# 1999 BMW 328i Rear Subframe problem



## bmer328i (Feb 15, 2006)

Hello BMW owners, 

Yesterday I noticed a knocking noise coming from the driver’s side rear suspension area of my 2000 BMW 328i. I was concerned so I took it too the dealership to have them inspect it. After a quick inspection I was told by the representative that there was some tearing where the frame and body come together and that this is common on cars that are being driven too hard. 

Is this issue as common as the rep made it out to be? I am quite concerned as I have not driven this car hard and I do not understand what could have caused this to happen under standard “wear and tear” circumstances. 

Has anyone seen or heard a similar problem?


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## tcoz (Sep 10, 2005)

bmer328i said:


> Hello BMW owners,
> 
> Yesterday I noticed a knocking noise coming from the driver***8217;s side rear suspension area of my 2000 BMW 328i. I was concerned so I took it too the dealership to have them inspect it. After a quick inspection I was told by the representative that there was some tearing where the frame and body come together and that this is common on cars that are being driven too hard.
> 
> ...


An article in this month's BMWCCA magazine (Roundel) mentions the rear subframe problem as being very common on the E46. It said that the problem is just as common on street-driven cars as ones that are tracked. It also said that BMW dealers have a fix for it which involves injecting some sort of epoxy into the area. Unfortunately, that's all the article said, but you should bring that to your dealer's attention and if they're not aware of it, they should check with BMWNA.

I'm sure you'll also get responses from other people who are a lot more knowledgable about the issue than I am. Good luck.


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## PhilH (Jun 7, 2002)

bmer328i said:


> Has anyone seen or heard a similar problem?


Yes.

Read this thread over at e46fanatics and add your name and pics to the list...

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=195602&highlight=subframe

It seems to me that 2000 was a really bad year for subframe problems. On the current version of that list 37 of the 59 cars are model year 2000 E46s. By contrast only 15 of the 59 are from model year 1999 and only 3 of the 59 are from model year 2001. If you look at the dates on when the model year 2000 cars had problems, you can see that many reported having problems way back in 2003 and 2004, so I would think that the 2001s should have more occurances at this point if it's just a matter of age and mileage.


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