Individual e36 318is.

[rrs]

To continue the e36 based theme on here at the moment , could I have your thoughts on this please: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190642419578? ... 1423.l2649

[Jhonno]

£750.

Rare colour! Could be nice..

[harry_p]

i'd be factoring in the cost of a new sill on the nearside, wouldnt be happy driving it like that tbh.

[rrs]

Thanks guys

That was my feeling Jhonno, could be a bargain could be a world of trouble.

Harry I was going to go on what it looks like in the metal, I can't quite get my head around what shape/size that dent is from the picture.

[pacerpete]

i'd be factoring in the cost of a new sill on the nearside, wouldnt be happy driving it like that tbh.

That sill, assuming it is just the top outer skin, should be a relatively straight forward repair that shouldn't involve any replacement parts or welding.

If the rest of the car is decent and the south coast rust bug hasn't bit too hard, you could do a lot worse for 7/800 quid.

[sunnyr83]

Forget that! Buy mine

http://www.e36coupe.com/forum/viewtopic ... 8#p1930802

[leeparkes]

Looks like sienna red, cool colour.

[e30mtech]

personally wouldn't touch a 1.8 with nearly 150k on it unless it was like 300-400 quid, could get a much nicer e36 for that money

[adit]

that's a lovely colour

[pacerpete]

personally wouldn't touch a 1.8 with nearly 150k on it unless it was like 300-400 quid, could get a much nicer e36 for that money

I would have thought a Scottish person would appreciate more than most , that condition is MUCH more important than mileage when buying a sub £1000 snotter

[rrs]

Looks like sienna red, cool colour.

I was wondering what the colour was!

Thanks for the input so far all.

[rrs]

Forget that! Buy mine

http://www.e36coupe.com/forum/viewtopic ... 8#p1930802

Not quite what I'm looking for thanks anyway

[rrs]

To update:

I went to see this today the chap selling it even had a pit so I had a good look underneath as well and to my untrained eye it looked in prety good shape so I put down a deposit!

It is sienna red and turned out to have full service history, BMW to 130K and 2 BMW independant stamps to bring it up to the current 150K. It's had 3 owners, originally a BMW demo car purchased by the current owners partner at 3 months old it passed to her at some point and was taken off the road in 2008 when it failed an mot on wishbone/balljoint and some brake pipes.



It's filthy but everything seems in good condition. Hopefully picking it up monday evening so time will tell if I know what I'm on about or not.

Oh and Jhonno you were spot on.

[Andyboy]

personally wouldn't touch a 1.8 with nearly 150k on it unless it was like 300-400 quid, could get a much nicer e36 for that money

It's a 1.9.

[rrs]

For anyone who is interested:

I've been using this for a week now and should tip the 500mile mark tomorrow.

So far it's had an oil change and general check over, I have some new plugs to go in which should have gone in at the weekend but I got a bit carried away with a new toy I got for xmas after rain stopped play outside, turns out you can polish a turd.


As mentioned before it was filthy so it got a proper scrub with the black mouldings off




Clean now but the paint was very flat/oxidsed


So clayed the whole car and rinsed it again


Then I started playing with the polisher


Day 2

I'd managed to snaffle the garage overnight as it started raining Saturday evening, so polishing continued and here are the results after waxing.













Every panel has marks but I'm really impressed in the way the paint came up, I suspected it needed a good clean but wasn't expecting that. I quite like it already even if it is a lowly 4 pot, it's doing 38mpg on my commute and still needs some fettling!

I will get some pictures of the whole car next chance I get.

[leeparkes]

Its come up nice.

[capri_rob]

Very nice - only seen one other E36 that colour - theres a guy with a 328i Convertible just round the corner from me in that colour that he's had for years - always liked it

[rrs]

Still quite light when I got home today.







Think I'm going to do rear trailing arm bushes as it tramlines a bit, any other suggestions while i'm there?

[jimmyspeed]

looks good !!

way nicer than mine but has a similar problem - traming -

I was quite surprised at the tram lining, especially on the motorway, was a right pain whilst towing my trailer ? not sure what causes it i thought it was tracking


I can advise you check the air filter box for the foam lining, its on the lid, mine had began to disintegrate and get sucked into the engine. The whole inlet was full of the stuff i removed the foam and cleaned it all out with carb cleaner

don't know if its a major problem, as it would probably burn in the engine but worth a look

[pac1982]

mines up for sale if anyone wants a nice E36 touring....

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3492433.htm

[rrs]

Everyone loves a tryer eh Pac?

I can advise you check the air filter box for the foam lining, its on the lid, mine had began to disintegrate and get sucked into the engine. The whole inlet was full of the stuff i removed the foam and cleaned it all out with carb cleaner

Thanks I will check that out, I have already been in the airbox which is the bit I forgot to mention.

When changing the oil filter I took the airbox off for access. When i disconnected it from the feed pipe that runs over the radiatior a whole load of "stuff" fell out (It was dark). I was slightly concerned at this point and was about to look at what it was when I heard the airbox rattle so I pulled the lid off to reveal



Rammed full to the bottom of the filter with leaves and acorns, I'd driven around 100miles by this point. Not found Scrat yet

[jimmyspeed]

nice collection there i had a similar amount of oak leaves too !!!! no rodents luckily

The foam is dark, its on the lid of that part in the picture, wedged in under a plastic mesh

i just ripped it all out !

[pac1982]

Everyone loves a tryer eh Pac?

why take life so seriously, you'll never get out alive

[rrs]

nice collection there i had a similar amount of oak leaves too !!!! no rodents luckily

The foam is dark, its on the lid of that part in the picture, wedged in under a plastic mesh

i just ripped it all out !

I'll look at the weekend, I assume it's in there to collect moisture or something similar but if it's going to disintegrate it can come out.

[jimmyspeed]

i think its just there as sound deadening - just give it a poke and see if what condition its in - its very similar to the e30 foam stuck under the bonnet

[nickso]

Mine tramlined badly until I changed the ancient tyres, worth a try if yours has old fronts on. Change your cabin filter too, if the Air filter housing looked like that it's a cert the cabin one looks similar.

Love sienna red too, saw a Sienna 328i touring on PH a while back.

[bss325i]

Check the bottom ball joints and the wishbone bushes on the front as well.

[rrs]

Will do thanks all and already done the cabin filter old one was black.

[Simon]

Have a quick read through my thread.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... sc&start=0

Make sure the jacking pads are still fitted, check out and clean behind the skirts, and remove the arch liners and remove all the crud.

[rrs]

For anyone who isn't thoroughly bored of this yet...

Over the last couple of weeks I have:
Cleaned TB out and removed the lip of carbon that was causing the throttle disc to stick.
Cleaned the ICV.
Removed the foam from the airbox. (Thanks Jimmy it was just on the turn!)
Front arch liners out and all cleaned up. (No holes )
Inspected/wobbled various bits.

No pictures as I'm not very good at taking them when I get going. However as I can't help myself I have decided to do a front end refresh so have ordered: front wishbones, "lollipop" bushes, antiroll bar drop links and inner and outer track rod ends. I am also going to do the rear trail arm bushes and then see where that stands me, parts should arrive this week so roll on the weekend!

I still need to take the skirts off and check but ignorance is bliss and all that

[Jhonno]

Whilst you are doing the front end refresh... E46 rack!! 3.0 turn one.. Awesome mod.

[rrs]

Interesting will investigate

[harry_p]

Mines still sat in the shed.

Maybe now the weather's getting warmer...

[rrs]

Update time for everyone poised on the edges of their seats....

Up first was the 'front end refresh'

So do you best to make your drive look throughly council


Remove the bits being replaced




This is the wishbone that was fitted in December a Q-drive part with the main ball joint already showing signs of wear/failure


Another reason to get it off the car


I suspected the inner tie rods had never been replaced


I bought a Meyle kit from ebay which included various HD parts time will tell if this was a good move or not!


New arm on and anti-roll bar bracket swapped over


Great pic of my old Nike air trainer and a blury new outer tie rod


Gratuitous arch shot


Rinse and repeat for drivers side


It's adviseable at this point to get your tracking done if your not planning any further work for a while as it will more than likely be out. Last year however I bought a trackace kit as I was fed up with paying for tracking after fiddling with things and I've never realy gotten on with the string method.

The next weekend was rear trailing arm bushes which turned out to be a bit of a pig to do

Before we start admire the impressive ammount of mud stuck in the arches before cleaning it all out




Continue the council activity from last weekend with silver paint to mark the positon of the console brackets.


Turn the air blue for a good 30 minutes and give yourself a hernia while removing all the bolts.

Old bushes out the drivers side was much softer/worn than the passengers ( I could flex it by hand) the reason for this is explained later






Note the use of BMW special tool 1 and 2 here



At this point it turned into a bit of an epic 2 day battle. So here was bush pulling tool mk1 the keen eyed amongst you will notice the use of several e30 parts here


I spent a ridiculous ammount of time trying to press the new bush in with no success as it kept toppling when any pressure was applied. At which point we reached the end of day 1 wondering how I was getting to work the day after tomorrow...

Day 2
Some late night research on the internet led me to a local plumbers merchant and B&Q to buy this little haul


Bodge some holes and we have bush tool mk2


I'm fairly sure I took some pictures of it in use but they seem to have disappeared so all I have is the bush finally installed


This literally took 5 minutes with the new tool and same for the other side and best of all cost around £15 it is available for hire if anyone is interested?

The reassembly of the car took place in the pooring rain so no pictures but I'm sure you can all imagine what me lying on my back drenched trying to line up console brackets looked like.

More importantly while doing this I found that the rear passenger coil spring had snapped at some point in the cars life and gone unnoticed for quite some time looking at the rust pitting on the broken end. It is the last coil that locates the spring on the pad that had sheared, needless to say I think that is the main answer to the interesting handling and why the bushes were unevenly worn!

[aj_mckay]

I think most E36 owners (including myself) can sympathise with you in having to do these jobs. At least they're done now - I'm sure you've noticed a vast improvement in the handling