Rear springs gone? Do they go with a bang?

B

benlumley

Member
 Bath
Driving along dual carriageway just now and there's a loud metallic bang from behind me. First thoughts were rear springs or I'd hit something.

Pulled over to check things out, no signs of damage from hitting anything and slightly lower ride height that side (never checked before though). Limped on, noticed rattling on bumps from that corner, which to uneducated me suggests rear springs too?

So three questions...

Sound like rear springs?

Am I right to think don't drive it till fixed?

And auc covers rear springs doesn't it?

Cheers
 
the typical rear spring issue is pretty much un-noticeable unless you get the wheels off etc.

The issue is not that they snap in the middle, it seems to be a short tip section - hence no real noise or height change. i think more from fatigue than sudden mechanical failure.

This isnt to say that yours didnt fail from sudden mechanical failure though.

apart from that, is it a rattle or a clunk? are you sure it is to the rear? if it is clunk and to the front then possibly a bush. rear and rattle, maybe a spring section...
 
when i had my e46 lowered it was apparent that the top 'pig tail' had snapped - i never noticed, it never affected the drive or handling , so i doubt you'd notice it happening.
 
The majority of people never hear it, never suspect and drive as usual until they fail the MOT on one of both broken. A few hear the bit fall out and some may hear knocks or clunks depending on how much fell off. As noted above it's typically just the tip.

The thing is though you really need to find out what it is now, rather than drive on assuming it is indeed just the end of a spring, which with rattling it quite probably is not....
 
Ta.

Its a metal knocking/banging noise on bumps, about 99% sure its the rear, had the roofoff and the initial bang was definitely the back, and the noise since is too. Don't think its something loose, as you only hear it on bumps etc

Whatever it is, hopefully its AUC covered.

Will they pick the car up? Does the roadside assistance cover that? Although I drove it carefully home, I think I'd rather not drive it to the dealer!
 
When I had my E46 M3 both rear springs snapped, as others have said it's normally the little 'pigtail' from either the top or the bottom. I didn't notice any change in height or ride, what drew my attention to it was a rattling noise going over bumps with the offside rear wheel. When I got under it to have a look, the pigtail was caught inside the rest of the spring and rattling around. I thought it a good time to check the otherside too and found that would to be snapped also, although that broken part must of fallen off in the road somewhere.
Yes the AUC warranty will cover it, I had mine done on the insured warranty which only covers you to 60k miles after which they put it down to wear and tear.
 
Ta for the info.

So far its booked in for monday am to be looked at, and I'm not meant to drive it till then.

Got to try bmw roadside assistance to get it picked up if possible.
 
Rear springs indeed ... roadside assistance came out over the weekend, dealer told me to go down that route to ensure i wasn't going to make it worse driving to the dealer.

He retrieved this:
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