Holy Crap! The coil springs just fell out of the car!

[prand]

My wife has a 4 year old e46 convertible. The other day she heard a rattling in the back followed by something dropping and pinging into the road. She stopped and looked around but couldn't see anything, the car seemed fine and drove on without further noises.

We were just about getting around to booking the car in for a checkup, when she shut the boot and a 6 inch section of coil falls out of the opposite wheel arch.

At this point she calls the RAC who come and give the car a thorough check over. They note that both sides coils have snapped at the tops. So on advise from the recovery guy she drives the mile or so gingerly back home and we book into the local garage for a fix - I'm expecting under warranty.

I've checked this online and it seems to be a common e46 and z4 problem, but I am amazed that these coils are breaking at all - and also that both the garage & recovery people don't seem too worried about us driving around with the car in this condition. Does anyone have any further info?

[noumenon]

Quite normal on a surprising array of cars. Nothing to get too excited about. e46 was famous for it.

[Shropshiremike]

noumenon said:

e46 was famous for it.

....and the E36 before it.


....and Mondeos...

[prand]

Ok seems to me much more common than I thought. It also sounds like there are quite a few e46 drivers out there who don't even know there is a problem!

[munky1275]

prand said:

Ok seems to me much more common than I thought. It also sounds like there are quite a few e46 drivers out there who don't even know there is a problem!

My e46 went in for a routine service at 2.75 years old and they replace the springs as they were cracked...

[noumenon]

Shropshiremike said:

noumenon said:

e46 was famous for it.

....and the E36 before it.


....and Mondeos...

mmc. My mum did her mondeo front springs within months of getting it. I had one for track days and took it over many rough kerbs on circuits and it was fine!

[Deano_BMW]

focus's as well. meganes, the list is huge!

[H6CJF]

My Wifes E46 convertible had the same.. Every time I drove it I wondered what it was - sounded like going over a loose manhole cover every so often. Anyway went in for a service and they replaced it FOC even though it was well out of warranty being March 02 reg but it has only done 36k

[MitchT]

Shropshiremike said:

noumenon said:

e46 was famous for it.

....and the E36 before it.

Yep!

[LocoBlade]

My Leon Cupra did it too

[8Tech]

Thank your local council for the number of speed humps we now have to contend with. Manufacturers have been making coil springs for as long as there have been cars though so there is no excuse.

I normally replace broken springs with aftermarket springs from a specialised spring supplier and have never had a further failure. (Possibly from 30 sets)

8Tech.