1996 BMW E36 328i sport
Discussion
I have been reading the readers cars section for a while but only registered a few weeks ago, life long car nutter with less money than aspirations allow. I have been through many different cars from Minis, 205 GTI’s Mk2 Focus ST, Golf GTI’s, VR6’s, Seat Leon Cupras, the list goes on. Fortunatly I now have a 2013 Mercedes C220 CDI company car. So I don’t have anything to mess with, or really the time with 2 children to take up all my money as well.
I bought this in December 2010 as the car I wanted when I started driving was an E36 M3, but as they were too rich for me at the time.
Arctic Silver
328i sport Auto
Black Leather
BBS RC040's
and thats about it.
Type code BG22
Type 328I (EUR)
Dev. series E36 (2)
Line 3
Colour ARKTISSILBER METALLIC (309)
Upholstery LEDER STANDARD/SCHWARZ (P7SW)
Prod. date 1995-12-06
Order options
No. Description
209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%)
255 SPORTS LEATHER STEERING WHEEL
337 M SPORTS PACKAGE
428 WARNING TRIANGLE
431 INTERIOR RR VW MIRROR W AUT ANTI-D
473 ARMREST, FRONT
481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
498 HEADRESTS IN REAR, MECHANIC. ADJUSTABLE
534 AUTOMATIC AIR CONDITIONING
556 EXTERIOR TEMPERATURE DISPLAY
687 RADIO PREPARATION
704 M SPORT SUSPENSION
767 INDIVIDUAL SERIES
806 3RD STOP LIGHT
812 ENGLAND VERSION
850 ADD FUEL TANK FILLING FOR EXPORT
962 MOTORKENNFELD
List of my order options when new
Updated pictures after I changed the tyre sizes
It was used as my daily drive for 6 months and 10,000 miles and as the impending MOT I decided to put it away and get to work on it at a later date, as it has a few issues that I needed to deal with. But other things took over, changes of job etc etc conspired against me and nothing has been done at all. It has sat unused, very occasionally started since July 2011.
I have a set of coil overs waiting to go on as well as Rear trailing arm bushes which desperately need changing, I do these but was scuppered at the first hurdle when we couldn’t get the bolts that holt the mounts into the trailing arms at all, with breaker bars or an impact gun. I have bought new bolts from BMW with the intention of cutting the old ones off.
I have not mentioned the biggest problem however which is the amount of oil it uses, which I have I think put down to the fact that I have Nikasil bore liner wear issue which these engine were known for. I carried out a cold compression test and had 5 cylinders at 155 psi and one at 110, so I presume it is down to this. I have not had a leak down test done though. The plugs do tend to oil up as well, and you can see smoke out of the exhaust at higher revs only. Other than that the car used to start and run easily, not lumpy at all.
I don’t know if this will move at all, but the intention is always there, I may try to get the thing MOT’d as then at least it is moveable and it may let me get on with getting it fixed. I have had a couple of prices to replace the engine, one at £750 for a drive in and drive out service, and with and Extra £250 to convert it to a manual at the same time.
It does have a bit of rust here and there, on the drivers door and a little on the rear arches, but its not as bad as many I have seen. So the last 3 years it has sat in the garage nice and dry, hopefully not deteriorating too much, apart from aging rubber and plastic. The car itself is relatively low miles at 107k.
I am going to start buying the little bits it needs to make it as good as I can, until I can get the money together for the engine swap, or find a very cheap donor car or just even a bare engine would be ideal, as its only ever going to be a second car which is why the idea would be to at least put a manual box in it to make it more fun.
I bought this in December 2010 as the car I wanted when I started driving was an E36 M3, but as they were too rich for me at the time.
Arctic Silver
328i sport Auto
Black Leather
BBS RC040's
and thats about it.
Type code BG22
Type 328I (EUR)
Dev. series E36 (2)
Line 3
Colour ARKTISSILBER METALLIC (309)
Upholstery LEDER STANDARD/SCHWARZ (P7SW)
Prod. date 1995-12-06
Order options
No. Description
209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%)
255 SPORTS LEATHER STEERING WHEEL
337 M SPORTS PACKAGE
428 WARNING TRIANGLE
431 INTERIOR RR VW MIRROR W AUT ANTI-D
473 ARMREST, FRONT
481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
498 HEADRESTS IN REAR, MECHANIC. ADJUSTABLE
534 AUTOMATIC AIR CONDITIONING
556 EXTERIOR TEMPERATURE DISPLAY
687 RADIO PREPARATION
704 M SPORT SUSPENSION
767 INDIVIDUAL SERIES
806 3RD STOP LIGHT
812 ENGLAND VERSION
850 ADD FUEL TANK FILLING FOR EXPORT
962 MOTORKENNFELD
List of my order options when new
Updated pictures after I changed the tyre sizes
It was used as my daily drive for 6 months and 10,000 miles and as the impending MOT I decided to put it away and get to work on it at a later date, as it has a few issues that I needed to deal with. But other things took over, changes of job etc etc conspired against me and nothing has been done at all. It has sat unused, very occasionally started since July 2011.
I have a set of coil overs waiting to go on as well as Rear trailing arm bushes which desperately need changing, I do these but was scuppered at the first hurdle when we couldn’t get the bolts that holt the mounts into the trailing arms at all, with breaker bars or an impact gun. I have bought new bolts from BMW with the intention of cutting the old ones off.
I have not mentioned the biggest problem however which is the amount of oil it uses, which I have I think put down to the fact that I have Nikasil bore liner wear issue which these engine were known for. I carried out a cold compression test and had 5 cylinders at 155 psi and one at 110, so I presume it is down to this. I have not had a leak down test done though. The plugs do tend to oil up as well, and you can see smoke out of the exhaust at higher revs only. Other than that the car used to start and run easily, not lumpy at all.
I don’t know if this will move at all, but the intention is always there, I may try to get the thing MOT’d as then at least it is moveable and it may let me get on with getting it fixed. I have had a couple of prices to replace the engine, one at £750 for a drive in and drive out service, and with and Extra £250 to convert it to a manual at the same time.
It does have a bit of rust here and there, on the drivers door and a little on the rear arches, but its not as bad as many I have seen. So the last 3 years it has sat in the garage nice and dry, hopefully not deteriorating too much, apart from aging rubber and plastic. The car itself is relatively low miles at 107k.
I am going to start buying the little bits it needs to make it as good as I can, until I can get the money together for the engine swap, or find a very cheap donor car or just even a bare engine would be ideal, as its only ever going to be a second car which is why the idea would be to at least put a manual box in it to make it more fun.
Thank you, fortunately the photographs flatter slightly, its not without its faults. Sitting for so long has not really helped, as the battery has now failed in the alarm sounder, and I cant get the car to run without the alarm flashing. I am looking forward to trying to spend a but of time on it. I want to get it up in the air and asses what it need underneath. Its missing the front arch liners and ducting that also holds the outside air temperature sender. The last thing my 8 year old daughter want to do is help, my 3 yr old son is a bit too small to help at the moment.
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