Bent my "chassis stiffening plate"

[ChiefRes]

Anyone heard of this? I was driving about 45mph in my Z4MC and went over a dip in the asphalt (a road I travel everyday.) Car sort-of bottomed out and made a "crunch" noise. Instantly, the cabin is filled with an unbelievable vibration and noise.

Dealers says the chassis stiffening plate was bent and is touching the exhaust, leading to the vibration. They have to order a new plate...about $350 installed.

This ever happened to anyone else? Anyone think the warranty should cover this? Should I complain to the city about the drop in the road?

[Starscream]

They must be talking about this,

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...33&hg=33&fg=30

Part number 16,

obviously its not the price they say,
Its very easy to replace, Id buy it and do it yourself

[AWM3]

Originally Posted by ChiefRes

Anyone heard of this? I was driving about 45mph in my Z4MC and went over a dip in the asphalt (a road I travel everyday.) Car sort-of bottomed out and made a "crunch" noise. Instantly, the cabin is filled with an unbelievable vibration and noise.

Dealers says the chassis stiffening plate was bent and is touching the exhaust, leading to the vibration. They have to order a new plate...about $350 installed.

This ever happened to anyone else? Anyone think the warranty should cover this? Should I complain to the city about the drop in the road?

You hit something in the road, well you hit the road so to speak. Warranty doesn't cover that. That's called an accident. You could make an insurance claim depending on what your deductible is, however they might consider it an "at fault" accident which might come out worse for you in the long run. If this had happened to me, I would put the car on jackstands in my garage, remove the plate, beat out the dent with a big hammer, and reinstall it. BMW recommends using those bolts only once and torquing them to a certain specification, but I would probably just reuse the bolts anyway. Net cost for the repair would be zero.

[AWM3]

Originally Posted by Starscream

They must be talking about this,

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...33&hg=33&fg=30

Part number 16,

obviously its not the price they say,
Its very easy to replace, Id buy it and do it yourself

I don't think he's talking about the rear, I think he's talking about the front. There is a large heavy thick aluminum plate which serves the purpose of stiffening the front lower chassis of the car, it is a pretty big piece of metal bolted to the bottom of the car under the engine. I believe this may be the piece referred to. #3, price $241.06

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...79&hg=31&fg=05

[ChiefRes]

Originally Posted by car62

I don't think he's talking about the rear, I think he's talking about the front. There is a large heavy thick aluminum plate which serves the purpose of stiffening the front lower chassis of the car, it is a pretty big piece of metal bolted to the bottom of the car under the engine. I believe this may be the piece referred to. #3, price $241.06

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...79&hg=31&fg=05

Correct. I believe it is that large piece listed at about $250. The service guy said they considered pounding it straight, but it's too screwed up. So basically I'm out about $100 and the part.

And I didn't really hit anything in the road.......it's just a rough segment of pavement that drops sharply enough to screw my car up. I might tell my city councilman about it. I play golf with him occasionally. Never hurts to gripe!

[Graham M]

^ I've taken mine off because its just dead wieght to haul around, as I've noticed absolutely no difference in performance whatsoever.
Just leave it off I'd say, more of a skid-plate then anything. Working with metal(s) everyday I dont know how much "performance" you can get from that heavy thing anyway, since it doesn't seem to be designed or intended to serve as any significant chassis reinforcement.

[Ron Stygar]

Originally Posted by ChiefRes

Correct. I believe it is that large piece listed at about $250. The service guy said they considered pounding it straight, but it's too screwed up. So basically I'm out about $100 and the part.

Suggested retail is $192.85.

[O-cha]

Get them to show you first, get a picture and come back.

[Ron Stygar]

Originally Posted by Graham M

^ I've taken mine off because its just dead wieght to haul around, as I've noticed absolutely no difference in performance whatsoever.
Just leave it off I'd say, more of a skid-plate then anything. Working with metal(s) everyday I dont know how much "performance" you can get from that heavy thing anyway, since it doesn't seem to be designed or intended to serve as any significant chassis reinforcement.

[mpower03]

if you have basic hand tools and a jack and jack stands at least save yourself the $100 and do it yourself. Just buy it of tischer bmw.

[ChiefRes]

Originally Posted by mpower03

if you have basic hand tools and a jack and jack stands at least save yourself the $100 and do it yourself. Just buy it of tischer bmw.

I'm sure it's an easy fix, but I'll be letting the dealer do it. They'll have it done before I could even get the part. My time is well worth $350.

[MerLOW]

I had this part bent irrepairably as well as most of the driver's side fender linder ripped out by a full tire tread I hit on the highway last year. It sounded like a bomb had gone off under the car.

[chickdr]

Originally Posted by ChiefRes

I'm sure it's an easy fix, but I'll be letting the dealer do it. They'll have it done before I could even get the part. My time is well worth $350.

You ought to at least ask them to meet the BMW parts direct price of $144.50. That will save you quite a bit. My dealer will meet any price I find online.

[AWM3]

Originally Posted by Graham M

^ I've taken mine off because its just dead wieght to haul around, as I've noticed absolutely no difference in performance whatsoever.
Just leave it off I'd say, more of a skid-plate then anything. Working with metal(s) everyday I dont know how much "performance" you can get from that heavy thing anyway, since it doesn't seem to be designed or intended to serve as any significant chassis reinforcement.

His car is an M with a heavier engine and more power. I would not leave the plate off. The need for stiffening in this area was originally discovered in the E36 whch used a factory performance part known as an "X brace". The plate on the E46 M serves the same function as well as protecting the aluminum oil pan and various other bits under there. I think replacing his oil pan would have been a lot more than $350, plus he might have destroyed his engine from oil starvation.

At this point you might as well just pay the bill and get the car fixed. The old one still belongs to you (there is no core charge) and since it's not a warranty repair they have no right to keep it. I would ask for it and look at it just to satisfy myself that it really was not repairable.

[ChiefRes]

Quick update on this:

Upon further inspection, they noted that the engine mount bolts were broken on one side. Guy at the shop quoted me $490 for the fix. Of course, I recalled that several people in the land of the internet have had the engine mount bolts broken. Sure enough, I searched and found the technical bulletin from BMW stating that the bolts have a faulty design and can fail.

I called the guy back and gave him the info. He had no idea and said he would forward the info to the shop foreman.

Bottom line is instead of paying about $1000 for the engine mount and stiffening plate, I'll be paying them nothing. I really hope they try to charge me for the plate because I hypothesize that the reason it got bent in the first place is that the engine was drooping on one side from the broken bolts.

It sure pays to be knowledgeable and informed about your car!

[jragan]

Sure sounds to me like you need to find a different dealer.

[ChiefRes]

Originally Posted by jragan

Sure sounds to me like you need to find a different dealer.

Trust me, if there was another remotely close I would not do business here anymore. Meh, I want a Porsche anyway

[Hawkeye]

Nice Chief! Hopefully you can get away paying a whole lot of nothing on this one. Sounds like it should be covered anyway. I guess the plate is 50/50 based on opinion and speculation but good luck!

[ChiefRes]

So my service advisor says that there is no way the broken engine mount bolts led to the damage to the reinforcement plate. I say bull**it because this was an acute event over a stretch of road at subdivision speeds (that I've driven over twice daily for two years.)

I cannot imagine that the broken engine mount did not lead to the damage to the plate under the car. Can a more mechanically-inclined member here share their thoughts on this one?

Ended up being about $350 for plate and labor. Dealer would have gladly stuck me with $900 bill had I not brought the service bulletin on the bolts to their attention

[AWM3]

Originally Posted by ChiefRes

So my service advisor says that there is no way the broken engine mount bolts led to the damage to the reinforcement plate. I say bull**it because this was an acute event over a stretch of road at subdivision speeds (that I've driven over twice daily for two years.)

I cannot imagine that the broken engine mount did not lead to the damage to the plate under the car. Can a more mechanically-inclined member here share their thoughts on this one?

Ended up being about $350 for plate and labor. Dealer would have gladly stuck me with $900 bill had I not brought the service bulletin on the bolts to their attention

As I advised above, you should demand that the plate be turned over to you and decide for yourself what actually happened. It should be obvious if the plate was damaged by the motor mount breaking (unlikely) or if it was damaged by contact with the road. It is also very possible that the loud noise you heard was the engine mount breaking and the chassis plate may have been bent for months or years. When the engine mount bolts break, the passenger side of the engine (where the exhaust header is) drops down and will end up coming to rest on something it's not supposed to be on.

By the way, BMW should be extremely apologetic about this issue of motor mount bolts breaking. That isn't supposed to happen on modern automobiles. Maybe on Fiats or Ladas, but not the "Ultimate Driving Machine". Motor mount bolts NEVER break on Fords, Chevys, Toyotas, Hondas, or even Kias. I had an old Austin Healey 3000 that was made in England in 1963; it had a 700 lb cast iron engine and the motor mount bolts lasted for over 40 years and never showed any inclination to break. Apparently the British engineers in the 1950's who designed that automobile were more capable than the people working at BMW now. BMW Spartanburg looks really foolish on this one and maybe it's for the best that production was moved to Germany.

[chickdr]

What is amazing to me is BMW has not issued a recall to address this issue. I know there is a TSB but it sounds as if many dealers are not aware of it. BMW should make sure every Z4 is checked when it comes in for service(under warranty or not) to make sure the bolts are where they are supposed to be and not missing/broken(better yet, all bolts should be upgraded to a higher spec). As car62 said above, BMW looks very foolish on this one.

BTW- is there a link to the TSB for the engine bolts?

[ChiefRes]

Originally Posted by chickdr

What is amazing to me is BMW has not issued a recall to address this issue. I know there is a TSB but it sounds as if many dealers are not aware of it. BMW should make sure every Z4 is checked when it comes in for service(under warranty or not) to make sure the bolts are where they are supposed to be and not missing/broken(better yet, all bolts should be upgraded to a higher spec). As car62 said above, BMW looks very foolish on this one.

BTW- is there a link to the TSB for the engine bolts?

Here is the link to the TSB:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/att...0&d=1235614256