e32 doing fish impression

[nicey]

Why is nothing in life simple??

I decided to spare my e30 the strain of towing my caravan around scotland so i bought a 1989 e32 730i to do the job.

Mot'd till march, taxed til august 290 quid, bought another 730i for spares for 70 quid as loads of good bits on it.

Got my local garage to swap some bits over from the scrap car, as there was lots of new bits fitted to the suspension, and my e32 was banging and crashing over bumps and wandering.

Just picked up the car and it felt wobbly on the back end like the rear tyres were flat so checked tyre pressures and they are ok, took it out on the main road got upto 50 mph and the car started weaving around like I had a trailer on the back out of balance. Got home checked wheel nuts, jacked up car and had a look and everything feels solid.
Front suspension feels soild but the damper on the drivers side feels soft on bounce test.
Spoke to garage and they cant have a look until saturday.

Hoping someone on here knows or has had something similar.

[mr_dink]

My mate did the same, bought a 730 to use as a tow car.

It had had a hard life and the spring platforms on the rear shocks had almost completely collapsed, making it sit very low at the back and make a variety of clonking noises.

Couple of cheap second hand struts sorted it out.

Have you checked your rear struts? If they're all good I'd probably say it's rear beam bushes.

Good luck!

[nicey]

I have checked the rear struts, previous owner replaced them not too long ago.
if it was rear bushes then the car would raise/lower when selecting gear on autobox with foot on brake.

I'm thinking top mounts, the car was put on to a lift and all wheels were off the floor.
If the top mounts were old + knackered they could break up when the lower ball joints were split and the strut was being worked on/around. I get a rattling from the front when going over un-even surfaces.

[gareth]

sounds very much like rear subframe bushes to me. my E34 felt like it had flat rear tyres on the motorway (enough to get me to stop and check them!) and it was the bushes. after changing them it was like a new car!

[nicey]

when the car went to the garage they changed the "dog bone" bushes on the back, car did n't do its jiggle before these were touched, coincidence?

If it is rear subframe bushes are these special tool job?

[gareth]

not necessarily a special tool, just an utter shite of a job! i left it to my local BMW specialist who did it for about £70 inc parts. he has a special tool he made, otherwise it would have been a much larger bill