E39 rear suspension failure - anyone had similar happen?

[Jez49]

I was merrily cruising along the M3 yesterday in my 2000 e39 530 sport when there was a loud bang and the rear of the car on the passenger side dropped violently.

I thought the tyre had let go so slowed down gently and pulled in, when I got out of the car for a look the passenger side rear wheel was tucked right up in to the arch and the exhaust was a few mm from the ground.

Having got the car recovered and stripped the rear down it appears that the large bolt which holds the base of the strut to the top of the hub carrier has sheared off in the hub effectively removing the suspension from that corner of the car in a hurry!

There are no signs of impact damage or corrosion, the car has done 136k mostly on the motorway and never carried passengers or any weight, nor has it ever been used for towing. The suspension is the original M-tec kit it left the factory on and the car passed its MOT last week with flying colours.

The remains of the old bolt will not come out so I'll be fitting another hub carrier assembly. Has anyone heard of this sort of failure on an e39 before, its a pretty major component to let go!

[Total loss]

I have looked at quite a few BMW forums in the last couple of years for E39 info & have not seen that before. Have you owned it from new ? if not , who knows what happened to it before no matter how well cared for it .

[Pickled Piper]

Never heard of it. Had my E39 suspension stripped and rebuilt completely a couple of years ago.

Broken springs - now those are common.

pp