'Upping my Green Credentials' - Meergrün E36 328i Trio
Discussion
So, this is actually my fourth E36 but the first one to get its own dedicated thread from the very beginning. This was very nearly a Cosmosschwartz example; I had a small deposit on a tidy black number which was selling at the right price, however a clerical error on the part of a client meant I was left hanging for a large payment I was depending on to make the purchase, so the sale didn't go through.
One thing I've noticed recently is how quickly the number of really clean E36s on the market has decreased since I first got the E36 bug four years ago, and even the cleaner examples all seem to have the odd scab or two unless they've recently been redone or are low-mileage garage queens - which are a bit out of my budget and ultimately a bit pointless since I will be using this as my main car, so I fully expect to have to shed the odd tear over other people's bad parking, stone chips, kids bouncing footballs off it etc.
So, yesterday afternoon I sallied forth to pick up 'The Osprey'; so named because I have a bit of a strange bird theme going on with my E36s (The Bluetit, The Magpie and The Rook - Avus 318ti, Cosmos 328is and 318ic respectively). "Why Osprey?"I hear you not-asking yourself? Well, being Meergrün (aka Sea Green or Sea Foam in the US apparently), and seeing how the only other majestic sea bird I could think of was an albatross, which is not really a good thing to name things after as they can be something of a bad omen, it just seemed right.
Here is the first picture from the advert that caught my eye. Looks clean! At first I wasn't really sure about the colour, but it rapidly grew on me. Those wheels will have to go, though,they're really not doing the overall look any favours!
Build date November 1998 ( S-reg). Interior is black leather with light grey headlining.
Overall the car was fairly tidy, a couple of cosmetic blemishes which I'll come to in a bit, but the most important thing is that a fairly sprightly test drive revealed a car with everything feeling nice and tight, no bumps or rattles... hell, even the door cards are stuck in pretty well. Gear shift nice, clutch nice, steering nice (plus points for M3 steering wheel!). Leather interior in very good shape, minimal wear to driver's bolster, back seats look barely sat in. However, one of the nicest things about the test drive is that the previous owner favoured EXACTLY my driving position. It's the first time I've ever got behind the wheel of an E36 - no, in fact any car - someone else has been driving and not needed to adjust the seat/mirrors/wheel. This obviously made me feel right at home, and after a 20 minute thrash round a few choice Wiltshire back roads, I decided to take the plunge.
The 90 mile A-road drive home was most enjoyable with plenty of fast twisties and minimal traffic to get in my way.After driving a 328i Sport for nearly a year I knew what to expect in terms of power delivery and speed and The Osprey certainly feels no different. Maybe better as the suspension feels a lot fresher than on my outgoing car.
So here's my first pictures of The Osprey - and like an idiot I'd forgotten I'd set the white balance for firelight a few weeks ago, so the colours are all washed out!
So regarding the blemishes - the car looked pretty mint on the advert but at that price I was expecting it to have a couple of marks, and sure enough, closer inspection showed up one or two imperfections - visible, but still well within the bounds of acceptability at this price point. Although the rear arches are pretty much fine, there's a very small pea-sized bubble starting above one of the arches, a larger scab further down the rear wing towards the tail end of the car and a couple of small but rather poorly-repaired patches on the corner of the boot lid and driver's door. There's also a couple of small bubbles round the windscreen where stone chips have been left to fester.
Intervention will be needed fairly soon if the car's to stay looking as clean as it does now. However I am well aware that it is fairly pointless paying a premium for a complete minter when I don't have a garage and expect to do at least 10k miles in her this year, and this is still the tidiest example I've seen within my budget recently.
Here's the worst of the rust. Typically it's also when I realised the camera was incorrectly set, but by then I had to move the car and couldn't take any other pictures...
So far I'm happy with my purchase and feel like I got a good deal. Once my wallet recovers from the shock of the initial purchase my plans are as follows:
1 - Anti-rust treatment and waxoyl/underseal
2 - Debaffle airbox
3 - Gentle lowering on good quality springs
4 - Wheels - looking for something fairly OEM and with a bit of dish/lip - I'm open to suggestions but want to steer clear of M3 wheels, E46 wheels or excessively blingy things. 17" max, nice and wide, although I'd prefer to leave the arches unmolested if at all possible.
5 - Clear corners - normally I prefer Ambers but I think a classic silver or a smoked look would be best with this shade of green
6 - the usual 328i engine fettling (BBTB, M50 Manifold, exhaust, induction, remap etc)
7 - Z3M Short Shift
and that will be it (probably!)
Anyway, I'll keep this thread updated, more pics to come soon... cheers!
One thing I've noticed recently is how quickly the number of really clean E36s on the market has decreased since I first got the E36 bug four years ago, and even the cleaner examples all seem to have the odd scab or two unless they've recently been redone or are low-mileage garage queens - which are a bit out of my budget and ultimately a bit pointless since I will be using this as my main car, so I fully expect to have to shed the odd tear over other people's bad parking, stone chips, kids bouncing footballs off it etc.
So, yesterday afternoon I sallied forth to pick up 'The Osprey'; so named because I have a bit of a strange bird theme going on with my E36s (The Bluetit, The Magpie and The Rook - Avus 318ti, Cosmos 328is and 318ic respectively). "Why Osprey?"I hear you not-asking yourself? Well, being Meergrün (aka Sea Green or Sea Foam in the US apparently), and seeing how the only other majestic sea bird I could think of was an albatross, which is not really a good thing to name things after as they can be something of a bad omen, it just seemed right.
Here is the first picture from the advert that caught my eye. Looks clean! At first I wasn't really sure about the colour, but it rapidly grew on me. Those wheels will have to go, though,they're really not doing the overall look any favours!
Build date November 1998 ( S-reg). Interior is black leather with light grey headlining.
Overall the car was fairly tidy, a couple of cosmetic blemishes which I'll come to in a bit, but the most important thing is that a fairly sprightly test drive revealed a car with everything feeling nice and tight, no bumps or rattles... hell, even the door cards are stuck in pretty well. Gear shift nice, clutch nice, steering nice (plus points for M3 steering wheel!). Leather interior in very good shape, minimal wear to driver's bolster, back seats look barely sat in. However, one of the nicest things about the test drive is that the previous owner favoured EXACTLY my driving position. It's the first time I've ever got behind the wheel of an E36 - no, in fact any car - someone else has been driving and not needed to adjust the seat/mirrors/wheel. This obviously made me feel right at home, and after a 20 minute thrash round a few choice Wiltshire back roads, I decided to take the plunge.
The 90 mile A-road drive home was most enjoyable with plenty of fast twisties and minimal traffic to get in my way.After driving a 328i Sport for nearly a year I knew what to expect in terms of power delivery and speed and The Osprey certainly feels no different. Maybe better as the suspension feels a lot fresher than on my outgoing car.
So here's my first pictures of The Osprey - and like an idiot I'd forgotten I'd set the white balance for firelight a few weeks ago, so the colours are all washed out!
So regarding the blemishes - the car looked pretty mint on the advert but at that price I was expecting it to have a couple of marks, and sure enough, closer inspection showed up one or two imperfections - visible, but still well within the bounds of acceptability at this price point. Although the rear arches are pretty much fine, there's a very small pea-sized bubble starting above one of the arches, a larger scab further down the rear wing towards the tail end of the car and a couple of small but rather poorly-repaired patches on the corner of the boot lid and driver's door. There's also a couple of small bubbles round the windscreen where stone chips have been left to fester.
Intervention will be needed fairly soon if the car's to stay looking as clean as it does now. However I am well aware that it is fairly pointless paying a premium for a complete minter when I don't have a garage and expect to do at least 10k miles in her this year, and this is still the tidiest example I've seen within my budget recently.
Here's the worst of the rust. Typically it's also when I realised the camera was incorrectly set, but by then I had to move the car and couldn't take any other pictures...
So far I'm happy with my purchase and feel like I got a good deal. Once my wallet recovers from the shock of the initial purchase my plans are as follows:
1 - Anti-rust treatment and waxoyl/underseal
2 - Debaffle airbox
3 - Gentle lowering on good quality springs
4 - Wheels - looking for something fairly OEM and with a bit of dish/lip - I'm open to suggestions but want to steer clear of M3 wheels, E46 wheels or excessively blingy things. 17" max, nice and wide, although I'd prefer to leave the arches unmolested if at all possible.
5 - Clear corners - normally I prefer Ambers but I think a classic silver or a smoked look would be best with this shade of green
6 - the usual 328i engine fettling (BBTB, M50 Manifold, exhaust, induction, remap etc)
7 - Z3M Short Shift
and that will be it (probably!)
Anyway, I'll keep this thread updated, more pics to come soon... cheers!
Edited by vsonix on Thursday 20th September 00:04
NiceCupOfTea said:
I do like these. Gave up looking for a decent 328 coupe a year or so ago though, very few are around that aren't sheds. Very close to buying one but turned out to have a Niksil engine. Still tempted by a 328 Touring.
Actually there are still a few decent Tourings about, and if I couldn't find a 328i coupe I liked, I would most probably go down the 323i route; there are more clean ones knocking around, and a late model with the M50 manifold and throttle body conversion, is still a very attractive prospect for a swift road car that handles well. I did consider an E46 328i as there are a few decent-looking ones around for similar money, but my mechanic loaned me one once while my 318ti was in the shop and I actually found it a rather heavy, sluggish car and no better then the E46 320i we had at the time, especially with the early E46 steering rack. Honestherbert said:
style 5's fit your wheel requirements perfectly. And are the best wheels for an e36 period imo.
Yeah they're definitely on the short list, they just seem like such an obvious choice sometimes. I am quite liking the idea of some Style 32, possibly refinished in a darker silver and maybe run without center caps. But I have yet to own classic BBS mesh on an E36 which is probably one of those things I should do before I die... 
Nice, I saw an Avus (pretty much my fave E36 colour) Sport up for sale recently that I would have bitten the vendor's hand off to buy but unfortunately it sold before I could even get up to see it.
Actually I would prefer Style 5 over RCs; I'm not a huge fan of the spoke pattern of the RC, and also I don't really want a 'Sport' design on a non-Sport, same as I am avoiding the M3 look this time around. Especially if I end up removing the amber corners and putting clears on - I suppose the look I am going for is SE Plus?
Actually I would prefer Style 5 over RCs; I'm not a huge fan of the spoke pattern of the RC, and also I don't really want a 'Sport' design on a non-Sport, same as I am avoiding the M3 look this time around. Especially if I end up removing the amber corners and putting clears on - I suppose the look I am going for is SE Plus?
You're right,it is a rare colour on E36, although funnily enough, not 'individual'. It was an E46 launch colour, and I suppose because of the overlap wityh E46 saloons and E36 coupes, some were made in some of the E46 colours. I've seen it on one or two early model E46 saloons, but on E36, it's like hen's teeth! I decided to look on Google images to see what choices others had made vis a vis wheels, I think I found a total of maybe three cars, A touring and a coupé on here, and another touring on Driftworks, rocking Contours, Sunflowers and BBS RK respectively. At first I wondered if it might not be something of an'old man'colour, but then after I thought about it a bit, I realised that after couple of small visual tweaks I would end up with a fairly unique and (tastefully) individual car. I also figure the unusual colour will probably polarise opinion and provoke discussion a bit more than sticking with good old black or blue... which may or may not be a good thing.
Edited by vsonix on Thursday 20th September 15:53
So, I've already done a few bits to the car today and worked on my 'to do' list a bit...
First up I replaced the aftermarket Panasonic head unit with my trusty Alpine CD112 (or is it 113, I can't remember), veteran of my 318ti and 328i Sport, so now in its third vehicle. I think I paid around £120 for this, brand new and installed, it's been great VFM.
The Panasonic head unit is OK and plays Data CDs without a hitch but the sound seemed a little flat and 'boxy' with wooly midrange and not much bottom end. I know the sound systems aren't all that great on the E36 but I know from experience the head unit makes all the difference - when I first got the Alpine and replaced the standard BMW Business radio/cassette in my Compact, the difference was pronounced. Sure, it still wasn't rattling the windows with bass, but it did transform the sound system from barely acceptable to 'useable'. The Alpine doesn't exactly look OEM but it is closer than the Panasonic's ugly gunmetal grey plastic, and the backlight can be set to an orange colour similar to the rest of the instrumentation. It doesn't really look like it in this picture but in the dark it's acceptable.
The other bonus is that the Alpine has an iphone/ipod cable enabling MP3 browsing from the head unit. I also run TomTom software on the iphone and it's great that the app lowers the volume of the music when giving you directions so you don't miss anything. The cable looks a bit untidy but if need be can be fed back up inside the dash - I like to leave it long so I can put the iphone in its dashboard cradle, but it's nice to know it can be 'retracted' if need be. It also has a USB port on the front, which I can use to charge my Bluetooth earpiece. At some point I may also add the Parrot handsfree module but in all honesty I prefer to just pull over to make calls so only if I see one going cheap. Ultimately I'd love that kind of functionality whilst retaining the OEM look of the original head unit, but short of winning the lotto, the liklihood is slim of that ever happening!
Straight away the difference was remarkable. Although nominally the same output as the Panasonic (4x50 watt) the sound from the Alpine was richer, clearer, deeper and a fair bit louder too. In fact, the sound quality was better than in my '97 Sport using the same unit, so I took a little look at the speakers.
Looking at the back ones, they are also made by Nokia as were the ones in my Sport, however these ones have covered rears which the last one didn't. It also looks like the component speakers in the doors are rather better quality than before. and the lower-mid coming from the kick-panel speakers was definitely stronger. I do like my music when driving but I'm not one for having it massively loud so I'm quite happy with the current setup for now and doubt I'll be making any big audio spends any time soon. The Panasonic head unit will go into the 'vert to replace the LIDL own-brand POS that lurks there currently.
Next up I gave all the leather a good coating in Auto Glym leather balm. I have a whole bottle of the genuine BMW leather balm but the Auto Glym stuff smells like that premium leather smell when you walk into shops selling expensive jackets and suitcases. I felt like Ron Burgundy when he said he felt important because his apartment smelled of 'rich mahogany'. I was also a little bit disturbed to catch myself muttering "it rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again" over and over under my breath as I massaged the product into the headrests...
Aso you can see, the interior's in pretty good shape, there's hardly any wear on the bolsters to the extent I'll probably wait for it to get worse before I bother trying to improve it.
The back seat looks barely sat in...
Whilst prodding around inside I tried to refit the sagging passenger footwell trim - result - it fell out completely. Looking at it, it's a bit mangled so I took it out and will replace it with another from the breaker's.
I also attached my 'SW BMW Owners Group' decal. I actually designed these myself for the local club so I am quite pleased with my handiwork - it's the first time I've ever designed a sticker, and I must admit I am quite chuffed that lots of cars in the area have something I designed stuck to them! Although with hindsight where I placed it makes it fairly invisible from behind - I should have put it in the rear quarter-light window instead. Oh well.
I also noticed a couple of other exterior things that will need putting right - the mirrors will need the bases re-painted as they have been stripped but not sanded/primed/repainted and look a bit rough:
and there is a strange bulge in the valance on the rear bumper - I wonder what caused that?
I will also need a new gear-knob pretty swiftly as the current one is really rather mangled, is loose/wobbly and doesn't look original.
And here's another pic of her looking nice...
So, next jobs:
Also there's no centre armrest - I do like having it there on long journeys - so I might try and get one of those in there as well...
First up I replaced the aftermarket Panasonic head unit with my trusty Alpine CD112 (or is it 113, I can't remember), veteran of my 318ti and 328i Sport, so now in its third vehicle. I think I paid around £120 for this, brand new and installed, it's been great VFM.
The Panasonic head unit is OK and plays Data CDs without a hitch but the sound seemed a little flat and 'boxy' with wooly midrange and not much bottom end. I know the sound systems aren't all that great on the E36 but I know from experience the head unit makes all the difference - when I first got the Alpine and replaced the standard BMW Business radio/cassette in my Compact, the difference was pronounced. Sure, it still wasn't rattling the windows with bass, but it did transform the sound system from barely acceptable to 'useable'. The Alpine doesn't exactly look OEM but it is closer than the Panasonic's ugly gunmetal grey plastic, and the backlight can be set to an orange colour similar to the rest of the instrumentation. It doesn't really look like it in this picture but in the dark it's acceptable.
The other bonus is that the Alpine has an iphone/ipod cable enabling MP3 browsing from the head unit. I also run TomTom software on the iphone and it's great that the app lowers the volume of the music when giving you directions so you don't miss anything. The cable looks a bit untidy but if need be can be fed back up inside the dash - I like to leave it long so I can put the iphone in its dashboard cradle, but it's nice to know it can be 'retracted' if need be. It also has a USB port on the front, which I can use to charge my Bluetooth earpiece. At some point I may also add the Parrot handsfree module but in all honesty I prefer to just pull over to make calls so only if I see one going cheap. Ultimately I'd love that kind of functionality whilst retaining the OEM look of the original head unit, but short of winning the lotto, the liklihood is slim of that ever happening!
Straight away the difference was remarkable. Although nominally the same output as the Panasonic (4x50 watt) the sound from the Alpine was richer, clearer, deeper and a fair bit louder too. In fact, the sound quality was better than in my '97 Sport using the same unit, so I took a little look at the speakers.
Looking at the back ones, they are also made by Nokia as were the ones in my Sport, however these ones have covered rears which the last one didn't. It also looks like the component speakers in the doors are rather better quality than before. and the lower-mid coming from the kick-panel speakers was definitely stronger. I do like my music when driving but I'm not one for having it massively loud so I'm quite happy with the current setup for now and doubt I'll be making any big audio spends any time soon. The Panasonic head unit will go into the 'vert to replace the LIDL own-brand POS that lurks there currently.
Next up I gave all the leather a good coating in Auto Glym leather balm. I have a whole bottle of the genuine BMW leather balm but the Auto Glym stuff smells like that premium leather smell when you walk into shops selling expensive jackets and suitcases. I felt like Ron Burgundy when he said he felt important because his apartment smelled of 'rich mahogany'. I was also a little bit disturbed to catch myself muttering "it rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again" over and over under my breath as I massaged the product into the headrests...
Aso you can see, the interior's in pretty good shape, there's hardly any wear on the bolsters to the extent I'll probably wait for it to get worse before I bother trying to improve it.
The back seat looks barely sat in...
Whilst prodding around inside I tried to refit the sagging passenger footwell trim - result - it fell out completely. Looking at it, it's a bit mangled so I took it out and will replace it with another from the breaker's.
I also attached my 'SW BMW Owners Group' decal. I actually designed these myself for the local club so I am quite pleased with my handiwork - it's the first time I've ever designed a sticker, and I must admit I am quite chuffed that lots of cars in the area have something I designed stuck to them! Although with hindsight where I placed it makes it fairly invisible from behind - I should have put it in the rear quarter-light window instead. Oh well.
I also noticed a couple of other exterior things that will need putting right - the mirrors will need the bases re-painted as they have been stripped but not sanded/primed/repainted and look a bit rough:
and there is a strange bulge in the valance on the rear bumper - I wonder what caused that?
I will also need a new gear-knob pretty swiftly as the current one is really rather mangled, is loose/wobbly and doesn't look original.
And here's another pic of her looking nice...
So, next jobs:
- Replace gear knob
- replace OBC bulb - they were all working when I took it out to fit the iPod cable, but now one is dead. Annoying because getting the OBC out is always a PITA.
- replace faulty bulb in instrument cluster behind the mileometer
- replace faulty bulb behind headlamp selector knob
- re-colour the rather horrible lilac-coloured parcel shelf to black
- fix that bit of trim you can see is out of place inside rear quarterlight (visible in one of the interior pics above)
Also there's no centre armrest - I do like having it there on long journeys - so I might try and get one of those in there as well...
Edited by vsonix on Thursday 20th September 20:43
NiceCupOfTea said:
IIRC if it has check control the OBC is plug and play. When I was looking into buying my dad's convertible off him I discovered retrofitting check control is a real ballache - ie not worthwhile.
Ah that is good to hear; I miss the exterior temperature function most of all, but also the 18-button OBC is a symbol of fantastically overcomplicated awesomeness, in a way that a MKI i-drive never will be! VinceFox said:
Good looking car, nice colour and not too buggered about with. Look forward to seeing it with haartges on it 
Cheers Vince, I'm looking forward to it too. The E36 was as far as I can tell, designed with 17" or at least 16" in mind and IMO looks a little ungainly on those 15". Initial photoshop mock-up looks promising!
....although obviously the colour is a bit distorted due to my photographic non-genius... Hopefully there will be no buggering about under my ownership! The M50 manifold treatment is about as far as I'll take it I think.
you know, I've always told myself I'll try a CDV delete at some point but then I just got used to being really gradual with the clutch... I'm just worried if I get used to it not being there, if I drive a car with it still installed I'll get irritated/annoyed every time I change gear, or something... ...but also I heard it can hasten the demise of an ageing clutch. I'm sure I read somewhere that BMW used it to protect the drivetrain although possibly only protecting it from the grossly cack-handed (or cack-footed?), I'm not sure.
Edited by vsonix on Sunday 23 September 19:12
So, couple of nice things in the post today... firstly, GUMMI PFLEGE to keep my seals from disintegrating any faster than they need to. Apparently BMW no longer makes it as the newer rubbers aren't meant to need it but this is apparently the exact same formulation as BMW used to sell, so let's hope my rubbers remain good!
Also my Hartge wheels arrived! The cats were very impressed and set to checking for defects.
The kerbing is a bit rough but nothing my wheel tech can't handle, but as show/meet season is pretty much over, I'll wait until spring to get it done.
...and here she is with her new shoes on! Clearly a 20mm drop would help the front but the rear ride height looks fine as is to me... I think they looks pretty swish!
Gonna need a bigger car port soon though, this really isn't very practical!
Also my Hartge wheels arrived! The cats were very impressed and set to checking for defects.
The kerbing is a bit rough but nothing my wheel tech can't handle, but as show/meet season is pretty much over, I'll wait until spring to get it done.
...and here she is with her new shoes on! Clearly a 20mm drop would help the front but the rear ride height looks fine as is to me... I think they looks pretty swish!
Gonna need a bigger car port soon though, this really isn't very practical!
Small addition today, possibly the tip of an iceberg, who knows. I'm not normally a fan of excessive wood in interiors (makes me feel like I'm trapped inside a Grandfather clock)- but when you have a green car... and you need a new gear knob anyway, and this pops up for the right price, and then you see how much they go for new... well, it'd be rude not to! A lovely OEM leather-and-walnut wood M-tech gear knob! 
I don't think I'd want much more than this and maybe the glove box trim, though. But if anyone sees any nice bits going cheap, drop me a PM... 
I don't think I'd want much more than this and maybe the glove box trim, though. But if anyone sees any nice bits going cheap, drop me a PM... Refined Detail said:
BMW products are largely (if not solely) rebottled Einzsett ones anyway so you'll be fine with the Gummi Pfledge (N.B - careful typing 'gummi' into eBay!!)
yeah too many cartoon bears and pictures of jelly sweets. I had to turn off Safe Search to avoid overdosing on all the bright colours. [quote=TameRacingDriver]Wouldn't bother lowering it, mine was lowered and was crap over bumpy roads, far too hard, would bottom out. Looks fine as it is TBH. Mine looked too low as well IMO. Nice car anyway, looks tidy. Wheels look good.
I see what you're saying regarding the lowering, my 318ti Sport was lowered 60mm in the front, 40 in the back...
...it looked good (to my eyes at least)and drove beautifully, however I was starting to get really ticked off with speed bumps and oddly designed car parks - it was OK when it was just me in the car but when I had multiple passengers or a load in the boot then London speed bumps were a fecking nightmare (I don't live in London but I do go up there a lot and occasionally have to carry passengers and equipment). However the Sport springs are 20 (or possibly 25, I can't remember) millimetres lower than standard, so additional lowering is bringing the car into track configuration rather than day to day road spec.
Your car looks like a Sport though (BBS RCs, M bumper, clear corners) in which case that would explain why lowering it further could have seemed excessive.
However I am only considering lowering the car as to OEM Sport height anyway so bottoming out etc shouldn't be an issue - certainly my 328i Sport never gave me any cause for complaint... Otherwise I suppose I could go for a smidge more sidewall when it comes to new tyre time. I can definitely feel the difference in body roll on the standard setup - it's the first non-sport BMW I've had and I'm used to the slightly harder, flatter ride, she's almost a bit 'wallowy' for my tastes, bearable, but room for improvement.
I see what you're saying regarding the lowering, my 318ti Sport was lowered 60mm in the front, 40 in the back...
...it looked good (to my eyes at least)and drove beautifully, however I was starting to get really ticked off with speed bumps and oddly designed car parks - it was OK when it was just me in the car but when I had multiple passengers or a load in the boot then London speed bumps were a fecking nightmare (I don't live in London but I do go up there a lot and occasionally have to carry passengers and equipment). However the Sport springs are 20 (or possibly 25, I can't remember) millimetres lower than standard, so additional lowering is bringing the car into track configuration rather than day to day road spec.
Your car looks like a Sport though (BBS RCs, M bumper, clear corners) in which case that would explain why lowering it further could have seemed excessive.
However I am only considering lowering the car as to OEM Sport height anyway so bottoming out etc shouldn't be an issue - certainly my 328i Sport never gave me any cause for complaint... Otherwise I suppose I could go for a smidge more sidewall when it comes to new tyre time. I can definitely feel the difference in body roll on the standard setup - it's the first non-sport BMW I've had and I'm used to the slightly harder, flatter ride, she's almost a bit 'wallowy' for my tastes, bearable, but room for improvement.
Edited by vsonix on Wednesday 3rd October 20:26
sc4589 said:
I love that colour. Enjoy it! Recently entered E36 ownership, and it's really a different class.
Love your choice of alloys, were they hard to find? Just picked up a set of 16" Parallels for mine today, but always like to have a couple of sets lying around...
Thanks! It seems they are indeed very rare wheels, they're original Hartge Type A made by OZ, they're a bit more common in 16" staggered fitment but for some reason 17"s are few and far between. I was a bit worried that I'd bought a useless set of wheels for a while - they were up for a very good price but located on the other side of the country so I took a punt as they looked decent enough in the pics, aside from the kerbing - however one of them has a whopping dent in it that two wheel specialists refused to risk working on as it would risk the integrity of the wheel trying to fix it. It's useable and holds air etc although I wouldn't want to risk using it for any length of time at high speeds, or put the car through an MOT with it on there just because! However by some serendipitous luck three days later I found one single one up for sale on eBay Germany, also for a very decent price - brand new, unused and never mounted on a car, and going cheap because it was missing its center cap... so I snapped it up! Now I'm just waiting for the bank balance to recover then it's down to the wheel shop to get them refurbed and re-rubbered. I hate driving about on budget ditchfinders! I have to say I am very happy with what they've done with the look of the car, I have those same 10-spoke style 32 15"s on my convertible and they look OK but they really don't suit the coupé at all and make it look lumpy, especially round the rear. And I think they are an investment in themselves, certainly I've had a lot of interest in them already! Love your choice of alloys, were they hard to find? Just picked up a set of 16" Parallels for mine today, but always like to have a couple of sets lying around...
Edited by vsonix on Wednesday 24th October 00:52
yeah, they're lovely cars, this is my fourth and I know there are so many more other awesome cars out there I should be experiencing but I just feel like I know where I am with an E36. We've had a couple of E46s in the family and they're great cars too but I'm not sure if they'll ever get under my skin the same way. I just love the look of them!
So, my first update to this thread in a while but there's been little action happening in terms of obvious changes to the car lately - mostly due to the rather horrible weather. Biggest news is the Hartge/OZ wheels have been beautifully refurbed by South West Wheel Repairs, considering they were pretty fiercely kerbed and needed a fair bit of straightening they did an excellent job. They are like new - only I opted not to repaint the center caps as I think leaving the aged hartge logo actually looks more 'authentic' than if I'd renewed it. I don't have any close-ups right now but I will get some very soon. They have been shod in new rubber all round - Kumho Ecsta HM KH31. I've had Kumho on a few cars now and they've always seen me right and behaved well in the wet, and the price is right so no need to change there.
Anyway I've got back from taking the car on her first proper long distance run - twelve days in Southern France. Door to door (I live in Devon) a thousand miles each way. On the way down I spent the night in Calais then drove all the way down to Olonzac (near where I was staying) in a little bit over eleven hours. The advantage of travelling on a Sunday - getting round the outskirts of Paris was way less stressful than usual, and there were way fewer lorries on the road so no snail-racing to cope with. I crossed over the legendary Millau viaduct although it was dark so I didn't really see much. No matter, I've been over it loads before in daylight! I must have put on another 400 miles just driving around over the time I was there, by the time I got home I'd done over 2,500 including some brisk driving on some twisty mountainous back roads, the car didn't miss a beat throughout. In fact, she seemed to get better MPG cruising on the French Autoroutes thanks to the better road surfaces, and the availability of 98 Octane in most stations meant she was running on the Good Stuff for the duration. As if to confirm she was happy, a dashboard backlight bulb that had been dead since I got the car (and on the to-do list) actually came back to life! I'll take that as a good sign, of course, and not one of pending electrical woes, haha!
Unfortunately I left my memory card with the pics off my 'proper' digital camera in France so we'll have to wait for the (better) pics from there for a while. However I still have a few from my phone...
Anyway I've got back from taking the car on her first proper long distance run - twelve days in Southern France. Door to door (I live in Devon) a thousand miles each way. On the way down I spent the night in Calais then drove all the way down to Olonzac (near where I was staying) in a little bit over eleven hours. The advantage of travelling on a Sunday - getting round the outskirts of Paris was way less stressful than usual, and there were way fewer lorries on the road so no snail-racing to cope with. I crossed over the legendary Millau viaduct although it was dark so I didn't really see much. No matter, I've been over it loads before in daylight! I must have put on another 400 miles just driving around over the time I was there, by the time I got home I'd done over 2,500 including some brisk driving on some twisty mountainous back roads, the car didn't miss a beat throughout. In fact, she seemed to get better MPG cruising on the French Autoroutes thanks to the better road surfaces, and the availability of 98 Octane in most stations meant she was running on the Good Stuff for the duration. As if to confirm she was happy, a dashboard backlight bulb that had been dead since I got the car (and on the to-do list) actually came back to life! I'll take that as a good sign, of course, and not one of pending electrical woes, haha!
Unfortunately I left my memory card with the pics off my 'proper' digital camera in France so we'll have to wait for the (better) pics from there for a while. However I still have a few from my phone...
Edited by vsonix on Monday 26th November 19:35
hmm I think with the time and effort I put into getting a complete set of these plus cost of the refurb I will probably be keeping them to enjoy a while longer... and as I am saving up the pennies at the moment for new shocks/springs I am really looking forward to seeing how she looks on them with a nice bit of drop
If for any reason I do have to sell the car they'll probably go separately (or be kept if I get another E36!). No doubt I will make people aware of their availability via this thread... but I hope that time is a while off yet!
Economy was about what you say, 35-37 running on 98 Octane, although I found different brands seemed to give different MPG - E. Leclerc own brand (!) and Agip seemed to last forever and give me many miles of spirited driving, 'Avia' brand on the motorway seemed like gnats piss and the car gulped it down. Oddly enough I seemed to get better mileage on the way there rather than on the way back, although I did pick a different route to return home - around the same distance, but the road surfaces weren't as good as on the newer Autoroute that runs via Millau/Clermont Ferrand - that may have had something to do with it...
If for any reason I do have to sell the car they'll probably go separately (or be kept if I get another E36!). No doubt I will make people aware of their availability via this thread... but I hope that time is a while off yet!
Economy was about what you say, 35-37 running on 98 Octane, although I found different brands seemed to give different MPG - E. Leclerc own brand (!) and Agip seemed to last forever and give me many miles of spirited driving, 'Avia' brand on the motorway seemed like gnats piss and the car gulped it down. Oddly enough I seemed to get better mileage on the way there rather than on the way back, although I did pick a different route to return home - around the same distance, but the road surfaces weren't as good as on the newer Autoroute that runs via Millau/Clermont Ferrand - that may have had something to do with it...
Edited by vsonix on Sunday 25th November 18:49
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