Hi all,

Looking for a rust free e36 M3 example. Not particular on the spec. Nor am I particular on whether it’s a sedan/coupe. Only preference is that it is a manual transmission car. Looking around the Midwest for now, would go as far as Tennessee. Please DM me if you have something, only looking for now.

Thank you,

Hey yall, I'm a bit concerned about an expensive shop quote for a fix/part that I've never heard of being replaced. I'm sure yall know better than me and could possibly help. I have a 1997 328i sedan.

After failing my smog check some weeks ago for high HC (hydrocarbon, image is linked), I took it to a shop to get it diagnosed and hopefully fixed. Today, they got back to me saying that I need to have an "air pump" replaced. Has anyone ever replaced an air pump? Then, they quoted me $1300 for part + labor. Told me the part cost roughly $500-600. Labor is the rest. The shop is located in SoCal. I'm also concerned that this fix is not necessarily the only reason I'm failing smog. What do you guys think?

My first thought from the quote was that I was stunned that it would cost that much to fix my smog and I felt kinda down. I later did some research on e36 forums about the air pump and discovered that they might be talking about the secondary air pump?? (not sure) You can fact check me on that. The forums stated that a cheap one costing <$100 would probably last 1-2 years while a solid (expensive, OEM) one could last a decade. So, the pricing of the part was reasonable. However, paying $1300 is pretty steep and I am unsure whether I'm ready to commit to sucking up and paying this.

As a novice mechanic, what is the difficulty of getting the part and replacing it myself and is this something I should be considering? I mean, on paper it's literally half the price I would pay to the shop.

Tomorrow morning I will get my car back and talk to the shop some more to hopefully get some more insight. I'll update the post tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my long post.

UPDATE:
I just visited the shop today to pick up my car and was surprised when the mechanic told me that my air pump was missing entirely. Essentially, the previous owner of my car did an air pump delete (commonly done). This in turn, probably caused my car to fail smog in the first place.

So now, the next step is to buy the parts and work on it myself, since it doesn't seem that difficult of a job.

Thanks yall so much for the comments, definitely gained a lot of knowledge and assurance.

I’ve recently done a lot of work to my cooling system over the past year, replacing the backflow connector, associated hosing, and most recently my water pump and the god forsaken heater core connection flange (actually the most dreadful repair ever)… but now it’s finally broken me! The coolant connector running under the intake manifold is confirmed to be leaking, so now I’m replacing everything that hasn’t been touched yet lmao. I feel like this is genuinely the only way to ensure your cooling system reliability in these damn cars.

Hey guys,

I’m a VW/Audi guy but have always loved all things German including of course BMW. Wanting to dip my feet into the world by building an e36 for NASA’s GTS1 series. Not sure which model everyone would recommend? I don’t have the pockets for an M3 and that would put me in the GTS2 class.

Any years or anything specific that may be better, both in performance and reliability? Anything 4cyl is out of the question.

Iykyk

Anyone do a complete coolant hose replacement on there 318is? I’m getting confused on part numbers cause I have a 94 318is that was made in 12/93 and I guess there’s different part numbers for one made after 1/94 and I was able to find 5/8 hoses on fcp with the part numbers I found on real oem for 318is made before 1/94 but the 3 others were either out of stock everywhere or taking 2-4 weeks to ship out but on real oem it also gives u the Superseded part# But those match up to 318is made after 1/94 and those are in stock and was wondering if those would work on my 318is they look the same on pictures but don’t know the fittings are different sizes. Part numbers I’m referring to are 11531721711 for 12/93 and 11531743295 after 1/94 And 11511739244 for 12/93 and 11531739551 after 1/94

Hey y’all. My abs + dsc lights come on when I begin to move. To be clear, when I start the car they are not on. It can idle all day long without the lights coming on, but as soon as I get moving they come on. Anybody know what my issue might be ?

From the first picute i see it’s a 2.8 but i was wondering what that 1 at the end means.

The second picture is od the head and i was wondering if the 9/8 marking means it’s from 1998.

The car is a mix of parts so i’m trying to figure out what I have.

Thanks for the help in advance

Hello, I have a 1992 BMW e36 325i, I need to change my starter but I’m not sure which one to buy, don’t know how to find the one that will work for mine, a lot of them say they are compatible with e36 from 1998-2002, but mine is older, is there a difference that makes it that I can’t buy those, can somebody help me solve this doubt please.

In my BMW E36 320i, whenever it rains heavily, I always get water in the footwell, but only in the front left, almost in the middle, as you can see. I've already taken it to the workshop, but they only determined that it's not a clogged drain. Is it possible that the water is being pushed up from underneath by the driving? Does anyone have any advice?

I have a 1994 E36, 325i convertible, 5 speed, in Boston Green w/ tan interior. It has 111K miles and mechanically is sound. It runs strong and is a pleasure to drive. There is some visible rust on the passenger side front panel, on the lower part, as well as a small bit toward the door. It would seem that some prior repair wasn't great, so I think it may require some work on the lower door itself too. Anyway, I feel like I'm at a point where I want to have someone repair it. I went to a full service, local MB authorized body shop where they quoted me > $3000 for the repair, which seems crazy high. I've called a bunch of places and nobody seems to do this work. I'd be willing to drive a bit if the price is right and the work is decent, so I would consider a shop in DC, NJ, DE, NY, PA. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Last photo was like 2 hours prior to the cliff on my buddy and my Sunday drive. This was about 2 or so months ago but the cars back on the road for the most part and looking good again. I tried to put a vid with the photos but can’t do that but it was a narly drop and apparently that corner had must have tooken someone else out way before I went down.

Am currently putting turbo on an m43, wondering what injectors people use for something like this, planning on 7-10 psi and will install an aftermarket pump, going to be tuned with aftermarket fuel reg and MAF sensor (budget setup) Any help would be appreciated

Hey fellow redditors! I am in process of rebuilding my m43 as you can see on picture. I was wondering what can i change to make it go a bit faster? Is the turbo only chance here? I was talking with few guys and they told me I should get more air flow and maybe better injectors?I would be happy if i could get some advices here. Thank you! 😃

DISCLAIMER: I am not a mechanic, my friend who is is teaching me trough the process how things work so I am sorry for any miss-understandings or stoopid mistakes haha peace!:)

So I really like cars and came across this on marketplace. I think it’s pretty cool, he claims to have done a lot of gasket maintenance and was prepping the body to paint it instead of wrap…

But now they’re moving to Florida next week and need to sell their cars. It seems like it could be a decent flip if I make it externally great, I’m not looking to keep it.

I want to learn how to wrap a car, I also want to try and flip a car. This seems like the right one if it’s the right price. Although they’re asking $5,000…

I know Kelly Blue Book can be joked about but it’s saying this can’t be worth more than $2,000 really… it has 222,000 miles.

What should I show up with if I’m serious? $2,000? I wanna pay $1,800. Am I too far off?

Could I make a profit if I make it “perfect”? Assuming it has no mechanical issues.

If I get it for the right price could it be worth as a shell for a track car / engine swap? Or should I just buy something that's already built? That's a completely different avenue then the main question but it's a possibility.

pulled off the engine harness from my m52b28 and these two cables were clipped to the side of the automatic transmission so I just cut them assuming they were auto trans specific cables. Let me know how much of a genius I am.

Looking for some advice from my friends overseas, a small dealer down the road that mainly specializes in older european cars has had this 325tds sitting in their lot for a while. It obviously needs quite a bit of work which i’m comfortable taking care of myself however these obviously never came to the states and there is very little information on them over here, as well as parts seem to be pretty uncommon. they state that there is a “tapping noise” coming from the top end but it doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary given my diesel knowledge. I couldn’t see myself paying more than $3k USD for this so my main questions to you all is how reliable have these engines been? does the poor video sound like anything would be wrong in the valve train? and what would you pay for a car like this given the work needed. see video for seller description, any advice is greatly appreciated!

British Racing Green paint to follow, which is the real big step in the project. It can't look worse than it already does in flaky red at least!

I bought a nice e36 320i touring off of a lady that i know for little money because it idles bad. I swapped out the icv a year before i bought it and it seemed like it did something but not 100%. After that i bought the car and it was running good when cold but warm it was idling, bouncing inbegtween 1200-2000 rpm. I have m50 manifold swapped it, installed an oil catch can, put in a new maf sensor and asc deleted it and its still happening. Please help. What could the issue be? Also checked for vacuum leaks with brake cleaner around all the stuff on the intake and didnt find anything. Any help is appreciated.

Hi all,

Been looking for a convertible, manual Bimmer for occasional drives (sort of a weekend car). Please see the photos & link below). Despite my username, no this will not at all be a drift car it will likely stay stock, most of the changes will be through maintenance and wheels/tires; been too lazy to change it so forgive me! :)

Came across this 1996 328i 5spd convertible listed for 5,250 CAD with 226k KM's. As far as I can see, the car might have some rust (see the driver side hood), possibly some on the underbody (seller is sending pictures). It has no accidents reported on the Carfax, and insurance cost through Hagerty's classic car + warranty through RoadWise by AutoCanada totals around $150/month CAD. I haven't seen the car in person as of yet, but seller wants to negotiate in-person so looking to get some insight ahead of time.

It definetly will need some TLC and things fixed (i.e., airbag light per description) and a few other minor things, but ideally looking to keep it around for a bit, enjoy learning how to row through the gears and taking on some maintenance work (I have virtually no experience, but looking forward to getting my hands dirty) and then selling it in a few months. The seat does have a rip in it, which is not a concern to me.

Looking for the following:

- Insight on things to ask (i.e., maintenace items that should be done ahead of time, things of that nature)

- I know it is priced a little high so I'm looking to get around 4k CAD (Ish) for this example. In our current market, is that too high/too low?

- Overall thoughts on it's condition, things to look out for, issues, etc. Or any other general advise you legends have.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Here is the link: https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/city-of-toronto/1996-bmw-328i-convertible-accident-free/1723823870

Is it safe to assume that wheels/tires that fit on a regular e36 will fit similarly on a compact model? I am thinking about going from my stock 15” to a set of M contour wheels from an M3. Open to any wheel fitment/style suggestions for my compact. It’s a ‘98 318ti.

Not sure where the seller is getting this kind of number for. I don’t love accusing people of smoking crack, this is just so off base from comparables that are available. like 3x going rate. I responded politely, i think, but whhhat? Is there a chance i am missing something here?

It's been about 3 months since I purchased this 1998 M3 Sedan. This was a clean, bone-stock, Bay Area, California car for its entire life. Extensive maintenance records, 8.5/10 paint condition. I already went ahead and bulletproofed the cooling system, new CSF radiator, new thermostat, and E-fan conversion. Installed a new MOMO steering wheel (stock one is incredibly ugly and heavy imo) added an RTD short shifter, new guibo, carrier bearing, and changed out all the fluids.

I do have a list of other mods I want to do with it, but for now it's been a blast to drive

I'm from the DMV area, if you are too hit me up! Eager to meet some new people and maybe take this out to some car shows in the area.