Rear axle unit.

[mcelliott]

Hi, looking to refresh my e46, had it on the ramps and the the rear axle is corroded, where’s the best place to find one ie breakers yard? Many thanks.

[AW10]

What's corroded - the drive shafts or the diff? Steel or ali?

[E-bmw]

The pedantic g!t in me says they don't have an axle, so as above I assume you mean drive shafts, hubs & diff.

That being the case just remember that all e46s are of around the same age give or take a few years, so all will be in similar condition.

Better to get them off, cleaned off & coated in something to help.

Then again there is another part of me that thinks these are heavy gauge cast bits of metal, so personally I wouldn't be worried about some surface rust on such things as it is unlikely ever to be worryingly detrimental.

Alternatively if you are talking about the rear sub-frame then the same applies about age, but if it is really bad then consider getting it off & painted properly and you could change the bushes at the same time & get the floor checked.

Edited by E-bmw on Thursday 16th January 19:20

[Tony B2]

If you want to get the job done to a really high standard go to Redish Motorsport in Bristol.

Rear axle carrier (i.e. the subframe) all associated components, and most critically the floor, to which the RAC is fixed.

Take a look at their YouTube videos.

[mcelliott]

Thanks for all the replies, will definitely look into the info given in the last post, might treat the car to a custom exhaust too

[T-bagger]

Doing it properly is time consuming and expensive (unless DIY) but if you plan to keep it, then worth it.
Here’s my E36 rear axle before and after I refurbished it.