So my dad's 2001 E46 325Ci Coupe has about 230k miles on it and still chugging. A few months ago, it sounded like the rear suspension was going to fall out over bumpy roads. It seemed to happen more on negative bumps than positive bumps. We put it on the lift expecting some kind of bushing issue, or subframe cracking (the car has been tracked). We found nothing. Started moving things around and pushing here and there. I pushed on the gas tank and it moved. I noticed there were no rubber strips on the straps (not sure if there were any to begin with, but it seemed odd to have no abrasion protection of metal straps on a plastic tank. And the tank just seemed loose like the straps had stretched or the padding was missing.
Long story short, today we dropped the tank straps, stuck some some rubber hose on the tank straps to add some cushion, and a small piece of rubber hose above the tank between it and the body as well, and the noise is gone!
Has anyone else with an E46 experienced this? Hopefully we didn't miss something.
There is supposed to be a molded piece of rubber over each tank strap. Being that it's A: German and B: older than 5 years, it probably spontaneously disintegrated. Your piece of split hose is cheaper and will outlast the original part by 2X.
Welp, maybe I spoke too soon. I was taking my dad's word for it the car was better. I drove it this morning and the banging is still there. It's not as bad, so the tank strap padding did something. But the banging in the rear suspension is still present over larger bumps. It seems to be mostly right side in the rear. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Take a close look at the rear top shock mounts. Remove the trunk side panels, or maybe you check via the nav/dvd opening on the driver's side.
Yeah, those rear shock mounts are really fragile. Of course bushings are always suspect on BMWs, even if they're new.
The rear subframe / trunk floor failure is a high frequency/pitch than thunking, clunking, and bumping from a dead bushing or something banging around. Take a look at the muffler hanger -- that sucker is heavy. Muffler could be banging around.
Where you able to check anymore?
I believe differential bushings are another common E46 failure point.
In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :
Not yet. We're just driving it. He plans on selling this summer anyway (GRM ad when it is up for sale).
