1999 328i Sport
Discussion
Hi all,
Decided to move over to PH after using a pretty lifeless BMW forum for a journal (still unsure why I chose to use it, but hey-ho). I've lurked PH anonymously for 5+ years, but have only recently made an account.
I bought the car late 2018, so there's a decent backlog of posts I'll need to catch up on. Without further ado:
My 1999 328i Sport in Fern Green, with Dove Grey sport interior. This is how it looked when bought in Nov 2018, sitting at around 113k miles.
First pics of the car:
The car was fitted with some maxpeedingrods coilovers that were far too low and pissing oil everywhere despite looking pretty new. As soon as the road wasn't perfectly flat or any weight met the rear bench/boot the rear arches would catch wheels, hence the nice bare metal lip on the rears. Also fitted were black kidney grills and some tacky plastic eBay angel eye headlights. Other than that pretty standard.
Overall was quite clean, surprisingly no rust on the arches or jacking points but some lingering in the bonnet and boot lid (dealer fitted spoiler
) which wasn't the end of the world. A thick wallet of service history and MOTs dating right back to the purchase date helped sell the car as it was obvious money had been spent keeping it running right over the years. The car drove well and the motor felt strong, so a deal was made.
The one thing letting the car down was the automatic gearbox mated to the 2.8, though this did mean I had a pretty un-abused motor and got the car a fair bit cheaper than a factory manual 328 sport. I must admit the auto box wasn't as bad as many make it out to be, very smooth and still went well.
Luckily a nice bonus was thrown in with the car in the form of most of the parts required to swap the car to manual (tranny, pedals, driveshaft, shifter arm, clutch hardline etc.), albeit a getrag rather than the more desirable ZF box.
The first port of call was to service the car, treated to fresh oil, filters, plugs and a rocker gasket. The gasket was likely the original as it was so brittle it practically shattered when the rocker cover was removed. Inside didn't look too bad, not quite as clean as I expected giving the service history but nothing to be concerned about.
The drive home also highlighted a stuck thermostat + a poorly sounding heater matrix. A new heater matrix resistor was fitted, along with a new thermostat, housing and waterpump. While I was in there I also deleted the clutch fan (missing some blades + clutch was shot), adding a low temp aux fan switch and water wetter to the coolant to keep temps in check.
Upon finishing the service + thermostat replacement the engine was running notably smoother and returned far better MPG. Happy days.
That was at least until a week or two later when both exhaust rubbers decided they couldn't hold on any longer!
New rubbers and hangers were purchased, along with a scorpion DTM style backbox I found locally which was nabbed and fitted at the same time. Nice exhaust note with no drone at high speeds which was quality. Does sit a bit skew in the diffuser though, so some fettling required with the hanger tabs on the backbox.
M3 solid engine mounts and poly offset front LCA lollipops were obtained from the same seller, both of which needed replacing down the line.
Pic of the car cleaned up and out in the New Forest
Decided to move over to PH after using a pretty lifeless BMW forum for a journal (still unsure why I chose to use it, but hey-ho). I've lurked PH anonymously for 5+ years, but have only recently made an account.
I bought the car late 2018, so there's a decent backlog of posts I'll need to catch up on. Without further ado:
My 1999 328i Sport in Fern Green, with Dove Grey sport interior. This is how it looked when bought in Nov 2018, sitting at around 113k miles.
First pics of the car:
The car was fitted with some maxpeedingrods coilovers that were far too low and pissing oil everywhere despite looking pretty new. As soon as the road wasn't perfectly flat or any weight met the rear bench/boot the rear arches would catch wheels, hence the nice bare metal lip on the rears. Also fitted were black kidney grills and some tacky plastic eBay angel eye headlights. Other than that pretty standard.
Overall was quite clean, surprisingly no rust on the arches or jacking points but some lingering in the bonnet and boot lid (dealer fitted spoiler
) which wasn't the end of the world. A thick wallet of service history and MOTs dating right back to the purchase date helped sell the car as it was obvious money had been spent keeping it running right over the years. The car drove well and the motor felt strong, so a deal was made.The one thing letting the car down was the automatic gearbox mated to the 2.8, though this did mean I had a pretty un-abused motor and got the car a fair bit cheaper than a factory manual 328 sport. I must admit the auto box wasn't as bad as many make it out to be, very smooth and still went well.
Luckily a nice bonus was thrown in with the car in the form of most of the parts required to swap the car to manual (tranny, pedals, driveshaft, shifter arm, clutch hardline etc.), albeit a getrag rather than the more desirable ZF box.
The first port of call was to service the car, treated to fresh oil, filters, plugs and a rocker gasket. The gasket was likely the original as it was so brittle it practically shattered when the rocker cover was removed. Inside didn't look too bad, not quite as clean as I expected giving the service history but nothing to be concerned about.
The drive home also highlighted a stuck thermostat + a poorly sounding heater matrix. A new heater matrix resistor was fitted, along with a new thermostat, housing and waterpump. While I was in there I also deleted the clutch fan (missing some blades + clutch was shot), adding a low temp aux fan switch and water wetter to the coolant to keep temps in check.
Upon finishing the service + thermostat replacement the engine was running notably smoother and returned far better MPG. Happy days.
That was at least until a week or two later when both exhaust rubbers decided they couldn't hold on any longer!
New rubbers and hangers were purchased, along with a scorpion DTM style backbox I found locally which was nabbed and fitted at the same time. Nice exhaust note with no drone at high speeds which was quality. Does sit a bit skew in the diffuser though, so some fettling required with the hanger tabs on the backbox.
M3 solid engine mounts and poly offset front LCA lollipops were obtained from the same seller, both of which needed replacing down the line.
Pic of the car cleaned up and out in the New Forest
Sammo123 said:
Looks very nice. I'd love another E36 as a daily but they're mental money these days! I've got an E36 saloon which is (very) slowly being transformed into a track day car.
Cheers Sammo! Yes they have really rocketed in price the last few years. I've read through your thread previously - very jealous of the zinc plated hardware. Mines also headed towards being more of a track day car, any work to it happens quickly though as it's my only car!Next up was a front caliper rebuild after one practically seized while doing 70 on a dual carriageway. Bit of a brown trousers moment, but luckily wasn't far from home.
The diagnosis was a failed dust boot, which allowed rust to form on the piston and eventually lock out at an angle. The new seal kit unfortunately had a delaminated inner bore seal, so one of the old ones was reused as a temporary measure until the seller could send a new one out.
Few weeks later I came across a listing for black/cloth coupe rear seats and leather front/rear door cards for the measly sum of £25. Dove Grey does not age well if uncared for and mine was pretty roached, so I snapped them up with the goal of a full black interior swap somewhere down the line.
Winter came and went, with little other changes than a strut bar I picked up locally. Weather cleared up and it was finally dry enough outside to crack on with swapping in the manual gearbox. Had a 7 day slot with no University, so I had plenty of time in case of any issues I came across (spoiler: There were many.).
I ordered all new OEM or aftermarket parts to complete the swap including:
- HEL Stainless Braided Clutch Line
- Slave Cylinder
- Clutch Master Cylinder
- Redline Trans Fluid
- E46 M3 Trans mounts (stiffer than E36 OEM ones)
- Rear Main Seal
- Pilot Bearing
- Shifter Bearing
- Selector Rod Clips
- Selector Rod Washers
- Driveshaft Guibo
- Polyurethane front and rear shifter arm bushes
Plus more miscellaneous parts that I've likely forgotten about. The manual swap parts I got with the car came with a clutch/flywheel setup, with the friction plate looking practically new. I decided to use this to save some £££ - what a mistake that was.
Day 1 was quite easy, starting early morning and getting the auto box out by lunchtime thanks to the help of some mates. Only hinderances were downpipe studs sheering and the awful insulation in the transmission tunnel disintegrating every time it got moved. Vastly underestimated how heavy the auto box would be, was very glad I invested in a decent trolley jack to help drop it down.
All went smoothly installing the manual brake pedal and clutch pedal assembly, clutch hardline, clutch master, slave cyl and braided clutch hose. New rear main seal went in along with the pilot bearing, flywheel, followed by friction and pressure plate.
This is where the hassle began, had real trouble getting the transmission splines to go into the friction plate smoothly no matter how many times we re-aligned or manipulated the spline shaft. Once it finally went in and got everything bolted up I couldn't get any drive to the wheels which left me scratching my head. Cue taking the box on and off 5-6 times to check alignment and friction plate orientation, which finally led to the realisation the clutch kit might be wrong for the car. Trip to the parts store for a new 328 SACHS kit and we were finally in business. I also wrapped some plumbers solder around the selector rod to add a bit of weight to it before putting the car back on the ground.
The clutch issue still boggles my mind as supposedly the entire manual swap parts I got with the car came off another car that was driving fine before being stripped. Due to the downpipe studs snapping I replaced them with new stainless tubular manifolds - look great but fitment was questionable as it makes the midpipe sit a bit skew to stock position and further exacerbates the skew of the scorpion backbox.
First drive as a manual felt great and very rewarding after all the graft. After putting some miles on the clutch I celebrated with a drive with the mates that helped out. Notably the odd one out being outnumbered by French hot hatches!
The diagnosis was a failed dust boot, which allowed rust to form on the piston and eventually lock out at an angle. The new seal kit unfortunately had a delaminated inner bore seal, so one of the old ones was reused as a temporary measure until the seller could send a new one out.
Few weeks later I came across a listing for black/cloth coupe rear seats and leather front/rear door cards for the measly sum of £25. Dove Grey does not age well if uncared for and mine was pretty roached, so I snapped them up with the goal of a full black interior swap somewhere down the line.
Winter came and went, with little other changes than a strut bar I picked up locally. Weather cleared up and it was finally dry enough outside to crack on with swapping in the manual gearbox. Had a 7 day slot with no University, so I had plenty of time in case of any issues I came across (spoiler: There were many.).
I ordered all new OEM or aftermarket parts to complete the swap including:
- HEL Stainless Braided Clutch Line
- Slave Cylinder
- Clutch Master Cylinder
- Redline Trans Fluid
- E46 M3 Trans mounts (stiffer than E36 OEM ones)
- Rear Main Seal
- Pilot Bearing
- Shifter Bearing
- Selector Rod Clips
- Selector Rod Washers
- Driveshaft Guibo
- Polyurethane front and rear shifter arm bushes
Plus more miscellaneous parts that I've likely forgotten about. The manual swap parts I got with the car came with a clutch/flywheel setup, with the friction plate looking practically new. I decided to use this to save some £££ - what a mistake that was.
Day 1 was quite easy, starting early morning and getting the auto box out by lunchtime thanks to the help of some mates. Only hinderances were downpipe studs sheering and the awful insulation in the transmission tunnel disintegrating every time it got moved. Vastly underestimated how heavy the auto box would be, was very glad I invested in a decent trolley jack to help drop it down.
All went smoothly installing the manual brake pedal and clutch pedal assembly, clutch hardline, clutch master, slave cyl and braided clutch hose. New rear main seal went in along with the pilot bearing, flywheel, followed by friction and pressure plate.
This is where the hassle began, had real trouble getting the transmission splines to go into the friction plate smoothly no matter how many times we re-aligned or manipulated the spline shaft. Once it finally went in and got everything bolted up I couldn't get any drive to the wheels which left me scratching my head. Cue taking the box on and off 5-6 times to check alignment and friction plate orientation, which finally led to the realisation the clutch kit might be wrong for the car. Trip to the parts store for a new 328 SACHS kit and we were finally in business. I also wrapped some plumbers solder around the selector rod to add a bit of weight to it before putting the car back on the ground.
The clutch issue still boggles my mind as supposedly the entire manual swap parts I got with the car came off another car that was driving fine before being stripped. Due to the downpipe studs snapping I replaced them with new stainless tubular manifolds - look great but fitment was questionable as it makes the midpipe sit a bit skew to stock position and further exacerbates the skew of the scorpion backbox.
First drive as a manual felt great and very rewarding after all the graft. After putting some miles on the clutch I celebrated with a drive with the mates that helped out. Notably the odd one out being outnumbered by French hot hatches!
tspencerj said:
Mines also headed towards being more of a track day car, any work to it happens quickly though as it's my only car!
That's the main reason mine is taking so long. I have a car for work and the BMW lives in my garage away from my house, so I have to actually want to go there and work on it 
Dannbodge said:
Looks like a great example
I really miss my E36.
Cheers mate! Part of the reason I got this one was due to missing a previous E36 saloon I had. Great carsI really miss my E36.
Origin Unknown said:
Fellow e36 owner here 
Looks superb in Fern Green. I personally prefer OEM but the mods are tasteful and it looks great!
Maxspeedingrods... I inadvertently dealt with them when I ordered some air springs for my X5 from them. Poorly manufactured and a nightmare to deal with in returns.
Do show! I'm also a fan of OEM builds - I'd love to have a 2nd E36 (M3 one day hopefully!) to keep completely original. Poorly manufactured is almost an understatement, I wouldn't be surprised if these were leaking oil when they left the factory. Looks superb in Fern Green. I personally prefer OEM but the mods are tasteful and it looks great!
Maxspeedingrods... I inadvertently dealt with them when I ordered some air springs for my X5 from them. Poorly manufactured and a nightmare to deal with in returns.
Court_S said:
Looks good OP and nice work on the transmission change.
You don’t see many clean, tidy E36’s about these days.
Thanks - pictures make it look much cleaner than it is though You don’t see many clean, tidy E36’s about these days.
E36s seem to be a rare breed full stop now, hardly see them about at all.Sammo123 said:
That's the main reason mine is taking so long. I have a car for work and the BMW lives in my garage away from my house, so I have to actually want to go there and work on it
Haha I think I'd be the same in your situation. It would be nice not feeling the impending doom of Sunday drawing to an end when you need the car for work though Next up was some E46 M3 Convertible seats I found locally for free. Being from a convertible they weren't a direct fit, but with some bracket fabrication they were soon fitted. I ran a fused powerline to allow the electronic motors to work, and managed to get some E46 seat loom plugs cut from a scrap chassis to make my own looms for heated seat functionality later down the line. The car was a bit of a mismatch of dove grey, black leather and blue cloth at this point, but slowly getting to be a bit nicer inside with the absence of worn & dirty grey leather.
A full rear axle including a welded diff popped up locally for £100 which I hastily picked up with the intention of stripping it down to be powdercoated and polybushed to swap in later. If anyone wants to know, it will fit complete in the back of an E36 coupe with the rear seats down!
Sold the welded diff for 60 which recouped most of the cost, and also realised the trailing arms had powerflex black bushes in which I could reuse with a clean + some new grease. Factoring in the value of the Powerflex bushes I considered the rear axle (sans diff + shafts) pretty much free which was a huge plus!
I also sourced a purple-tag E46 steering rack, which got fitted alongside E30 lower control arms, new balljoints and the poly lollipops/m3 engine mounts purchased previously. This made for a great refresh upfront handling-wise.
Took the car out for a trip with mates, one also a 328 Sport owner and the other a photographer, which led to some photos. Can really see the tacky-ness of the ebay headlights fitted to mine - the indicators don't even fit properly with them!
A full rear axle including a welded diff popped up locally for £100 which I hastily picked up with the intention of stripping it down to be powdercoated and polybushed to swap in later. If anyone wants to know, it will fit complete in the back of an E36 coupe with the rear seats down!
Sold the welded diff for 60 which recouped most of the cost, and also realised the trailing arms had powerflex black bushes in which I could reuse with a clean + some new grease. Factoring in the value of the Powerflex bushes I considered the rear axle (sans diff + shafts) pretty much free which was a huge plus!
I also sourced a purple-tag E46 steering rack, which got fitted alongside E30 lower control arms, new balljoints and the poly lollipops/m3 engine mounts purchased previously. This made for a great refresh upfront handling-wise.
Took the car out for a trip with mates, one also a 328 Sport owner and the other a photographer, which led to some photos. Can really see the tacky-ness of the ebay headlights fitted to mine - the indicators don't even fit properly with them!
Do love the colour on this one and doing some good mods there with the suspension setup, would think the car would benefit from a strut brace in the front and the 'X' Frame from the M3 if i recall?
Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
Sf_Manta said:
Do love the colour on this one and doing some good mods there with the suspension setup, would think the car would benefit from a strut brace in the front and the 'X' Frame from the M3 if i recall?
Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
Fast forward to present day and front/rear strut braces and a convertible X brace are in fact fitted. Good info and highly recommended for any other E36s lacking them. Likewise with the coilovers, I ended up changing to BCs - I do wish I'd held out a bit longer to save for KW V3s though looking back. That may be a future change.Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
I've read through several threads where Carpetsoiler has either been mentioned or involved - will definitely keep him in mind as if I remember right he does custom regrinds for M5X engines?
reapercushions said:
Love it, although I'd personally prefer silver wheels.
I definitely think the style 66s that come on the car would've suited better being silver. Previous owner painted them anthracite, and fitted the black kidneys (which I'm also not a great fan of). You'll be pleased to see the next post as silver wheels make an appearance!Court_S said:
Silver wheels would really set it off in my opinion.
Op, those recent photos are good.
As above, you'll like the next post then Op, those recent photos are good.
Fast forward a few months and I started a year out on industrial placement as part of my University Degree. This opened up more funds to set about sorting out what I didn't like with the car.
I impulse bought a set of Bilstein B14s that were on a great clearance offer with my first paycheck. Many friends with RenaultSport hot hatches run these and highly rated them for road use, however shortly after ordering I researched into the spring rates/adjustable top mount options that would actually work with them and realised they likely weren't the right choice for me in the long term. Ended up selling them on for what I paid, they did look great though.
Used the money instead to ditch the E39 style 66 wheels in favour of some early M3 Style 24s with the BMW Motorsport stamps. Staggered setup with some 235f/245r Toyo R1R Semi-slicks on. Safe to say I was very pleased to ditch the questionable 205 tyre setup required to fit the 66s to an e36 chassis for some proper meat, and move to silver wheels!
I impulse bought a set of Bilstein B14s that were on a great clearance offer with my first paycheck. Many friends with RenaultSport hot hatches run these and highly rated them for road use, however shortly after ordering I researched into the spring rates/adjustable top mount options that would actually work with them and realised they likely weren't the right choice for me in the long term. Ended up selling them on for what I paid, they did look great though.
Used the money instead to ditch the E39 style 66 wheels in favour of some early M3 Style 24s with the BMW Motorsport stamps. Staggered setup with some 235f/245r Toyo R1R Semi-slicks on. Safe to say I was very pleased to ditch the questionable 205 tyre setup required to fit the 66s to an e36 chassis for some proper meat, and move to silver wheels!
Style 24's for the win! Fern Green really suits those wheels too.
Here's mine. 98 M3 EVO
tspencerj said:
Origin Unknown said:
Fellow e36 owner here
Looks superb in Fern Green. I personally prefer OEM but the mods are tasteful and it looks great!
Maxspeedingrods... I inadvertently dealt with them when I ordered some air springs for my X5 from them. Poorly manufactured and a nightmare to deal with in returns.
Do show! I'm also a fan of OEM builds - I'd love to have a 2nd E36 (M3 one day hopefully!) to keep completely original. Poorly manufactured is almost an understatement, I wouldn't be surprised if these were leaking oil when they left the factory. Looks superb in Fern Green. I personally prefer OEM but the mods are tasteful and it looks great!
Maxspeedingrods... I inadvertently dealt with them when I ordered some air springs for my X5 from them. Poorly manufactured and a nightmare to deal with in returns.
tspencerj said:
Sf_Manta said:
Do love the colour on this one and doing some good mods there with the suspension setup, would think the car would benefit from a strut brace in the front and the 'X' Frame from the M3 if i recall?
Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
Fast forward to present day and front/rear strut braces and a convertible X brace are in fact fitted. Good info and highly recommended for any other E36s lacking them. Likewise with the coilovers, I ended up changing to BCs - I do wish I'd held out a bit longer to save for KW V3s though looking back. That may be a future change.Any ideas what suspension you plan to replace the coilovers currently fitted , would certainly recommend KW if you can stretch the budget.
Oh and if you need any specialist work, hit up Carpetsoiler (Sam), he's currently working on my E46 though he mainly focuses on the E36 generation.
I've read through several threads where Carpetsoiler has either been mentioned or involved - will definitely keep him in mind as if I remember right he does custom regrinds for M5X engines?
He's planning to offer full balancing as part of his rebuild process as we found that the biggest issue with the M54B30 is the engines weren't well balanced from the factory, 7g difference in the pistons being the specific cause. Still, he's worth having a chat to and very knowledgeable on all things E36.
What a beauty, I have a real soft spot for a Fern green e36, best colour for sure (closely followed by techno violet) but then again I am slightly biased as my first car was a fern touring. Should have kept mine as no doubt it would have doubled in price over the past few years. I had the e36 M3 Evo Sunflowers on mine as first then jumped to the staggered Style 32s which i think suit these so well. 
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