Suspension question, broken shock tower???

[onefastman]

Noticed some vibration at speed (100mph+). When I looked at it the three bolts that hold the strut in have shifted (camber off). When the dealer looked at it they said the holes were elongated and it was NOT covered under warranty. I have not hit a thing (within the last 6 months any way). The remidy is to cut off the entire shock tower and weld on another.

1. Should they cover it/could I get them to?
2. If not what should I expect to pay (trying to decide if I should make a claim)?

[onefastman]

Bmw estimated the cost to be north of $10K

[bluesunit]

The bolt holes are elongated/slotted in stock form. It allows some camber adjustment.

Here, I took a picture of mine with the bolt off:




This is the passenger side, with stock camber maxed. Drivers looks the same. For scale, the holes are as wide as the studs from the shocks and about twice as long. All 3 studs per strut look like this.

Your's look like this? If so, it's ok, and your dealer is full of crap. Find a new shop, stat.

If the bolts were loose and managed to hog out the holes, that's an issue. However, there has to be a better way to fix this than to replace the whole shock tower. I'd be really worried about the body shop being able to fit the new part in with the same level of perfection as the BMW factory robots.

[bluesunit]

Also, a lot of folks actually further elongate those holes to get even more camber. It's ghetto but it works.

Get a second opinion from your local performance alignment shop.

[onefastman]

The other issue is that the cap is crowed so it needs to be replaced.

I trust my dealer 100% to tell if a hole is elongated, a monkey could do it and the owner actually looked at it for me.

[rsjean]

Would seem to me there are only 3 possibilites.

1) Defect in manufacturing / assembly
2) Road hazzard / impact
3) You made some mods and f*cked everything up

1 - you go after BMW
2 - turn it into your insurance company
3 - I don't think this is the case - but if it is, you eat it

In number 2 - the insurance company might even have an 'expert' look at it and contact BMW on your behalf if they believe it is really number 1.

[onefastman]

Honestly I think it could be number 1. I just noticed it not more than 2 weeks ago and have hardly driven it let alone hit something of that magnitude. I will turn it into insurance and have them go after bmw if need be.

[bluesunit]

Crazy. The tower is cracked?

Any chance of getting pictures? I'm really curious.

[onefastman]

Not cracked, but has a dome on it.

Like if you had a pancake and pushed up on it.

[bluesunit]

Crazy. You'd think something else in the suspension would have broken before that happened.

[onefastman]

That was my suprise and why I think it may have been a defective piece.

[nordique14]

The top of BMW shock towers are notoriously weak. They failed (bubbles or cracked) a lot in the E36 and E46 even when stock. They failed even more often if stiffer springs were installed. BMW even made a reinforcement plate for those models. I am not aware of a reinforcement plate for our cars.

I am glad to see that BMW has learned a thing or two about shock towers since problems started showing up back in early 90's.

[Dackelone]

Onefastman... IS your suspension stock? Completely stock? What size wheels do you have? OE? What is your model, model year and production date? Maybe somone else here has this problem?

You are not running something crazy like 22 inch wheels now are you???

The reason why I ask is... when the Boxster first came out with 17'sstandard and option 18's... Porsche made the 18's a parts dept option too - for those that already bought Boxsters. Problem was those early Boxster's chasis could not handle the stress of the 18's. Only post 2002 models if I remmeber right. ??? Even though Porsche gave a special TUV paper saying ALL production Boxsters could run them. In the end... some early cars developed cracks in the chasis. Porsche first refused to pay. But then someone produced this TUV paper saying Porsche goot TUV's approval... so any defects are covered by Porsche. In teh very end... Porsche bought back a few hundred Boxsters and made a bunch of people happy. But it took some doing.

Hope this helps.

In any event... I was ask your dealer to schedule a meeting with the regional service manager from BMW NA. I bet he will know something about this defect.

[onefastman]

No shop other than bmw has touched it and I am compleately stock, wheels, shocks, springs, tires (run craps), etc.

I plan on having a talk with them but need to get my ducks in a row before I do so i.e lawyer.

[M2]

Originally Posted by onefastman

Not cracked, but has a dome on it.

Like if you had a pancake and pushed up on it.

I think the term posters have been using is "mushrooming". From what I have read you are not the first 135 owner with this issue. I would do a seach on the word mushroom and see what comes up. BMW had this same mushrooming issue with the mini coopers and everyone was buying aftermarket steel plates to installs that would renforce it, (before they mushroomed). So, if in fact that is the case here and you can find others with stock suspensions that are having the same issue, then BMW should have to eat the cost of repair. good luck and sorry to hear about your issue.

[onefastman]

Good to know!

[M2]

I found one...
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...light=mushroom

[bluesunit]

From what I'm seeing, the top of the tower can be beat back into place . . . another ghetto solution. Ridiculous that this problem has been going on so long and that BMW doesn't reinforce the weak spot from the factory.

I'd much prefer having them flatten the strut crown back into place than have them cut int the frame and weld in a new part.

[onefastman]

Read that and I will look into it. See if I cant get a custom strut brace.