My question is...is there any difference between a SA assembled 318i and the German assembled ones (assuming they were assembled in Germany)
I have been led to believe that any car coming out of SA will have an entire car full of different grade and pitch threads for every nut and bolt.
A concern if you were looking for a donor body and had a cars worth of 6cyl running gear to transplant.
Truth or folk tale?
South African Assembled 1983 318i...
Moderator: martauto
Well the SA ones were all RHD for a start
No difference so far as I am aware, and I live just down the road from the BMW Roslyn Plant just outside Pretoria, SA.
SA is as metricised as Europe, more so than the UK was at that time of the E30. All threads would have been to the German spec. No E30 parts are manufactured locally, so all local E30's are kept alive on imported spares and I have never heard of any problems.

No difference so far as I am aware, and I live just down the road from the BMW Roslyn Plant just outside Pretoria, SA.
SA is as metricised as Europe, more so than the UK was at that time of the E30. All threads would have been to the German spec. No E30 parts are manufactured locally, so all local E30's are kept alive on imported spares and I have never heard of any problems.

"It is amazing how many drivers, even at the Formula-1 level, think that brakes are for slowing the car down." - Mario Andretti