'Upping my Green Credentials' - Meergrün E36 328i Trio
Discussion
sc4589 said:
Dammit. There I was, hoping you were a mug. 
That's pretty good. When you consider the power & speed available, it's really not bad at all- one of the reasons I'll be keeping mine for the time being!
New springs & shocks are a must, the front suspension is always set so high on these- really annoys me. Any brand you're looking out for? Apparently H&R are rather good. I've got a little thread up for mine now, feel free to have a ganders.
Hmmz just weighing up a few options really. I'm looking for a fairly mild drop, and mostly in the front, and don't have masses to spend - but I don't really like the idea of budget coilovers. That's pretty good. When you consider the power & speed available, it's really not bad at all- one of the reasons I'll be keeping mine for the time being!
New springs & shocks are a must, the front suspension is always set so high on these- really annoys me. Any brand you're looking out for? Apparently H&R are rather good. I've got a little thread up for mine now, feel free to have a ganders.
I think the most likely choice is Bilsteins but I'm not 100% sure what to go with yet. I'm thinking B10s but I have a feeling all the top mounts will need doing as well (then might as well get the reinforcement plates whilst I'm at it) so I might have to compromise for financial reasons and go B4 with whatever lowering springs will give me the drop I'm after.
[ETA] Larkspeed seem to be doing Koni STR.T shocks + H&R springs (F40mm R15mm) for £390 - that could be an option too
Edited by vsonix on Sunday 25th November 19:30
So, to reward the car for behaving so well on the France trip I decided to have her valeted... as much as anything I wanted the engine bay cleaned as it was filthy. I like keeping the car clean myself but sometimes it's nice to have a 'clean slate' to work from... Unfportunately I don't have any 'before' pictures, but take it from me, the engine bay was full of filth, and there were loads of grubby marks on the headlining which are all pristine. Here's the refreshed engine bay:
Much better!
Also by request here is a closeup of one of the wheels - South West Wheel Repairs did a fantastic job on restoring these. Again, it's unfortunate I didn't take any proper 'before' pics for comparison, but take my word for it, they were tatty.
I elected not to have the centre caps re-done as I wanted to keep the original black/white/grey Hartge badges as the only ones I found to replace them with were the more modern blue and black ones. Also in my opinion it makes the wheels more authentic as they look clean but still look their age rather than looking brand new.
Look at that arch gap! I know she's not parked on a level surface... but still... can't wait to get the suspension done so she sits right!
Also today I performed a few small maintenance tasks - I replaced the backlight for the headlamp knob, changed the cabin pollen filter as there was no air coming out the vents at all. When I removed it it was filthy black, and half a copse worth of dried leaves flew out and all over my newly-cleaned floor! Doh!
check the filth:
From what I had read online, changing the pollen filter is supposed to be quite tricky, especially when it comes to putting the new one in, however, I found actually it wasn't too tricky at all, the main thing is getting light in there to see what you're doing (head torch ftw!) and the whole job from beginning to end took maybe 20 minutes...
Finally I also installed some 35w 6000k HID headlamps and some LED city lights. The slightly whiter shade suits the colour of the car IMO (I actually prefer a 'warmer' yellowish tinge on my black car but I think 6000k is about right for this one). However I'm not sure if it's the bulb needing to warm up or if it's discoloured glass or what, but the passenger side does seem a tiny bit more blue-green than the driver's side, which is perfect. I'm gonna fire a message over to the vendor to see what they have to say about it.
Even in this pic it's fairly noticable...
Finally here's another pic of her looking clean & shiny...
Mmmmm, delishus E36
Much better!
Also by request here is a closeup of one of the wheels - South West Wheel Repairs did a fantastic job on restoring these. Again, it's unfortunate I didn't take any proper 'before' pics for comparison, but take my word for it, they were tatty.
I elected not to have the centre caps re-done as I wanted to keep the original black/white/grey Hartge badges as the only ones I found to replace them with were the more modern blue and black ones. Also in my opinion it makes the wheels more authentic as they look clean but still look their age rather than looking brand new.
Look at that arch gap! I know she's not parked on a level surface... but still... can't wait to get the suspension done so she sits right!
Also today I performed a few small maintenance tasks - I replaced the backlight for the headlamp knob, changed the cabin pollen filter as there was no air coming out the vents at all. When I removed it it was filthy black, and half a copse worth of dried leaves flew out and all over my newly-cleaned floor! Doh!
check the filth:
From what I had read online, changing the pollen filter is supposed to be quite tricky, especially when it comes to putting the new one in, however, I found actually it wasn't too tricky at all, the main thing is getting light in there to see what you're doing (head torch ftw!) and the whole job from beginning to end took maybe 20 minutes...
Finally I also installed some 35w 6000k HID headlamps and some LED city lights. The slightly whiter shade suits the colour of the car IMO (I actually prefer a 'warmer' yellowish tinge on my black car but I think 6000k is about right for this one). However I'm not sure if it's the bulb needing to warm up or if it's discoloured glass or what, but the passenger side does seem a tiny bit more blue-green than the driver's side, which is perfect. I'm gonna fire a message over to the vendor to see what they have to say about it.
Even in this pic it's fairly noticable...
Finally here's another pic of her looking clean & shiny...
Mmmmm, delishus E36
Edited by vsonix on Wednesday 28th November 17:43
Refined Detail said:
Looking good!
Blue / Green tinge to bulbs is usually the first sign of a failing / faulty bulb. Will continue to discolour to purple / red before failing completely usually.
Cheers for the heads-up! I've emailed the vendor already so hopefully some info will be forthcoming. I had HIDs on my compact as well and they always had a blue-green tinge when warming up but it soon went away... I just went for a little drive to see the difference over stock H1s (sooo much better!) and to make sure I wasn't dazzling other road users (no flashing from anyone so all good there I guess) and they did look a bit more 'matched' but obviously in the dark, it's harder to be sure. Will keep monitoring the situation though Blue / Green tinge to bulbs is usually the first sign of a failing / faulty bulb. Will continue to discolour to purple / red before failing completely usually.
Refined Detail said:
Sorry reading back that doesn't fully explain what I meant tbh!
Obviously certain colour temperatures will have a blue / green tinge straight out the box - not a sign of failing bulbs in that case, but when you have 2 different colour bulbs as it appears you do above, then the symptoms I said about are more likely the case Hope you get it sorted anyway!
you can see the difference in the photo too, then... it's not just my wonky eyes lol Obviously certain colour temperatures will have a blue / green tinge straight out the box - not a sign of failing bulbs in that case, but when you have 2 different colour bulbs as it appears you do above, then the symptoms I said about are more likely the case
Hope you get it sorted anyway!I have already 'debaffled' the airbox and the car came 'Golf Teed' by a previous owner so she's already got a wee bit more growl than standard. My last 328i Sport was running with its airbox snorkel removed which gives a lovely, whirling induction growl on heavy acceleration but has all the disadvantages of an open cone system in terms to the temperature of the air it sucks in, and doesn't really increase flow due to the inherent restrictive nature of the box design so I've left the snorkel intact for now. I will probably treat her to something along the lines of a Pipercross Viper enclosed induction kit at some point.
Exhaust wise I'm not too sure what I want to do - AFAIK the standard 328 system isn't particularly restrictive and upgrading the exhaust only really becomes 'necessary' once you've taken care of induction/manifold side of things but I'm a bit wary of choosing something that will compromise the car's ability to eat up the miles on the M-way without undue noise and stress.
For all you can watch 8 million clips on Youtube and compare which system has the best note/most pops & bangs/deepest rumble you don't really know what it'll be like to live with, and once you do, you're pretty much committed for life. I had a custom cat-back on my 318ti and whilst I enjoyed having it 80% of the time, on the motorway the rumbling, droning and increased cabin vibration combined with the already rather noisy nature of the M44 and noisy road surfaces added a lot of driver fatigue on long trips.
Based on the various Youtube clips I've looked at over the years my number one choice would be the Eisenmann N system (a bit tamer than the full on SS version which I think would be 'cop bait' where I live!) - I like the throaty rasp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIgP5QhP_fY. Only down side is they cost a fortune and don't pop up used all that often either.
I've been told the M3 exhaust system is a good upgrade although slightly heavier than the standard 328 one which seems a bit self nullifying.
Exhaust wise I'm not too sure what I want to do - AFAIK the standard 328 system isn't particularly restrictive and upgrading the exhaust only really becomes 'necessary' once you've taken care of induction/manifold side of things but I'm a bit wary of choosing something that will compromise the car's ability to eat up the miles on the M-way without undue noise and stress.
For all you can watch 8 million clips on Youtube and compare which system has the best note/most pops & bangs/deepest rumble you don't really know what it'll be like to live with, and once you do, you're pretty much committed for life. I had a custom cat-back on my 318ti and whilst I enjoyed having it 80% of the time, on the motorway the rumbling, droning and increased cabin vibration combined with the already rather noisy nature of the M44 and noisy road surfaces added a lot of driver fatigue on long trips.
Based on the various Youtube clips I've looked at over the years my number one choice would be the Eisenmann N system (a bit tamer than the full on SS version which I think would be 'cop bait' where I live!) - I like the throaty rasp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIgP5QhP_fY. Only down side is they cost a fortune and don't pop up used all that often either.
I've been told the M3 exhaust system is a good upgrade although slightly heavier than the standard 328 one which seems a bit self nullifying.
It's not too tricky. Basically underneath the driver's side air vent & headlight switch there is a screw that goes vertically up which holds the whole switch bit into place, you need to remove this, take out the vent unit then you can extract the bulb holder from the assembly and change the bulb. That's probably not a very clear description. There's a clearer one here.
Apparently it's typically one of the very first bulbs to fail in an E36 and as a result many owners have never seen the headlamp selector illuminated and just assumed it wasn't meant to light up lolol. It certainly makes a difference, I find that because I rarely use the fogs I don't have 'muscle memory' to turn them on w/o looking or fumbling about, and having the buttons' location advertised by the glow is very handy indeed.
Apparently it's typically one of the very first bulbs to fail in an E36 and as a result many owners have never seen the headlamp selector illuminated and just assumed it wasn't meant to light up lolol. It certainly makes a difference, I find that because I rarely use the fogs I don't have 'muscle memory' to turn them on w/o looking or fumbling about, and having the buttons' location advertised by the glow is very handy indeed.
sc4589 said:
I've got the Dave F on mine, which is open cone with a heatshield. The heatshield actually works- if you place your hand on the engine and the actual shield after a run, both are boiling (f
k me, these engines run hot), whereas the cone and pipework within the shield are cool to the touch. Perfect.
Regarding exhaust side of things, a little birdy has told me that M3 exhaust manifolds will 1) fit the engine 2) replace the torque in the lower rev range that the M50 shifts up the rev range 3) add about 10bhp if it's remapped along with the M50. All in all, that makes the car something of a weapon... just food for thought!
Edit- how do you change the headlight switch backlight?! I was wondering why it wasn't lit up!
So, what's the whole thing with the Dave F business - as far as I can see it's just a K&N Gen2 with a custom fabricated shield, right..? So in essence the shield is the only difference, or what? k me, these engines run hot), whereas the cone and pipework within the shield are cool to the touch. Perfect.Regarding exhaust side of things, a little birdy has told me that M3 exhaust manifolds will 1) fit the engine 2) replace the torque in the lower rev range that the M50 shifts up the rev range 3) add about 10bhp if it's remapped along with the M50. All in all, that makes the car something of a weapon... just food for thought!
Edit- how do you change the headlight switch backlight?! I was wondering why it wasn't lit up!
So, not too much been happening on the car front since the festive season but I finally managed to get the cash together for a much-needed suspension refresh. I looked up my car's VIN number and was surprised to see it was actually on 'sport' suspension from the factory, although it's the Boge/Sachs kit, not the 'Avus' pack from the 328i Sport. Anyway, you wouldn't think so from the wallowing and rolling everywhere, and the rear was so tired I was starting to get rubbing going over big bumps and all sorts.
Anyway it took a while for the springs to arrive but they were in today so I braved a snowy A303 to collect & have them fitted. There weren't really any decent photo opportunities, and of course, the slush and grime all over the car also didn't make for inspiring photos... but I still got a couple, more to come tomorrow after I clean her - weather permitting!
Oh, I went for Bilstein B4 - they make a direct replacement for the shortened factory 'sport' shock, which is nice - paired up with H&R Sport springs. Because I forgot to straighten the wheels you can't see the proper extent of the drop up front but it's nonetheless clearly an improvement!
It was pretty much twilight when I took these on my phone hence the fact the colours are all wonky etc
Anyway it took a while for the springs to arrive but they were in today so I braved a snowy A303 to collect & have them fitted. There weren't really any decent photo opportunities, and of course, the slush and grime all over the car also didn't make for inspiring photos... but I still got a couple, more to come tomorrow after I clean her - weather permitting!
Oh, I went for Bilstein B4 - they make a direct replacement for the shortened factory 'sport' shock, which is nice - paired up with H&R Sport springs. Because I forgot to straighten the wheels you can't see the proper extent of the drop up front but it's nonetheless clearly an improvement!
It was pretty much twilight when I took these on my phone hence the fact the colours are all wonky etc
Edited by vsonix on Wednesday 23 January 23:15
Took her out for a proper B-road hoon this arvo since the weather was good and the ice was all gone. The new suspension is just what I was after. With hindsight a tiny bit more drop in front would have been nice but all in all I can't complain with how the car is sitting. Ride quality on the fresh B4 & H&R sports is just right. No roll or sway, feels nice and supple, and smoothness of ride not in any way compromised. Admittedly the original kit was way past its prime but even if it wasn't I would think most people would be happy with these products for the price paid (~500 all in, fully fitted with full wheel alignment etc by Performance 3000 of Yeovil).
FYI I didn't go for the Koni STR.T in the end as apparently there won't be any more made until May because the factory is on back order! The B4s were actually £60 cheaper anyway for comparable spec so all in all, a win/win situation, I think.
FYI I didn't go for the Koni STR.T in the end as apparently there won't be any more made until May because the factory is on back order! The B4s were actually £60 cheaper anyway for comparable spec so all in all, a win/win situation, I think.
Yeah I'm thinking of M-tech rear bumper plus 'twisted' skirts but leaving the standard bumper up front. However I'm starting to get a bit concerned at the speed the bubbling round the arch is spreading and so I think the next outlay is going to be a trip to the body shop to nip that in the bud ASAP!
VinceFox said:
vsonix said:
Yeah I'm thinking of M-tech rear bumper plus 'twisted' skirts but leaving the standard bumper up front. However I'm starting to get a bit concerned at the speed the bubbling round the arch is spreading and so I think the next outlay is going to be a trip to the body shop to nip that in the bud ASAP!
Tink that looks good, doing the sides and back but not front. It muscles the car up subtly, without trying to pass it off as an m3.
I think the twisted skirts are a must though as they improve the lines of the car a lot.
So, been a turbulent week for The Osprey, knocked back on the MOT because of excessive brake line corrosion - turns out the expensive 'brake line replacement' mentioned in the service history (after failing for the same reason 2-3 years ago) was a bodge job as they had merely replaced a section, rather than the whole brake lines and now the remains of the old pipe is in a terrible state. So looks like a previous owner got stung by their garage.
Anyway I'm taking the opportunity to upgrade all the rubber flexi brake hoses to braided stainless ones. If at all possible I prefer to squeeze in the odd performance enhancement on top of essential maintenance, I feel it lessens the sting of the garage bill when you can feel an improvement afterwards!
Also I took the opportunity to refurb the wing mirror bases - from
(the other one was actually worse, 90% of its paint had flaked - but I didn't get a picture of it) to:
they were so badly gone they were leaving streaky marks down the sides of the car whenever it rained! I'm 90% happy with how hey came out - they could have been a little bit smoother in places but I missed a couple of spots when I was sanding them back. No matter, they're a massive improvement and can always be redone later if need be and I'm keeping an eye open for some ACS or Hartge mirrors anyway.
Today's job: re-dye the parcel shelf. My lavender shelf is making my car's bum look big.
Anyway I'm taking the opportunity to upgrade all the rubber flexi brake hoses to braided stainless ones. If at all possible I prefer to squeeze in the odd performance enhancement on top of essential maintenance, I feel it lessens the sting of the garage bill when you can feel an improvement afterwards!
Also I took the opportunity to refurb the wing mirror bases - from
(the other one was actually worse, 90% of its paint had flaked - but I didn't get a picture of it) to:
they were so badly gone they were leaving streaky marks down the sides of the car whenever it rained! I'm 90% happy with how hey came out - they could have been a little bit smoother in places but I missed a couple of spots when I was sanding them back. No matter, they're a massive improvement and can always be redone later if need be and I'm keeping an eye open for some ACS or Hartge mirrors anyway.
Today's job: re-dye the parcel shelf. My lavender shelf is making my car's bum look big.
Ah shame! I occasionally head past the Midlands but no plans for going that way for a month or two.
Actually I have bought a M-style rear diffuser that clips in place of the wonky valance pictured earlier in the thread, although it annoyingly won't clip in because a) it arrived undrilled which is annoying and b) I haven't got round to acquiring the relevant trim clips yet. Although I'm not 100% sure if I want to fit it yet as I dunno if it looks quite right when in situ.
Actually I have bought a M-style rear diffuser that clips in place of the wonky valance pictured earlier in the thread, although it annoyingly won't clip in because a) it arrived undrilled which is annoying and b) I haven't got round to acquiring the relevant trim clips yet. Although I'm not 100% sure if I want to fit it yet as I dunno if it looks quite right when in situ.
getawayturtle said:
Oddly enough, it was the diffuser part of my old 328 bumper that got ripped off (snapping off all the mounts with it), along with all the M-tec trims 
hmm! I might just get a new standard one, I'm still not too sure the M-look diffuser really suits the regular bumper anyway. Perhaps if I painted it it might look better. Speaking of painting, the parcel shelf has now been sprayed black, the whole car looks better as a result. Faded parcel shelf has a very subtle yet very horrible effect on the overall appearance of the car. Getting it out was a bit of a faff though, I ended up having to snip the heads off the plastic rivets as they were in ridiculously tight. Trying to work out what the part number is for new ones... looked on realoem.com but I haven't found them yet...
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I believe I've seen your car before whilst trawling around the forums and is one of the cars that decided me to keep with the "SE+" look rather than going down the 'too many M' bits route. You've got more drop going on than me and in some ways I'd have liked to go a smidge lower in the front, but I thought long and hard about the practicality issue and decided the 40/15 drop offered by the H&R Sport setup was enough. Firstly I drive a lot of rutted B-roads, and also I occasionally need to carry passengers plus luggage, my 318ti was dropped 60/40 and it really suffered driving around parts of London with speed mountains and I couldn't face going through that again! If I was planning on spending more time on the track then it'd be a no-brainer, but as it stands, day-to-day usability is paramount. As regards the SE vs M bits I tend to agree with you although I really prefer the twisted skirt as I feel it enhances the rake and poise, slims the car's bum a bit (although the parcel shelf re-dye really helped this) and generally makes the lines of the car a bit more pleasing without adding 'beef'. I've seen one on the net in this colour with M3 bumpers and I didn't get that worked up by it. It's not like I can't put the old stuff back on again, anyway! I'll be keeping hold of it of course.
Speaking of other cars the same colour as mine, there was a 323i 'vert at the garage when I collected the car from having her MOT done! I couldn't resist a couple of snaps:
It's amazing how much 'bigger' my car looks riding on 17"s
I'm glad I decided to take them because as I was doing so the owner of the other one came up and did a massive double-take (he saw mine first!) - he must have thought the garage had done something very odd to his car, haha!
Paul S4 said:
"Also I took the opportunity to refurb the wing mirror bases "
I would be interested in how you did those; mine will need doing soon. Did you take them off the car ? They look very well done by the way !
Yeah, they came off the car but removing them takes all of five minutes and is very easy. There's plenty of DIYs out there but it's basically remove trim covers from inside, unplug the little wiring harness, remove 3x bolts with 10mm (iirc) socket being careful not to let mirror drop when removing last one - but if yours are like mine were they'll be held on with gunk - and pop out the rubber waterproofing grommet and you're all done, easy. You'll probably need another set of hands to hold the mirror while you're doing the process in reverse otherwise popping the grommet in again while not dropping the mirror will be possible but annoying. I would be interested in how you did those; mine will need doing soon. Did you take them off the car ? They look very well done by the way !
The existing paint was in very bad shape so removing it wasn't too hard. Totally dismantling the mirrors seemed like a massive faff so once I'd persuaded as much of the loose stuff to fall off as possible I used masking tape to cover and protect the main body of the mirror, the rubber parts, wiring, plug etc. I then used a wire brush to persuade more flakes out from along the joins, making sure to fold the mirrors so I could properly access everywhere and make sure everything was properly masked. Then I used sanding sponges from medium to very fine grade to remove all the oxidisation and get the bases as smooth as possible. After that, 3-4 coats Matt Grey primer and another 3-4 coats of Satin Black paint courtesy of the local Halfrauds. Mirrors were off the car for about 36 hours total. Could have been quicker but since she was waiting for MOT work I wasn't in any rush.
Edited by vsonix on Friday 15th March 15:03
Edited by vsonix on Friday 15th March 17:36
4star said:
stunning E36, I think greens and any sort of dark purple/blue suit them down to the ground and more different than the usual silvers and reds.
Must admit to enjoying your posts, think posts like this showing the love for more humble machinery than say, a Ferrari, more interesting.
Thanks, I do sometimes worry if waffle vs interesting content ratio is correct! Don't get me wrong, if I could afford this level of obsession with Ferarri or something along those lines, I probably would be just as geeky... but I think even if money was no object I would still have an E36 in my collection, a minty garage queen with no expense spared no doubt, but there will always be room for one in my garage no matter what.Must admit to enjoying your posts, think posts like this showing the love for more humble machinery than say, a Ferrari, more interesting.
I can still remember the day back in '95 that I fell in love with them, I was walking down the road in Willesden and there was an reddish/orange metallic (Sienarot or Byzanz I think) 328i coupé parked up round some other really nice cars and the first thing that struck me was how businesslike and purposeful it looked, like a 'normal' car but at the same time you could tell from the staggered whide-wheeled stance that it wasn't messing around. I thought to myself 'out of all the cars on this street it might not be the flashiest or most expensive but if I had to choose out of all of them I'd have this one'.
And after the E36 coupé came out the range of similar cars seemed to tail off a bit - JDM hadn't really registered on my radar properly at that point - so from that day on the E36 became the epitome of 90s cool for me. Furthermore it's old enough to be interesting yet still mechanically reliable and running costs aren't that bad considering - although is it me or are nearly all garages charging nearly 2x as much for labour now as they were two years ago?
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