Inspecting Project E46 for Subframe Damage
It’s time to get dirty.
All of the dirt and chassis undercoating on the subframe pick-up pounts needs to come off. The reason is twofold: first, to look for any smaller bits of chassis damager; second, to weld on the Turner Motorsport subframe reinforcement kit. While there are many very nice solutions produced nowadays for E46 chassis reinforcement, Turner still makes the golden standard. If it’s approved for Spec E46 race cars, it’s good enough for this $1,500 beater.
After 15 minutes with the grinder and wire wheel, exposed metal begins to gleam through the filth. Jackpot:
Wait, not jackpot, that’s a crack! Oh schiesse, this schnitzel rocket is going to need a bit of work.
That said, after grinding down all four subframe mounting points to the bare metal, that was the only damage in site. The driver-rear corner is, supposedly, the most prone to this issue, so it’s not totally unexpected. For an early build date car, again, supposedly the most issue prone, I truly thought it would be worse. My car is a ’99 328i with many original parts on it stamped 1998. This is one of the first E46s ever made, and it seems like the Germans were working extra efficiently when this one was on the assembly line. It could certainly be a lot worse.
How do I plan on fixing the crack in the chassis? Well, it has to be ground out, so it can’t spread and then filled with weld. Hopefully it’s not that deep and the repair is painless, but we will all find out in a future episode of Project E46.
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