E36 Rare Parts Post

[wbarfels]

You guys make me miss my E36. I did the double din conversion in mine (Which is a couple days of fun) But one thing I did find in my 05 E46 is a bluetooth adapter, which was pretty rare. But sooner or later I will be picking up a 97-99 M3 silver or black with M Parallels.

- - - Updated - - -

As you can see from my sig Ive had a few....I do need to update the E46 pic though....She looks a bit different these days.

[MParallel]

Here's a rare example of having parts omitted. In this case my car was ordered without any kind of sound system, nor even preparation.

I only was lead into this direction when I noticed there was no aerial on the back of the car (next to the trunk on verts). So my first reaction was, some PO smoothed the hole.

Then after doing some more investigation, noticed there was not a single line in the option list dedicated to either a radio model nor hifi or top hifi/HK system.

But who would order a car without? It's not like it's a racecar. Then thanks to German's "Deutsche Brief" that keeps history of all old owners including name, birthday, city of registration, license plate I found out the original buyer was 73 years old at time of purchase. Interesting and then it would make sense. Old guy, had some money left on the bank, bought an M3 convertible. This would also make sense for choosing the SMG option, as this has an auto mode available.

Then when I started to swap options from my 328i over to the M3, the final 2 hints made it definitive.

Factory sound proofing on the back of the footwell speaker grill. Obviously, when a system and thus speakers were fitted, there would be no sound insulation.



Then behind the trunk liner, where you would normally find the aerial base/amp, nothing there. And the mounting bolt for this base, as you can see, is still painted and untouched. Nor are there any wiring clips in the holes



So this also means the car left the factory with a "cleaned" rear quarter panel, without the hole for the aerial in it.

[FastFreddie]

Here's a rare example of having parts omitted. In this case my car was ordered without any kind of sound system, nor even preparation.

I only was lead into this direction when I noticed there was no aerial on the back of the car (next to the trunk on verts). So my first reaction was, some PO smoothed the hole.

Then after doing some more investigation, noticed there was not a single line in the option list dedicated to either a radio model nor hifi or top hifi/HK system.

But who would order a car without? It's not like it's a racecar. Then thanks to German's "Deutsche Brief" that keeps history of all old owners including name, birthday, city of registration, license plate I found out the original buyer was 73 years old at time of purchase. Interesting and then it would make sense. Old guy, had some money left on the bank, bought an M3 convertible. This would also make sense for choosing the SMG option, as this has an auto mode available.

Then when I started to swap options from my 328i over to the M3, the final 2 hints made it definitive.

Factory sound proofing on the back of the footwell speaker grill. Obviously, when a system and thus speakers were fitted, there would be no sound insulation.



Then behind the trunk liner, where you would normally find the aerial base/amp, nothing there. And the mounting bolt for this base, as you can see, is still painted and untouched. Nor are there any wiring clips in the holes



So this also means the car left the factory with a "cleaned" rear quarter panel, without the hole for the aerial in it.

Strangest part: that you could order a car without sound system. To what end, to save a few hundred?

Also, if the car never had a hole for an aerial, then all cars have no hole for an aerial and the hole is drilled on every model prior to fitting the aerial/sound system. i.e., the panel isn't prepared with a hole as part of the manufacturing process, but is custom drilled for every model. Or else they actually pulled the panel off the assembly line conveyor belt to omit the drilling for this one model.

[johnf]

Strangest part: that you could order a car without sound system. To what end, to save a few hundred?...

Let's turn that question around. What I think is strange is to order a car with things on it you do not need or want. To what end, to give BMW a gift of a few hundred to a thousand? In these parts, it is not like you have huge amounts of money left over after paying social insurance and taxes.

[yensed]

Strangest part: that you could order a car without sound system. To what end, to save a few hundred?

My guess would be the car was simply manufactured to be a fleet vehicle. Used for Government Services, Security, Patrolling etc.

[MParallel]

FastFreddie: you're telling me nothing I didn't know already. Point is not not many left the factory without the hole put in.

And why it was not ordered, that is explained in detail. And why would we care what some other buyer had for reasons to get option X or not option Y.

I'm glad this 73 old man picked Alpine White as the color as back then it was not popular at all. Only 14 others picked this color for their verts.


johnf: well said.

- - - Updated - - -

My guess would be the car was simply manufactured to be a fleet vehicle. Used for Government Services, Security, Patrolling etc.

The guy was 73 year old. I can imagine he doesn't car for a radio/sound system.

Fleet car? Yeah what company would greenlight an M3 cabrio as a fleet car.

You must also realize the original owner is from Königstein im Taunus, which is a wealthy region.

[johnf]

... Fleet car? Yeah what company would greenlight an M3 cabrio as a fleet car.

Indeed, the depreciation alone would have been over 10 000 DM (perhaps $7000) a year. The insurance would not have been cheap either. If the original owner had a really long and uneventful driving history, he might have only had to pay around 3000 DM a year. A newly licensed driver might have started off paying eight times that – imagine paying $15000-20000 a year on insurance, 20 years ago. An M3 was not exactly fleet car material.

[FastFreddie]

By the logic that you can choose to remove "built-ins" (even on base models) and treat them as options to save money, why not ask BMW to not include
Spare tire
Toolkit
Car jack
Body mouldings
Heated side mirrors
Heated external door handles
Heated wiper jets
Climate control /AC

Did the car also come without floor mats, OBC, cruise control, alarm...?

I'm not sure there are a lot of welfare recipients buying an M3 on a shoestring budget at 73 years old. I believe the car came without those bits, but why I'm still wondering. Cutting costs I'm not buying. Although flat white is cheaper than any of the pearl colors.

[WATTSBMW3]

All the replies today conjured so many memories of when I bought my new teal green '93 Civic Si hatchback in South Carolina. At the time I was heavy into car audio and already pre-purchased my entire system from A to Z that was just sitting and ready for install. I bought my Civic not knowing that the "audio omit" option was even available. I just happened to casually mention to my CA about my car audio intentions immediately after I acquired the car. The dealer just uninstalled the entire system and deducted $500 off the purchase price. As compared to now, factory systems were grossly overpriced compared to aftermarket but were much easier to replace. In both doors were holes covered by the factory grills and in the rear the empty speaker holes were on top of the shock mounts with the factory grills. In place of the head-unit was a blank piece of plastic. I used the $500 "rebate" for a Viper alarm, power door locks and power windows. Factory power doors and windows were not even available until '94.

Damn, I'm old ...

[yensed]

The guy was 73 year old. I can imagine he doesn't car for a radio/sound system.

Fleet car? Yeah what company would greenlight an M3 cabrio as a fleet car.

I just glanced at the post and missed that it was an M3 Convertible. Sounds to me in all likelihood the old man was just deaf. In which case he saved a few $$$ and reduced the cars weight in the process.

Out of curiosity, what occupied the space left for the radio headunit?

[MParallel]

By the logic that you can choose to remove "built-ins" (even on base models) and treat them as options to save money, why not ask BMW to not include
Spare tire
Toolkit
Car jack
Body mouldings
Heated side mirrors
Heated external door handles
Heated wiper jets
Climate control /AC

Did the car also come without floor mats, OBC, cruise control, alarm...?

I'm not sure there are a lot of welfare recipients buying an M3 on a shoestring budget at 73 years old. I believe the car came without those bits, but why I'm still wondering. Cutting costs I'm not buying. Although flat white is cheaper than any of the pearl colors.

We are talking about radio/sound system delete. The car is fully loaded and the original new price was as good as $100.000 back then.

Shoestring budget my ass. And in M3 context? These two are mutually exclusive anyways.

I just glanced at the post and missed that it was an M3 Convertible. Sounds to me in all likelihood the old man was just deaf. In which case he saved a few $$$ and reduced the cars weight in the process.

Out of curiosity, what occupied the space left for the radio headunit?

Hmm says "Cabrio" right in the very picture. But ok, can happen.


Or he just loved the sound of that EU S50 breathing through ITB's....specially with the top down.


There is a radio blanking plate available. This is just when no radio is fitted. You can still get it from BMW.

[M3C]

How are you all, bringing this back with hope to see more E36 rare parts. Feel like everyone has abandoned...

[notMpowered]

GT2 rear wing.
DSC_0625 by Chris West, on Flickr

[Fix.a.ZX]

for anyone interested
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-...850156-223-940

[H2oiamwater]

Not Rare but not something you see in the states a lot.

These 3rd brake light covers were made for European market because they didnt require a third brake light.

[hc1001]

Center Underpanel

[notMpowered]

Woah cool. Was that a race part?

[joshhas99probs]

individual door handle.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

[hc1001]

The under tray is a standard part (not special package I mean, just optional) it can still be ordered, I have one new...so maybe not rare (yet)

Also I have the contact info for one of the guys who produces those Motorsport/Individual door handles in Europe (it's CNCd) not oem. Really good price to get them done.

Yes, its common in europe too but the US market never got it.

[MParallel]

Woah cool. Was that a race part?

Standard equipment on every EU M3 3.2.

Nothing rare nor special about it.

[MParallel]

These are all common parts. Nothing rare about them.

[johnf]

The ASC switch has a circuit board with clear provisions for lighting the push button.

You can light it quite nicely with a more than usually bright, green LED that Osram developed, IIRC, off an EU research grant.

[johnf]

It sure looks like the ASC switch was designed to light the green button, but the circuit board is missing the parts for that and the button remains dark. (BMW decided to light an indicator in the instrument cluster.)

[johnf]

... I have a few recovered oem LEDs I could use and resistors.

You may find they are not bright enough. The LED I used in my DIY was OSRAM's brightest and closest color match, at the time, if you needed a 5–30 mA LED. The lit button is still somewhat visible in sunlight, at least at latitude 50 odd degrees north.

[MParallel]

The ASC, DSC, SMG all do not have a backlight for the green switch. But other variants, like the old parking sensor so.

They are mostly identical, although some really old ones have archaic design, and small bulbs instead of leds. As you can see, the circuit board is the same.

These switches are so hard to open, there is no notch on the bottom.

I wanted my SMG switch to light up, to use as a cruise control “on” light, which the E36 kombi is missing.