Frozenrobot

UPDATE:  I got the broken springs out last night, it  involve; removing the sway bar, disconnecting the differential mount and 5 jack stands.  Now I am just waiting on new parts.

I got the shocks for the BMW on Friday and after work I got the car up in the air and took the wheels off.  That is when I figured out what that rattling noise was.  The bottom coil of both springs had broken off, this is something that should never happen, I thought. Yes, the shocks also still need to be replace, the broken springs probably caused them to fail.  Now I also need to replace the springs, which I had to order, so now both cars in the garage don’t run.   After examining the broken coils, it looks like they have been broken for a long time.  Neither Gillian or I can remember ever hearing a large Bang! let allow two large Bangs!, and we have never overloaded it, so they might have been broken ever since we bought the car.  It really is a testament to how well BMW builds suspensions, that we can drive with broken springs and we never noticed until the shocks started to fail and the broken piece started to rattle.  Now I have to wait for parts to continue this mechanical drama.