My E36 M3 Journey & 134k miles maintenance

[brianc]

Ok so I have been a member since '97 (97 to 04 as member azone). I've contributed a little bit over the years but mostly just lurking & annoyingly bombing other people's threads. Now is the time to share my 24+ year BMW E36 experience. I love these cars, I still keep mine mint like it's my child. I've literally never desired another car and never owned another car since - only leasing a few cars along the way.

First Sight
I first saw an E36 M3 in '95 while attending USC. I was at Kaprielian Hall for a computer science class and I came out and saw this red E36 coupe. Unbelievable. I thought I have to have this car someday, and admired how this presumably rich douche drove this new M3 right up in the front entrance area of the building.

My Fake M3
Fast forward two years and I'm out of school and making crap money but I took out a five year loan on a '93 325i 5-speed sedan w/ 44,989 miles. I have always had a major preference for the sedan. IMO it has better lines and proportions, same weight as coupe, and it's easy to get in and out of.

325i_odom.jpg

Within a few weeks of buying it I noticed there was a bad 2nd gear syncro. I did not experience it during the test drive but I am certain Santa Monica BMW new about this issue and stuck it on me. I bought a rebuilt 5-speed from Bavarian Auto Recycling and had it installed. $1500. Already spending money on the BMW and it never ends! About one year in I bought a used set of M3 10-spoke wheels, M3 Exhaust, and an OE M3 body kit.

325i_ext1.jpg 325i_ext2.jpg IMG_0284.JPG

[brianc]

Suspension & M3 Interior
... I also added H&R sports suspension, Racing Dynamics Sway Bars, and Momo strut Brace among other things. Loved it but always wished it was an M3. It also had the Conforti chip for 1HP gain at 6k rpm In '01 I bought a complete M3 sedan interior and installed it. I washed the car every Friday night and kept it as nice as possible for a 16k/year daily driver. I wasn't quite as nuts w/ the underbody as I would become later but I was still pretty sick. The wheel wells and aluminum underbody & suspension bits had to be clean. At this time I didn't have the money to buy every single wear item as soon as I would have liked but I was very diligent.

engine_1.jpg rear_1.jpg 325i_m3_int2.jpg 325i_m3_int1.jpg

The 65k Radiator Explosion

1999 on one fateful Friday evening going out with the guys....BOOOOMMMM... right on cue...radiator neck... exploded! Big mess in middle of street, overheated, towed to my house. Other than my ignorance on the cooling system, with routine maintenance, brakes, exhaust mounts, fluid changes, it was great. 7 years later and 145k miles it was still awesome and I was still dropping stupid money into it to keep it looking nice. Cracked moldings, windshield cowlings (between two E36 probably replaced this thing 10 times), door handle trims, all that stuff.

April 30 2004 - Totaled
Driving home from Santa Monica BMW parts department buying some overpriced trim, driving gloves, and who knows what else and someone runs a stop sign and I t-bone them full on sliding. Errrrrrrrkkkk. A massive Cadillac de Ville driven by a 99-year old women. I felt bad but pissed at the same time. Radiator and frame damaged. Cop looks at my car and then comes up to me and says "you shouldn't have been driving so fast". My head almost exploded. I thought look at my f'ing car. I had a 40mph speed limit and no stop sign. The old lady blew the stop sign (in fact she never stopped at all and drove up onto the sidewalk and grass). I was so pissed - he better not try to report it's my fault. I recorded my tire marks for proof. Fortunately the police report correctly showed the intersection and my insurance would pay out..... $1500!!!! WTF. I storm into the insurance place w/ every receipt for every new part or upgrade I ever bought for the car. Total was over $15k. I told them the wheels alone are worth more the $1500! Tough luck they said, so I bought the car for $1500 and parted it out myself, with the bright idea to finally get my dream car.

IMG_5776.jpg

[brianc]

August 18 2004 - 1998 M3 Sedan
I spent 4 months looking for the perfect M3 sedan. I knew I wanted classic alpine white (again) or estoril blue on black but overall vehicle condition was more important. I finally found a single owner cosmos black '98 M3. It is probably my least favorite E36 M3 color but the condition was immaculate and the owner was meticulous. He had the pressure washer, full griots garage catalog, deionized water and the whole bit. Perfectionist. He had just recently installed a Dinan suspension, CAI, exhaust, strut bar, and software. It also had new BMW BBS RC040/RC041 wheels. It was beautiful. I bought it for $23k. It had 66,607 miles and came w/ a meticulous maintenance history. Even w/ a fair bit of miles on it for the time I couldn't have felt any better about it.

[brianc]

Mainteneance History
I basically don't let anyone touch my car if I can help it. Just my personal experience. If I don't know how to do something I learn and spend the money to do it right. I have the entire car maintenance and parts history from the date the car was originally purchased in March '98. Both hard copy and excel files. The current parts log is more than 1100 lines long and I have spent more than $48k on upkeep! Yikes. Definitely not in it for the resale value just love the car. This includes typical things like:

- (3) preventative cooling system overhauls
- (3) preventative power steering overhauls
- (2) preventative Vanos/Oil System overhauls
- (2) clutch overhauls
- (2) Belts & Pulley overhauls
- (2) suspension overhauls
- tons of plastic and metal trim parts (this is where they get you!).

Over the years I get crazy underneath the car too. I like to keep it really clean because I like looking at it and it makes it easier to do work and find issues.
As far as mods I'm forever an OEM+ guy the car has a Dinan intake, exhaust, strut bars & tune. It used to have a Dinan Stage 3 suspension as well but it was replaced in 2004 with a ground control street/school kit which I love.

[brianc]

September 2011 Repaint
I never really liked cosmos black and decided before I even bought it that I would repaint the car esotril blue or apline white when the paint was worn and the car was retired from daily driving. After 131k miles the clear coat had finally started to wear down from so many washings and polishing and everyday use of a car cover. Also the UV from the southern california sun started to turn the metallic accent a slightly greenish color, and there were typical small nicks on the nose and lower hood from tiny rocks etc.. . I decided to go with alpine white. I figured it would never go out of style and I love this color specifically on the E36 M3. One interesting note is that I love the look of the black engine bay against alpine white paint - for some reason I like it significantly better aesthetically than the white engine bay in the old car. I took it to a high end place that had all exotic cars and spent $7000 on the paint job. This was the first time I ever left the car w/ somebody. The paint job was excellent but the prepwork and carelessness was inexcusable.

- they f&*ked up the absolutely mint front seats by overspraying when painting the roof. They tried to scrub it out and messed up the leather on each seat in a very specific area in the inside-upper seat. Still pissed.
- they broke a $300 bosch headlight and epoxied the left-front corner light. WTF. you could imagine when I went to remove the corner light to clEan the car as I'd done dozens of times.
- they didn't sand the car enough to the metal and had to be called out on it.
- they left masking tape inside the sunroof well.
- they cut out the wiper assembly (4 wires) and did a shit job of putting it back in w/o using proper connector. Had to redo it right.
- misc screws and bolts put in the wrong place.
- the body lines were terrible - there was no effort to get them correct....
















I show up one day and they have the doors drying outside! WTF, that needs to be in negative air until dry






Pics after paint

[brianc]

November 2011 Damage
you won't believe it but two months after the car was painted and turned into a weekend car someone tried to turn around in my driveway and backed into the car & crushed the driver's side door. Can't find pics right now but will look. The person tried to bail but my neighbor caught them on a bike. I was so gutted, still am really but more important things these days. I couldn't get a new OE door at the time and it currently has a used OE door that pisses me off. I now have the new door in storage that will go on relatively soon.

2021 134k Mile Overhaul
Between 2015 and 2020 the car has been stored quite a bit and wasn't driven as much as I would have liked. I have planned the big 134k mile upkeep for this whole period of time. The car is an 8.8 out of 10 already so it would seem ridiculous to some but I'm trying to bring it back to a 9.8. There is nothing wrong w/ the car it is simply preventative maintenance and keeping everything looking new. I’ve done these upkeeps a few times but not all at the same time and not to this extend. This project is not for those looking for big transformations, it's more for those who are perfectionists and like to see the M3 as close to new as possible. I'm proud to have driven the car so much for so long and to have kept it in great shape the whole time. I'm spending quite a bit on this upkeep that most people may not even notice. This is where we are today. I'm going to chronicle the entire process. I'm doing everything:

- Interior and exterior body & trim
- Suspension
- Cooling System
- Vanos & Oil System
- Vacuum System
- Clutch & Transmission
- Differential
- Belts & Pulley's
- Subframes
- Driveline

I have a lot of work already done and will update this thread as I go. The pics below are when I started in April before I started paint correction and any work (old 10-spokes are only on car temp the BMW BBS go back on when done):

[brianc]

Part 1: Brake Calipers
Yikes, this takes way too long to do it the way it was done here, I did it on and off over the coarse of 3 weeks. Probably 14 hours total on it. I have no idea how good or bad these will wear as I have no experience painting calipers. I do however have a lot of experience with paints of all kinds and the G2 stuff is very good. It's a strong two-part epoxy. It dries pretty hard and is much better than any spray can will ever be. It will not chip easily, it will have to start peeling up if water gets underneath it. You must prep properly. The calipers should be shiny new steel when ready to paint. Don't use scotch-brite or sandpaper on these calipers, they have too much texture... you'll spend hours sanding off the the high spots and getting none of the rust. Use blasting or wire wheels. It took me about 5 1/2 hours to get them ready for paint. I also wouldn't recommend chemical means for removing the rust, naval jelly, CLR etc...it's not the purest carbon steel and it'll just make a mess of them and you'll have to blast or wire wheel anyways.

Before




After - Ready for Paint




Thick layer of G2




I was able to get three coats on each part with one kit. If you have more paint you could get a smoother finish to an extent. It self-levels somewhat but you'll still get some bumps and brush marks. I would not brush it on smooth untextured calipers - I would use spray gun that could spray it (it's thick) or use another two-part product. These calipers were obviously removed completely but you could also paint them on the car. I wanted somewhat of a complete seal so I painted every surface except the piston surface. Also, you may or may not want to paint the other mating surfaces between the caliper and knuckle/trailing arm. Ideally this interface would be pure steel on steel. I made a conscious decision to paint it.

Complete







I ended up masking and airbrushing the logo. It took a long time but came out nice. I don't plan on clear-coating them or anything, I will apply a few layers of ceramic coating every so often.
For the color I had 5 or 6 Testors paints and mixed them custom. It will be a little while before they go back on the car.

[brianc]

Part 2: Fold-Down Seat Upper Trim
You folks with fold-down seats know this piece! It just disintegrates between years 15 and 20 and it's NLA. It's a soft-touch coating that's on there. It comes off pretty easily seeing as most of it has sort of melted already. I used my hands, finger nails, and IPA.








I scuffed the plastic with 220 sandpaper and sprayed it w/ black Plasti-dip textured coating. Believe it or not I preferred it over SEM and 3M coatings that I tried as well. I lost track of the end caps somewhere - I hope they turn up.

[bmwstephen]

Fold-Down Seat Upper Trim
You folks with fold-down seats know this piece! It just disintegrates between years 15 and 20 and it's NLA. It's a soft-touch coating that's on there. It comes off pretty easily seeing as most of it has sort of melted already. I used my hands, finger nails, and IPA.

Attachment 693353 Attachment 693354 Attachment 693355

I scuffed the plastic with 220 sandpaper and sprayed it w/ black Plasti-dip textured coating. Believe it or not I preferred it over SEM and 3M coatings that I tried as well. I lost track of the end caps somewhere - I hope they turn up.

Attachment 693356 Attachment 693357

The end caps were held together with the original texture coating. Its best to glue it on first (I recommend silicon adhessive) and then recovering everything all together with plasti-dip. That's what I did. As for replacements, I picked up a couple of them from coupes lying in the junkyard since these trims are NLA

[sirhodjibob]

The end caps were held together with the original texture coating. Its best to glue it on first (I recommend silicon adhessive) and then recovering everything all together with plasti-dip. That's what I did. As for replacements, I picked up a couple of them from coupes lying in the junkyard since these trims are NLA

Ah yes. I remember folding down my rear seats for the first time and wondered why my hands were covered in goo. When I removed mine they cracked, so I tossed them in the bin.

[AndrewIon21]

April 30 2004 - Totaled
Fortunately the police report correctly showed the intersection and my insurance would pay out..... $1500!!!! WTF. I storm into the insurance place w/ every receipt for every new part or upgrade I ever bought for the car. Total was over $15k. I told them the wheels alone are worth more the $1500! Tough luck they said, so I bought the car for $1500 and parted it out myself, with the bright idea to finally get my dream car.

[/QUOTE]

Here's a great example of why you should always declare your modifications to your insurance company. They may cover them, they may not. But at least you know about it before you get in an accident!

[scooper]

awesome work OP! Sorry for your '04 loss. Which insurance company was it? Keep your receipts and document your maintenance history. Those are worth a lot to state your case if an accident happens.

[RBNetEngr]

Nice work on your car. It looks great!

The upper rear seat trim on my ‘95 has deteriorated like your has. How are they removed from the seats?


-rb

[brianc]

Nice work on your car. It looks great!
The upper rear seat trim on my ‘95 has deteriorated like your has. How are they removed from the seats?
-rb

They slide off.. very carefully. There's sort of a cap on the end you remove and then slide.
I think it's the fire retardent in the ABS that makes these plastic pieces so brittle. They turn orange-yellow and get really brittle - same as the A and C pillars.

[brianc]

Status Update
I thought I would show where I’m actually at as of today. I have many documented procedures and milestones still to upload but as you might expect this doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve had the car up in the garage for two months so far. I decided to do everything at the same time and it does make it easier but there’s stuff everywhere! The things that have been completed so far.

- clay, polished, coated exterior. I did this first so all he dust and dirt and whatever gets on it will be able to be easily sprayed off when done .
- Refinished headliner and new A & C pillars w/ BMW fabric. Also did the rear deck. I hated this the most of everything.
- Reconditioned seats. They were already excellent & probably as good as can get but did anyways. Also did recline and u/p gears on both.
- Removed just about everything under hood except the engine itself (which also almost fell out a couple times!). Replacing every hose, tubing, clamp, bolt, brackets, etc.
- Replacing power steering, cooling, oil systems, all belts & pulleys. All parts cleaned and aluminum parts vapor blasted.
- Vanos rebuild completed.
- Fuel tank removed and fuel sender replaced. Not put back in yet.
- Rear subframe removed, cleaned up and poly bushings installed.
- Drive axles removed, new end caps & boots. CV joints cleaned and lubed. Not put back yet.
- Rear trailing arms removed and bearings replaced. Not put back yet.
- Removed brakes and refinished calipers.
- Removed all hubs and bearings and replacing w/ new OEM parts.
- Replaced every single bearing and bushing in the entire car. All OEM except 75A poly rear subframe bushings (not including diff), and 80A Turner FCA lollipops.
- Differential removed. I have two diffs and three gear sets 3.23, 3,46, and 3.64. The 3.46 and 3.64 used to only be used sometimes at willow springs, but now that not daily driver I'm rebuilding and putting in the 3.46. Not done yet.
- Removed Driveshaft. New Guibo & center support. Not done yet.
- Transmission replaced input & output seals, detent pins, throw out bearing, pivot pin, clutch fork replaced. Not reinstalled yet.
- Oil pan removed & vapor blasted. Replaced oil pan gasket, oil pickup tube, oil pump nut w/ safety wire. Complete.
- Front subframe reinforcements welded and refinished in 2K paint. New engine mounts. Engine supports also vapor blasting and reinstalled.
- Steering rack removed and cleaned up. New hard lines and steering joint/bushings. Not back in yet..
- Front suspension removed and original Ground Control struts being refinished. Also new Eibach springs and GC aluminum lower springs mounts to replace the old ones (some of springs started to peel and spring mount anodization faded a little)
- Rear Koni (GC spec) shocks replaced. They were fine but paint peeling and didn't want to refinish and like the new dark red color. Not installed yet.
- New rear Eibach springs and CG lower aluminum spring mounts.
- Rear main sealed replaced..
- Clutch and pilot bearing replaced w/ OE. Original flywheel still used.
- Undercarriage cleaned. Area above subframe refinished w/ new undercoating.
- Lots of interior details that will be covered later on.













...my wife isn't very happy that I'm taking up the whole garage but just as bad is the downstairs room. Check out the last pic there's a couch and a tv under there somewhere

[RBNetEngr]

Did you replace the rear bushings (RTABs) with stock rubber bushings?

I have considered replacing mine with the Bimmerworld monoball bushings:

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspensi...aring-Kit.html


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[brianc]

Did you replace the rear bushings (RTABs) with stock rubber bushings?

I have considered replacing mine with the Bimmerworld monoball bushings:

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspensi...aring-Kit.html


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No I use the OEM ones.. the revised ones that used to be Z3 but are M3 now too. They revised the design a little. I also use the ECS shims using then again they work great.

[DrftKingIII]

Covering a lot of ground. Keep up the good work.

[brianc]

Part 3: The overhaul begins w/ a coolant flush

The cooling system was flushed from the front and back end... it was drained and flushed through the radiator & engine block, and the heater core was flushed. It hadn't been done since 2011 (although <2k miles ago). coolant looked great and flushed quickly.




First coolant - BMW Blue!




First flush - Already Looking Good




Heater Core Hoses & Flush






Thermostat & Water Pump Openings Before Cleaning - Still Looking Reasonable

[JamesL71]

Subscribed. Good stuff.

[brianc]

Part 4: Oil Pan, Bottom-up look, Oil Pickup Tube & Pump Nut

Parts Replaced
(21) 07-11-9-915-031 Hex Bolt (M6X20-Z3) (oil pan mounting)
(2) 07-11-9-902-994 Hex Bolt (M6 x 60) (oil pan mounting)
(2) 07-11-9-905-433 Hex Bolt w/ Washer (M6 x 95-U1) (oil pan mounting)
(12) 11-24-1-739-729 Connecting Rod Bolt (44 mm Length)
(2) 11-24-1-284-852 Bearing shell, blue (44.75mm)
(1) 206177 Oil Pump Nut w/ drilled hole (M10 x 1-LH) (ECS)
(1) 11-41-1-703-930 Oil Pump Pickup Tube
(1) 11-41-1-703-947 Oil Pickup Tube Gasket
(1) 11-13-1-437-237 Oil Pan Gasket
(2) 07-11-9-904-527 Hex Bolt with Washer (M6 X 20-CR/VI) (oil pickup tube)
(2) 07-11-9-904-517 Hex Bolt With Washer (M6 x 12-CR/VI) (oil pickup tube)



Oil Pan Off and Inspection






Oil Pan, Engine Mount Brackets Vapor Blasted






Crankcase Inspecting Bottom-Up








Oil Pump Nut Safety Wire




Oil Pan Back On

[importbanana]

"inspection" usually involves removal of bearing caps.

[brianc]

"inspection" usually involves removal of bearing caps.

I did check the rod bearings - you can see the new bolts in the video. I have pics somewhere but didn't get it on video. It's hard to get video a lot of time when in the heat of battle although I'm trying my best

[sirhodjibob]

Did you see much wear? I don't see many replacing the rod bearings on S52s.

[brianc]

Did you see much wear? I don't see many replacing the rod bearings on S52s.

No. I did it just because I was there. I bought a few parts ahead of time but was too afraid to mess with it since everything looked good and ‘worn in’ nicely. I only removed the bottom pieces and looked at the top pieces best I could while installed. I’ll update this w/ pics if I can find them, was uneventful other than fact there wasn’t any scoring.