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Taymar posted:Within reason, some people regard mileage as a secondary concern to service records. Most BMW's can still be running great at high mileage if properly maintained.
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Jun 20, 2008 23:17
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Taymar posted:Within reason, some people regard mileage as a secondary concern to service records. Most BMW's can still be running great at high mileage if properly maintained. My '86 e28 has over 240k miles on it, and the engine is barely broken in. Good compression on all cylinders, synchros in the tranny shift nice and smooth, body is in decent shape, and all wear items have been taken care of. Of course, its easy for me to say this since I work at a dealer. My favorite BMWs are 3.0CS's and 2002s, but I gotta say that a well maintained 80's era BMW (e30, e24, e28, e23/32) is virtually indestructable.
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Jun 21, 2008 02:03
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Well, I'm making it official, I'm going to find an E36 and join your exclusive ranks of BMW ownership! On to my search! I'm in phoenix, az if you want to help 
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Jun 21, 2008 03:29
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Lufiron posted:My '86 e28 has over 240k miles on it, and the engine is barely broken in. Good compression on all cylinders, synchros in the tranny shift nice and smooth, body is in decent shape, and all wear items have been taken care of. Of course, its easy for me to say this since I work at a dealer. Which is kind of frightening because it feels like my 86 535i always needs something, and has some interesting issues, but its a first car and in all honesty I did not do enough research. So now I'm stuck with it, oh well just more stuff for me to learn I guess. Overall though when it runs well I really love it, it can go fast (for a 20 year old luxury car) and still is pretty drat comfortable, more so than my Dad's old beater subie at least.
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Jun 21, 2008 09:28
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Well, three weeks ago I found it. IT is a 1997 M3 Sedan, in Arctic Silver. The body on the car is immaculate, and it drives like a dream. It was also completely unmolested, not a mod on the car besides clear corners and smoked tail lights. And the best part was the milage and price combo. 78,500 miles on the car, and I got it at a price of 10,500. The only bad part is that it is an auto, BUT there is some saving grace to that, later this summer, I'll be having a major (very major) knee surgery that will require close to a year of rehab, and I wouldn't be able to drive the car for a good chunk of that time. Each day, I'm truly excited to drive anywhere, and I've never even had close to that feeling, despite being an enthusiast.
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Jun 21, 2008 10:45
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exempt posted:Well, three weeks ago I found it. IT is a 1997 M3 Sedan, in Arctic Silver. The body on the car is immaculate, and it drives like a dream. It was also completely unmolested, not a mod on the car besides clear corners and smoked tail lights. And the best part was the milage and price combo. 78,500 miles on the car, and I got it at a price of 10,500. Wait, what? Auto M3?? Ninjaedit: SMG maybe.
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Jun 21, 2008 11:31
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evobatman posted:Wait, what? Auto M3?? E36 had a (fairly poor) automatic from 1996-1998.
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Jun 21, 2008 13:23
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Washed, claybarred, and waxed the E36 last night. Looks almost brand new!   I'm not done, I bought some Forever Black to darken the black trim, and I bought a touch-up paint pen to fix the bad areas. Though its really depressing washing an older car, there are so many bad areas its depressing... CornHolio fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jun 22, 2008 |
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Jun 22, 2008 16:46
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CornHolio posted:Though its really depressing washing an older car, there are so many bad areas its depressing... Yeah, mine looks good from 20 feet away, but when you're right up next to it you get to see about 10 imperfections on every panel.
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Jun 22, 2008 17:00
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Is it worth spending the extra money to get a '96 328 instead of a cheaper 325 for the extra torque?
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Jun 22, 2008 17:02
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ethanol posted:Is it worth spending the extra money to get a '96 328 instead of a cheaper 325 for the extra torque? How much extra? The later OBDII cars also gained some weight so it's only slightly faster. As a general rule the interiors of the later cars are also better put together and haven't had a chance to age as badly as the older cars. I'd personally buy the car that has the better maintenance records/best condition regardless of the engine.
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Jun 22, 2008 17:23
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:How much extra? The later OBDII cars also gained some weight so it's only slightly faster. As a general rule the interiors of the later cars are also better put together and haven't had a chance to age as badly as the older cars. I'd personally buy the car that has the better maintenance records/best condition regardless of the engine. It should also be noted that 325's also have the rotary climate controls (something I prefer), and since theyre OBDI theyre easier to modify without getting a million check engine lights.
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Jun 22, 2008 17:25
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shameless plug: my twin turbo project is back on the road!! full story here: http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38917&page=14 some choice pics: .jpg) .jpg) .jpg)  edit: having trouble fixing the pic links, sorry. they should work! well they are in the linked thread. Wiglaf fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jun 23, 2008 |
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Jun 23, 2008 00:13
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I'm shopping for either an NA Miata or E36 BMW. Budget is around $4500, so I have some breathing room for maintenance. This is proving much more difficult than I expected though. I can't even find a decent barebones 318i for that price. Is this just my area (Philly), or are my expectations too high? I don't really mind mileage, but every car I've looked at is high mileage AND beaten to hell. So yeah, I thought I'd poke my head in here and see if anyone was getting ready to sell one near my area.
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Jun 23, 2008 00:34
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ethanol posted:Is it worth spending the extra money to get a '96 328 instead of a cheaper 325 for the extra torque? I had to make the same decision two years ago. I ended up with an older, cheaper, and lower mileage 325i with better service records. I did miss the torque for awhile, but it wasn't worth an extra $2,000 for a similarly aged 328i. I year later I chipped it and that spread out the power a bit more and it made a HUGE difference in day to day driving for a couple hundred bucks. The chip adds a little more peak HP/TQ too, but the amount of extra torque gained under 3k rpm was so delicious.
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Jun 23, 2008 02:18
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ynotony posted:I had to make the same decision two years ago. I ended up with an older, cheaper, and lower mileage 325i with better service records. I did miss the torque for awhile, but it wasn't worth an extra $2,000 for a similarly aged 328i. I year later I chipped it and that spread out the power a bit more and it made a HUGE difference in day to day driving for a couple hundred bucks. Can you tell me more about how to get this chip? Are there any "side-effects"?
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Jun 23, 2008 05:17
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ethanol posted:Seems like it's going to be a hard job finding a reasonably priced e36 with all its service records. Might take a few months... which I have. Took me 6 months to find mine... patience yields results. Lufiron posted:My '86 e28 has over 240k miles on it, and the engine is barely broken in. I remember once reading a thread on Bf.C of a guy building the M20 out of his E30, and at 230k miles, the cylinder walls still had the original cross-hatching... loving impressive. If you replace the regular "wear items" that are beaten to death in this thread, BMWs are ridiculously tough. ethanol posted:Can you tell me more about how to get this chip? Are there any "side-effects"? Active Auto, Turner and several other companies can flash chips for OBD-I cars based on whatever mods you have (cams, breathing mods, injectors, etc) that can bring awesome results. OBD-II guys are stuck with either the Shark Injector (Jim Conforti based flasher -- reviews are mixed) or custom flashing of the ECU itself (AA also does this, as well as some specialty guys -- Nick G in Florida comes highly recommended). Lots of info on this floating about BMW forums... my buddy Chuck was able to get 234rwhp out of his 2.8 with M3 cams, basic breathing mods and an AA chip, with no change in mileage or "driveability" (pending his right foot's behavior). snugglz fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jun 23, 2008 |
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Jun 23, 2008 18:30
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BuckWild20 posted:So I was having a problem with my E46 and was wondering if this was the right thread to post in: Stuck relay would be my guess.
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Jun 23, 2008 20:01
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ethanol posted:Is it worth spending the extra money to get a '96 328 instead of a cheaper 325 for the extra torque? Another nice thing about the OBDI E36s is the ECU uses a normal EPROM. If you want to "chip" it, grab a $50 Willem chip programmer, and start playing with a hex editor and Tunerpro. http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=925082 I used to play with OBDI Honda ECUs quite a bit and never realized how lucky I was to have such a large DIY community. It looks like much of the information on OBDI BMW ECUs has only recently surfaced. Edit: There are ways of doing the OBD2 BMWs yourself, but from my understanding it involves pirating some BMW software and then building or buying yourself a copy of their interface cable. Swap_File fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jun 23, 2008 |
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Jun 23, 2008 23:00
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I just put one of those knock off eBay chips into my '92 325is. I bought it for around $45 shipped and man what a difference it has made. Throttle response is almost instantanious now. The lack of torque (it is a non vanos after all) is greately reduced, and the flat spot around 3k RPMs is now nonexistant. The biggest difference is the pull from 4k RPM until redline. Overall I couldn't be happier with the purchase. The seller I got it from was eurosport64 on eBay, who has recieved nothing but praise from the people at BimmerForums and has a 100% eBay rating. He has other chips for E30s, OBDI E36s, E34s with the big sixes and maybe a few more I'm forgetting. Edit: Swap_File posted:Edit: There are ways of doing the OBD2 BMWs yourself, but from my understanding it involves pirating some BMW software and then building or buying yourself a copy of their interface cable. The Shark Injector requires none of that.
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Jun 23, 2008 23:21
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:The Shark Injector requires none of that. I was talking about altering fuel maps and timing adjustments yourself. I thought the Shark Injector just used pre-made settings? Edit: I didn't notice this before, but I guess it looks like a new product called Shark Edit will allow people to edit their stuff. http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=997048 Looks like its been delayed a few times, and some people are thinking that its vaporware. Oh well, I hope it comes out, it would make things a lot simpler. Swap_File fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jun 23, 2008 |
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Jun 23, 2008 23:33
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Taymar posted:Has anyone had experience with replacing the vanos piston seals in a dual-vanos setup? I did the seal replacement about six months ago and it was money and time well spent. I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't seen any symptoms of VANOS seal wear. For me, the engine was surging at idle in cold weather, and even stalled a couple of times. I also noticed a loss in low-end torque. My engine had about 100k miles at the time, and the problem had started about 10k before. Some notice the problems before, and some never see them. The instructions on the site are pretty good, but I have to warn against cracking the relatively delicate valve cover trying to break the RTF seal (I did), and the bolts that hold the pistons to the cams are a $*$#*% to get off. While you're in there, you may as well replace the valve cover gasket and spark plug gaskets since they have probably plasticized after 70k or so. The seal replacement itself is actually a little easier than the instructions indicated. It takes a little while for the seals to set. Immediately after the replacement, the surging at idle reduced, and the low end torque returned. There was some surging at idle and occasional low-end hesitation until the seals set after about 500 miles. The engine feels like new now (99 328i sedan)
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Jun 24, 2008 02:21
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My e46 2000 328Ci started having this problem where my speedometer would stop working. If you stopped, turned the car off, and turned it back on, the speedometer would work again. A few weeks later the ABS light would come on when I turned on the car and stay on for about 30 seconds or so. I kind of ignored it because I wasn't 100% familiar with the car yet. This lasted about a day until I was reversing out of my driveway and the car just locked all four brakes. I was able to overcome the brakes and force it back on to my driveway. I turned the car off but heard a buzzing noise coming from the rear passanger side of the engine bay (where the abs computer and lines are). I disconnected the ABS computer wiring harness and all brakes released. I plugged it back in, and they all locked up again. I am able to drive the car with the ABS computer disconnected, although the check engine, ABS, DSC, and "brake" light are all lit, and speedometer and odometer don't work. My initial guess is maybe a wheel speed sensor, but I would assume if one failed, it would err on the side of NOT locking up all four wheels in traffic!. Either way, the Swell posted:I did the seal replacement. You know, I never thought to ask the question but aside from slightly reduced performance, surging and the audible ticking, are there any serious downsides to allowing the VANOS seal to be in that condition indefinitely? Not that my VANOS seal is bad yet, but I guess it's only a matter of time.
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Jun 24, 2008 16:46
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Just putting this out there -- I had an autocross with BMWCCA Boston, and was on the same course as class C, which is a ton of E36 M3s and the like. During staging, there was VANOS clicking all over the place; it sounded like I was in a sweatshop with all the sewing machines going. It was pretty cool to not be bugged out by the sonud from following this thread.
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Jun 24, 2008 18:53
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Swell posted:vanos seals stuff Thanks for the info. The only symptom I have is possible loss of low-end torque. I can't even say this for certain as I have nothing to compare it to - it just seems like it could have a bit more below 3k. Sounds like it's probably not worth doing it just yet then (42k miles).
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Jun 24, 2008 20:40
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Nice to see other e28 owners  I have a bunch of goodies to install for my '87 535i. Euro headlights + grills, e32 front brakes and e34 540i rears, e34 basketweaves, a Hartge spoiler, and a good amount of poly bushings. Hopefully I can find an iS airdamn too.
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Jun 24, 2008 21:17
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Mr. Toast posted:Nice to see other e28 owners I want to see pictures of that beast. That sounds awesome.
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Jun 24, 2008 21:29
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Mr. Toast posted:Nice to see other e28 owners I have a brand new, OE E32 750 brake master cylinder I would sell you for your big brake upgrade! I never got around to installing it on my E28, but helped Merkin get his in his E24 with stock brakes, which he absolutely loves.
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Jun 24, 2008 21:54
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For the record, 'touch up paint pens' are a load of loving poo poo. I just wanted to touch up some rock chips, and instead I got paint all over my fingers, on my headlight (anybody know how to get that out?) and all over the driveway. I managed to fill in about five rock chips before the pen gave out. I think it was defective, the paint was gushing forth from behind the tip and just dripping everywhere...
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Jun 25, 2008 00:30
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thealphabetsez posted:I have a brand new, OE E32 750 brake master cylinder I would sell you for your big brake upgrade! I never got around to installing it on my E28, but helped Merkin get his in his E24 with stock brakes, which he absolutely loves. How much are you looking for? I need a replacement MC for my E30/M52 swap.
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Jun 25, 2008 02:56
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Pimpsolo posted:You know, I never thought to ask the question but aside from slightly reduced performance, surging and the audible ticking, are there any serious downsides to allowing the VANOS seal to be in that condition indefinitely? Not that my VANOS seal is bad yet, but I guess it's only a matter of time. From what I understand, the downsides can vary. The seals wearing down allow the pistons to move much more freely than they should (which becomes obvious when I had the VANOS unit out, and they just slid around from gravity), which in addition to reduced performance, can also lead to the engine running rich which can degrade fuel mileage, and over a long period of time damage exhaust sensors or even the cat. This doesn't happen immediately, so it's usually one of those "when I get to it" things.
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Jun 25, 2008 04:59
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ethanol posted:Can you tell me more about how to get this chip? Are there any "side-effects"? Pimpsolo posted:My e46 2000 328Ci started having this problem where my speedometer would stop working. If you stopped, turned the car off, and turned it back on, the speedometer would work again. --
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Jun 25, 2008 05:49
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SiGmA_X posted:To me it sounds like your ABS module ate the bucket. If you were in Portland OR, I'd help you figure it out... Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that mean I would HAVE to buy the replacement module from the dealership because don't they need to be programed for the specific car they're in (vin, mileage etc)?
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Jun 25, 2008 06:25
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Pimpsolo posted:Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that mean I would HAVE to buy the replacement module from the dealership because don't they need to be programed for the specific car they're in (vin, mileage etc)? --
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Jun 25, 2008 06:55
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thealphabetsez posted:I have a brand new, OE E32 750 brake master cylinder I would sell you for your big brake upgrade! I never got around to installing it on my E28, but helped Merkin get his in his E24 with stock brakes, which he absolutely loves. From what I understand, the oem 535i cylinder will work fine, reason being the e28 M5 shares the same cylinder and it works it's big brakes fine, and though I'm using e32 fronts the e28 is much lighter. From what I've read the 750 one can be detrimental to pedal feel.
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Jun 25, 2008 09:10
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Hey guys, apologies if this isn't the right thread, but I figured that a BMW megathread would be the place to ask about a certain BMW. I'm thinking about saving up for a Z3 Roadster. Is there anything I should know about? Are they potential lemons? Does everything fall apart after a certain point? What sort of maintenence am I looking at on one and how much would it cost? Apologies for the dumbass questions, but I dont know much about BMWs.
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Jun 25, 2008 14:05
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multiprotocol posted:How much are you looking for? I need a replacement MC for my E30/M52 swap. I PM'd you a price. Mr. Toast posted:From what I understand, the oem 535i cylinder will work fine, reason being the e28 M5 shares the same cylinder and it works it's big brakes fine, and though I'm using e32 fronts the e28 is much lighter. From what I've read the 750 one can be detrimental to pedal feel. There is nothing but speculation about the larger bore of the 750 MC decreasing pedal feel. Merkin is running stock brakes with his 750 MC and swears by it. I have driven his car on a regular basis and really enjoyed the responsiveness of the system when compared to my stock 535 system. Really though, it is personal preference. I bought the MC to install with my E34 M5 setup which I never got around to putting on.
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Jun 25, 2008 22:36
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So I spent about 9 hours detailing my E36 yesterday, and grabbed a few crappy cell phone pictures of it today while I was out mowing. Clayed, polished, and waxed, it's just too bad it has to sit outside all the time under oak trees. Still though, it looks pretty decent from 10 feet away for being 16 years old. It got me wondering, do I have the oldest E36 in AI? My build date is 3/92 so it's possible, but some Euro goon might have a 91. And the interior, note the  BMW sheepskin seat covers that have been on there since the car was new. And according to the UPS site my UUC Red Tranny Street mounts and Delrin carrier bushing should be here sometime today. The mounts have been back ordered for a month while every other part I need to rebuild the shifter sits in my garage. After tomorrow the only part that will not have been replaced is the shift linkage. I may go with a UUC DSSR if I still feel like the shifter is a bit sloppy. Does anyone have any experience with the DSSR? Did it make a difference? And I'm still in love with my $45 eBay chip. There's more torque below 3k, no flat spots, no hesitation, and I picked up 1 or 2 MPG. Kind of hard to gauge with how often I've been going WOT.
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Jun 27, 2008 17:37
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:And I'm still in love with my $45 eBay chip. There's more torque below 3k, no flat spots, no hesitation, and I picked up 1 or 2 MPG. Kind of hard to gauge with how often I've been going WOT.
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Jun 27, 2008 17:39
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Not sure if you guys have seen this, but it is loving awesome. Electric E46
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Jun 28, 2008 01:01
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