E36 BMW M3 3.0
Discussion
Well the car is still going strong and proving very reliable (touch wood).
Its very easy to live with, and is a joy to use.
Only a couple of things creeping into my mind. On a cold start up (well as cold as Dubai can be), the car whines a bit as the revs rise. I suspect its a belt of some sort, but not 100% sure. It goes away after 5 mins of driving, and I have tried turning the aircon off before that time but the noise is still there. I'll get the alternator belt checked out and go from there.
On the subject of aircon.....mine appears to work fine, but just wondered if it was a E36 trait for it to be pretty noticeable when it engages? I know that might be the case when stationary but when driving at a constant speed, you can certainly feel the engine power momentarily blip as it engages. Maybe something else to just get checked out?
Still need to get around to removing the rear tints. The fronts, I was able to remove myself but no such joy with the rears. I'm sure it'll look a whole lot better with them done.
A couple of pics
Its very easy to live with, and is a joy to use.
Only a couple of things creeping into my mind. On a cold start up (well as cold as Dubai can be), the car whines a bit as the revs rise. I suspect its a belt of some sort, but not 100% sure. It goes away after 5 mins of driving, and I have tried turning the aircon off before that time but the noise is still there. I'll get the alternator belt checked out and go from there.
On the subject of aircon.....mine appears to work fine, but just wondered if it was a E36 trait for it to be pretty noticeable when it engages? I know that might be the case when stationary but when driving at a constant speed, you can certainly feel the engine power momentarily blip as it engages. Maybe something else to just get checked out?
Still need to get around to removing the rear tints. The fronts, I was able to remove myself but no such joy with the rears. I'm sure it'll look a whole lot better with them done.
A couple of pics
ref your aircon have you checked the pollen filters?
mine blew ice cold air but with no flow, changed the pollen filters and was ice cold and full flow again. common for them to be overlooked on general home servicing.
Out of interest how much do E36 M3's cost over there? Similar to here in the uk?
mine blew ice cold air but with no flow, changed the pollen filters and was ice cold and full flow again. common for them to be overlooked on general home servicing.
Out of interest how much do E36 M3's cost over there? Similar to here in the uk?
S3_Graham said:
ref your aircon have you checked the pollen filters?
mine blew ice cold air but with no flow, changed the pollen filters and was ice cold and full flow again. common for them to be overlooked on general home servicing.
Out of interest how much do E36 M3's cost over there? Similar to here in the uk?
Thanks,mine blew ice cold air but with no flow, changed the pollen filters and was ice cold and full flow again. common for them to be overlooked on general home servicing.
Out of interest how much do E36 M3's cost over there? Similar to here in the uk?
Yeah its been changed recently and re-gassed.
Well guys, I toyed with the idea of tracking it (never made it) and I also looked into selling it (but couldn't go through with it).
My hand now has been forced due to baby arrival (Due end of summer). As a result, the M3 is a luxury I no longer can afford so she has to go.
I will be sticking an advert on Dubizzle for anyone on the look out.
Car is still running like a dream, and really felt strong during the cooler months.
All the best
Matt
My hand now has been forced due to baby arrival (Due end of summer). As a result, the M3 is a luxury I no longer can afford so she has to go.
I will be sticking an advert on Dubizzle for anyone on the look out.
Car is still running like a dream, and really felt strong during the cooler months.
All the best
Matt
Update
Firstly, the car has been on the market for a while now and it seems the market for 20 year old cars which aren't white and have a MT are few and far between.
I've been relatively keen with my asking price as its not a distressed sale and i'm not (wasn't!) in a rush to sell.
Of course if the right person came along with the right money I would consider still selling, but in the meantime I am just having too much fun!
Anyway I keep this up to date, this is what I have done recently.
Rear Speakers -
The new Sony units I installed a while ago in the original covers (4" or there abouts), sounded like a wet fart (to be honest wasn't expecting too much)
So I purchased some of these and then purchased some sony 6x9's. I am not massive into in car tunes and perfect quality, but this was much improved over what I had and enabled me to keep the OEM look. Couple that with my entire iTunes library installed on a 64gb flash drive, and i'm good to go (iPhone kept over heating!)
Wheels balanced -
Ok so not very exciting I know, but I began to get a slight vibration around 60mph which would come and go. First things first I thought, lets get the wheels balanced. Upon doing so, I noticed the rears could do with changing. They still had some meat on them, but were beginning to look a little cracked and it wasn't something I wanted to risk in the heat here at the moment (40c most days, pushing 45c). So I ask the garage what they have in stock in my original non staggered setup of 235/40/17 and they have zero, nothing.....not a zip! They offered some Khumos in 225/40/17 but I am unwilling to compromise. So back on with the old tyres for now, and off in search of the correct size. I leave the garage, get maybe 200 yards down the road when I here clunk clunk clunk coming from the rear passenger side.......feck! They've done me haven't they! I'm going to be left with no choice but to replace them now at their garage! As I get out to have a look nothing springs (little clue there) out at me, so I slowly head back to the garage. Inevitably, they try and pin the problem on the tyres but after some heated discussion I explain and finally get through to them that this was not happening before I arrived. So they have a little test drive and come back, scratch their beards a little and then figure out the problem. No ones fault really, and not sure how it happened but when the car was jacked up the spring uncompressed had become misaligned somehow. When it was then lowered and not aligned correctly the first two coils were tighter packed then they should have been, which resulted in the problem (that's my understanding anyway)! After a quick tweak with a huge persuader they had it sorted.
Following this the vibration has improved as I still had the wheels balanced. There is no longer any wheel judder, but there is definitely still a noise / sensation of something not 100% towards the rear......I will continue to investigate. I still haven't been able to source some replacement tyres in the correct size......they just don't seem to be available anywhere. The nearest I can get is 235/45/17, so I might go for them if I have no joy in the next couple of weeks.
Spark Plug change -
Not a hard job, and managed to do it relatively easily with one exception! There is an earth lead attached to the mounting of the last coil (firewall end), which managed I managed to lose down the back of the engine. Thankfully I have quite small hands, so I could attempt to reach and retrieve the wire. So I go for it....I can feel the wire, its almost in grasp when......my hand begins to slow-roast on the still hot engine (2hrs after driving it). In my now desperate and flustered attempt to get it before the BBQ really kicks in, I push it further and further away. After many failed attempts, I give it another hour and come back armed with a bottle of cold water! Finally managed to retrieve the lead, and put it all back together. The old plugs looked in good condition apart from 5 or the 6 having a medium coating of oil. Next task is the valve cover and spark plug gaskets!
All in all, it was a worthwhile job as in traffic smoothness has much improved.
Roof Ledge Molding -
This is still work in progress but I have been meaning to do this for a while now. The roof ledge molding on my car has looked bad since day 1, but has progressively got worse.
I had planned to buy replacements, and depending on how this goes I may well still do that. However being a Yorkshire lad, I'm all for saving a few fils so will refurbish them.
So I remove the old ones in about 5 mins flat. I sprayed a bit of WD40 down the gap then gently tapped it off with small bit of wood and a hammer......no problems.
This is a small section of what they looked like to begin with once I got them indoors
I considered sanding initially, but after having a brew I decided my friend Stanley the Knife would be the best weapon of choice. Turned out I was right......just ran the knife down both the bottom and top edge of the trim, then once onto the middle section it just easily peeled away in most parts. I was down to bare metal on both parts within 15mins and had a nice pile of rubbish to go with it.
After this I sanded them down to a smoother finish and then hit them with a first coat. The humidity and temperature wasn't in my favour, so the first coat isn't the best, but I allowed time to dry and smoothed them off again. Second coat (not in pics)has a much better finish and is already looking good.
So I just need give them another fine sanding this evening and apply another coat and they should be good to go. I am hoping my care removing them will allow them to be re-fitted easily! Will post some pics of it completed soon.
Finally a pic of the car from a few weeks ago just after I had received a parking ticket...scandalous!
Firstly, the car has been on the market for a while now and it seems the market for 20 year old cars which aren't white and have a MT are few and far between.
I've been relatively keen with my asking price as its not a distressed sale and i'm not (wasn't!) in a rush to sell.
Of course if the right person came along with the right money I would consider still selling, but in the meantime I am just having too much fun!
Anyway I keep this up to date, this is what I have done recently.
Rear Speakers -
The new Sony units I installed a while ago in the original covers (4" or there abouts), sounded like a wet fart (to be honest wasn't expecting too much)
So I purchased some of these and then purchased some sony 6x9's. I am not massive into in car tunes and perfect quality, but this was much improved over what I had and enabled me to keep the OEM look. Couple that with my entire iTunes library installed on a 64gb flash drive, and i'm good to go (iPhone kept over heating!)
Wheels balanced -
Ok so not very exciting I know, but I began to get a slight vibration around 60mph which would come and go. First things first I thought, lets get the wheels balanced. Upon doing so, I noticed the rears could do with changing. They still had some meat on them, but were beginning to look a little cracked and it wasn't something I wanted to risk in the heat here at the moment (40c most days, pushing 45c). So I ask the garage what they have in stock in my original non staggered setup of 235/40/17 and they have zero, nothing.....not a zip! They offered some Khumos in 225/40/17 but I am unwilling to compromise. So back on with the old tyres for now, and off in search of the correct size. I leave the garage, get maybe 200 yards down the road when I here clunk clunk clunk coming from the rear passenger side.......feck! They've done me haven't they! I'm going to be left with no choice but to replace them now at their garage! As I get out to have a look nothing springs (little clue there) out at me, so I slowly head back to the garage. Inevitably, they try and pin the problem on the tyres but after some heated discussion I explain and finally get through to them that this was not happening before I arrived. So they have a little test drive and come back, scratch their beards a little and then figure out the problem. No ones fault really, and not sure how it happened but when the car was jacked up the spring uncompressed had become misaligned somehow. When it was then lowered and not aligned correctly the first two coils were tighter packed then they should have been, which resulted in the problem (that's my understanding anyway)! After a quick tweak with a huge persuader they had it sorted.
Following this the vibration has improved as I still had the wheels balanced. There is no longer any wheel judder, but there is definitely still a noise / sensation of something not 100% towards the rear......I will continue to investigate. I still haven't been able to source some replacement tyres in the correct size......they just don't seem to be available anywhere. The nearest I can get is 235/45/17, so I might go for them if I have no joy in the next couple of weeks.
Spark Plug change -
Not a hard job, and managed to do it relatively easily with one exception! There is an earth lead attached to the mounting of the last coil (firewall end), which managed I managed to lose down the back of the engine. Thankfully I have quite small hands, so I could attempt to reach and retrieve the wire. So I go for it....I can feel the wire, its almost in grasp when......my hand begins to slow-roast on the still hot engine (2hrs after driving it). In my now desperate and flustered attempt to get it before the BBQ really kicks in, I push it further and further away. After many failed attempts, I give it another hour and come back armed with a bottle of cold water! Finally managed to retrieve the lead, and put it all back together. The old plugs looked in good condition apart from 5 or the 6 having a medium coating of oil. Next task is the valve cover and spark plug gaskets!
All in all, it was a worthwhile job as in traffic smoothness has much improved.
Roof Ledge Molding -
This is still work in progress but I have been meaning to do this for a while now. The roof ledge molding on my car has looked bad since day 1, but has progressively got worse.
I had planned to buy replacements, and depending on how this goes I may well still do that. However being a Yorkshire lad, I'm all for saving a few fils so will refurbish them.
So I remove the old ones in about 5 mins flat. I sprayed a bit of WD40 down the gap then gently tapped it off with small bit of wood and a hammer......no problems.
This is a small section of what they looked like to begin with once I got them indoors
I considered sanding initially, but after having a brew I decided my friend Stanley the Knife would be the best weapon of choice. Turned out I was right......just ran the knife down both the bottom and top edge of the trim, then once onto the middle section it just easily peeled away in most parts. I was down to bare metal on both parts within 15mins and had a nice pile of rubbish to go with it.
After this I sanded them down to a smoother finish and then hit them with a first coat. The humidity and temperature wasn't in my favour, so the first coat isn't the best, but I allowed time to dry and smoothed them off again. Second coat (not in pics)has a much better finish and is already looking good.
So I just need give them another fine sanding this evening and apply another coat and they should be good to go. I am hoping my care removing them will allow them to be re-fitted easily! Will post some pics of it completed soon.
Finally a pic of the car from a few weeks ago just after I had received a parking ticket...scandalous!
Edited by matt_knowles on Sunday 29th June 10:20
Edited by matt_knowles on Sunday 29th June 10:21
Edited by matt_knowles on Sunday 29th June 10:23
Edited by matt_knowles on Sunday 29th June 10:26
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