Up in the air and ready to go
This weekend I tackled a small but irritating issue with my E36 M3. For a while there had been a soft clunk whenever I went over a bump while turning right. Holiday time last year I replaced the sway bar end links, but this didn’t fully stop the noise.
I eventually zeroed in on the right rear spring pad as the culprit. From what I could see with the car up in the air, it was dried out, had no give to it and looked off center. Replacement pads were very inexpensive and the process pretty easy with the car up in the air.
Once the car is lifted, you need to remove the lower bolt attaching the rear shock to the trailing arm. Once that is done, you can pull down on the assembly to create enough space to simply take the spring off the car. It’s much easier if a second person can pull down while you remove spring, and it put back in with the pads replaced.
As you can see from the pictures, after 14 years the right rear spring pad was in bad shape. I’d suggest you consider replacing these inexpensive parts whenever replacing shocks or springs. That’s what I should have done last year, while replacing the shocks.
Rear shock disengaged
Spring removed from car
Area with spring removed
Passenger side spring pads old and new
Bottom of old spring pad — note how impact was way off center, and tearing pad
Good to know. I too have a rattle in the rear since replacing my springs. I’ll give this a try
I have a rattle that sometimes turns into a chirping bird sound. I’m going to try this. Thanks. -C