Under carriage brace.

[Charley]

Do all e30s are suposed to have #8. Its installed aproximatively right
underneath the rear bushing of the shifter carrier.



Out of three e30 only my first 318is had this brace. My last 318is and the
touring didn't have it but do have provision for it.

Charley

[glucklich21]

Isn't it for the exhaust shield?

[TurboJake]

^Yessir

[Wishno87]

The exhaust shield bolts up with it but it is its own separate brace. I literally just took it off of my project car to drop the drive shaft.

[MR 325]

The exhaust shield bolts up with it but it is its own separate brace.

Exactly.

Every E30 I have ever seen has had it, or the holes for it. And I have seen many! LOL

[jw 325ic]

I think its some kind of chassis support bracket. Like a one piece cross brace to reduce flex in the tunnel, but I'm not positive...

Every e30 ive owned has had it.

[TurboJake]

It really isn't very strong. I wouldn't think it's meant to brace the chassis in any way.

But, It does several pretty large bolts on it. So I will tentatively agree with it.

Maybe it's there primarily to make sure the driveshaft doesn't go AWOL if the bearing goes bad, or it breaks. To me, that would seem to be the most likely reason for that part.

[jw 325ic]

Wouldnt the heat shield do that?

[Earendil]

I can't quite place where this is in the scheme of things. I'm pretty sure my 325i only has a two pieces of metal (that aren't shields) that span the tunnel. One holds the transmission mounts, the other just sits there with nothing attached to it. I assumed it was a brace for the tunnel as well, since nothing bolts to it.

What is #7 in that picture? Brake lines? I'm pretty sure I have nothing that close to my drive shaft tunnel.

[Wh33lhop]

I was really hoping this was about extra aftermarket chassis bracing.

My E30's got it and every other one I've worked on had it. Even the one that was super rigged and didn't have the steering rack bolted in.

[Charley]

Oh I see so two of my e30s had missing parts...but the heat shield
doesn't need this bracket to hold in there since my heat shield were
always on the car. Thanks for the clarification guys.

Charley

[Eric]

It really isn't very strong. I wouldn't think it's meant to brace the chassis in any way.

But, It does several pretty large bolts on it. So I will tentatively agree with it.

Maybe it's there primarily to make sure the driveshaft doesn't go AWOL if the bearing goes bad, or it breaks. To me, that would seem to be the most likely reason for that part.

I think your wrong, the brace is strong and correctly engineered.

[CHIF8008]

lets ask BMW what it was designed for...