Bit of a techy question... E36 325i
Discussion
Afternoon gents, I'd like to apologise for quite a long post but I figured I should get all the details of my query in to avoid people having to ask any/many questions.
I recently bought a 1993 E36 325i SE (pre-VANOS) with the intention of spending a bloody fortune on making it stop and turn as well as it really ought to. Obviously, as with any old car, there are a few things I want to see to before doing all this and making it run properly is my first port of call.
On the journey home from collecting it the temperature gauge didn't work and within two days I had to replace the alternator, which I did, and the temp gauge started working again; I didn't know how related these things were so just took two and two to make four. Since then, for the past six weeks, it's been absolutely fine. It starts, runs and performs exactly as it should and I thought "Fantastic, I'll just give it a service and get started on the fun bits."
However last night on the way home from dropping my Mum off at a Christmas do the temperature gauge shot up into the red for a couple of seconds before dropping back down to the central marker again. It did this twice, shortly after the second time the engine turned off - I can't think of any way it could be attributed to my driving, as I was doing 75ish on a dual carriageway at the time - however I bump started it whilst it was rolling and it carried on the rest of the journey home just fine.
This morning I checked a few basic things:
1) Coolant - despite the OBC telling me that it's low on coolant, it's actually spot on.
2) Oil - plenty of that.
3) No mayonnaise in the oil filler (I'm aware these engines occasionally suffer from HGF).
4) Turning it on and leaving it running in situ for a while to see if any of the symptoms repeated themselves.
All was well. So I took it for a <1 mile drive to the local shop to pick up smokes and doughnuts in order to celebrate my victory, but on the way to the shop the temperature rose quickly and by the time I was there it was in the red again. When I came out of the shop the temp gauge was at about 3/4 (halfway between what it ought to be and what it ought not to be), I fired her up and drove back but on the journey home the temperature gauge dropped slowly again to what the temperature should be. I left the car running for a few minutes once I was home to see what it was going to do next and it just sat there, happily idling away at bang on the correct temp.
I had a quick look around the car again after switching it off and there were none of the obvious signs that it'd actually got particularly hot.
So here I am; slightly baffled as to what may be wrong with the car. Is there any chance there's a dicky temp sensor in there somewhere? I really don't know enough about these engines to start taking it apart willy nilly although I'm not averse to working on my own cars, as I always have, so I was hoping some of you experts may be able to shed some light on the situation. I'm reluctant to use it for my 22 mile commute in case it is actually overheating as the last thing that I, or anybody else commuting at 8am for that matter, want is to break down on the outside lane of the M6.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.
I recently bought a 1993 E36 325i SE (pre-VANOS) with the intention of spending a bloody fortune on making it stop and turn as well as it really ought to. Obviously, as with any old car, there are a few things I want to see to before doing all this and making it run properly is my first port of call.
On the journey home from collecting it the temperature gauge didn't work and within two days I had to replace the alternator, which I did, and the temp gauge started working again; I didn't know how related these things were so just took two and two to make four. Since then, for the past six weeks, it's been absolutely fine. It starts, runs and performs exactly as it should and I thought "Fantastic, I'll just give it a service and get started on the fun bits."
However last night on the way home from dropping my Mum off at a Christmas do the temperature gauge shot up into the red for a couple of seconds before dropping back down to the central marker again. It did this twice, shortly after the second time the engine turned off - I can't think of any way it could be attributed to my driving, as I was doing 75ish on a dual carriageway at the time - however I bump started it whilst it was rolling and it carried on the rest of the journey home just fine.
This morning I checked a few basic things:
1) Coolant - despite the OBC telling me that it's low on coolant, it's actually spot on.
2) Oil - plenty of that.
3) No mayonnaise in the oil filler (I'm aware these engines occasionally suffer from HGF).
4) Turning it on and leaving it running in situ for a while to see if any of the symptoms repeated themselves.
All was well. So I took it for a <1 mile drive to the local shop to pick up smokes and doughnuts in order to celebrate my victory, but on the way to the shop the temperature rose quickly and by the time I was there it was in the red again. When I came out of the shop the temp gauge was at about 3/4 (halfway between what it ought to be and what it ought not to be), I fired her up and drove back but on the journey home the temperature gauge dropped slowly again to what the temperature should be. I left the car running for a few minutes once I was home to see what it was going to do next and it just sat there, happily idling away at bang on the correct temp.
I had a quick look around the car again after switching it off and there were none of the obvious signs that it'd actually got particularly hot.
So here I am; slightly baffled as to what may be wrong with the car. Is there any chance there's a dicky temp sensor in there somewhere? I really don't know enough about these engines to start taking it apart willy nilly although I'm not averse to working on my own cars, as I always have, so I was hoping some of you experts may be able to shed some light on the situation. I'm reluctant to use it for my 22 mile commute in case it is actually overheating as the last thing that I, or anybody else commuting at 8am for that matter, want is to break down on the outside lane of the M6.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.
Temp sensor is round up under the inlet manifold, at the front ish. There's two IIRC and its the one further back that runs the guage on the dash, possibly black with a single pin but dont hold me to that!! They're cheap as chips and not too bad to replace anyway.
I'd change the thermostat as well and see how it goes after that.
I'd change the thermostat as well and see how it goes after that.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
It's a factory non-VANOS car registered in February 1993 on a 'K' plate, still on the original engine at just over 182000 miles. I've not checked for a build date so can only presume it's a 1992 car that was registered late or something.I forgot to mention that the heater doesn't blow particularly warm; something I'd usually attribute to head gasket failure, but I'm reluctant to do so with this given that it's only just started having apparent temperature problems and it's not actually been left to run hot, therefore a warped/cracked head is unlikely at this stage.
I had a mildly fettled E36 320i just over a year ago and yes, it was alright on the bends
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