Awesome! Thanks for the advice, now I will ask the shop doing my first service (all fluids replaced, VANOS, etc.) to look and see if my '04 has the foam in the floor. If so I can spend that money I would have used on the plates elsewhere.
Originally Posted by
zhpnsnv
Welcome to the IR club!
Regarding the subframe reinforcement -- I just went over this with the place where my car is at the moment (eMpower in NJ). The owner is a former BMW service manager and BMW (and E46) enthusiast. He's seen it all.
He has my subframe out and did an inspection. No issues whatsoever. My car is an '05, and I've read that something changed sometime in the E46 run and that the later cars are better. My car has the foam in the floor that BMW recommended as a fix, and he says he's never seen one crack with that foam, and hasn't seen one crack on a later model car. SO long story short, I went without the plates. You may not need them. My car's got 172k miles on it -- if it was going to crack, it would have done so already.
But peace of mind is also a good thing. If you're reinforcing the floor, maybe think about all of the bushings that are easily replaced when the subframe is out.
2004 BMW 330i ZHP So far 100% Stock