E36 328, soft top, £575, What's the worst that could happen?

[JordanTurbo]

So what would possess me to do this? A bit of a story is needed....

For the last couple of years I've been driving a V8 Audi S6 Avant (Thread HERE). It was bought as a family car for our boy and 2 dogs, that could still put a smile on my face while the wife pottered around in a little 3 door Vauxhall Corsa. Since then (now with two children) my wife wanted something bigger and ended up in a Discovery 2. We don't need 2 big cars so I've decided to take the chance to move on into something smaller (although still with 4 seats), more fun, and to scratch a soft top itch while I'm at it.

"But the Audi will sell for a few grand, why not buy a nice condition sport or even an M3?" I hear you ask...

I did originally set out with a budget of £2,000-£2,500 to buy something nice, But M3s are out of that budget and trying to find an E36 328 convertible sport with a manual gearbox that is still in respectable nick is next to impossible. After a few months of watching the market and going to see a couple of disappointing cars I decided I'd have to widen my net.

Then a few weeks ago I spotted a car on ebay (other auction sites are available) only half an hour from home. It wasn't a sport, had no MOT, very little tax and it looked bad in the pictures. But it had the right engine and gearbox, good spec with reasonable miles on it, and was still sat at it's £500 start with a day to go so it gave me an idea. If I can't find a good one, Why not make a good one myself? If I could get it cheep enough to make it worth my while and the mechanicals were good, I'd have the rest of the budget to bring it up to standard and I'd have done it myself so i'd know it's done right.

I organised to view it around the same time the auction finished. It looked like it did in the pictures, rough, but I took it for a drive an it felt lovely and tight and pulled well. I checked everything else over including the roof which although in very bad condition went up and down fine. I decided I'd have it as long as the price was right and actually ended up finishing the auction in the sellers kitchen while we had a brew. I won the auction at £575.09 and after a quick trip to the cash point I was on my way home with one of the worst used cars I've bought since the little rotten 1.25ltr Fiesta when I was 17, and a massive grin

So here she is.



bad roof:





Good strong 328 motor. MAF to throttle body intake pipe needs replacing





Manual with climate/aircon and full working 18 button OBC, but mucky interior and worn drivers bolster/gear knob.









102k on the clock which is good but front pads and discs need doing for MOT.



Nearly full tool kit (missing one spanner) but locking latch is broken



BMW torch present



More keys than I think I've ever got with a used car. All locks/ignition match, fobs didn't work when viewing but with new batteries they are fine



And lastly parked with the family Discovery and the soon to depart Audi

Edited by JordanTurbo on Friday 17th April 19:33

[sprouting]

Nice couple of threads there, makes a good read. Look forward to reading your progress with this.

Here's a site that might help if you haven't already found it, http://www.e36coupe.com/forum/

And was the Disco a bogof offer. Needs a journal of its own.

[n3il123]

Nice

If thats the worst used car you've brought you've been lucky!

[JordanTurbo]

sprouting said:

Nice couple of threads there, makes a good read. Look forward to reading your progress with this.

Here's a site that might help if you haven't already found it, http://www.e36coupe.com/forum/

And was the Disco a bogof offer. Needs a journal of its own.

Thanks, The Disco has had plenty of work done since we bought it (modifications not repairs) so I may put a thread up for it later. The second Disco in the background was a scrapper bought for parts and then weighed in.

n3il123 said:

Nice

If thats the worst used car you've brought you've been lucky!

I Thought it was when I drove it back but to be honest when I think harder about my car history It isn't alone.

The Disco mentioned above was bought with a hole in the side of the Auto Box.
My old Astra, although it was mint with a 370bhp rebuilt 2ltr Cavalier turbo engine when finished, was bought as a 1.6 GS with velour interior.
My wifes old Corsa was bought cheap with a blown head gasket deliberately to fix.

I'm actually making a habit of buying cars no one wants! No wonder my wife gets the hump

Edited by JordanTurbo on Thursday 31st July 13:09

[SPT28]

sprouting said:

Here's a site that might help if you haven't already found it, http://www.e36coupe.com/forum/

^^^ what he said, useful forum and a good bunch who know everything about these. I've had a few myself and have a few parts laying about so if you need anything feel free to PM me.

Sadly I'm now looking to do the reverse of what you have - Audi estate beckons as need a tow car and something more practical, well asides the fuel bill

What's the plan for the S6? has it already been sold? if not feel free to drop me a PM.

[JordanTurbo]

SPT28 said:

What's the plan for the S6? has it already been sold? if not feel free to drop me a PM.

The Audi isn't sold. I haven't advertised it yet as it's due a cambelt replacement which I'll need to do before it goes.

[duffy78]

potentially interested in the audi aswell. I've been looking out for a decent 2.7t manual A6 for ages but wouldnt say no to a bit of C5 S6.

Where abouts are you based?

[JordanTurbo]

First modification made today. Swapped the horrible bright silver and blue Sony headunit for a spare Pioneer unit I had in the garage. Looks much better and has adjustable colour buttons/display so matches the dash illumination perfectly

Edited by JordanTurbo on Friday 17th April 19:34

[johnfm]

Awesome buy for sub £600.

Good work.

[SPT28]

JordanTurbo said:

SPT28 said:

What's the plan for the S6? has it already been sold? if not feel free to drop me a PM.

The Audi isn't sold. I haven't advertised it yet as it's due a cambelt replacement which I'll need to do before it goes.

Ah ha fair enough, well as I said, feel free to drop me a PM when you're ready to sell, exactly what I'm after. Cheers

[JordanTurbo]

SPT28 said:

Ah ha fair enough, well as I said, feel free to drop me a PM when you're ready to sell, exactly what I'm after. Cheers

Ok will do

If SWMBO would let me I'd be keeping all three. It's near enough my perfect 3 car garage at the moment.

[Joe Sp]

It's great to see a nice e36 being saved. A bit of liquid leather should bring the seats up nicely. Are the switches on the seat bases electric lumber adjustment?

[carpetsoiler]

The electric lumbar support is hideously rare, so you've got an awesome little surprise there. Also, that's a decent amount of keys and fobs!

Enjoy it, they're lovely cruisers as a convertible.

[JordanTurbo]

Cheers guys.

Yes that is lumbar support. I didn't realise it was that rare though, bonus.

Was in town today so picked up a few bits.

• Genuine BMW intake pipe
• Bosch oil, fuel and air filters
• pollen filter (not fussed about make as it's only filtering air for me)
• 6 NGK spark plugs
• 8 litres of 5w40 fully synthetic oil
• fresh coolent to do a drain and refill

Some may frown at the halfords engine oil but I'm firmly of the opinion that clean cheap oil is better than dirty posh oil so, provided it's the correct grade, I would rather have cheap halfords oil in and change it twice as often for the same price. With engine filters however I will only trust a good known brand or OEM. I've had cars in the past that dont get on with cheap filters (namely common rail diesels and their fuel filters)

When I got back I jacked her up to see what is needed for the MOT. Front pads need doing as per dash light and discs are looking past it so will be replaced too. The rear brakes are fine. Apart from that the only thing I've found is the outer ball joint on the near side front wishbone has play in it.

So I've ordered some bits for it as follows.

• Lemforder E30 front wish bones both sides.
• Meyle HD Front ARB drop links (worth doing whilst the wishbones are off)
• Brembo OEM spec front discs.
• EBC yellow stuff front pads.

Edited by JordanTurbo on Friday 17th April 19:36

[hughcam]

The quality of Halfords oil is as good as any of the premium brands. It still has the same ACEA ratings and is tested to the same manufacturer specs as Mobil, Silkolene, Castrol etc...

[JordanTurbo]

Yep.

And I got 8 liters of fully synthetic for £24 . Engine takes about 6.5 apparently so will give me some extra for top ups if needed.

[carpetsoiler]

JordanTurbo said:

Yep.

And I got 8 liters of fully synthetic for £24 . Engine takes about 6.5 apparently so will give me some extra for top ups if needed.

It's a very 'fluid-y' engine.

6.5 litres of 10w40 oil (that's my choice, yours is clearly different!) and 10.5 litres of coolant..!!

Other things worth keeping an eye on: radiator, water pump, viscous fan and thermostat. They fitted the M52 with a fairly crappy rad which is prone to bowing/bulging/cracking, and worth replacing. The water pump came with a plastic impeller, and around the 100k mark they're known to just disintegrate into the engine, leaving you with a very dead and irreparable M52 engine (they really don't like being overheated). You can replace it with a metal impeller version, which is fairly cheap and straightforward to do. Thermostats are an 'easy come, easy go' kind of thing, but relatively easy to change. Viscous fan clutches can lock up, leading to a fan that does 0-60 when you do... and then disintegrates, sending large chunks of plastic into all sorts of places- through the bonnet (yes, you read that right), into the rad, through cooling pipes...

What are your plans, to take it back to as OEM as possible, or lightly breathe on it? They're very tuneable engines... mine currently is running a DaveF air intake, M50 intake manifold, solid flywheel conversion which has been lightened, ASC delete with a clear intake path, a straight through exhaust with no cats, a remap, an uprated EMP water pump, Mishimoto rad & M3 header tank... it runs around 250bhp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_FlSqhkjso

[JordanTurbo]

carpetsoiler said:

Other things worth keeping an eye on: radiator, water pump, viscous fan and thermostat. They fitted the M52 with a fairly crappy rad which is prone to bowing/bulging/cracking, and worth replacing. The water pump came with a plastic impeller, and around the 100k mark they're known to just disintegrate into the engine, leaving you with a very dead and irreparable M52 engine (they really don't like being overheated). You can replace it with a metal impeller version, which is fairly cheap and straightforward to do. Thermostats are an 'easy come, easy go' kind of thing, but relatively easy to change. Viscous fan clutches can lock up, leading to a fan that does 0-60 when you do... and then disintegrates, sending large chunks of plastic into all sorts of places- through the bonnet (yes, you read that right), into the rad, through cooling pipes...

I have read about the temperamental cooling system on these. I'm probably going to upgrade to a metal impeller water pump while the coolant is out. I'm undecided whether to replace the plastic thermostat housing with a metal one at the same time, I think I'll leave it as is for now as its not leaking and do it when I Invariably replace the radiator at a later date.

As for the viscous fan, I'll replace it for a thermostatically controlled electric one at some point.

carpetsoiler said:

What are your plans, to take it back to as OEM as possible, or lightly breathe on it?

The plan right now is to get her MOT'd, back on the road and running reliably. Then have the roof fabric/window replaced.

More long term will be to take a lightly modified route while looking as OEM as possible. Main mods will be:

• Sport/M3 bumpers
• Find a Hard top for winter
• Replace worn front seats
• Replace all grey plastics, dashboard and carpet with black items
• OEM 17" alloys (currently liking staggered style 32s or some e34 throwing stars)
• LSD with a shorter gear ratio
• New suspension but not a massive drop, probably Bilstein B12 kit with M3 top mounts and offset lollipop bushes
• M50 manifold with Dave-f style filter and remap

Edited by JordanTurbo on Sunday 3rd August 19:04

[kev b]

I have a new, unopened box, E36 328i radiator if you need one, Nissens brand.

[JordanTurbo]

Few bits done today.

Fitted new intake pipe, air filter and removed the restrictor from the air box.



Also fitted the new pollen filter. The filter I removed was the original 16 year/100,000 mile one. I know as the replacement has to be "snapped" in two places to fit in situ and this one wasn't until I did it to remove it. I couldnt believe the amount of crap/leaves/bugs that came out with it.

Edited by JordanTurbo on Friday 17th April 19:38