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Thread: DSTX17's 1997 M3/4/5

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
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    2017 F150, 97 M3

    DSTX17's 1997 M3/4/5

    I've been away from the BMW world for probably 7+ years now. I was previously a member on here and during high school and college I had a handful of E36 non-Ms and a few M3s as well. Yesterday I bought a 1997 M3 4 door, 5 speed with 187k on the clock for a second car to enjoy; I needed something different than my daily driver, an F150. I drove from Houston to Fort Worth to pick this up, a 3 owner car that has spent all its life in Texas, and had no accidents according to auto check. It appears to be well cared for and almost 100% stock. The only upgrades are a mishimoto radiator and stewart water pump.

    It runs and drives fine, the motor sounds great other than running rough for the first 10 seconds on a cold start. It needs shifter bushings badly. It has some crappy window tint that needs to come off and get redone. It has some interesting seat covers that don't look horrible, but certainly not as good as OEM leather. They fit very tight so the seller didn't want me to remove them to examine the OEM seat leather but he did say nothing is torn and it could be redyed. I will get into that down the road a little bit.

    I had coil overs on my last e36 328is and so my first impressions of the handling on this M3 are that I'm a little dissapointed. I expected to do some upgrades and a lot of maintenance when I got this. So the first order of business is replacing worn suspension. Right now I'm planning on installing BC racing coil overs and pretty much all the bushings with some poly mixed in. Suggestions on bushing types or package deals to save money are welcomed! This is going to be just a fun car that I daily driver when I want, but I enjoy somewhat of a track car feel. I don't think I'll go as far as the poly engine mounts this time around; did that in my old 325i and the change was popping out of the cup holders like pop corn!

    I've taken the trunk lining materials out this morning to inspect the rear shock towers and all looks good to me so far which is a relief. Is the rubber shavings a sign that the mounts are wearing? They aren't loose or anything but I still plan on upgrading them with reinforcements. 1 12 19 on ramps.jpg1 12 19 S52.jpg1 12 19 interior.jpgupgraded radiator 1.jpgupgraded radiator 2.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    My Cars
    2017 F150, 97 M3
    shock towers
    Attached Images Attached Images

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Made some progress today towards dropping the rear subframe. Got the catback off, rear sway bar, rear shocks, and all the stuff in the trunk out. I had a good chance to give everything a once over today and found some things I suspected, and a few other surprises as well.

    So thats a torn RTAB, a torn bushing around one of the differential bolts. There is some rust around the header, I find that a bit odd. Is that an indicator of anything? Do these look like factory headers? The other thing that doesn't look OEM is the fuel filter connection with that piece of hose. Any thoughts on that?
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by DSTX17; 01-12-2019 at 03:25 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    washington, dc
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    96 E36 Vert 03 E39 M5
    Headers look oem to me from that angle .
    Filter is non oem
    Shock towers look beat maybe fixed by welding .
    U may need turner Motorsport stuff welded in.
    These can be good cars for a turbo build but at that mileage depending on your intended use , it may require a end to end inspection. Stuff you found so far would have me real skeptical about it being sorted .


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    * E39 M5 SterlingGray -RIP 11/2018
    * E36 328 vert Schwarz - ~TurboProject underway
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  5. #5
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    I don't see how the shock towers look beat. Have you looked at your own shock towers? That rough textured stuff is how all my past bmws looked and that would be very hard to replicate I think. Also no non-matching paint over welds in that area.

  6. #6
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    Today's progress: rear diff out. The front diff bushing was totally shot. I also started to loosen all 4 sub frame bolts/nuts and they easily broke loose by hand. Have to love being rust free! I'm assuming this is the upgrade diff bolt since it says 10 9 on it?
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #7
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    I could not get the rear lower control arm eccentric bolt out, although I did get the nut off. I ended up cutting the rear lower control arm to allow removing the brakes and getting those out of the wear in preparation to drop the subframe. I will end up probably reinstalling the bimmerworld reinforced oem style. I broke the brake wear sensor that goes to the passenger rear brake pads where it connects above the differential. How would I replace this connector?

    Also what is the sensor that plugs into the passenger side trailing arm using a single allen head to secure it?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    96 E36 Vert 03 E39 M5
    Quote Originally Posted by DSTX17 View Post
    I don't see how the shock towers look beat. Have you looked at your own shock towers? That rough textured stuff is how all my past bmws looked and that would be very hard to replicate I think. Also no non-matching paint over welds in that area.
    Mine are smooth but i have a vert

    Carry on


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    http://www.bmwmregistry.com/detail.php?id=13792
    * E39 M5 SterlingGray -RIP 11/2018
    * E36 328 vert Schwarz - ~TurboProject underway
    * E90 335i Sedan MonocoBlau - Daily ToddlerTaxi

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    I made a lot of progress so far but since my thread was moved I can no longer post pictures, I think I need to get my post count up more. The rear subframe is dropped. It took quite a bit longer than I thought because I was lowering it by the metal beneath where the diff sits and it wasn't lowering it evenly so it was binding up on the subframe studs. Ended up using a second jack to lower it a bit more evenly and got it out. The ebrake cables came right out the back of the trailing arm without any issues.

    As I got deeper into this I realized I didn't want to do anything again so I am replacing everything in the rear. I ordered inner and outer cv axle boot kits so I can replace the dry rotted boots. I ordered FAG rear wheel bearings and bought the maddox bearing removal tool from harbor freight. It was just under a $100 after the 20% off one coupon deal they had going on.

    I have a welder coming today to install AKG rtab pocket reinforcement plates and rear sway bar reinforcements also from AKG.

    This morning I was able to remove both RTABs from the trailing arms. Took about an hour. First one took most of that time. I drilled around the center metal until I could get a saw blade in there and cut through the aluminum that houses the rubber then punched them out.

    I am trying to remove the rear hubs from the trailing arm using a 3 prong slide hammer that is mounted using the wheel bolts. I have been pounding that for about 20 minutes with no luck yet. Any tips on getting those off?

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    houston
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    2017 F150, 97 M3
    Searching youtube I came across this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSdylj343Q

    The only thing I really wanted out of this video was the split bearing tool which I'm hoping autozone rents. I think I'll return the slide hammer and give that a try it looks much easier. Using that slide hammer hurts your hand.

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    This morning I rented the largest bearing separator they had at autozone which I think is 4.25" and it wasn't big enough to get the nuts on the bottom half of the spreader. I will have to find one from somewhere else.

  12. #12
    Join Date
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    2017 F150, 97 M3
    Today I pressed out the old upper inner control arm bushings, 187k on them I am assuming as the previous owner said no bushings were replaced. As others have said in past threads, they still looked new for the most part. I used a 20 ton press which took 3 hours to change them out with because using the big metal chunks that came with the press, to hold the control arm just outside the bushing with, was very very difficult to line up correctly. Still wondering why I can't post pictures, I thought it was just a 25 post count needed.

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