E36 Coupe Common Faults
Discussion
early manuals or rough driven cars can rip the diff out of the floor, trailing arm bushes and front wishbones wear quickly, but not hard to replace, waterpumps break up on 6cyls, so change them as soon as you can, also cheap to do.
check for nikasil engines in the M52 engined cars, the 323 and 328s
check for nikasil engines in the M52 engined cars, the 323 and 328s
Check the rear brake pipes from tank back for corrosion if they haven't been replaced already.
Get the diagnostic codes read to make sure you haven't got a cam sensor fault. It is possible to drive a car like that and assume it's sluggish if you didn't get it when it was working.
As said, check waterpump, stat housing, cooling system in general. Temp gauge should be rock steady when up to temp.
Trailing arm/subframe bushes, bushes at rear of front wishbones. Ball joints in front wishbones.
Squeaky clutch pedal linkage bushing.
Heater blower 'hedgehog'.
Brake pedal switch leading to check control warnings.
Central locking actuator failures
Rear Anti roll bar mounting tabs.
Rear shock mount top mounts ( and the body work around them )
Get the diagnostic codes read to make sure you haven't got a cam sensor fault. It is possible to drive a car like that and assume it's sluggish if you didn't get it when it was working.
As said, check waterpump, stat housing, cooling system in general. Temp gauge should be rock steady when up to temp.
Trailing arm/subframe bushes, bushes at rear of front wishbones. Ball joints in front wishbones.
Squeaky clutch pedal linkage bushing.
Heater blower 'hedgehog'.
Brake pedal switch leading to check control warnings.
Central locking actuator failures
Rear Anti roll bar mounting tabs.
Rear shock mount top mounts ( and the body work around them )
the main chassis glitches are similar, i haven't heard of a diff tear on a 4cyl e36 yet (that can be a 300-500 job) and you'll have no nikasil issues either.
the service lights is a series on 5 green lights, an orange and a red.
a green light goes off every approx 1200 miles, when the engine is cold, it doubles the counted miles, and it will also double the milage when over 3500-4000 rpms.
so caning it for 5 miles in a morning will take m x2 x2 = 20miles off your allowance.
once all the greens go out, it'll say service or inspection, service is an oil and filter change, and an inspection comes in 2 flavours, insp.1 and insp.2, generally a 12k and 24k big service where diff oil, box oil air filters etc get changed.
the car doesn't differentiate between the 2 inspections, so you just look in the s/h and do the opposite of what was done last time.
oil/insp1/oil/insp2/oil/insp.1 etc...
i would say they are very easy cars to work on, the oil filter is at the top of the engine and just pulls out when the cap is removed, the air filter is in a handy little tray that pulls up, so you can work on it yourself very easy.
the service lights is a series on 5 green lights, an orange and a red.
a green light goes off every approx 1200 miles, when the engine is cold, it doubles the counted miles, and it will also double the milage when over 3500-4000 rpms.
so caning it for 5 miles in a morning will take m x2 x2 = 20miles off your allowance.
once all the greens go out, it'll say service or inspection, service is an oil and filter change, and an inspection comes in 2 flavours, insp.1 and insp.2, generally a 12k and 24k big service where diff oil, box oil air filters etc get changed.
the car doesn't differentiate between the 2 inspections, so you just look in the s/h and do the opposite of what was done last time.
oil/insp1/oil/insp2/oil/insp.1 etc...
i would say they are very easy cars to work on, the oil filter is at the top of the engine and just pulls out when the cap is removed, the air filter is in a handy little tray that pulls up, so you can work on it yourself very easy.
TheEnd said:
the main chassis glitches are similar, i haven't heard of a diff tear on a 4cyl e36 yet (that can be a 300-500 job) and you'll have no nikasil issues either.
the service lights is a series on 5 green lights, an orange and a red.
a green light goes off every approx 1200 miles, when the engine is cold, it doubles the counted miles, and it will also double the milage when over 3500-4000 rpms.
so caning it for 5 miles in a morning will take m x2 x2 = 20miles off your allowance.
once all the greens go out, it'll say service or inspection, service is an oil and filter change, and an inspection comes in 2 flavours, insp.1 and insp.2, generally a 12k and 24k big service where diff oil, box oil air filters etc get changed.
the car doesn't differentiate between the 2 inspections, so you just look in the s/h and do the opposite of what was done last time.
oil/insp1/oil/insp2/oil/insp.1 etc...
i would say they are very easy cars to work on, the oil filter is at the top of the engine and just pulls out when the cap is removed, the air filter is in a handy little tray that pulls up, so you can work on it yourself very easy.
Excellent!! Sounds like a reliable car then the service lights is a series on 5 green lights, an orange and a red.
a green light goes off every approx 1200 miles, when the engine is cold, it doubles the counted miles, and it will also double the milage when over 3500-4000 rpms.
so caning it for 5 miles in a morning will take m x2 x2 = 20miles off your allowance.
once all the greens go out, it'll say service or inspection, service is an oil and filter change, and an inspection comes in 2 flavours, insp.1 and insp.2, generally a 12k and 24k big service where diff oil, box oil air filters etc get changed.
the car doesn't differentiate between the 2 inspections, so you just look in the s/h and do the opposite of what was done last time.
oil/insp1/oil/insp2/oil/insp.1 etc...
i would say they are very easy cars to work on, the oil filter is at the top of the engine and just pulls out when the cap is removed, the air filter is in a handy little tray that pulls up, so you can work on it yourself very easy.
Has cemented my decision to buy one! :-D
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