BMW of Sterling SUCKS

[OwnedbyDuncan]

?q

[mcoupemindy]

Not the first time I've heard this.

Typical of Sterling ...

[Jim Dunlap]

I'm pissed...I just lost 30 minutes worth of ranting; timed out? I'll start over and keep it short.

Let's establish first that never in a blue moon should the dreaded rear suspension problem ever have happened. Bit of a goof by our idols, say yes??!!

Moving on - welding up the crack will NOT fix it!! Bless BMW of Santa Monica. A few months ago my (from Virginia originally) 2000 328i Coupe/full Dinan (less turbo), only 50K miles, was diagnosed with the dreaded subframe failure. Never did a track day in its life. BMW's regional office accepted responsibility. Santa Monica took off the entire rear suspension assembly and trucked the car to Brown's. I happened to be in LA at the time. Brown (a specialty BMW/Audi repair facility) told me they'd done 50-60 repairs to date. FYI, besides pulling the suspension, the entire rear interior, trunk insides, etc. have to come out. The new rear subframe is the ENTIRE REAR CHASSIS FROM BEFORE THE REAR HUMP TO THE TRUNK SPARE TIRE AREA. It comes as a single, prefabricated piece. I saw my new one laying of the floor of the shop. The old part is torch cut out and the new assembly has to be trued, welded in, coated, painted, cured, and then all the bits and pieces reinstalled. This takes 2-3 weeks if it takes a day!! The in-shop bill on our car was $6500, as in six thousand five hundred US dollars.

My one "told you so" will be to say that you canNOT leave something like this to the whims of fate. I happened to be in LA, visited the dealer often, personally went to the body shop more than once to "chat" with the foreman and workers...and just generally made it clear that my eyes were open and I was watching what went on. All's well that ends well. I did have to have the car aligned at another shop afterwards as the dealer didn't get it quite right...but what the hay. That was nothing compared to getting the rear suspension correctly (and expensively) fixed on BMW's nickel. And for anyone that works for BMW who might read this: THANKS!!

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

Actually, the sheet metal replacement that you got Jim is just one of a number of options for fixing subframe mount failure. It is not THE fix (although it is absolute THE most expensive fix and it's the one that BMW does).