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Time for new rear springs? Heard a metal clanging sound over bumps

T

TechBoyJK

Lifer
So for a few weeks I was hearing a metal clanging sound coming from the rear passenger wheel area but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It would only make the sound over big bumps too so it was hard to reproduce. This weekend I finally got the car up on a jack, and started really looking around. I almost put the car down, but then started feeling around by the rear springs and pulled this out.

216904_10150547206405455_620170454_18068788_8371595_n.jpg


Time for new springs I guess? It's an 04 z4 with 78k miles.
 
well i'm definitely going to do both sides on the rear.

I've only looked at turnermotorsports.com so far, and they only sell springs in complete sets, front and rear.
 
That looks like the rubber bumper/cover on the top or bottom of the spring.. You might be able to compress and remove the spring and reattach it
 
TechBoyJK said:
well i'm definitely going to do both sides on the rear.

I've only looked at turnermotorsports.com so far, and they only sell springs in complete sets, front and rear.
Click to expand...

Are you confident enough in choosing rear springs that won't totally mess up your cars weight transfer properties, ride height, and rear roll frequency?

If none of that made sense, buy a complete set, or replace with OEM.
 
JCH13 said:
Are you confident enough in choosing rear springs that won't totally mess up your cars weight transfer properties, ride height, and rear roll frequency?

If none of that made sense, buy a complete set, or replace with OEM.
Click to expand...

I emailed turnermotorsports and said I needed new springs, but I wasn't looking to change anything really, just make a comparable replacement.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
That looks like the rubber bumper/cover on the top or bottom of the spring.. You might be able to compress and remove the spring and reattach it
Click to expand...

No, it's definately part of the spring. It's solid metal, and you can see where it broke off. the stress made the curl flair out a bit and I could see the break point on the spring (thats still on my car).
 
That would be extremely surprising to me, and a spring breaking is something you'd definitely notice...

IMO you should have a BMW indy shop look at it before you order anything
 
SpatiallyAware said:
That would be extremely surprising to me, and a spring breaking is something you'd definitely notice...

IMO you should have a BMW indy shop look at it before you order anything
Click to expand...
He did. 😛
So for a few weeks I was hearing a metal clanging sound coming from the rear passenger wheel area
Click to expand...
I highly doubt he mis-identified the part, so he's going to need new springs regardless. It may be worth replacing the top hat of the strut, depending on how much the broken spring messed with it.
 
I guess I say it's surprising because I've never heard of a spring breaking during 'regular' driving type situations (it's a z4, not offroad etc) other than from major rust issues or accident.. Not like I'm some uber mechanic or anything, but it seems crazy for a spring to just randomly break like that.

Edit:

And I mean notice as in, there's a ridiculous huge BANG from the top part of the spring breaking.. I've been in a truck where one of the rear shackles broke and it's definitely something that'll make you pull over... Granted that's leaf vs coil but still..
 
I've only seen 1 spring break before. You should get bonus points for breaking one. Maybe a saving throw on your deathbed or something.
 
TechBoyJK said:
yikes! wtf
Click to expand...


What's worse is that the spring breaking issue seems to be spread across more than a couple of years of cars.....so it's got to be more than a bad lot or two of springs. You've got people complaining of them breaking in less than 2 years and/or 24K miles.

Almost looks like rather poor engineering choices in the design of the spring......
 
How far from the pivot point is the spring? If it's too close by design, there would be excessive flexing of the coil rather than just linear spring movement.
 
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