E36 drive train problems

Trev24

Member
Good day guys ,

I have an e36 325i and am constantly seem to be having a problem with the drivetrain.

It first started with the diff bolt snapping on the front face of the diff , however I've read up that this is a common fault with e36s if they're driven hard. So I've replaced that with the original bolt from bmw and changed the diff bushes to Poly bushes and also had the rubber damper at the front of the prop replaced since it was quite worn and 2 months later after driving the car hard once , the bolt seemed to snap again.

So it has been replaced now for a 2nd time but now with a high tensile bolt that came of an X5 but the car still wasn't going smooth so after going under again , it was seen that the new rubber damper , bmw original part, was almost completely shredded so I've had the prop replaced with the rubber damper being replaced with a metal flange. The car has run smoother than ever but now recently I've noticed that when I release the clutch , I can sort of feel the power being transferred and there's a shudder from the back half of the car as well as a sort of metal clicking noise (the last time it made this clicking noise , the diff bolt snapped and was barely holding the diff in place ), however I've went under and the bolt is fine and the diff is in place . Everything seems to be solid. After time the car picked up a serious shudder when accelerating between 2-3k rpm and it's only in that interval , when sometimes I'm on 1st gear and if I foot the car on a normal take off with no wheel spin .. It feels like the back end is trying to jump the lane because that's how bad the shudder is on the lower gears with hard acceleration.

Could it be the prop that's the problem?
My exhaust has a slight play . It's slightly loose but I don't think it's enough to cause this , and if it was the exhaust . I'm sure it would be there through the Rev range of the car .

Can somebody please help me with this ?
Any advice will be appreciated
 
Trev24 said:
Good day guys ,

I have an e36 325i and am constantly seem to be having a problem with the drivetrain.

It first started with the diff bolt snapping on the front face of the diff , however I've read up that this is a common fault with e36s if they're driven hard. So I've replaced that with the original bolt from bmw and changed the diff bushes to Poly bushes and also had the rubber damper at the front of the prop replaced since it was quite worn and 2 months later after driving the car hard once , the bolt seemed to snap again.

So it has been replaced now for a 2nd time but now with a high tensile bolt that came of an X5 but the car still wasn't going smooth so after going under again , it was seen that the new rubber damper , bmw original part, was almost completely shredded so I've had the prop replaced with the rubber damper being replaced with a metal flange. The car has run smoother than ever but now recently I've noticed that when I release the clutch , I can sort of feel the power being transferred and there's a shudder from the back half of the car as well as a sort of metal clicking noise (the last time it made this clicking noise , the diff bolt snapped and was barely holding the diff in place ), however I've went under and the bolt is fine and the diff is in place . Everything seems to be solid. After time the car picked up a serious shudder when accelerating between 2-3k rpm and it's only in that interval , when sometimes I'm on 1st gear and if I foot the car on a normal take off with no wheel spin .. It feels like the back end is trying to jump the lane because that's how bad the shudder is on the lower gears with hard acceleration.

Could it be the prop that's the problem?
My exhaust has a slight play . It's slightly loose but I don't think it's enough to cause this , and if it was the exhaust . I'm sure it would be there through the Rev range of the car .

Can somebody please help me with this ?
Any advice will be appreciated

Sound like the propshaft is not balanced, when doing the swaps did you mark the propshaft? I read somewhere that the propshaft must be marked before being removed.
 

Major

Active member
That sounds like a subframe mounting failure to me, putting stress on the diff bolt. You check the 4 mounting points and surrounding bodywork? It's not uncommon on E36's. You're removing all of the weak-points, replacing them with poly and metal, and now whatever caused it in the first place is starting to fail.
 

gazza

///Member
hey, i just had my prop balance and a new center bearing.
got the center bearing from GW decent pricing and available.
full race engineering balanced my prop, like day and night.
no more bounce or rough vibrations during take off or when there is torque.
think the whole thing cost me like 300 bucks to balance.
well worth it in my humble opinion.

on mountings, iv replaced engine and transmission mountings due to a knock noise i used to get when pulling off and coming to a stop. these were also very easy to change.
 

Trev24

Member
Major said:
That sounds like a subframe mounting failure to me, putting stress on the diff bolt. You check the 4 mounting points and surrounding bodywork? It's not uncommon on E36's. You're removing all of the weak-points, replacing them with poly and metal, and now whatever caused it in the first place is starting to fail.

Could you please tell me which 4 mounting points to check exactly ?
 

Major

Active member
Trev24 said:
Major said:
That sounds like a subframe mounting failure to me, putting stress on the diff bolt. You check the 4 mounting points and surrounding bodywork? It's not uncommon on E36's. You're removing all of the weak-points, replacing them with poly and metal, and now whatever caused it in the first place is starting to fail.

Could you please tell me which 4 mounting points to check exactly ?

If you get under the car they're fairly obvious, these four:

http://solberg.umd.edu/BMW/forsale/rear-subframe2.jpg

And these are the 4 points on the body to check:

https://1c2a8a2161d644d95009-22d26b.../image/suspension/susp_e36_rsubframe_4_lg.jpg
 

wikked

Banned
gazza said:
hey, i just had my prop balance and a new center bearing.
got the center bearing from GW decent pricing and available.
full race engineering balanced my prop, like day and night.
no more bounce or rough vibrations during take off or when there is torque.
think the whole thing cost me like 300 bucks to balance.
well worth it in my humble opinion.

on mountings, iv replaced engine and transmission mountings due to a knock noise i used to get when pulling off and coming to a stop. these were also very easy to change.

How much did you pay for the center bearing and which GW did you use? Drop me a pm please. Thanks
 
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