sub frame mount!!

http://www.bavarian-board.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=34492
and
http://bavarian-board.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=39701

Myself and forum member Mike Ryan carried out this work a few months ago on my E36 M3 Saloon. It is a reshell and didnt have the strengthening plates from the factory. One piece of advice - stop driving the car immediately and dont do any more damage. One mount is easy enough to replace, we had 3 completely torn out and one cracked. I have the pics somewhere but i could fit my clenched fist into two of the holes left. It is a pretty big job and involves removal of rear subframe, fuel tank, exhaust etc and opening of the boot floor to weld from the top.

It is worth bringing it to a main dealer to see what their take is in it - especially if it has FBMWSH.

Why they didnt get it sorted by the E46 is beyond me - this has been happening to 325i E36's since 1992/1993.

hi people and thanks for all your advice..i called local dealer and they asked me to bring car in for "free inspection"..this morning they called to say that given the cars age (10years and 2months),they would have to prove it was manufacturer fault..this afternoon and after many hours of worrying they called to say they had approval from bmw uk to extend the 10year warranty by 3months!!! i almost fainted!! they are doing the job at a rough cost of £5-6k!! after which it is booked into paint shop for further 5 days for rear end respray, and if the back dont match with rest of my immaculate 328 thn the car is getting a full respray!!! i cant believe my luck with this issue given the fact tje age of the car, but wuth fbmwsh,and a well presented car they have recognized the fact that its a maufacture error on most e46 328 and 323s manufactured between 1999 and 2006..just shows that sometimes it pays not to alter the suspension in any way apart from oem parts as this would invalidate any warranty..a HUGE thankyou to the "stealers" on this issue and ill be hopefully picking car up in 4-6 weeks..which reminds me, ill be taking a box of assorted drinks in for all the bmw fitters..

Result..The big Q  What dealer?

Gradon wrote: hi people and thanks for all your advice..i called local dealer and they asked me to bring car in for "free inspection"..this morning they called to say that given the cars age (10years and 2months),they would have to prove it was manufacturer fault..this afternoon and after many hours of worrying they called to say they had approval from bmw uk to extend the 10year warranty by 3months!!! i almost fainted!! they are doing the job at a rough cost of £5-6k!! after which it is booked into paint shop for further 5 days for rear end respray, and if the back dont match with rest of my immaculate 328 thn the car is getting a full respray!!! i cant believe my luck with this issue given the fact tje age of the car, but wuth fbmwsh,and a well presented car they have recognized the fact that its a maufacture error on most e46 328 and 323s manufactured between 1999 and 2006..just shows that sometimes it pays not to alter the suspension in any way apart from oem parts as this would invalidate any warranty..a HUGE thankyou to the "stealers" on this issue and ill be hopefully picking car up in 4-6 weeks..which reminds me, ill be taking a box of assorted drinks in for all the bmw fitters..

Ask to speak to the service manager, then dealer principal and if no satisfaction go tor BMW Ireland in Santry. They should extend it by 7 weeks id have thought to be honest. I presume the car has a FBMWSH and isnt modified?

Knuckles

As such, there isn't an official warranty period on this.  Its been an informal goodwill gesture.  There have been suggestions that 10 years would be the cut-off point, but since its not an official gesture then its hard to confirm or deny it.  Your mileage and the service history gap may well be considered sufficient reason by BMW to deny the goodwill gesture, especially if the 10 year cut-off is real. 

However, from anything I've read, its a fairly unusual occurrence on the 320d, most problems seem to occur with the bigger 6 cylinder engines.  That angle might be worth pursuing.

There are a lot of useful links in the article below, because of the age, some might be broken links at this stage, but its worth a read.  A google will probably yield good info.

When I brought my sisters Touring (which we now own) to get it looked at a few years ago I made sure to have a sheaf of relevant print-outs casually draped across the passenger front seat to show that I was well aware of the extent of the problem.

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