i am looking for a new toy this week since i sold my olds and found a 90's something bimmer 3 series 4 door for sale with a 5 speed and a inline 6 and something like 270,000 on it. they are asking 995 and the inside is ripped up, the body is ok. and it ran a bit rough. i just started it today and going back to look at tommor afternoon, whats some things to look for in bimmers for sure? thanks jason
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Sept. 10, 2009 7:41 p.m. ckosacranoid HalfDork
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Sept. 10, 2009 7:47 p.m. z31maniac Dork
Not much more money can get you a much nicer car.
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Sept. 10, 2009 8:46 p.m. Strike_Zero New Reader
Agreed . . .
2500-3000 can get you an awesome E36 I6 Bimmer.
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Sept. 10, 2009 8:48 p.m. njansenv Reader
^ What he said. While BMW parts aren't as expensive as some fear, they CAN nickel and dime you a fair bit: especially if you're the type that wants everything ("features" included) to work. It seems they generally pretty much run forever, with or without the CEL on
.
Making it drive "like a 3-series" might cost you a bit to replace bushings/dampers/control arms.
Nathan
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Sept. 10, 2009 9:25 p.m. motomoron Reader
I bought the nicest OBD II e36 M3 I could find and I was picky about color, interior, options, mileage and ownership history and documentation. I ended up with a one owner, 58k mile, silver over black 1998 w/ no luxury package or wing, no remote locks, manual heated sport seats, and 7 years of service records as he'd bought it CPO off of his 1 year lease. He was a fastidious vegetarian triathlete software developer who was selling as the warranty was over and he'd just bought a Prius.
Still, once I began to provoke the car by autocrossing the spectre of 10 year old bushings reared it's ugly and either complicated or expensive head. In anticipation of a full season of track use every bushing on the car was done last March. I used Powerflex urethane bushings for the rear subframe to body and front lower control arms and new OEM BMW parts everywhere else. I used e46 M3 rear trailing arm bushings with Delrin limiters and the aftermarket lower control arms ended up with limiters after the stock bushings crept. I believe that an e36 M3 has a total of 17 bushings; 15 in the rear suspension, 2 in the front. The front ball loints are integrated in the lower control arm which are a routine interval replacement part for cars which see regular track duty. (Lemfoerder good, Meyle not good)
The difference was amazing. It's literally a different car.
I've done 95% of what can be done to one while leaving it normally aspirated and it's a wonderful, fun, fast car. It's a little demanding on the street what with the spring rates, intake/exhaust noise, light flywheel and hair-trigger clutch, but out of the city it's awesome, and on VIR full course it's in it's element.
The thing about BMWs is they're desinged and built to be used forever, which in German means "maintained per our exhaustive schedule forever". In other words, unless you buy the high mileage car from an obsessive bimmer-weenie who replaced everything before it was totally worn out the overwhelming likelyhood is that you'll have a huge list of service items that will have to be done before it really works right.
An upside is that in many urban centers the reason for selling is still that the status has worn off long before the niceness. In the DC area, 5 yr old and older BMWs and Audis are cheap and Civics command real money. Go figure.
bimmerforums classified ads can be good as well as roadfly. I was also checking craigslist with a 250 mile radius as well as autotrader.
I'd spend a little more to get much more car. But yeah, get one for sure.
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Sept. 11, 2009 12:55 a.m. Josh HalfDork
motomoron wrote: (Lemfoerder good, Meyle not good)
I am utterly baffled as to why I hear this repeated so often. It's always in a manner of "i heard.." or "everyone says..", and not a direct explanation of exactly WHY they aren't any good. I have had Meyle control arms on my car for almost 3 years with no problems whatsoever. They are also, to the best of my knowledge, the only E36 control arms that allow you to replace the ball joints individually in the event of a failure, which could save some money down the road. I've heard of ball joint wear and failures with all manufacturers of control arms on E36 BMWs, it's a highly stressed part that sees a lot of wear especially on track cars. At least the Meyle is cheaper and serviceable. Of course they only make arms with the '95 M3/Non-M geometry, so if you want to put them on a later M3 you need to use an offset bushing. I have powerflex offset bushings on my 328i.
Also, the Meyle HD rear shock mount is a GREAT street car shock mount for these cars. Very well made, very low incidence of failure, cheap, easy to install, silent, and maintenance free. I replaced a set of JTD mounts with these and couldn't be happier. The JTD mounts were a comparative pain to install, and I never did get them to stop rattling over potholes and railroad tracks. Put the Meyle ones in about 2 years ago, and haven't worried about it since.
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Sept. 11, 2009 8:07 a.m. njansenv Reader
AFAIK the Meyle arms also use the rubber isolated balljoint that is found in non-M3 E36's.
I ended up sucking it up and buying the Lemforder M3 arms...which were more money than I would've preferred. That said, I fully expect another 100k miles out of them.
It seems a lot of the lapping day guys have better results with the Lemforder's...
Nathan
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Sept. 11, 2009 2:42 p.m. ckosacranoid HalfDork
there is no plans for any real upgrades on it, just a beater for work and i wish i had more money and a subby would be parked in the driveway then. this is the only thing for cheap that i could find that was stick and rwd or awd. might be picking it tonight it is works mostly.
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Sept. 11, 2009 3:04 p.m. Josh HalfDork
The ball joints in the Meyle arms are all metal, in fact that's one of their selling points over the stock pieces. I was just wondering why meyle so often gets dumped on, because their parts that I've put on seem to be of better construction than the stock pieces. I think part of the problem is simply that they're a little cheaper than Lemfoerder, and in the eyes of a lot of the crowd that drives these cars, that must mean they aren't as good.
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Sept. 11, 2009 3:10 p.m. Josh HalfDork
This is a great common faults/pre purchase checklist sort of article that I used when I was looking for mine:
http://www.unitedbimmer.com/forums/bmw-oem-parts-department-diys-faqs/3824-ultimat...
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Sept. 11, 2009 8:46 p.m. Strike_Zero New Reader
I used Meyle arms in my 325is. And I abusss. . . . er drove the car "aggressively"
They performed very well. They are still on the car after 7K miles of AutoX, track days, and daily hoonage.
