Damn tow truck company ripped out my rear control arm! GRrr!

[phillyB///M3]

So i'm driving near my house early december and I hear a "pop", I suddenly start feeling my car not accelerate as good so I pull over. I notice smoke coming out from the front of my car. I pop the hood and notice my top radiator hose hanging off the side. I proceed to call AAA and they send a tow truck guy from this one tow truck company called Keystone. The guy begins to lift my car up the flat bed and his cable breaks!! my car starts to roll backwards off the ramp and starts rolling down the street luckily it comes to a stop on its own. I take a look at the damage and my front grill mesh is broken in pieces along with my auxillary fan blades. The guy begins to tell me how this has never happend and that the company insurance will cover it. Another tow truck shows up and they mount my car and take it to my house. I have them put my car in the garage where its been sitting for about 3 weeks, the tow truck company comes and takes a look at it and tell me their going to replace the grill and the fan and I was fine with that (I still havent gone to get the parts replaced since i've been busy) about a week ago when I finally got around to redoing my whole cooling system I take my car out for a drive and notice a loud clacking sound here and there on my rear passenger side, so I decide not to drive it till I get some time to investigate... today while doing some maintanance I take off my rear wheel and this is what I find......




A pic of my car being dropped off that day....


Anyone know if this is going to be an easy weld job? anyone ever done this? what am I looking at as far as costs just incase the tow company wont pay for this? I'm going to talk with them tomorrow and see what they say.

[Stück]

Ouch... I'd let them buy the whole car for damage like that. Unrepairable to me.

I don't see any tool marks where they might have tied the car down or pulled on it by the trailing arm, are there any? Without such marks you are likely not going to be able to prove much.

[phillyB///M3]

I didnt notice any marks but I know they use chains and straps... I forshure know it happend that day because my car did not make that sound before I had it towed and I had been driving it all day.

[Stück]

You don't need to convince me, its them I'd be worried about. Seriously though.. have a look for tool marks.

[EricP]

Ouch... I'd let them buy the whole car for damage like that. Unrepairable to me.

I don't see any tool marks where they might have tied the car down or pulled on it by the trailing arm, are there any? Without such marks you are likely not going to be able to prove much.

Dude, a scratch is unrepairable to you.

BTW, rear control arms are designed to bend.. that would've been preferrable to this. They've torn your rear trailing arm out of the chassis.. It will take some hardcore and professional metalwork to get that mounted back up... but "buy the whole car"... good luck. You will have your work cut out for you to get them to pay for that, I really wonder how the hell that happened.

[SG_M3]

you can weld it back in. Contact Edge Motorwerks.

[phillyB///M3]

Maybe I should contact AAA and file a claim with them.

Isnt edge motorwerks in northern california? thats a little far for me.

[Daved]

E36s are untowable to me Not because it can't be done but because it's hard to find someone that will do it right.

[SG_M3]

Maybe I should contact AAA and file a claim with them.

Isnt edge motorwerks in northern california? thats a little far for me.

try evosport then.

[epj3]

Wow that REALLY sucks. Good luck! This convinced me that I'm NOT crazy that I rented a full trailer to tow my e34 home when it broke down!

[berlinetta]

That is pretty bad, good luck with that. Hope they atleast pay for the repair

[mmark.]

If you don't find witness marks left by the hooks or the straps on the trailing arm, then I'm confident that the tow company did not cause the damage to the trailing arm. It coincidentally has fatigued the unibody at the time of your other misfortunes.

you need to look closer at the seam where the separation occured. Look for corrosion and abrasion of the two separated seams.. it does not look like an abrupt tear from what I can see.

It looks like The arm has been progressively working the sheet metal to fatigue ( like the breaking paper clip example).

On the subject of front end damage.
You need to find someone intimately familiar with the front crash structure of the car to look at the fascia as I'll wager there is more damage at the front than what you have noticed....The tow company insurance foots this bill so if you can make 'em pay, pay for using dangerous poorly maintained equipment, then they will be more careful with other jobs, and will avoid e36 maybe even BMWs to avoid the pain of incompetence.

Shame they were not more able.

m

[SG_M3]

this usually happens to cars with really bad rtabs or spherical rtabs. The threaded pockets aren't seam welded in, rather just spot weld. Most track cars have each pocket fully welded to the unibody.

Its not a huge deal, i've seen it before and seen it repaired.

[Def]

Definitely looks like he tied it down to the RTA. In fact, it looks like the chain went across the M to me.

I had my car towed when the water pump exploded and the guy had a hard-on for trying to tie the car down on both the rear control arms and RTA. He kept giving me the "I know what I'm doing" line, even though I told him about 5 times not to tie down to the suspension arms. I told him how much a new RTA/upright costs from BMW and he finally listened to me and tied the car down with the chassis holes which I had already exposed by taking out my jack pads.

When getting your car towed, supervise where they tie the car down. The easiest place is the suspension arms, but obviously this causes some "problems."

[Razziel24]

E36s are untowable to me Not because it can't be done but because it's hard to find someone that will do it right.

Ive never been towed before, but isnt the "towing tool" on the trunk toolbox ment for that ? shouldnt the e36 be towed or pulled on the flatbed using that thing ?

[Def]

It should be, but the problem after that is they tie it down using expensive suspension arms.

[Rob Levinson]

The tow truck driver should have his license revoked. Present the complete repair bill to the towing company, it is their job to know how to properly tow any vehicle they accept for towing.

BMWs are not intended to be towed by the control arms, front or rear.

This is why every BMW made since the late '70s has a tow hook in the tool tray and an easily accessible port on the bumper.

This is the only correct way to tow a BMW without damaging suspension components.

Tow hook in tool tray:


Access cover on bumper (same front or rear):


Remove access cover with flat-blade screwdriver:


Threaded receptacle:


Tow hook installed:

[Razziel24]

well said

[Casebrius]

Contact board member "Cajunairman", I believe he did a repair like this to his M3.

[Kurt H.]

Do flatbed operators have the right hooks to tie it down to the chassis holes where the jack pads go? If not, what are the other options? I have seen high-end cars tied down using straps through the wheels, but that didn't seem very secure--is it?

Kurt H.

[bimmer213]

Aside from having it towed by the tow hooks provided, I see that in your pics the car was put on the flat bed by the rear, you shouldn't do that, have it pulled by the front end. Much safer to prevent damage to the front limp or bumper

[Rob Levinson]

Do flatbed operators have the right hooks to tie it down to the chassis holes where the jack pads go?

1) That's for tie-down, not for towing onto the flatbed.

2) Probably don't have the special T-hooks anyway.

3) Do you want them removing (and maybe losing) your jack pads?

The damage shown for this car was probably a result of the towing up the flatbed, not the strapping down.

If not, what are the other options? I have seen high-end cars tied down using straps through the wheels, but that didn't seem very secure--is it?

Straps throught the wheels is very secure.

- Rob

[bennyfizzle]

It's been done to my car, Pass. Side as well...

[4ZPN]

Straps throught the wheels is very secure.

- Rob

I've seen tow truck drivers use chains instead of straps through the wheels. Bye bye finish.

[dcroghan]

ouch, why didn't you screw in the tow hook to the back of your car?