Bmw e36 m3

[TheDukeGTi]

Hi all. It’s been a very long time since I owned a car that was ‘thread worthy’, and even then I never managed to do one properly.

A bit of background: I moved to the States back in April ’15 having been through a spousal visa application (green card), which was a very long, arduous process. It took just over a year; a year in which I couldn’t buy, sell, or do anything interesting automotively, due to the fact that I’d be leaving “any day now”. Needless to say it took longer than we thought. The problem being a petrolhead, is there’s always something exotic or interesting that you want to buy, but common sense dictates you buy something that will sell easily when in my predicament. So I spent a year with a B6 Audi A4 TDi, the 90bhp version. It wasn’t fun, or interesting, especially given my background in Mk2 Golf GTi’s, Polo GT’s, Corrados, Cupra’s, etc etc. Also note: the Audi was neither easy to sell, nor ‘cheap’, as previously intended.

Anyway, the visa was finally granted in April, and within 10 days, I was finally stateside (San Francisco), to start a new life.

Having gotten myself a job, bank accounts, bits and bobs; all of which are more difficult than anticipated in a new country, I could finally move on and look for a new car.

I’ve wanted an E36 M3 for at least 5-6 years, having been in a Techno Violet M3 converted Touring many moons ago. The thing was beautiful and I fell in love instantly. Another ride in a different one a few years later confirmed the love affair.


Now to buy.


As you may know, the US version of the E36 M3 is basically a slightly jumped up 328i Sport, not the same beast it is in Europe. It also comes with lesser quality things like plastic headlights. Nevertheless, I must have one, and according to my wife and her family traditions, it must be red… “Fair enough”, I say.





I ended up buying one in October. It’s a leggy one. 192k, but runs nicely. This car is for fun, I don’t need it to commute and it’ll be what I make of it, so high mileage is what it is. It’s the “Lux” model, which means wood trim (mmmm), lots of leather (mmmmMMMmmm) and no Vader seats (boo), electric (torn) leather instead. It is thankfully a manual.


I bought it for $<not_enough> with the idea I’d fix a few things.


It’s got pretty damn good paintwork, I must say! We don’t suffer from rust in California; one less thing to worry about. But it has got a few years worth of parking permits which have ‘welded’ themselves to the back bumper, some lacquer peeling on the wing mirrors, and some hazing on the headlights, the interior is also pretty tatty, the headlining is falling down, and the cruise control doesn’t work. But hey, it’s bright red and it’s an M3. My own M3!





“I hate that damn sticker”

At this point, it had the following:
- Full fluids change (engine, gearbox, diff, coolant, brake fluid)
- Front discs (rotors) and pads
- AC + Serpentine belt
- Some other investigation work


Then it went on some drives around the Bay Area. I was lead to believe all American roads were arrow straight, but there’s some serious roads around here. Alice’s restaurant is a good spot, with some incredible roads winding out to it.

[propcar]

Based on some of your english terms I'd venture to guess you're from the UK. Welcome to the board and congrats on your M3... although it doesn't have the same lovely euro motor, the advantage is the low maintenance and reliability the US S50/S52 offers... 200k miles is fine on these motors, just broken in Also, the gearing means they're not far off the acceleration times of the euro counterpart.

You can plan out a good modification to help bring out the top end HP range more akin to the personality of the euro motor, do an M50 manifold swap and a tune. This is the 'easiest' and most value power adder you can do to the S52. However, this only applies to the S52 as the S50 already has this manifold. I can't tell if yours is a 95' which is S50 or 96'-99' which is S52. Your DSII wheels are from a later 96-99 M3, but your grill/nosepanel is a 95'.

These cars don't need much, just maintenance, a driver, and some miles. Happy motoring!

[TheDukeGTi]

Based on some of your english terms I'd venture to guess you're from the UK. Welcome to the board and congrats on your M3... although it doesn't have the same lovely euro motor, the advantage is the low maintenance and reliability the US S50/S52 offers... 200k miles is fine on these motors, just broken in Also, the gearing means they're not far off the acceleration times of the euro counterpart.

You can plan out a good modification to help bring out the top end HP range more akin to the personality of the euro motor, do an M50 manifold swap and a tune. This is the 'easiest' and most value power adder you can do to the S52. However, this only applies to the S52 as the S50 already has this manifold. I can't tell if yours is a 95' which is S50 or 96'-99' which is S52. Your DSII wheels are from a later 96-99 M3, but your grill/nosepanel is a 95'.

These cars don't need much, just maintenance, a driver, and some miles. Happy motoring!

Thanks for the reply. I am indeed English, and am very much enjoying life out here. I actually wrote that predominantly for a UK based forum I frequent.

I have to agree with you on the motor front. I drove a 328i Sport in the UK and it was nowhere near this M3 in terms of drive-ability. The thing I like about the M engines (and this one certainly is included), is their urgency. It's so rev happy and just has an eagerness to go and go. I certainly don't feel as though this engine is under-powered.

The gearing is interesting, I wanted to ask about that. It seems very very short; it's sitting at >3k when on the freeway. Is this to be expected? It also whines pretty noticeably in 1st, but I'd read this may be due to straight cut gears.

The car is a '96. Reliability is something I'm very eager to maintain, so would the manifold jeopardize that? If not, is it a 'must do' mod? Does it require any kind of re-mapping or exhausts to get it running right?

- - - Updated - - -

I also undertook some minor maintenance myself. I live in an apartment in downtown San Francisco, with valet parking, which isn’t good for working on cars. So all the maintenance is done in my works car park. Not ideal, but it’s all good fun!


I should also note, I’m a total amateur.


Firstly, I am not, nor have ever been affiliated with Oregon State University, so this went:



My drivers vent wouldn’t direct air properly, so that was swiftly replaced:



I replaced the wood gear knob, which was broken and would fly off on particularly spirited gear changes, for a ZHP gear knob, nicely weighted; great upgrade. I quite like the wood trim, but unfortunately, it’s a bit of a state, and crazy expensive to replace.


So it came out…


Then it went back in (minus the wood) because I’d bought the wrong part…



While I had all the trim out, I changed the cabin filter. What a pig of a job! Glad I did it though…



My OBC was not lighting up correctly, especially the time, which couldn’t be seen at all.



A simple change of bulbs (I’ve never been so excited to receive bulbs in the post!)…



I also changed the bulb in the headlight switch, so now I have a full set of working dash lights


Tidied the… “trunk”… with a snap-on trunk tidy.



The little things eh?


New wipers



Gave the interior a damn good clean, old plasters were a particularly nice find:




I then took some pics:



















Went to a car show. This nice chap informed me my passenger side wheels were the wrong way round. Obvious now I look, not at the time…


Then got the replacement centre console, installed it, swapped the wheels round and took more pictures.













That’s about it for maintenance currently.
Current plans:
- Bushings refresh - there seems to be some movement around the drivetrain. So hopefully that might help
- Flex plate (guibo?)
- Gear shifter refresh
- Headlining needs recovering
- Remove sticker/repaint rear bumper
- Alignment
- Perhaps some uprated suspension components at some point
- Steering wheel replace/recover
- Replace front wheel arch linings due to rubbing.
- Handbrake cable adjustment.
- Seats are ripped, replace with Vaders/better condition sport seats/E46 seats/other.
- Whatever else a ~190k M3 throws up at me



[CblockM3]

Welcome to the states and congrats on getting your M3!

[e34Croak]

Nice M3. Smart move shacking up a yank.

[M3C]

Welcome!

[TheDukeGTi]

Thanks folks. More to come soon!

[propcar]

The gearing is interesting, I wanted to ask about that. It seems very very short; it's sitting at >3k when on the freeway. Is this to be expected? It also whines pretty noticeably in 1st, but I'd read this may be due to straight cut gears.

The car is a '96. Reliability is something I'm very eager to maintain, so would the manifold jeopardize that? If not, is it a 'must do' mod? Does it require any kind of re-mapping or exhausts to get it running right?



Gearing is normal, you likely have the 3.23 differential, 95' M3's seem to have a 3.15, cruising at 3k RPM on the highway is fine, I've gotten average about 27 mpg when doing 75-80mph with A/C on if I remember correctly.

Whining in first doesn't sound normal to me... we don't have straight cut gears as far as I know, so all gears should be quiet. May be some old diff noise you hear that is more audible at lower speeds. Change your fluids and see if it help, I've used Redline in everything, brakes, transmission and diff. Good stuff.

The M50 manifold is probably the most common effective modification to the S52. It doesn't decrease reliability at all... it requires an adapter to re-route some hoses. This is one of the most well-known kits out there http://m50manifold.com/ and the one I used. It's a good idea to replace other hoses while you're there, like heater hoses and others. I also rebuilt my fuel injectors with a small kit that costs like $30, replaces all seals and such.

The re-map of the ECU is recommended as there are reports of cars running lean with the manifold swap and popping a head gasket. For that, there are many tuners that will re-flash your factory ECU to accommodate the manifold. I used TRM as they're local to me and are very good. You can also eliminate some nagging emissions stuff like rear secondary 02 sensors or SAP if you have deleted it.

With the tune and M50 manifold, you'll open up the top end rpm with much more power, from 4k - 7k rpm, the motor will scream compared to the factory S52 manifold. It really is an essential mod. It fits the characteristic of how a naturally aspirated M3 straight 6 should behave.

[TheDukeGTi]

Afternoon all!

When I got the car, the headlining was sagging and falling down. Having previously owned a Mk2 Golf GTi with the same affliction, I know only too well how difficult a job that is to do right. It still remains the worst job, in terms of quality of outcome and sheer effort, that I’ve ever done on any car I’ve owned. So I wasn’t about to attempt it again.

So, off it went to have this:



Turned into this:



A brilliant job was done of it by the local trimmers, they also did the sunroof panel and sunroof switch panel which was previously rattling; another benefit of doing the job! It’s got a lovely cushioning to it, and really makes a huge difference. Very happy!

More pics after a wash:





That was done at the beginning of December. Since then I’ve really just cleaned and driven the car.

It was my birthday just after xmas, so I treated myself to a drive. No excuses needed:














This weekend has been another step forward. The inner wheel arches have been rubbing since I bought the car, the culprit being a snapped mounting section, weirdly the same on both sides. Anyway, I enlisted the help of a workmate of mine, who had a garage, and we set about changing them out for fresh BMW supplied items!



Old off




New on



While I was at BMW, I also picked up a spare key, since I only had one.




More progress soon! A new steering wheel has been bought…

I also have a proper camera on the way, so hopefully the picture quality should improve.

[damonchoy]

What a gorgeous area for you to go on drives around.

What wheel did you buy?

[TheDukeGTi]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, it's beautiful here. Those pictures on the coast were around Stinson Beach, just north of SF, some great roads all around the Bay Area though.

Now that'd be telling!

But I will say, it's badged and OEM.

[propcar]

Nice work! I did my headliner myself, using a thinly padded ultra-suede like material with UV. It was a challenging job, but it came out pretty good! I've seen professional jobs done worse so I was fairly proud of myself. Will I do it again... maybe?! :P

[TheDukeGTi]

Nice work! I did my headliner myself, using a thinly padded ultra-suede like material with UV. It was a challenging job, but it came out pretty good! I've seen professional jobs done worse so I was fairly proud of myself. Will I do it again... maybe?! :P

I'll be calling on you for the next one in that case!

[TheDukeGTi]

Hi folks. No huge updates since last time. The steering wheel still hasn’t been changed.

But my cruise control has miraculously started to work, which means one of two things; disconnecting the battery reset the computer (classic “switch it off and on again”), or, and this is more likely, I was using it wrong. Either way, my first car to have cruise, in a ’96 of all things! A very valuable thing to have in this land.

I had the tracking done, the handbrake adjusted from ~7 clicks to 4 (San Francisco hill starts just got slightly easier) and the shifter bushings changed, which has helped the slightly sloppy change, but not completely, it works ok for now though, I need to start enjoying the car without ploughing quite so much of my hard-earned into it.

My nice new camera turned up, so I thought I’d clean the car and take some pictures, I’m well and truly a serial hobbyist, and amateur photography is a very new one, so I have a lot to learn. The camera does show up the state of the seats though. There’s still a few things to sort on this car.

I’ve also made the switch to Flickr. So far, the quality is leaps and bounds above Photobucket.

Keep a look out for the idiot who didn’t realise there were mirrors in the car when photographing

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

BMW E36 M3 Hellrot by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr

[PeterJoness]

luxury car sure thanks pro

[stealthbeam]

Looks great!

[uberSteuer]

Great thread so far. Love a clean hellrot!

[TheDukeGTi]

Thanks folks!

[BleedsBlue]

Nice resto and reconditioning so far! A couple notes:
-Vader seats' only advantage is that of aesthetics, they are heavier than "sport" seats (comparing electric to electric) and many find them less comfortable
-The relatively high 5th gear RPM is due to 5th being a direct drive (1:1) rather than overdrive; on '95s with the 3.15, the standard rear tires are shorter than '96+, which effectively cancels out the 0.08 final drive difference

You don't seem to be jumping at the M50 manifold suggestion, and I would respectfully provide a counter-argument to Propcar's equation that M50 mani + S52 = good. If power is your only goal, and you mix in other bolt-ons, by all means; intakes and free-flowing exhaust all move the power band up into the M50 sweet spot. But for stock-ish daily duties, the S52's strong suit is stump-pulling low-end (sub 4k RPM) torque, which the M50 undeniably pulls up higher in the rev range (increasing torque, but moving it).

An M50'ed S52 will make less peak torque (at a 1K RPM+ higher peak) than a stock S50B32, and still misses out on major advantages of the Euro motors (double VANOS and individual throttle bodies).

Either way, what a stock U.S. 3.2 does with the quoted 240 horsepower is highly impressive! And keep up the good work.

[BayAreaE36]

Congrats on the car! I think some new euro glass headlights will totally bring your front end to life!

[TheDukeGTi]

Update time! Well, more of a picture dump… but we all like pics, so…


I attended an, initially foggy, turning lovely later on, cars and coffee on Treasure Island. Snapped a couple of pics of mine, and loads of others. Some serious metal (highlights being RWB Porsche and Carrera GT IMO) can be seen here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskwQCJQQ


Otherwise, mine:
DSC_0548 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0549 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


…and one that was snapped on the way in:





Here’s a few pics I snapped on highway 1:


DSC_0157 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0153 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0161 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0165 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr




I also finally managed to get rid of the bumper sticker. Unfortunately, taking some paint with it. But it looks better already.


DSC_0182 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0183 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0185 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr




I’ve had a bit of a rocky month with the car, engine lights and fixes, which put me off the car a little. Having considered selling up for an E46, a few drives in the evening sunshine this week have well and truly got me smitten again. This car is awesome!


Another update coming shortly, I went for a drive yesterday and took some pictures…

- - - Updated - - -

I decided to drive up Mt. Diablo yesterday, got some good shots of the car on the way down, once the weather had picked up a bit.


Really nice place, strangely reminds me of the Peak District, which I have very fond memories of.


Anyway, I digress:


DSC_0254 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0252 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0257 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0249 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0247 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0245 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0225 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0220 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0217 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0211 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr


DSC_0207 by TheDukeGTi, on Flickr




The car’s running really well after having an issue with the engine position sensor. Really happy with it at the minute, so much so, that I treated it to a wash after these pics were taken!


Until next time…

[usedunderwear]

Paint looks really superb, did you recently polish and wax it??

[tmswell]

Agreed! Looks great!

[TheDukeGTi]

Thanks folks! No polishing/waxing, I guess it's just California! We're so lucky.

@tmswell - I think I pm'd back, but my sent messages don't show anything. Let me know

[notMpowered]

Looks like you are enjoying it! Great to see.