E36 328i sport

[v8nrg]

Im looking at E36 328i sports at the moment, but they all seem a bit leggy.
Most have done well over 100K miles and some have up to 150K on them.

will one of these handle another 50K miles ok ?

I know there was an issue with the bore coatings and lots of engines had replacement blocks. Ive heard there is a phone number you can ring with the VIN number of the car to check if the car was efected and if it has had the block replaced.

Does anyone know what the phone nubmer is ?
Or is it just a case of ringing a BMW dealer ?


>> Edited by v8nrg on Monday 15th May 18:05

[bga]

One of my brothers band members has one with 190k on it & it still feels pretty quick (admittedly as a passenger).

Cant help with the Nicasil bit though.

[rich_b]

As long as its had regular oil changes i'll be fine. Mine has 120K on the clock and is as smooth as when I bought it at 60K.

Nikasil liners were binned in favour of steel ones in early 1998, I made sure I bought a model manufactured after this date (I think it was March '98). The nikasil ones erroded if you used high sulphur fuel causing loss of compression/power and lumpy idle.

On non-nikasil cars a a brass type 'tag' is fitted on the nearside rear of the engine block. Thats another way to tell.

[bennyboysvuk]

Mine's got 141,000 on the clock and still runs to over 155 on the speedo. The oil runs away from the tappets overnight which makes it a bit ticky for the first few seconds after startup, but otherwise it feels fresh and quick.

Re Nikasil
Most 328s have had the nikasil liners replaced now. Owners should have documentation of the head being rebuilt and the tab on the engine that defines the new steel liners is easy to find so the Nikasil issue shouldn't be difficult to check. When I bought mine I phoned the BMW dealer that I had receipts from and they confirmed that they supplied the new engine parts.

The only question I'd ask is would you not rather get an M3? I think if I could do it again, I would have gone for one.

[loose cannon]

a friend of mine is selling his soon its an auto with m kit and evo wheels from new full history silver coupe 2 owners originally his brothers and about 65 70k if i remember t plate 1999 e36
sorry to jump in on the thread but if your interested its a nice motor

[turbo tim]

On this thread,

I said:

dell.k said: Basically, the 328 lump is pretty bulletproof as long as its been services according to what it wants. This is right. As with pretty much any decent marque, buy on condition and service history. As long as it’s been well maintained, high mileage is nothing to be scared of. dell.k said: The only thing to look out for is if it was made up until about May 1998 as it may be a Nikasil engine. It should have been replaced or fixed, but you never know. Do a search on the web for M52 & Nikasil problems and you'll soon see what I am talking about / how to identify if it is or not. Useful Nikasil info here…. http://web.archive.org/web/2004100919www.lestac.co.uk/bmw/nikasil.htm “How to spot one” from our friends over at e36coupe.co.uk….. www.e36coupe.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1770 Good luck

Also…

AUTOCAR Magazine 14th January 1998 said:

Don't buy: BMW M3 Buy: BMW 328i The M3 is a good car but the 328i is a great one. The main reason is that the £25,040 328i achieves 95 percent of what the £38,420 M3 does at two thirds of the price. It also has a less thrusting and therefore rather more appealing image than the "come-on-then-if-you-think-you're-hard-enough" M3. The long and short of it is that ability beyond the 328i's isn't strictly necesarry, especially when some of it is misapplied as it is in the M3

Buy one.

[stefd]

Can't really comment on high mileage cars because mine's done 63k, although everyone seems to believe that the non nikasil engines are basically bullet proof if serviced properly. I'd be more concerned about resale value rather than reliability to be honest.

Tons of info about nikasil out there:

The BMW Nikasil issue
The 30 second Nikasil check

Any worries then just phone BMW customer services on 0800 325 600. They're pretty helpful, told me when mine had a replacement block and which dealer did it.

[stefd]

I'm not a parrot...honest. Just a slower typer than Tim

[turbo tim]

^^^^



Yipee!! I won the race!

(but his links work better than mine!)

[batphink]

AUTOCAR Magazine 14th January 1998 said:

Don't buy: BMW M3 Buy: BMW 328i The M3 is a good car but the 328i is a great one. The main reason is that the £25,040 328i achieves 95 percent of what the £38,420 M3 does at two thirds of the price. It also has a less thrusting and therefore rather more appealing image than the "come-on-then-if-you-think-you're-hard-enough" M3. The long and short of it is that ability beyond the 328i's isn't strictly necesarry, especially when some of it is misapplied as it is in the M3

Buy one.[/quote]

Surely that only applies to new/nearly new ones? Considering there is very little between similar age/mileage/condition E36 328s and M3s now (less than £1K) thats less of a valid argument?

I know which one I would go for. And if you're not keen on the 'come and have ago...' image - swap the mirrors and badges for a lesser model and hey presto - your M3 becomes a 320 sleeper

[catso]

I had a 323 (which is the same block, only difference was the crankshaft IIRC) which suffered from the Nikasil problem at 60k, BMW replaced the block and gave a warranty up to 100k. The 'cure' for the bore wear is indeed a cure, I would say that the high mileage is not a problem if it's been maintained correctly.

[v8nrg]

Thanks for the info guys .

I have another question though.

I have just read that not all 328 sports have a LSD.
Aparently pre 1998 cars have a LSD and post 1998 cars had some sort of clever traction control.
Is this correct ???



Also could some kind sole please copy and past the info from these sites on to this thread. Because i cant access the pages.

said:

Useful Nikasil info here…. http://web.archive.org/web/2004100919www.lestac.co.uk/bmw/nikasil.htm “How to spot one” from our friends over at e36coupe.co.uk….. www.e36coupe.co.uk/forum/viewtopic

Thanks

[Mr Beckerman]

Not mine, but a colleagues;

www.pistonheads.com/sales/77804.htm

[rich_b]

v8nrg said:

Thanks for the info guys . I have another question though. I have just read that not all 328 sports have a LSD. Aparently pre 1998 cars have a LSD and post 1998 cars had some sort of clever traction control. Is this correct ???

Correct, I think the facelifted (post 1996) models have ASC and the older ones have LSDs.

[catso]

rich_b said:

Correct, I think the facelifted (post 1996) models have ASC and the older ones have LSDs.

I bought a 323 in 1996 and from that year model (facelift) the 6 cyl cars, at least, had ASC+T (Automatic Stability Control + Traction) as standard, so presumably from then LSD would have become optional.

[Pat H]

rich_b said:

v8nrg said: Thanks for the info guys . I have another question though. I have just read that not all 328 sports have a LSD. Aparently pre 1998 cars have a LSD and post 1998 cars had some sort of clever traction control. Is this correct ??? Correct, I think the facelifted (post 1996) models have ASC and the older ones have LSDs.

I have a late 1995 328 Coupe Auto which doesn't have ASC.

It isn't a Sport, but does have half leather sport seats and 17 inch cross spoke alloys.

It has a sunroof, but no aircon.

It has covered 54000 miles and it is a minter.

It had a replacement block at 18000 miles to sort the nikasil problem.

It was my 69 year old mother's car until 2 years ago. The mileage is genuine, it has just had 2 new tyres and a stainless cat-back sports exhaust.

There is a pic somewhere on my profile.

It might be for sale.