Broken Subframe and Differential. Dealer won't fix. $9k in damage. Any advice?

[racedoc11]

A certified letter to BMW NA to hold them responsible and to show your intension of getting a lawyer involved. you will be surprised how fast they will get back to you. If I was you I won't take it to that dealer again

[AngelinIsRich08]

Almost everyone drives their M3's and lets them hit 8k rpm. I doubt they have problems like this and I'm fairly sure your dealer sold it to you with some sort of advertisement of the cars high rev-line. Make sure you get all the tech data and call BMW NA. They'll sort it out for you hopefully. Good luck.

[BLUDVL]

Sorry to hear about ur car and what u have beeen goin through man/
First,ive had a SC on my car for the past 20K miles and ive yet to have a single problem.
Second,the Subframe in the E9X M3 is no joke,aint like the E46 M3 aqnd E36 M3 and so is the differential.
I think that u might have had something wrong with ur subframe when ur car was built and the differential just went bad cause it wasnt mounted right to the subframe,may be it was off so it wasnt spining freely.

Dont take its not covered under warranty for an answer and good luck man !!!1

[elp_jc]

Originally Posted by Nelrock

Are we getting the full story?

I'm afraid not. A subframe is not going to break due to a botched shift. No way. It's pretty darn stout.

Originally Posted by ChitownM3

The only thing I can think of is you snapped a bolt when you experienced wheel hop 2 months ago

Now we're getting somewhere . OP, you said you have never launched (see below). How come you had wheel hop without launching?

Originally Posted by gnhm3

No drag strip or launching. Only mod was a Gintani axle back which was not even on the car when it happened.

With regard with the first sentence, we understand you don't want to incriminate yourself here, but don't lie to us either man.
On the second sentence, on one instance it turned out the subframe damage happened when shop installing an exhaust forgot to tighten 2 of the 3 bolts (the ones holding the brackets where exhaust hangs) holding the differential to the subframe, and eventually snapped the 3rd. Not owner's fault directly, but even less BMW's.

Finally, my advice is to come clean about what happened (at least with BMW), since if you're caught lying, you're not going to get anywhere. Even if you had a launch or two, the car is supposed to withstand some abuse. Remember experienced technicians can pretty much tell by the way something broke how it happened, and it'd be pretty clear if it was a defect, abuse, negligence (in case the bolts were removed and not tightened properly), or if you hit something. I REALLY doubt you'd be immediately turned down for warranty if something wasn't pretty obvious to them, and without the 'full truth' from you, all our comments are useless. Good luck man.

[M3Bahn]

Seems very strange they wouldn't put the warranty denial in writing, based on that alone I would still take it to another dealership and see what they say.

Once it goes on your service invoice paperwork then it is part of the BMW computer service record so why not give it in writing so all other dealers would know about it?

[aus]

There have been a couple diff's here with broken bolts holding them in. Wonder if that's what started it???

[ChitownM3]

A broken bolt holding up the diff shouldn't be enough to kill the diff though. I'm trying to figure out how the diff broke. The broken diff bolts are actually quite common, doesn't take much to snap them.

[m3heaven]

I'm curious to know where and why you would have to take off a bolt holding the differential to the subframe when installing an axleback exhaust?

[ChitownM3]

I don't remember unbolting any part of the suspension to put in my exhaust either...

[m3heaven]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

With regard with the first sentence, we understand you don't want to incriminate yourself here, but don't lie to us either man.
On the second sentence, on one instance it turned out the subframe damage happened when shop installing an exhaust forgot to tighten 2 of the 3 bolts (the ones holding the brackets where exhaust hangs) holding the differential to the subframe, and eventually snapped the 3rd. Not owner's fault directly, but even less BMW's.

I'm curious to know where and why you would have to take off a bolt holding the differential to the subframe when installing an axleback exhaust?

[elp_jc]

Originally Posted by m3heaven

I'm curious to know where and why you would have to take off a bolt holding the differential to the subframe when installing an axleback exhaust?

Most people, and certainly most shops do it that way, because it literally takes 5 minutes to remove the axle back with the hangers in place. Then you can remove the hangers on the floor much easier, by rotating them back and forth with WD40. Snapping the rubber hangers off the shafts (without removing them with their brackets) is a real b*tch . And yes, that's exactly what I did the first time. If there's a next time, will definitely take the brackets off. Hope this helps.

[ChitownM3]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Most people, and certainly most shops do it that way, because it literally takes 5 minutes to remove the axle back with the hangers in place. Then you can remove the hangers on the floor much easier, by rotating them back and forth with WD40. Snapping the rubber hangers off the shafts (without removing them with their brackets) is a real b*tch . And yes, that's exactly what I did the first time. If there's a next time, will definitely take the brackets off. Hope this helps.

LOL, that's good to know, cause it was very hard getting those on and off when they were still hanging up there.

[eamon]

Thats not right, less your'e not telling us something
your car is brand new..
good luck

[M3Bahn]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

I'm afraid not. A subframe is not going to break due to a botched shift. No way. It's pretty darn stout.


Now we're getting somewhere . OP, you said you have never launched (see below). How come you had wheel hop without launching?


With regard with the first sentence, we understand you don't want to incriminate yourself here, but don't lie to us either man.
On the second sentence, on one instance it turned out the subframe damage happened when shop installing an exhaust forgot to tighten 2 of the 3 bolts (the ones holding the brackets where exhaust hangs) holding the differential to the subframe, and eventually snapped the 3rd. Not owner's fault directly, but even less BMW's.

Finally, my advice is to come clean about what happened (at least with BMW), since if you're caught lying, you're not going to get anywhere. Even if you had a launch or two, the car is supposed to withstand some abuse. Remember experienced technicians can pretty much tell by the way something broke how it happened, and it'd be pretty clear if it was a defect, abuse, negligence (in case the bolts were removed and not tightened properly), or if you hit something. I REALLY doubt you'd be immediately turned down for warranty if something wasn't pretty obvious to them, and without the 'full truth' from you, all our comments are useless. Good luck man.

It does remind me of this thread

10g damage to my 3 month old m3: need help
Hey guys,

I've been meaning to put this thread up for a while now since it has been a reoccurring problem for me with my car. In Mid Feb, the bolt on my right suspension mount on the drive train snapped in half and when I brought it to my local bmw dealership(Greenwood Indiana) they said that when the exhaust was mounted someone tampered with my bolt and torqued it improperly. So the problem wasn't covered under warranty and I had to shell out $400, not a big deal but figured I would go to the exhaust shop to get the money for the repair. When discussing the issue with the exhaust shop they were determined to make me understand that in now way were they responsible for the damage that happened. The car was set up on a lift and the bolt that had broken was no where near the hangers or where was worked on under the car. So clearly, it was a mechanical fault that I had to pay for. My understanding till this day, having a handful of bmws in my family is that, everything that goes wrong with the car under 50k is under warranty. So whatever I was aggravated but happy to have my car back and I was on the road once again. So I shipped my car back to NY for spring and summer and after driving around for no more hen 1000 miles after the car was fixed, same noise that came from the car when it snapped the 1st time happened once again. . So I figured not to worry, I purchased my car from BMW of Manhattan they should take care of it and get it back to me pretty soon. I get a call the next day stating that the bolt that was installed at BMW in Indiana was not the proper one and therefore had snapped in half again and this time the drive train actually dropped and the exhaust hanger broke off. So now i'm facing 10gs of damages and BMW of Indiana is claiming that the proper bolt was installed and they will take no action because the car is not in front of them. BMW of Manhattan is claiming that since it was a direct result of their workmanship they are liable. So now both BMWs are saying they are not the ones to blame. At this point I really cant stand waiting around for calls or calling service managers and pleading my case with no results. So my car has been sitting at BMW for about a week now and no repair has started and no intention of it until this issue with Indiana is resolved. What would you recommend I do from here? Would really really appreciate your help guys. Thanks

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=499159

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by gnhm3

engineers from BMW came to check out my car

Which makes taking the car to another dealer/ringing BMWNA a waste of time as the results of the engineers inspection will be on your cars file.

Get an independent engineer (preferably with court testifying experience) to inspect your car and based on his opinion proceed with legal action or pony up the cash for the repair yourself.

[pbonsalb]

I would be really disappointed if BMW told me that my high performance BMW was really designed for low performance driving and that my warranty would be voided if I bounced off the rev limiter. These cars should be able to run at the dragstrip or at the track.

A mechanical over rev due to a a driver error downshift instead of upshift would be another matter.

[SenorFunkyPants]

More likely is that the BMW engineer was told that the owner had installed a non-BMW exhaust and he found evidence that the third party installer had caused or contributed to the subframe/Diff failure.

[FVM3]

Call a lawyer! That's BS. We are not allowed to rev it up to 8K? You must be kidding me.

[Radiation Joe]

Sorry for your loss, but maybe you'll learn to take better care of your stuff in the future. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a BMW engineer to figure out you broke this car out of abuse.
A warranty is not a license to beat the shit out of your car. If you honestly believe this car broke because of faulty manufacturing or a faulty part, you are deluding yourself.

[FifthStreetz]

So BMW made a car to rev to 8000+rpms, marketed as the highest revving production car, and yet if a customer does exceed 8000revs and something breaks now or down the road it is the customers fault? Sounds like a load of BS to me that the dealer is giving you. You might as well tell them to no longer sell the car, if that is the case. Get a lawyer and take it up with bmw na.

[gblansten]

I await more facts.

[IFX]

oh please not subframe issues with the e9xM...


This is the first i've heard of, however...