Subframe mount damage visible?

[Phil in Vancouver]

Recently my indy had the car up on a hoist for some work and said that my subframe mounts were shot. I read somewhere here or on Bruno's site that you could only tell if the mounts were torn if you took them out or took off a cover(?). My mechanic said he was just looking under there and noticed that they were torn. Is he putting me on? Can you tell if they're worn simply by a visual inspection under the car?
Thanks, guys!
Phil 94 530i man. 180000 km.

[Jason]

when he showed my how much play they had, he stuck a screwdriver in there to demonstrate...

Recently my indy had the car up on a hoist for some work and said that my subframe mounts were shot. I read somewhere here or on Bruno's site that you could only tell if the mounts were torn if you took them out or took off a cover(?). My mechanic said he was just looking under there and noticed that they were torn. Is he putting me on? Can you tell if they're worn simply by a visual inspection under the car?
Thanks, guys!
Phil 94 530i man. 180000 km.

[MicahO]

There will always be a certain amount of play in the subframe bushings. If you are flexing them with a screwdriver and see that there are cracks or tears in the rubber that open up under pressure - that's a problem. The rubber can also tear off the metal and create a problem that is visible - metal showing through in a ring around the bottom.

There is a good amount of pressure on those suckers. If they are bad, they go from bad to worse pretty quickly and you will get some serious bonking around over certain types of bumps and on take-off. Not a nice sound.......

[George M]

Jason, define what your mechanic did in a bit more detail with the screwdriver to demonstrate that your sub-frame bushings were bad. There is a bottom plate obscuring the beer can bushings themselves. Did he remove this bottom plate? How did he wedge a screwdriver in there to shift the sub frame?
Let us know.
George

[GinoF]

I had my sub frame bushing changed about 3 weeks ago. If you looked at the bolt that holds them in place, it was not in the center of the hole. I could push in the blade of a large flat screwdriver between the bottom plate and the cylindrical part of the sub frame, there was about 1/2” of play. Other symptoms that I noticed were that the car did not corner as flat as it did, a noise when I went over a driveway curb at slow speeds and it would steer itself from the rear.

[George M]

presume you mean the bolt was not centered relative to the subframe cylindrical section capturing the bushing. Which way did you pry the screwdriver?...vertically isn't much of a tell so am assuming you pryed radially away from the bolt centerline displacing the subframe sideways not up and down.
George

[GinoF]

Yes, horizontallyand yes.

[George M]

Thanks Gino.

[Jason]

This was about a year ago, when I had most of my suspension replaced, so please forgive the inaccuracy... but last night when I looked at the schematic in the bentley to make sure i was talking about the right things, i wasn't. I saw that the bushing he was showing me was the trailing arm bushing... i spoke to soon. sorry about that.

[Phil in Vancouver]

bushings run parallel. I was confused on that too until I checked the ETK closely.
Thanks for your input, guys.
Phil