# Cracking E46 rear axle support frames



## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

Has anyone heard of the rear axle support frame cracking on U.S. E46s? This must be becoming a serious problem in Germany on cars built up to early 2001. I saw the third car having the frame replaced in about as many weeks.

If anyone has a better translation of _Hinterachsträger_, I am all ears. That is the part that is failing.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

johnf said:


> If anyone has a better translation of _Hinterachsträger_, I am all ears. That is the part that is failing.


Babelfish comes up with "rear axle beam". However, curiousity got the better of me and I put my ETK into German. It is on diagram 33_0839 (at least for wagons) - see attached image. Back in English, that part comes up as "rear axle carrier".


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

"rear axle carrier"

:thumbup:


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Generally, it's been called a "rear subframe" failure here. (Not that that is necessarily correct, it's just what people are calling it. If you do a search for that, you'll probably get a lot of hits.) But yes, it's been a major issue in the '99 and '00 cars. I haven't heard of any failures in the '01s and later models, but that doesn't mean they won't start cropping up.


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## The HACK (Dec 19, 2001)

The bushings are designed to crack and fail before the subframe does...But it was a big problem with E36 and E36 based cars. On the E46 the problem seems improved but I still hear sporadic cases of the subframe failing...Nothing as problematic as the E36.

Oddly, it's not about how hard you drive your car. The problem seems to plague track junkies as much as it does people who p*ssyfoot around the gas pedal.

By the way I just had my rear diff carrier bushing replaced.


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

Terry Kennedy said:


> Babelfish comes up with "rear axle beam". However, curiousity got the better of me and I put my ETK into German. It is on diagram 33_0839 (at least for wagons) - see attached image. Back in English, that part comes up as "rear axle carrier".


Thanks for checking! That was my first translation but it seemed too literal. The ETK's translations, however, are not always the best, for example, it translates _Buchsenkontakt_ as "bushing contact" (translation to a false friend) or _Kammverbinder_ as "fan connector" (???).


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## nate (Dec 24, 2001)

It happened to my 328Ci.


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

The HACK said:


> The bushings are designed to crack and fail before the subframe does...But it was a big problem with E36 and E36 based cars. On the E46 the problem seems improved but I still hear sporadic cases of the subframe failing...Nothing as problematic as the E36.


The repairs I have been witnessing are not failures of the E46 bushings but cracks in the metal subframe. I am told the repair would cost around 6000 euros and takes the better part of three days.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

johnf said:


> Thanks for checking! That was my first translation but it seemed too literal. The ETK's translations, however, are not always the best, for example, it translates _Buchsenkontakt_ as "bushing contact" (translation to a false friend) or _Kammverbinder_ as "fan connector" (???).


I suspect that the ETK is machine-translated. The US dealer system has different names for stuff. When I'm at the dealer today I'll check to see what the dealer system name is for that part, and the US price.


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

Terry Kennedy said:


> I suspect that the ETK is machine-translated. The US dealer system has different names for stuff. When I'm at the dealer today I'll check to see what the dealer system name is for that part, and the US price.


The strengthened HA-Träger I saw being installed was p/n 41 11 7 000 246.


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## nate (Dec 24, 2001)

johnf said:


> The repairs I have been witnessing are not failures of the E46 bushings but cracks in the metal subframe. I am told the repair would cost around 6000 euros and takes the better part of three days.


Unless there is a lot of tax in that price, that is way too high.

$3,000 USD should be more than enough to do the repair. Mine was repaired under warranty, so I did not get the invoice. I did see the repair order that was contracted out to the body shop. The labor costs were $1,400 or so, at a low rate of $35/hr. At twice that, plus parts, the cost shouldn't even be close to 6,000 euros.


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

nate said:


> Unless there is a lot of tax in that price, that is way too high.
> 
> $3,000 USD should be more than enough to do the repair. Mine was repaired under warranty, so I did not get the invoice. I did see the repair order that was contracted out to the body shop. The labor costs were $1,400 or so, at a low rate of $35/hr. At twice that, plus parts, the cost shouldn't even be close to 6,000 euros.


6000 euros also seems too high to me unless someone is playing games with the insurance or involving lawyers. About half that figure would seem more plausible if you assume 40 hours labor at 60 euros an hour.


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## tim330i (Dec 18, 2001)

Is it really the frame that cracks or the mounting points? I have seen the problem where the actual chassis gets torn at the sub frame mounting points...I have never heard of the sub frame itself breaking.

Tim


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

tim330i said:


> Is it really the frame that cracks or the mounting points? I have seen the problem where the actual chassis gets torn at the sub frame mounting points...


Sorry about the confusion. I should have written the metal starts to rip or tear. The tearing usually starting at the left mounting point. At first, Munich claimed the problem only occurred in a small number of abused cars but now pretty much everyone recognizes the problem is a design defect.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

Terry Kennedy said:


> I suspect that the ETK is machine-translated. The US dealer system has different names for stuff. When I'm at the dealer today I'll check to see what the dealer system name is for that part, and the US price.


Ok, 33 31 6 757 486 comes up as "AXLE CARRIER", list $1690.00 / dealer $1063.00. That's for the XI part, but this should be ballpark for the other variants as well.


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