BMW E36 M3 - US Spec

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TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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Hi all, long time lurker, and have been very impressed with everyones builds. 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 (ummm…..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.




More to come...

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
quotequote all
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 smile


..aaaaaand more to come!

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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Over Thanksgiving weekend we took a trip down the coast to Monterey. My wife wanted to visit the aquarium, and I look for any excuse to drive my car.

Just a few pictures:








AB

16,969 posts

194 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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335d in the background of one of those pictures.

Been a couple of years since I've been in the US but I don't remember ever seeing a diesel. Are they becoming more common?

I love the E36 shape, do you mind me asking how much that cost you?

5potTurbo

12,482 posts

167 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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Nice car, and good to see it receiving some (much needed) love!

My brother used to live in SoCal and I remember his BMW (an E30 325es) was very different to anything in Europe, too. Being a SoCal car it suffered more on the paintwork from sand damage when winds picked up. His was still a clean car though after 180k odd miles before he sold it when he moved - to S.Carolina first to work for BMW.

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
quotequote all
AB said:
335d in the background of one of those pictures.

Been a couple of years since I've been in the US but I don't remember ever seeing a diesel. Are they becoming more common?

I love the E36 shape, do you mind me asking how much that cost you?
There's a big following for TDI's in the US!


OP, nice to see you are enjoying your life in the US.
Although I was looking at the boring dials, the silly steering wheel, thinking, "he's going to put a proper m3 engine in it.." but no :P


Get those headlights sorted! Ruin the look of the front end. You can do it yourself, quite easy smile get some sand paper and borrow a machine polisher! smile

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
quotequote all
Thanks folks.

There does seem to be a few diesels out here. I'm not sure how many more will come to California though after 'VW Diesel-gate', they've been rendered effectively worthless here, because California has strict smog testing every 2 years.

Which leads me on to "he's going to put a proper m3 engine in it..". It's something that has crossed my mind. I drove a few E46's, and that S54 is unreal. The way it winds out is something else. But currently the smog laws of California are confusing me; they are extremely strict when it comes to engine conversions. Plus, as stated, I live in an apartment, and although it's a dream of mine to replace an engine, alas that day is not here yet.

Regarding the (current) S52 in there, this is from a fellow US owner on another forum, and I have to agree with the short gearing:

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.

EDIT: I have a headlight restoration kit awaiting.

...oh, and watch this space for the steering wheel whistle

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
quotequote all
You'll get there with the project and space in the end dude.

BTW - regarding US restrictions, you are fine as long as you keep stock emissions hardware in place.

https://www.bar.ca.gov/Industry/Engine_Change_Guid...

Some good info here too http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/emissions/

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1...
biggrin

Sidewindow

300 posts

222 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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Lovely M3, great colour and not faded like most red e36 seem to be! The US spec airbag wheel is tragic.. glad you have plans to sort it! Cracking photos too, California dreaming..

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Friday 8th January 2016
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xjay1337 said:
You'll get there with the project and space in the end dude.

BTW - regarding US restrictions, you are fine as long as you keep stock emissions hardware in place.

https://www.bar.ca.gov/Industry/Engine_Change_Guid...

Some good info here too http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/emissions/

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1...
biggrin
Thanks. Useful info

Sidewindow said:
Lovely M3, great colour and not faded like most red e36 seem to be! The US spec airbag wheel is tragic.. glad you have plans to sort it! Cracking photos too, California dreaming..
laugh Tragic is a good word for it.

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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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.

5ohmustang

2,755 posts

114 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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Congratulations on the green card, been through that nightmare. Driven the pch yet?

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Monday 18th January 2016
quotequote all
Thanks, yeah I'm glad that's over for the time being.

I've done SF to Monterey and back, but not any further yet. I'm keen to go further at some point, but I'm currently in those first few months of car ownership where I'm trying to gauge reliability (among other things).

So far, I can report only good things! biggrin


MJ85

1,849 posts

173 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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I like the size of the parking space smile. More updates when you can!

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
quotequote all
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 wink

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


GreatPretender

26,140 posts

213 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
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Congratulations clap

Ripe for an S50 head swap surely? Or are you limited by emissions etc?

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2016
quotequote all
Are there gains to be had from an s50 head on an s52? I've never heard of that.

I am limited by emissions, the smog check is pretty rigorous, so I heard.

I'm more limited by space/resources as far as engine swaps are concerned though.

Thanks for the comments smile

GreatPretender

26,140 posts

213 months

Thursday 4th February 2016
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TheDukeGTi said:
Are there gains to be had from an s50 head on an s52? I've never heard of that.

I am limited by emissions, the smog check is pretty rigorous, so I heard.

I'm more limited by space/resources as far as engine swaps are concerned though.

Thanks for the comments smile
Well, the internet tells me that your S52 motor is a hybrid S50 bottom end with the M50 head, but perhaps its just easier to throw in a complete S50 motor, if they're available out there?

Worth pursuing options. I can tell you that a fresh E36 M3 is a wondrous thing. Never had the chance to drive a US spec one though. What's the power output?

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Sunday 20th March 2016
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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…

TheDukeGTi

Original Poster:

202 posts

135 months

Sunday 20th March 2016
quotequote all
GreatPretender said:
Well, the internet tells me that your S52 motor is a hybrid S50 bottom end with the M50 head, but perhaps its just easier to throw in a complete S50 motor, if they're available out there?

Worth pursuing options. I can tell you that a fresh E36 M3 is a wondrous thing. Never had the chance to drive a US spec one though. What's the power output?
Ok, sounds interesting, thanks. It's around 240bhp, but the torque seems endless, I think that's the redeeming feature of the US spec model. I'm told they're also more reliable, which is kind of a ridiculous statement for any 20 year old car, I guess time will tell.