I think something is wrong here...(subframe mount)

[forwardlookguy]

Hello everyone, first post but I've been lurking for awhile now.

Anyhow, I just bought an '86 325e and while I was cleaning the interior I noticed the rear seat bottom cushion was loose so I went ahead and took it out to vacuum under it. This is what I found:




I'm quite sure that's not supposed to be like that. Is this repairable? It's on the drivers side. I've been wondering why it fish-tails when I go over railroad tracks or a decent sized bump. I believe I know why now! If it's as simple as welding up those cracks it's no problem but I want to make sure that would be a sufficient repair.

What would cause this???

[REVunlimited]

yea thats way serious. i think you need to re-align it with the hole and weld it up and probably reinforce a bit if you can.

[King Mufasa]

Damn never seen that before.. maybe the guys at http://garagistic.com have a re enforcement for that.

[forwardlookguy]

So I've checked around a few places and I can find subframe reinforcements but I have yet to find anything for this area. Anyone have any ideas? If there's nothing ready-made, I have access to a mill here at work and I'm sure I can fab something up. I really just want to make sure that a repair/reinforcement in this area will last or if I'm just putting a bandaid on a bullet wound here...

[jlevie]

The first task is to get the subframe bolt carrier back where it belongs. Then weld it back in place and weld up the cracks. This will probably require dropping the subframe. Next I'd fab up a reinforcement plate (3/32" is plenty thick enough) and weld it in. The plate should extend about an inch from the hole all around and wrap down over the curve.

[forwardlookguy]

Thanks jlevie for the response and plan of attack. Seeing as how you are involved with Spec E30, I'll take your word and run with it! Looks like I'll be dropping the subframe sometime soon... At least I can go ahead and replace all the bushings, etc. while it's out.

Now, any ideas how this would have happened? I'd just like to satisfy my curiosity. To my knowledge the car has never been wrecked and has never been a track car which is where I've read of things like this happening. Could this have been from hitting a massive hole or ??? Or maybe just a fluke thing?

[jlevie]

My guess is that some sort of overload occurred. Maybe too much weight in the car and a bad pothole?

[forwardlookguy]

That would make sense. When I bought the car, it came with an extra M20B27 engine and the guy showed me a picture of it in the car where the passenger seat would have been. It was also loaded up in the trunk at the time so it was probably way over the occupancy weight. I appreciate the help.

[forwardlookguy]

Updated Carnage...

Alright, well I have torn everything apart and this is what I found underneath:

A VIN report says that it was hit in the rear in 1994...this whole issue makes sense now!!

If you look at the first picture in the post, the whole thing is sideways. It looks like in this new picture the piece/shitty welds buckled and made it pull through or it was just never done right in the first place.

So.......can this be fixed or is this just going to continue to happen? I have an '85 parts car that I could cut this whole area out of but it would be a huge pain and it is going to be some very tight welding and cutting.

I'm looking for ideas (and more importantly reassurance this can be fixed!)