Is my E36 328i worth fixing? Bonus - my maintenance logs 162,000 miles to 204,000

[Timing]

Hello E36 Community,
I'm at a crossroads with my BMW. I've had it almost 3 years and put a bit over 40,000 miles on it. Overall, it has been a great car. It handles well, starts every time I turn the key, and has classic styling. The car had one previous owner until my friend bought it. He thought he would learn to wrench on it, but decided to sell it to me instead. I do a lot of my own wrenching, but I have my limits. I've been looking at the X1, X3, and Mazda CX-5 as replacements.

The bad stuff first...
1. The air conditioning died last summer. I'm pretty sure it's the compressor as there have been awful noises coming from it. The noises have gotten louder lately. Summer is approaching and I'm not ready to sweat through my commute again. The URO (I should have bought a quality part) blower motor resistor is failing also, easy fix if I want to.

2. The suspension needs a refresh. I installed new front control arms and lollipop bushings 10,000 miles ago, but there is a lot of creaking and noise from the suspension. I don't have any record of the previous owners doing shocks or any suspension maintenance.

3. I was able to ignore the squeaky steering wheel for a long time, but it's been annoying me lately. I've read the threads of people fixing this issue (and some failing) and it doesn't look fun. I think that the clock spring is squeaky, but also there is something rubbing between the back of the steering wheel and the steering column. I put a gas station receipt between them and that reduced the noise.

4. Cosmetically the old beauty ain't what she used to be. A friend of a friend hit the drivers side fender and wrinkled it up. I got a replacement fender, but when I went to swap them I decided to just pound it straight enough to the point where I could put the turn signal in and leave it alone. There are lots of scratches and the paint has been pretty bad since before I bought it. The interior is showing it's age, but overall not bad.

5. It will need new tires soon. Not a big deal, but still around $600.

6. I have to add coolant about every time I change the oil. It's never much, just enough to trip the light. I can't find a leak. The previous owner spent a lot of money chasing coolant leaks and it had a new radiator and hoses when I bought it.

7. Smog pump (Secondary Air Injection) has died again. The local pick-a-part sell them for $14, so that's not a big deal, just takes some time to go grab one and swap them.

8. I've removed the alarm siren because it was going off at 3am pretty often. I did a lot of troubleshooting, but never found the source of the problem. I don't care it the lights flash once in a while. No big deal.

9. It's a 21 year old 328i automatic. Great car, but will never be a collector's item, so I'm the spending money to continue driving it, not for resale value.

10. I don't have any records of the VANOS being serviced. So that could become a problem, but maybe not.


So here is what I have done so far maintenance wise...
Oil Changes every 5,000 miles, sometimes I dump in some Lubri-Moly with the fresh oil.
Engine air filter replaced a couple times.
162,700 - new front brake rotors and pads
165,000 - replaced cyl 2 coil pack
166,000 - secondary air pump and valve (needs replacement again)
166,700 - 2 new tires
167,000 - front brakes lines and brake fluid replaced
168,600 - replaced cyl 5 coil pack
176,400 - blower motor resistor
183,500 - replaced rear brake rotors and pads
193,000 - replaced front control arms
The sensor behind the brake pedal had to be replaced at one point also.
That's it, pretty much just typical maintenance.

So I've got a car that is beat up and needs a few thousand dollars of maintenance, but has been cheap to maintain and great to drive. I feel like the engine could easily go another 50,000 trouble free miles after this.
I paid $2,000 and feel like I have already gotten my money's worth.

Thanks

[pbonsalb]

From what you relate, I think you should buy one of the small SUV you list. The Maxda would be most reliable. An X3 35i would be the most fun and also probably require the most work. If you have been driving a 20 year old car, it’s nice to drive a 5 year old car. Newer, more comfortable and modern, and typically less stuff to fix.

[Timing]

Thanks pbonsalb, that's kind of what I have been thinking. The newer cars do tempt me with their comfort and low NVH.
I had a Toyota Venza for a while. The biggest thing I miss about that car is keyless entry and start.
On the flip side I've got a 1984 944. It's noisy as hell and has no modern features like power steering.

[pbonsalb]

If you have one old car you want to keep, like the 944, then get the relatively new small SUV as the 2nd car rather than continuing to work to keep the 328i on the road. It won’t get any easier. Right now, I have a 20 year old car and two 10 year old cars. At least one of the 10 year old cars will get replaced with a newer car in the next few years. They are still decent to drive (E90 M3 and E61 535xi) so I am not looking yet.

[Thomas525]

The a/c is a simple fix. Change the compressor, change the bomb (cheap ), vacuum the lines, recharge the gas, you're done for the next 5 years at least. URO is fine if its new, and you only use it a few months in the year anyway.

Change the blower motor resistor, and switch the blower's fusebox fuse from 30amps to 20.

Fix the steering wheel squeek. Leave the suspension alone. Get quality used tires. At least 70% thread and not more than 3 years old.

There are alot of youtube pros teaching you how to refresh paintwork with cheap ceramic polish and it generally holds. Just try any method ONCE and that's it.

Leave the fender alone. Don't worry about the vanos unit. Its fine and will stay that way most of the time.

Change the secondary air pump. Cheap and not hard to fix.

Tighten all coolant clips and change the rad cap ($15) - one of those is probably the source of your slow leak. If that doesn't work, just top up water every oil change (no need to top up coolant - its only water that vapourises out).

Make sure your transmission fluid and filter is in good shape. Use valvoline's high mileage transmission fluid. Make ONE attempt to fix the steering wheel squeek and then live with it if it doesn't work.

Do all of the above on ONE single day except for tires, and do it all within the next 2 weeks. Ship all the parts in beforehand. Stage out the work from fast to slow. Get it all done. This way, you will not mentally flake out on the car and leave stuff undone, and it will be pretty much done on one day and you will know that you're sorted for the next few months.

If not, that list you posted will make you want to run away from the ride. Made me want to run away from this thread.

[Thomas525]

Is your fuel pump, fuel pump relay and cps (crank sensor) new or fairly new ? These are not cheap but are known E36 no start issues and they tend to happen without warning. If you need a reliable daily, its best you get those done too.

[Timing]

Is your fuel pump, fuel pump relay and cps (crank sensor) new or fairly new ? These are not cheap but are known E36 no start issues and they tend to happen without warning. If you need a reliable daily, its best you get those done too.

I'll have to look through the previous owner's records, I know I haven't replaced any of those in the past 3 years.

[Timing]

Do all of the above on ONE single day except for tires, and do it all within the next 2 weeks. Ship all the parts in beforehand. Stage out the work from fast to slow. Get it all done.

I like this idea, get everything staged up and knock it out in one day/weekend. I'll price everything out and see what the cost for parts alone is.

[FiberFast]

I like this idea, get everything staged up and knock it out in one day/weekend. I'll price everything out and see what the cost for parts alone is.

This! People tend to obsess on a single part, then you get in there and you "Got to replace this thing and that thing" which usually leads to your car sitting there unused while you wait for parts. Think the whole process through, new bolts, gaskets, replacement parts. Don't think about "The part" you are installing, think about everything around it that needs to be replaced. I have found you tube videos and diagrams are most helpful in getting the edge.

[Thomas525]

No, not one weekend. One day. Stage the work from fastest to complete, to slowest. This way your sense of achievement and completion builds throughout the day. If you did the hardest job first, and you hit a snag, you will finally fix it but you'll be bushed and leave it for another day. If you do the fast jobs first then you hit a snag with the longest job, you will at worst take a break, then come back and fix it and be done. Anyway, I have shown you exactly how you're going to keep this car on the road as a daily driver at minimal cost. You should check out the cheap ceramic polish, the results on that dude's video were incredible and it was just polish.

[Timing]

It's going to a new home. After much debate and driving a dozen cars I decided on this X3 2.0 turbo and a extended warranty.

A friend is going to buy my 328i and hopefully his son can learn some things while fixing it up.


7.jpg

[Thomas525]

Send this thread to him.