Removing the Rear Subframe From Project BMW E46
Would you believe me if I said that this all went according to plan, and was easier than expected?
No, of course you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t either, and I’m the one turning the wrenches and writing about it after the fact. But it’s the truth, despite it being a large amount of work, once I got past the seized driveshaft bolts and shifter rebuild, everything did go pretty smoothly.
Ah, I should back up, shouldn’t I? Okay, queue the introduction paragraph, it’s time to talk about financial mistakes!
Welcome, one and all, to another episode of Project E46! These segments are a bit different than the regular flurry of expensive supercars that we feature on 6SpeedOnline. This is my free space to tell you all about my $1,500 impulse Craigslist purchase, and everything that has happened since. So gather ’round, and feel free to laugh at my hardships, because, when I’m not editing all of 6SpeedOnline‘s content, I am dithering about in the garage, often playing with cheap, used BMWs.
Now that we are all up to speed, let’s jump back into the action. My goal for today’s episode was to drop the rear subframe assembly out of the back of the car to handle a bunch of repairs and upgrades. In the last episode, I started the tear down process, getting the car in the garage, on stands and ready to get going. Out came the exhaust, and the driveshaft, giving me full access to the rear axle of the E46. From there, it was a matter of unbolting the hand brake lines running to the brake calipers, the brake lines themselves and the trailing arm bolts. Now, all that remained were the two large studs, and two large bolts securing the subframe to the chassis of the car.
Coming down!
The subframe assembly, with the differential, suspension and brakes attached is quite heavy. My well-calibrated forearms say there’s about 200-pounds of back break there, so lowering it down was to be a gentle, careful operation involving three floor jacks and some clever coordination.
Of course, all of that went out the window when one of those jacks decided it could no longer support my thrifty ambitions and quit half way through the job. The jack tagged me in and I had the pleasure of benchpressing the subframe down with my other two, still-loyal floor jacks. After some tenuous, strenuous and other -enous words later, the subframe assembly was out, sprawled on my garage floor.
Look at all of this money I’m going to burn. Oh well, what’s a paycheck between two not-friends-because-it’s-a-car?
With the shifter rebuild done, let’s go down the checklist to see what all I have to knock out in the next few episodes to get the E46 drift-ready:
- Trailing Arm Bushings
- Subframe Bushings
- Differential Bushings
- Welding in Chassis Reinforcements
- Welding the Differential
Sounds like a piece of cake. What could possibly go wrong? With my cheap Harbor Freight welder and some raw determination, I will get this done in a few…weeks, probably. Just kidding, I’ve handled way worse than this. I’ll have it right and ready, ASAP! Why do I say that? Well, I have to, as I have signed the car up for a drift event in a few weeks. Oh boy, I better get off the Internet and get to wrenching.
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