E36 - help on suspension

[ivqii]

I have an L reg 320se which i use as my daily commuter

It has only done 69000 fully documented miles and has always been owned by mature people - which means it has almost certainly never been lowered.The car sits very low though -

The problem is that with someone in the back i am getting the inside of the right rear arch scraping on the wheel - and particularly round corners

Nothing wrong with the shockers - they stay up rigid after a handbounce

Any ideas?

[fozzymandeus]

Have you checked your rear springs? They are very prone to cracking very near the bottom. Also check your suspension top mounts and rear trailing arm bushes. 70k ish is reasonable mileage for these to fail.

[darkchild]

Agree 100% with fozzymandeus here. The springs get covered in all kind of crap over the years and are well known for rotting, and eventually snapping, at the bottom.

[ivqii]

Many thanks for the input guys - sorry for the delay in replying

The car went through MOT with no fault 2 days before i posted the original post here

Shouldn't any of the above been picked up at MOT?

[Ant]

broken springs should have failed , but they're not obvious unless you are aware of the issue on the model and go looking, which is not really "pukka" for a tester, all cars should be tested to the same criteria.

If its low enough to rub then something is defo amiss.

[Taylor325i]

Many thanks for the input guys - sorry for the delay in replying

The car went through MOT with no fault 2 days before i posted the original post here

Shouldn't any of the above been picked up at MOT?

I've previously had my car pass an MOT only to find 2 broken springs a week later - as Ant said, it can be easily missed!


Taylor.

[Mox3d]

The rears almost always (like every one I've seen come in over the last year needing springs) break at the bottom just above the bottom loop of the spring. That bottom end of the rear springs sits in a well of the radius arm and sometimes can be fairly hard to see, certainly if youre not on the lookout for it. And it will not be visible or obvious at all if the wheels are on.