That car doesn't have the welds in the trunk reinforced. Once those welds separate, the mounts flex and tear badly. If the plates are welded underneath but the trunk welding is still damaged, the entire floor just keeps getting hammered. We have been highly suggesting everyone that has the reinforcement done at our shop to have the trunk reinforcement done in addition to the four mounts underneath the car. We have seen a few cars that were even worse than this. One was not salvageable because the welding labor would have been cost prohibitive. one of the worst cars that we repaired had the entire diff dragging on the ground with all four mounts completely torn out of the body.
Good catch, I didn't even notice that this car didn't have the area above the rear mounts sewed up from reinforcements underneath. Though I did have those reinforcements before as well, as part of the turner kit. Yet my car experienced similar tearing, though it did not tear where reinforced, it tore around the welds. on the front right mount point, and moved it a bit and that tear went past much of the gas tank.
Something like this is the only fairly certain fix. Even with the "reinforcements" in the end it's just one little block held together at the two points of sheet metal, only afterward it's spaced over a little more area, but that increase is barely anything at the top.
None of the subframe reinforcement kits on the market today reinforce the floor itself. This is a known problem with BMW E46 models and as the cars get up there in mileage and in power we will see continual problems. We are going to do a special reinforcement on the drag car to keep the rear end from literally tearing off.
We have also fixed some E46's that have come to us with that type of damage. It takes a lot more reinforcement.
So if I understand it right, when you reinforce the subframe mount points it just moves the highest stress point outside to the trunk floor edge?
I'm just about to buy the HPF reinforcement kit but I'm nowhere near turbo M3 power levels so I hope I'll be ok.
this is what i asked before. If this kind of failure is exclusive to boosted M cars with ridiculous power. I cant imagine a regular ass car doing that much damage.
This is what I'm getting. Just got word it will arrive early next week. I'll be installing it with my new clutch and M3 rear end swap during the first week of April. Anyone in the Hampton Roads area of VA is welcome to check it out once complete.
I had the designer of this remove the "X" brace in the center, but the design is otherwise unchanged. It's made by a small company out of Cali called Mason Engineering.
that failure where it rips out the entire floor. You guys have seen that on a unboosted car?
again we all understand that our cars have floor failure, but ive NEVER seen anything that insane.
Thats not your typical floor failure. Thats about what i call "fukin extreme"
I actually considered having that done...for about 2 seconds. I ended up spending a fortune on far more welding that usual. Now I am so glad. Glue...what was I even thinking? I know they have space age epoxies out there, but this is not a situation for that.
I have bought solid subframe bushings but i didnt install due to fear of subframe failure. I am waiting for the reinforcement.
I will reinforce it like crazy and have no doubt about it ever... This will of course add weight to the car but at least it on rear and relatively low.
My car...
I will do reinforcement like this but i wont weld them to towers but to the tubes that are welded to chassis..
Like this hopefully (Excuse me for very poor illustration) :rofl:
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