Hi again and thanks for the welcome. As I mentioned before I bought the car at an auction so I was limited to a quick visual inspection before I bid. The car looked great inside and out and appeard to be garaged most if not all of it's life. The first time I drove it was when I picked it up. It drove fine the 40 or so Km home but I didn't want to flex it's muscles until I got it up on jackstands to check it out in detail. I did notice when turning at low speeds, like in parking lots, there was a loud clunk coming from the front end.
When I got home I had the wife crank the wheel back and forth while I poked around under the car with a flashlight... Didn't see anything wrong. Then I looked down by the engine and saw the steering box flopping from side to side. The mount for one of the steering box bolts has broken away from the sub-frame. After looking on Google I found this is a common headache for E24 owners. The fix for this on the net was to get a long bolt and some big washers and tighten it down real good. BMW sells a special bolt for this (32 13 1 136 051) but when I called the dealer I was told there are none in Canada and
it would be a two week wait. I didn't like the idea of the bolt because it seemed more like a hack than a fix. Not being a duct tape kinda guy, I sat back and pondered how difficult it would be to get that sub-frame out to weld a new mount on.
The engine would need to be lifted so there is no weight on the sub-frame. I could have used a engine hoist but I would have to remove the hood....didn't like that idea. I could use a jack from below and lift on the oil pan....and risk cracking it?
no thanks. What I ended up doing was getting a engine support bar made specificly for lifting the engine on front wheel drive cars. These can be found at automotive tool supply outlets. After about 10 min of setting up and adjusting, I loosened the motor mounts and tried cranking it up. First one side came up
then the other... about 3/4" in all. I didn't disconnect anything on the engine and kept an eye on the fan/shroud.
With the engine up and out of the way, this was going to be easy. The procedure I followed was...

1. Attach support bar chain to front engine lifting eye with bolt, nut and washers

2. Install and adjust engine support over lifting eye and attach chain

3. Loosen and back off top nuts on both motor mounts

4. Lift car, both front wheels off the ground and place on jack stands.... Make sure it's stable before climbing under car

5. Remove bottom nuts & washers from both motor mounts

6. Lift engine and watch the back of engine to firewall and fan/shroud. Both mounts should be loose. Make sure nothing is binding or being streched

7. Remove bolts from both lower control arms and position them out of the way

8. Remove bolt from idler arm and position out of the way

9. Loosen sub-frame bolts right side

10. Remove sub-frame bolts left side and drop the sub-frame down some

11. Remove the bolt(s) from the steering box mounts

12. Remove sub-frame bolts from right side and remove the sub-frame

With the sub-frame out I had two choices... Take it to a welding shop or do it myself. Since I had a MIG welder I chose to fix it myself. I wouldn't suggest welding the old mount back on, it looked pretty flimsy and would probably break again anyway. What I did was
fabricated a new mount out of heavier stock and added a gusset to really stiffin it up. After the welding was done, I cleaned it and painted to prevent corrosion. Installation is the reverse of removal. I reused all the bolts and nuts but it would be a good idea to use all new fasteners. Now the clunking noise is obviously gone
and handles good. I was suprised at how easy it was to remove the sub-frame and re-install it, it looked much more difficult than it was.
Next I think i'll tackle the self-levelling suspension....lol

Trevor M

81 528i US Chestnut Red metallic
87 635CSi euro Diamond Black metallic

• Speedometer adjustment? (nt) - resabed01 2005-09-27 19:48:25 (545 views)
  • Re: Speedometer adjustment? - resabed01 2005-09-27 20:20:51 (549 views)
    • Re: Speedometer adjustment ....get used to it... - eurowannabe535is 2006-02-18 11:30:49 (324 views)
      • Re: Speedometer adjustment ....get used to it... - resabed01 2006-02-18 18:15:32 (303 views)
    • Re: Speedometer adjustment? - resabed01 2005-10-03 22:14:03 (511 views)
    • your e24 - kjkumar 2005-09-28 01:39:42 (477 views)
      • More on the steering box fix (long) - resabed01 2005-09-30 00:29:06 (726 views)
        • Re: More on the steering box fix (long) - kjkumar 2005-10-04 13:43:53 (418 views)
        • How I fixed my subframe (pic) - euro635gas 2005-10-01 00:33:44 (620 views)
        • Nice Write-up, we really like that stuff here. (nt) - kff 2005-09-30 19:12:49 (379 views)
    • To learn about the functions of the OBC, go to (url) - kff 2005-09-27 21:49:51 (603 views)
      • Re: OBC functions - resabed01 2005-09-30 00:34:51 (488 views)
        • push in on the end of the turn signal stalk to cycle through the OBC. (nt) - kff 2005-10-03 19:44:41 (476 views)
          • Re: push in on the end of the turn signal stalk to cycle through the OBC. - resabed01 2005-10-03 21:54:44 (452 views)
        • Trevor you can still use the OBC while driving...> - kff 2005-09-30 19:07:24 (464 views)