E46 M3 Rear Subrame - Fixed or not

[schoonerm3]

Plates are redundant now as total fix. As time moved on things developed and were improved. Other areas were discovered that are now considered higher stress points. How one can say plates are enough when they don't have any role in what caused the cracks in the first place is beyond me. As I keep saying. The cracks that we try to fix with plates only occur because something much bigger is happening in the background. And that's what should be addressed first. Then add your plates to reinforce the previously weakened metal. Please read the link below.

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=555302

In saying all the above, if people are happy with just having plates then great but I think everyone should be informed of the bigger picture and that plates will not reverse or stop the damage of the other high stress points that keep getting ignored. And if they are still happy then at least they were informed when something goes wrong in the future and they come on here looking for advice. And that's what my posts intend to do.

It's like the Shannon river when its at full capacity. People can keep putting their sandbags down to try stop the water entering their homes. This slows the damage and moves the water to the next weakest link.
(Sandbags = steel plates)
Unless something is done upstream to relieve the river of its load them we will keep having problems in surrounding areas albeit we can slow them down with sandbags.

This something can be anything from strategic seam welds in well located areas to mimic what a brace would do.
It can be a brace alone such as the Vince brace or the mason brace, it can be a combo of both brace and weld. It can be a roll cage with a subframe pickup.!
Anything that will relieve the entire panel will work.