E36 M3 Common Maintenance Issues (Reference)

Orang Tua,
Thanks for the input. I am going to take a look at the M3 in a few hours. I can't wait. I will try to be patient, but the car looks great. I also have a great friend that is an import mech, who knows about these cars. That is reassuring. I will look at the coolant, and things under the hood. The suspension will be replaced if needed....
Thanks again!
idrive "M3"

Originally Posted by zcasavant

I have the stock clutch stop, and the stock shifter. I HAVE brought it to the dealer, and they replaced the tranny. Still having problems from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to third. Tonight, it absolutely would NOT go into 1st gear at one point. I had to pull it back into neutral, and then push it into first again.

today my M3 E36 didnt want to go in to 1st but since i work at a shop i rolled it in and order 1, replaced it cus it was leaking and that took care of the problem, if there is a leak not only does fluid get out but air goes in to the system and that does not build up enough pressure to release the clutch, try that im 99.999999999% sure that it will fix ur problem

I have an '98 M3 convertible and it works and has worked correctly since yesterday. Now, only the canvas folding top works when I press the button. When it is ready to fold into it's compartment, the lid won't open. If anyone can help me on this issue I would be extremely grateful. I have checked the window alignment and the motor and that isn't the issue, but other than that, I can't diagnose anything else because the servos and other linkages are located in the compartment that won't open. Is there a manual release for this compartment?

Thanks,

RTR

Anyone know why my '98 m3 convertible top compartment lid won't open. The canvas roof folds to it's proper position, but then it has no where to go b/c the compartment lid is stuck shut. Is there a manual release for this lid or is it a servo possibly gone bad? If anyone could help I would be very grateful.

Thanks,

RTR

Rear brake light circuit failure, what is too change? It did that on my way to work, will check if it appears on the way back. My car likes to play with me and pop come failures and then next time I start it theres none...haha

Originally Posted by BrazeauRacing

I've heard that there's not really enough room to safety wire this nut properly without actually weakening the shaft. Most racers (and street pilots) are just tack welding the nut to the shaft for peace of mind. The other common option is to red locktite it.

I have a thin washer i put on first then bend it over on 2 sides so it cant back out!! Never had any isses from it.

Originally Posted by Alpina B3 3.0

Rear brake light circuit failure, what is too change? It did that on my way to work, will check if it appears on the way back. My car likes to play with me and pop come failures and then next time I start it theres none...haha

when this happened to me i changed all light bulbs.... nothing. It ended up being the brake light switch at the pedal. count the number of wires on your cause they will want to know if it 3 or 4 i think.

Thanks man will check, it seems to just come and go...probably close to die!

I have a 99 e36 M3 Convertible. With 154,000 miles.
Here is a list what I have replaced so far.
1. All belts at 120K

Car runs great. When, I do turn the steering wheel it makes a squeezing sound. Any idea what it is?

Thank you ahead for your for help, comments and recommendations.


Kooma Sutra

Originally Posted by koomasutra

I have a 99 e36 M3 Convertible. With 154,000 miles.
Here is a list what I have replaced so far.
1. All belts at 120K

Car runs great. When, I do turn the steering wheel it makes a squeezing sound. Any idea what it is?

You might be low on power steering fluid.

Originally Posted by djayamek

You might be low on power steering fluid.

I had to replace the tie rods on mine an it was squeaking to "low on power steering fluid"

Is their some kind of website that lists warranty problems that are covered?

Originally Posted by Killjoy

About the nut that people recommend tack welding...how hard is this to get to? Is this a good DIY, or is someone like me with an average/below average knowledge of internals getting in over their head?

You have to drop the front subframe to get to the oil pan.

And seriously, it is fine. I don't know why people keep going ape over this nut. My car runs, drives, and does just fine. Geez. This isn't something that happens 100% on 100% of the cars. It would be far easier to just remove the nut, clean the shaft, apply some red locktite, thread the nut back on, forget it.

Seriously, relax about this topic. There are a number of E36 M and regular cars that track and autoX without doing anything to the nut and are just fine.

Hey everyone!
I'm brand new to these forums.
I'm from Perth, Western Australia. I'm currently living in Calgary and looking to buy a 1997 M3 E36.
After reading ALL the pages here (thanks again for everyone with their constructive input, its been very helpful) I went through the mind-set of just thinking "These cars clearly aren't worth it then with all these hassles. I want to enjoy the car, not spend all my free time fixing it to still not drive it."

I went and checked out a young guys silver M3. He bought it off a guy whom imported it from the US.
The problems -major one I was focussed on- was when I asked him why the water pump was changed. I asked him if it over heated. He said "Yes, it got into the red, but the warning light didn't come on. I shut it off and had it towed. When they swapped the pump, the typical cheap plastic OEM pump blades were destroyed and that was the cause."

I'm 32yo, and have been building complete cars, custom turbo setups and rebuilding engines for the last 17years as my hobby. I'm over doing rebuilds now. Too costly and take too long. I dont have much free time these days.
I told him that if she's been overheated, it will most likely have warped the head and will present problems later down the track.
I own 3 turbo'd Nissans back home. Two of them are 180sx's. Of which one is a full show car, and the other a nicely warmed-up 370HP daily driver. I know ALL about blown head gaskets with other cars but especially turbo's in our hot climate.

When I started his car, there was no water vapour at all, no missing from the engine (cylinder/s misfiring until they clear any water in the chamber). It wasnt over heating after I gave it a good, spirited drive, up hill to really load it up (checking the clutch too etc while I was at it).
Its done 172000kms and the guy was very very honest about past damage, a couple of small accidents from the previous owner.
Now, mechanically, he himself had had a lot of work done to it.
New water pump, alternator, p/s pump and tie rods, pulleys, belts, new after market exhaust, rims blah blah blah.
It leaks nothing at all. It drives very well, with lots of torque.
There is some mechanical engine noise which I couldnt actually pick as Im not familiar with these engines but it seemed to have gone away after it warmed up a bit.
Gear selection is good, no missing or crunching of gears other than maybe 2nd gear synchros when down-changing from 3rd to 2nd (no biggy, I didnt rev match on that change) and no popping out of 5th gear.
Brakes are phenomenal, handling is crisp. Steering a little heavy but could be as a result of the wider wheels and the tires are nearly like slicks so that will make steering feel heavier.

My main issue is the fact that it was overheated.

I'm sure most temp gauges in cars show the red way before it will cause any actual damage. Would this be the case with the M3 and is there even a red overheat warning light at all with these dash clusters? I didn't check that when I put the key to "ignition".
He said it overheated that one time, a year ago and he drove it for the summer after changing the pump and has never had any problems with the car other than those listed. Including changing the ignition barrel over (on a side-note, WHY DON'T M3's HAVE HEIGHT ADJUSTABLE STEERING COLUMNS!??!? Apparently the non M3's do!?) and the sunroof getting stuck open due to it sliding out of its rail. That will need to be fixed.

Is this car worth it? Or is it too risky? I'd really like to know asap as I need to get a price on insurance for it and work out the total cost of buying, insuring and fixing some of the problems with it (euro light glass lenses broken, indicator broken, fog lights missing, sunroof broken, needs window tint badly for summer, the climate control flaps can be heard moving but the windscreen and feet don't seem to get any airflow at all with the fan on. The face setting works.
Most of these are basic to fix, but cost money in parts.

Thoughts?

I appreciate any feedback from people who are more experienced with these particular engines/cars than me and dont worry, you can talk the in-depth technical mechanical language to me. I'll understand. I'm also a qualified Electrician

Thanks!
:-)
Wes

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Originally Posted by johnf

BMW NA stopped ordering tilt steering on all their E36s after a round of minor decontenting. It wasn't a deal breaker and helped keep the cars from rising too high up the ladders.

Out of curiosity, do you plan to eventually send the car to Oz?

No. We drive on the other side of the road and the other side of the car. I'd have to pay a lot to import, pay taxes and duties, have to get the steering wheel conversion ($$$) then get it all inpected and have the intrusion bars put in, new tires (to Aus standards and conditions) then get it licensed etc etc. Just cheaper to buy one there.

That just makes so little sense. Of all things to drop on a car, height adjustable steering shouldnt be one. Especially on such a high-end sports car.
Back home, Nissan made a Pulsar GL and a Pulsar ET Turbo in 1984 . The GL was NA and the lowest spec'd model. The ET Turbo was the highest spec'd and the first 4cylinder in Aus with EFI and turbo.
Height adjustable steering was an optional extra in the GL. I had one of those and also a couple of the turbo'd versions of the same car. The ET had everything like A/C, adjustable steering EFI, turbo, 4 wheel disc brakes -as standard.

I just cant get my head around this M3 not having something so basic.
It should be easy enough to swap this out I'd imagine....

.

Originally Posted by johnf

I was just curious. In Japan, it used to be considered quite chic to own a LHD car, and for all I know, it still is. From what I remember of the southeast, Oz has pretty generous sight distances that should make LHD not intolerable, sight distance that are probably much more generous than in parts of Japan! Most countries also allow you to import, duty-free as part of your household goods, a car you have owned while living abroad for a while. The homoligation of the older US-market cars is generally also not too bad. At least that has been true with the four countries I am a little familiar with: Denmark, Finland, Germany and the U.S.

Cool. Thanks for the reply, John. No, its just not worth it in Aus. They make it extremely difficult to import cars and have all new laws on grey imports which make it expensive.
Gone are teh days when you would import after owning a car for a year. My mate back in 2001 bought an RX7 series 6 and brought it back home with him to sell. It cost him a fortune to import.
You do know we live in cities in Australia right?? That line of sight stuff.....I have NO idea where you're getting that from. To me, you have better line of sight here in NA. All the roads are long, straight and boring compared to where I live anyway. An M3 is far more suited to Aus than NA with how well they are designed to handle.
Most cars back home (in Perth) are built for handling and then speed. In that order ;-).

I think I'm going to walk away from buying an M3 now after reading more and more and seeing that I just dont have the time nor the storage space to have to deal with all the issues when they arise. I dont think its the car for me at this point in my life.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to these forums and helped in creating them. It was really helpful to me and many others.

:-)

Wes