Our automotive experts choose every product we offer. We may make money from the links on this page.

Shock. Who needs them, right? Actually everyone. Everyone needs them. Pillars and shock absorbers help keep your car stable, not just bouncing wildly on bumps or corners.

At the time of writing, this TikTok video has been viewed more than 660,000 times and has been shared on Facebook. It shows exactly what it looked like when your BMW E46 3 Series station wagon suffered a catastrophic failure. This is not good. Very bad.

#originalton#BMW#e46#stoßdämpfer#despasstscho

In this short film, the shock absorber still appears to be attached to its bottom mounting point, but not on the top of the actual car body. The rod of the shock absorber is not fixed at all, and it is free from the home in its mounting seat. It should be locked in the body of the car, just above the right rear wheel. But, of course, this is not the case. The rod of the shock absorber just vibrates, moving up and down the road like the third row of passengers, with some hardware attached.

Such failures are often caused by metal deterioration, rust, or other factors in the body structure. BMW owners in the 1990s and 2000s were no strangers to this kind of thing. From this video, it is not clear whether the metal has failed or whether the shock mount itself is broken.

Although you can drive like this, don't. Your car will be more difficult to control, and you may end up destroying other things in the process.