I havent posted a great deal lately, and here is mostly why.
Not long has it been, since I had a rear end knocking noise, which was checked out by my regular mechanic, and correctly diagnosed to be the top mounts.
These were replaced and made massive difference (mostly audible difference)
After this work was done, another creaking/squeaking noise became apparent.
Seems that since the knocking had been silenced, a different quieter (but more annoying) noise had been discovered, and was seriously doing my head in!
I never got the time to check it out properly myself, only until not long ago.
I had parked up the car since Gaydon, due to being quite busy with other things (other cars!)
So managed to get the car out of my friends garage, and home.
Then got to work stripping out the boot interior.
To my surprise, it was one of my worst expectations of findings.
I spotted a small tearing on the passengers side of the boot floor.
Sure you can imagine how pi**ed I was at this unexpected discovery
It was worse than what I was hoping, I thought there was just some loose crap under the boot interior and maybe it would have needed hoovering out or something. Ha! WRONG! Massively wrong!!!
Never imagined I could have had a busted boot floor problem, even after pm'ing and emailing a few members off here asking for help on what to look for (thanks to those peeps that helped, youll know who you are by how many pm's in your inbox are from me, lol)
I was still confident the boot floor wouldnt be affected, although there was something in the back of my mind telling me not to jump too quick at dropping that possibility.
The tear was tiny in comparison to some ive seen on here and the roadster forum.
Still, I was totally gutted to find it, no matter what the size of it was.
I made initial contact with BMW, who at first said they would sort it out, I was told to await reply for them get back to me with arrangements.
Then after a bit of waiting, they emailed a response which said "f**k off, your car is too old" in the nicest possible way.
(Mine is a 1999 T reg)
Great customer services, right?
Oh well, was worth a try, but obviously I was still not happy with the outcome.
My thoughts were of getting reinforcement work carried out, even if BMW did stick to doing their replacement, as a few people have mentioned the BMW repair is to redo the floor in exactly the same way, as it was from new. That leads me to think that 10/11yrs down the line, its likely it will happen again, and its not something id like to experience again, or be happy with selling on to someone else to deal with. BMW dont seem to correct the problem, they just replicate the area to how it was before it broke.
So anyway not to drag on!... I was quick to get on with ringing around a few garages who I thought were confident/competent in carrying out the works to rectify the damage, and in turn strengthen the areas of weakness.
I got a couple of replies, some not very promising, even from garages that were recommended to me for this type of work.
I didnt want to take it somewhere that I didnt think could do the job.
Some of the replies I had were not very confidence inspiring!
Whilst awaiting quotes or replies back from the remainder of places I had emailed/phoned, I got talking to an associate of a relative, he mentioned that there is a guy who does chassis/body repairs (welding etc)
He used to race old Lotus Esprits, and build race cars + does classic car restorations etc.
I also know he has carried out some huge accident damage repairs to vehicles which have been written off and not repaired by insurers etc.
Ive seen the before and after results, and they are trully amazing.
The guy is known by a few of my friends and family, plus he is local, infact he is a few doors away from one of my mechanic friends.
I got on the phone to him, and he said just bring it down so I can see it, so off I went to him for inspection.
Left it with him for a while, and he phoned me back to say come in and have a look at it properly with everything removed.
He explained the extent of the damage was only the crack, and I was pretty lucky to have found it when I did (glad I knew about this problem, most help came from a few people on here, and also from reading threads on here and roadster forum!!!)
After a brief discussion about his intended plan of action and what exactly to do, he explained to me he would cut a part of the boot floor out, and weld in a custom made piece of steel tubing, to strengthen the area (welded underneath the cutout area, so will not be visually noticeable after repair is complete)
Then the cut out area would have a panel rewelded over the top (so that it looks normal once again) after all this has been done, it would be smoothed, resealed, soundproofed/painted to a good finish.
After visiting the garage a few days on from dropping it in, I got to see the car with the boot floor cut apart, and tubing being welded in. I took some pics so I have evidence of the works being done, and let the man crack on with the job in hand.
Upon getting home that evening, I sent an email to Randy Forbes who is in America (on the US forums, well known for boot floor reinforcements and repairs) Was hoping for some kind of approval.
Not knowing what type of reply I would get, he said the following:
I had sent him a few pictures of before, and mid-works being carried out (see below for all pics)
As you can see, it looks a bit messy during job being done, so they probably werent the best of pics to send, but im glad I used those ones now.
I was happy to receive a reply like that, as with me not being massively technically minded, it filled me with a bit of confidence knowing the job was being done in a more than satisfactory way.
Picked it up not long after (only took a couple of days in total) the overall job finished shot is below.
===============================================
All the pics are below.
They are clickable for viewing in larger size.
------------------------------------------------------------
These are of the crack found (it was a little longer under the soundproofing, but not by a great deal than can be seen in these pics)
------------------------------------------------------------
These are the pics I sent to Randy, I guess I could have sent a few others too but wanted an honest opinion, and thats what I got
------------------------------------------------------------
The original crack area close up after repair and paint (still wet)
An overall shot of the boot floor area after being repaired and painted
(paint was not fully hardened, and these areas are will be left open to air for a few days)
------------------------------------------------------------
So theres my boot floor story.
The damage caused by the weak areas that were on my car, arent as bad as some other examples that ive seen, so maybe not so interesting to read for some of you.
I figured there arent any/many individual threads up about this problem, so would be good to let others know that this is still something to look out for, and it does need help wherever possible to do so.
In my opinion, id recommend any MC owners to have some form of strengthening done before any issues arise (especially those that are driven hard/tracked/modified with stiffer suspensions, performance upgrades etc)
Once damage spreads, it can only get worse.
Its good to tackle it before it takes serious affect
So glad I caught mine in time!!!
Sorry if its a long thread, im hoping it makes people more aware of the issue, as I havent seen much posted about it recently.
With most cars approaching 10yrs+ now, those of you whos cars are under 10 better get checking straight away, and if you find any damage, get them into BMW ASAP with a massive disappointing/complaining/moaning letter/email or phone call if you are wanting any repairs done by them.
------------------------------------------------------------
All in all, im confident my car has been repaired to a good standard.
Any comments or input on this would be good (positive or negative)
Not long has it been, since I had a rear end knocking noise, which was checked out by my regular mechanic, and correctly diagnosed to be the top mounts.
These were replaced and made massive difference (mostly audible difference)
After this work was done, another creaking/squeaking noise became apparent.
Seems that since the knocking had been silenced, a different quieter (but more annoying) noise had been discovered, and was seriously doing my head in!
I never got the time to check it out properly myself, only until not long ago.
I had parked up the car since Gaydon, due to being quite busy with other things (other cars!)
So managed to get the car out of my friends garage, and home.
Then got to work stripping out the boot interior.
To my surprise, it was one of my worst expectations of findings.
I spotted a small tearing on the passengers side of the boot floor.
Sure you can imagine how pi**ed I was at this unexpected discovery
It was worse than what I was hoping, I thought there was just some loose crap under the boot interior and maybe it would have needed hoovering out or something. Ha! WRONG! Massively wrong!!!
Never imagined I could have had a busted boot floor problem, even after pm'ing and emailing a few members off here asking for help on what to look for (thanks to those peeps that helped, youll know who you are by how many pm's in your inbox are from me, lol)
I was still confident the boot floor wouldnt be affected, although there was something in the back of my mind telling me not to jump too quick at dropping that possibility.
The tear was tiny in comparison to some ive seen on here and the roadster forum.
Still, I was totally gutted to find it, no matter what the size of it was.
I made initial contact with BMW, who at first said they would sort it out, I was told to await reply for them get back to me with arrangements.
Then after a bit of waiting, they emailed a response which said "f**k off, your car is too old" in the nicest possible way.
(Mine is a 1999 T reg)
Great customer services, right?
Oh well, was worth a try, but obviously I was still not happy with the outcome.
My thoughts were of getting reinforcement work carried out, even if BMW did stick to doing their replacement, as a few people have mentioned the BMW repair is to redo the floor in exactly the same way, as it was from new. That leads me to think that 10/11yrs down the line, its likely it will happen again, and its not something id like to experience again, or be happy with selling on to someone else to deal with. BMW dont seem to correct the problem, they just replicate the area to how it was before it broke.
So anyway not to drag on!... I was quick to get on with ringing around a few garages who I thought were confident/competent in carrying out the works to rectify the damage, and in turn strengthen the areas of weakness.
I got a couple of replies, some not very promising, even from garages that were recommended to me for this type of work.
I didnt want to take it somewhere that I didnt think could do the job.
Some of the replies I had were not very confidence inspiring!
Whilst awaiting quotes or replies back from the remainder of places I had emailed/phoned, I got talking to an associate of a relative, he mentioned that there is a guy who does chassis/body repairs (welding etc)
He used to race old Lotus Esprits, and build race cars + does classic car restorations etc.
I also know he has carried out some huge accident damage repairs to vehicles which have been written off and not repaired by insurers etc.
Ive seen the before and after results, and they are trully amazing.
The guy is known by a few of my friends and family, plus he is local, infact he is a few doors away from one of my mechanic friends.
I got on the phone to him, and he said just bring it down so I can see it, so off I went to him for inspection.
Left it with him for a while, and he phoned me back to say come in and have a look at it properly with everything removed.
He explained the extent of the damage was only the crack, and I was pretty lucky to have found it when I did (glad I knew about this problem, most help came from a few people on here, and also from reading threads on here and roadster forum!!!)
After a brief discussion about his intended plan of action and what exactly to do, he explained to me he would cut a part of the boot floor out, and weld in a custom made piece of steel tubing, to strengthen the area (welded underneath the cutout area, so will not be visually noticeable after repair is complete)
Then the cut out area would have a panel rewelded over the top (so that it looks normal once again) after all this has been done, it would be smoothed, resealed, soundproofed/painted to a good finish.
After visiting the garage a few days on from dropping it in, I got to see the car with the boot floor cut apart, and tubing being welded in. I took some pics so I have evidence of the works being done, and let the man crack on with the job in hand.
Upon getting home that evening, I sent an email to Randy Forbes who is in America (on the US forums, well known for boot floor reinforcements and repairs) Was hoping for some kind of approval.
Not knowing what type of reply I would get, he said the following:
That's not completely unlike something I'd do, I'm just a little neater about it!
My process is to hide an I-beam inside the hollow crossmember to reinforce the trunkfloor, your guy is doing it with a steel tube. If he didn't strengthen the trunkfloor, the simple welding of the crack(s) and spotwelds would soon fail again, so it was more necessary than you thought.
As long as he follows through with the cosmetic work, you shouldn't have to worry about it again.
My process is to hide an I-beam inside the hollow crossmember to reinforce the trunkfloor, your guy is doing it with a steel tube. If he didn't strengthen the trunkfloor, the simple welding of the crack(s) and spotwelds would soon fail again, so it was more necessary than you thought.
As long as he follows through with the cosmetic work, you shouldn't have to worry about it again.
I had sent him a few pictures of before, and mid-works being carried out (see below for all pics)
As you can see, it looks a bit messy during job being done, so they probably werent the best of pics to send, but im glad I used those ones now.
I was happy to receive a reply like that, as with me not being massively technically minded, it filled me with a bit of confidence knowing the job was being done in a more than satisfactory way.
Picked it up not long after (only took a couple of days in total) the overall job finished shot is below.
===============================================
All the pics are below.
They are clickable for viewing in larger size.
------------------------------------------------------------
These are of the crack found (it was a little longer under the soundproofing, but not by a great deal than can be seen in these pics)
------------------------------------------------------------
These are the pics I sent to Randy, I guess I could have sent a few others too but wanted an honest opinion, and thats what I got
------------------------------------------------------------
The original crack area close up after repair and paint (still wet)
An overall shot of the boot floor area after being repaired and painted
(paint was not fully hardened, and these areas are will be left open to air for a few days)
------------------------------------------------------------
So theres my boot floor story.
The damage caused by the weak areas that were on my car, arent as bad as some other examples that ive seen, so maybe not so interesting to read for some of you.
I figured there arent any/many individual threads up about this problem, so would be good to let others know that this is still something to look out for, and it does need help wherever possible to do so.
In my opinion, id recommend any MC owners to have some form of strengthening done before any issues arise (especially those that are driven hard/tracked/modified with stiffer suspensions, performance upgrades etc)
Once damage spreads, it can only get worse.
Its good to tackle it before it takes serious affect
So glad I caught mine in time!!!
Sorry if its a long thread, im hoping it makes people more aware of the issue, as I havent seen much posted about it recently.
With most cars approaching 10yrs+ now, those of you whos cars are under 10 better get checking straight away, and if you find any damage, get them into BMW ASAP with a massive disappointing/complaining/moaning letter/email or phone call if you are wanting any repairs done by them.
------------------------------------------------------------
All in all, im confident my car has been repaired to a good standard.
Any comments or input on this would be good (positive or negative)
Comment