[wasabee210]

Well I posted this in e90 general and didnt get much of a response and I probably should have posted it here in the first place being that this is the suspension forum soo here goes.

Long story short I was in a front end collision in my 2006 330i. 9k in damages but no frame damage as I went under a truck and hit their tow hitch.

I picked up the car 3 days ago and everything seemed fine, however, after driving for a while it felt like the rear end was wiggling back and forth just slightly when I hit a dip or bump. No one else really noticed but it's my car so I can feel if something is off. Well fast forward to today and it got noticeably worse to the point where I parked the car and had the body shop tow it as it was not driveable.

Any bump made the car nearly uncontrollable and under acceleration the car not only pulled left but rotated left to the point where I had to turn the steering wheel almost a quarter turn to stay straight and braking caused the car to lurch in the other direction. As i was finding a place to pull over I rolled down the windows and noticed the tires were squeeling slightly too. Anyway a buddy picked me up and i had him drive forward and backwards slowly in the parking lot and i couldn't believe it.....the rear calipers lifted about 3 inches when he slowed from forward and the calipers lowered three inches when slowing from reverse!

Obviously something is majorly wrong but the question is this. My car was hit in a front end collision at about 20 mph yet the rear end is screwed. Is it possible for a bushing to rip or tear or something from that speed? The only other thing was the body shop asked if the car was put on a flat bed or towed with the rear wheels down on the ground. It was towed from the scene rear wheels down and he said it should only be towed on a flatbed. Right now i'm at a loss and the insurance has been trying to nickel and dime everything and I'm concerned they are going to try and tell me that the problem wasnt caused from the accident when I'm 1000% sure my car drove perfect prior to the accident.

I was a auto tech up until 7 years ago or so so i have a pretty good understanding of a rear drive car although I don't know the setup on the e90 bmw other than a center diff and rear half shafts. Is there anything inherently weak on these that could cause this problem? From what it looks like the e90 doesn't have rear subframe problems like the e46 but what else could let the rear calipers on both sides move up and down three inches?

Sorry for the long post. I really appreciate any help in advance.

[e90pilot]

The rear subfram bushings are a little soft from the factory. If you put the car up on a lift youcan see if they're damaged. If you end up changing them, go with the M3 ones. They're much stiffer and they don't make noise at all. Also, check the rear upper shock mounts. They're pretty weak too.

I'm not sure why your brake calipers are moving though. That's strange. Is it moving with the wheel or completely separate? You might need to pull apart the rear suspension and check each component.

[wasabee210]

Well I just got back from the body shop and I couldn't believe what i saw. The steel radius arm is ripped in half in the middle on the driver side and on the other side the radius arm is bent and the metal is torn more than half way thru. The body shop said that when it was flatbed towed to the shop they use large metal hooks on the rear end to hold it in place. They must have hooked on to the radius arm and tightened them down waaaaay too much. I already called my adjuster and am trying to find out who towed my car because I almost wrecked when I assume the driver radius arm sheared in two. I'll put up a pic shortly

[wasabee210]

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[The HACK]

Nice. That's why whenever I have any of my cars towed for whatever reason, I watch them like a freakin' hawk. Flat-bed or no tow. Use the factory tie-down points if they have the right hooks, use the wheel as last resource for tie-down, or no tow. NEVER let them touch any of the control arms when towing.

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 though. but that damage is consistent with having used the trailing arms/control arms as tie-downs for towing.

[dcorn]

Holy hell, you got the front end all fixed and nobody noticed that damage in the rear??

Looking at the picture, you can see where the metal is bent down around the holes in the arm. They obviously stuck a hook in there and cranked down on it. Fatigued the arm enough to make it break on the next bump you hit. Crazy how it just snapped like that.

[e90pilot]

That's F'ed up! You could have been injured by some dumbass's negligence. That tow company should do more than pay for damage to your car. I also remember seeing a sticker with a warning not to tow or strap the car by the control arms in the wheel well somewhere. That tow truck driver has no excuse.

[wasabee210]

Yeah i noticed it looks like it was pulled through the holes as they are bent down. As far as when it happened I was on a 50 mph road and went into oncoming lanes wh en I lost controll so with 100mph closing speed if I would have hit someone I'm pretty sure we'd both be seriously injured if not dead had I hit someone. I specifically left a message asking my adjusters wht company tows the cars and she has yet to call me back or eeven call the body shop back after they called her and told her what must have happened. Needless to say i'm pretty pissed about the whole situation.

[neoduffer]

Wow. Glad that you're safe after seeing that.

[GQ335i]

Damn, I can't believe the negligence of some tow companies and shops, dangerous as hell right there. Glad you didn't get hurt. I would go back there and punch the first person I see straight in the face.