1 Series has dropped on driver's side. Coil spring?

[MitchT]

A few evenings ago we heard a bang from the OH's E87 120d followed by the alarm going off. Thought someone might have hit it but went out and had a look and found no evidence of any issues.

This morning I got in to head to the supermarket and immediately heard the most horrendous grinding noise as soon as I started moving.

Got out and had a good look round and eventually noticed that the front driver's side is 2cm lower than the passenger side. At the rear the driver's side is 1cm lower, though I guess this is the knock-on effect of an issue at the front rather than an issue at the rear.

Could this be a coil spring? I have an old E36 which had a coil spring go when I was driving slowly on a smooth surface and it went with a huge bang!

[Mattiebmw]

Yea it’s a spring. Same happened my old 1 series made a hell of a bang and the car sunk around 2 inches on that side

[Sim89]

Definitely the spring, happened to a family members car (E87) whilst stood in front of it.

Was actually cheaper to replace all springs with Eibachs than it was for a single spring from BMW..

[MitchT]

Cheers - confirms my suspicions.

Won't be getting it done by BMW. She uses a good independent BMW specialist but we might look at a local garage too as they can be quite pricey, if cheaper than a BMW main dealer.