cmyachtie

Am getting really disillusioned with BMW and their reducing quality. Got this lightly driven E60 545i with only 81Kkms and she is barely winter driven as well in like new shape and she is listing 2 inches to the right in the rear, crawled under it and the bottom 1/4 of the right rear coil spring is gone. No rust just a nice clean fresh metal looking break.... now the cruncher comes when I called the dealer to have it fixed and they told me it will take at least ten business days before they will have the part as it must come from Munich.
Now I start asking myself do I really want to keep driving BMW's??
Getting really pissed with this BS.

turboawd

i've never heard of coils breaking. and the fact that it has happened twice to you, i'd be looking at why.

audiophool

I had a Dinan performance spring break on my E34 M5. Never had trouble with any OE however.

cmyachtie

The first time was with my E39 and believe that occurred with the PO before I purchased the car and was not noticed till later by me.
Did some research on line and not much data comes up for the 5 series but a lot of coils on the 3 series also seem to braking apart.
What really. Ticks off is that I will be unable to drive this car for about two weeks....
I am over 60 and must have driven a million Kms with over a dozen cars over the years and none have had broken springs except now two of the 4 BMW' s I have owned.

turboawd

cant you find a used coil?

cmyachtie

No and I already paid for the new one the dealer is ordering they wanted $ up front am thinking about deserting BMW seriously, will be without this drive for over two weeks because of this, really sucks IMHO.

Just two weeks ago had to replace a tie rod end after only 80Kms and did wheel alignment which now needs to be done again due to spring replacement......it just gets better.....NOT.
And after reading the Consumers Report mag. on cars reliability a few months ago discovered I am not the only one looking for reliability in BMW cars.

turboawd

well if reliabilty is your primary need in a car, then bmw is not for you. buy a toyota or lexus.

audiophool

Ah, the myth of the reliable Japanese car. An ex co-worker of mine swears by Toyotas. His Venza/Sienna/Camry spent so much time at the dealership it wasn't funny.

tonyb635

I'm, not so sure that a broken spring is common, or at least I've never experienced one in all of the BMW's that I have had nor any of my friends. I agree with Turboawd there must be a reason. As for your dealer taking two weeks, this sounds a bit long, but you might be quite far from the NA parts facility and then if they have to get this from Europe. As you know, this car is no longer produced and dealers and warehouse try to determine which parts to keep available that are common. I've also seen it where the dealers are no always honest and tell you that the parts have to be special ordered because that seems to sit better with the customer than telling them they have to get in line for the next open repair slot. My guess is the coil brakeage is not that common. If you purchased the car new, then yes, I would be upset as well. But buying a car second hand comes with a lot risks. I was seriously alarmed once when a car salesman told be that the car I was looking at had never been driven in the rain and was always driven by a female. I immediately became suspicious and needless to say I didn't buy the car. I just figured it was a BS sales tactic. With that said, do you REALLY know that this car was lightly driven? I've seen some cars detailed so well they look better than new. To me a super clean car underneath and in places that peoplke don't normally care for would be a big red flag. When you said your car was listing in the rear, was it this way when you purchased it or did happen afterwards?

dh1

I've owned many makes/models of cars. Toyota, Honda, Ford, Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Chevrolet, Saab, BMW. Hell, I even had an MG

I've only ever had two cars with broken springs. One on a Ford, and two on a Honda.

The fact that the dealer has to order the part from Munich, should tell you that it's a rare part to replace. The Honda dealer had 2 in stock for my wife's Accord.