<e36> rattling rear suspension... or is it?

[andrew.j.thomas@xxxxxx]

Hi gang.

A small tip for E36 owners with rattling noises from the rear going over
lumps and bumps:

I noticed a fair amount of erroneous commotion going on at the back of my
car recently, along with occasionally iffy behaviour over bumps. Given the
experience of others I suspected split rear shock mounts, which the local
garage duly diagnosed as such. OK, it was a BMW garage and I probably got
fleeced on the labour charge, but the car felt a better when I got it back
(both left and right mounts had split). And I followed the usual rules,
getting them to show me the broken bits before I coughed up.

Anyway the car still rattled away from the right hand side at the rear. I
steamed back to the garage and gave them what-for until the hapless bloke
behind the service desk agreed to run the car up on the lift and take a
look. Turned out to be a loose handbrake (parking/emergency brake) cable,
of which one or two digest members had also had experience. This made
almost exactly the same noise as rattling shocks, only pitched a bit
higher, and masked almost entirely by the racket caused by the split
mounts.

Anyway it's possible to take up the slack at the parking brake handle end
from within the cabin, but the garage recommended adjustments at the rear
brake drum instead. Cost? Another 100 quid or so. Adverse side effects?
None. Result? I went home, cable rattling merrily away.

For those of you suspecting shagged shock mounts, try driving the car over
bumps that you know will set the shocks off, and pull the parking brake up
a notch or two and try again. If the noise goes away, you've got a loose
parking brake cable, which is nothing to worry about (just make sure it's
pulled tight every time).

Hope this helps (and calms a few jangled nerves) -

Regards

Andrew T
'95 318is. Loose handbrake cable. Aah, sod it.

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