but i've heard others have lost their car for 4-6 weeks. My local dealership did give me a courtesy car for the time my car was away.

Like others have been saying above, it must get to the point where it is not economical to repair it any longer, so if buying one make sure its had the work done properly!

[dxb335d]

Deano_BMW said:

as far as i know (certainly on the coupes) the affected dates were all cars made up up to march 2000. All cars after that had the reinforcement plates or a revised suspension support.
BMW never really accepted it as a problem but i havent yet heard of anyone who has had to pay for the repairs out of their own pocket.

for them to rectify the issue for post 2000 cars it must mean they were seeing failures on cars which were only 1year to 18months old.

[M5 Russ]

This used to happen to my v8 TR7. Mind you I was drag racing it a lot of the time

[roofer]

They recalled every German car of 98-00 manufacture and re-enforced the boot floors as a preventive measure.

[bazking69]

Common issue. I had mine checked when I bought my pre 2000 E46 in January (even thought it had been MOT'd the day before...)
Touch wood no problems, but it is an auto and isn't driven hard. But it is nice to know that there is some comeback if the worst does happen.