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The NEWEST official E36 OT Thread!!

613K views 9K replies 87 participants last post by  drivinfaster 
#1 ·
New new version of the official E36 OT thread.
 
#4,160 ·
Thanks for the tip, Karl. That actually did not cross my mind.
 
#4,161 · (Edited)
If that M3 was sitting for so many years with little fuel in the tank there's a good chance that moisture would have formed in the tank lining (bad fuel mix) although if I'm not mistaken we have a plastic tank so rust won't be an issue. If I were you I'd basically drain and not top-up ALL the fluids without flushing and fill with new as the viscosity of the oils must be very deteriorated.
The tires will probably have flat spots from sitting so long and cracks will be inevitable.
If the handbrake was on all that time, check for rust at the connecting surfaces.
The upholstery has to be thoroughly cleaned to remove bacteria and other elements within the materials which cause decaying resulting in cracks and a shorter life of the seats.
 
#4,162 ·
Ya, water must have gotten in the tank. The fuel pump and level senor were dead and the fuel pump had rust on it. I replaced the whole assembly with the one from my 323is and I am going to drop in a new level sensor unit. I already got the old gas out and put in a new fuel filter. I am changing all the fluids. I already got the tranny fluid and oil done. I still have the diff oil, power steering fluid, coolant and brake fluid to go. The hand brake was left on, but it is the best hand brake in an e36 I have ever used. I am not going to touch it because it works really well and I don't want to mess that up. The interior is going to be thoroughly vacuumed and rug doctored. Then I am going to clean all the vinyl and I have Leatherique for the seats. I am also going to take out all the plastic bits like the cup holder and wash them because they have a mysterious goo in them : puke:.
 
#4,165 ·
#4,166 ·
Don't worry the M3 will be getting RSM reinforcement plates. We already have a shock in the trunk, we don't need the whole shock tower in there too. :rofl:
 
#4,170 ·
I took my time and made it to my mom's Monday morning, stayed the first night in a motel, 2nd night i just slept in the back of the car.

Stopped in St. Louis and had an interesting dinner with a homeless guy named Steven. I wanted to go to Panera, but he wanted to go to Hardees, so Hardees it was lol. I have to say as far as fast good goes they make a pretty good burger, and Steven was loving it. After, he walked me to the entrance to the path that takes you to the archway visitor center. It was confusing because the entire place is a construction site at the moment. Unfortunately I couldn't go up because the visitor center was closed but it was cool to see the archway close up anyways.

Architecture Landmark Arch Sky Daytime


And this is for you Don...

Night Black Sky Light Lighting

Crowd Night Event

Food Ingredient Dairy Drink Ice cream


It was good, and quite a hot spot, but I have to say I was expecting frozen custard, not ice-cream.
 
#4,172 ·
Unfortunately I couldn't go up because the visitor center was closed but it was cool to see the archway close up anyways.
There isn't a gun big enough to get claustrophobic me up in that thing!

Glad you made it to your moms place safely.

You'd never had a Hardee's hamburger before????
 
#4,175 · (Edited)
Wow I can't believe it, as bad as the Duramax has been for city driving MPG wise it is awesome on the highway.
This morning filled up and with about 90-95% highway I got 107 miles out of 1/4 tank, and it was loaded on the way back, about 1800lbs. That was with cruise control driving at speed limit and no traffic. So by my calculations I averaged 25MPG, truck has 20 gallon tank. Wish I had logged the drive with DashCommand, maybe next time. Then the next 1/4 tank was another trip (still loaded) I hit slow moving traffic one way but not on the return trip, by the time I had 1/2 tank remaining I was at 160 miles driven -_-

I have a few places close by with Diesel at $1.85/gal so it's not so bad after all, it's on par with gas prices atm.



And I never had Hardee's, I don't even know if we got them up here. Then again I don't eat much out.
Ok Google... Woah, there is only TWO in Jersey and one is 8 miles from my home.
 
#4,180 ·
Eddie finally got to drive his E30 project. The result was an ear-to-ear grin from him. I shot video of him driving it out the driveway and back, but I was using his iPhone to record the event, and I can't post it. Maybe he'll upload it later.

That's been a 5+ YEAR project, which will soon be headed to paint (pro job, not my garage splatterings), upholstery, and some new tires. New tires first.

It is so QUIET! All stock exhaust from the same '88 325is we got the engine out of, it's like whisper quiet, completely unlike my E30. On Eddie's car you can actually hear the injectors click at idle! One cam follower (rocker) is ticking. Other than that you can barely hear anything but a sewing-machine-like whir. I don't care for the 2.93 LSD it has, but it has some mighty long legs once it's rolling. I'm used to the 3.73 in my E30 that launches like shot from a gun, but runs out of breath at moderately low-3 figure speeds.
 
#4,181 · (Edited)
When I was in Italy last year I was surprised that Starbucks wasn't there cause here it's all over and the main branch is one of the largest in Europe ...when I asked the locals why, they laughed at the idea of Starbucks in Italy, the "€1 coffee land",......from what I've heard they're went there end of last year or early '16.
 
#4,186 ·
Last week my dad had a fit because he thought his truck was too loud and assumed Boo or me must have broken the exhaust without telling him. I had just taken the truck on a long trip to pick up parts for the M3 and during the trip I noticed the truck sounded real good. I honestly thought it was still stock and normal. I just assumed because I don't drive the truck much that I forgot how good it sounds :rofl:. My dad had me and Boo take it to shop to have them look at the exhaust. They said that the muffler had I hole in it and the resonator was probably going to rust through too soon. They wanted $1,000 to bolt a new resonator and muffler on :yikes:. I paid them $50 for a diagnosis fee and order a new muffler and resonator kit with new gaskets for $250. Yesterday Boo and me replaced the muffler and resonator on the truck. When we took off the old muffler it turns out there was a huge hole in the top of the muffler. Removing the muffler was a fairly straight forward process. Surprisingly the bolts hold it together did not give us much of a problem. Four of them came right off with the impact gun and the last one was on a clamp we were not reusing so I made sort work of it with the grinder. The hard part was getting it off the rubber mounts that hold it to the frame. We had to get creative with some ratchet straps to remove the worst ones. The more accessible ones I cut off with the grinder. With everything off after the cats I did the obligatory start up with no muffler and it turns out the truck is stupid quiet no mater what you do to the exhaust. Seriously there are stock exhausts louder than it with no muffler. If it was my truck I would probably just straight pipe it after the resonator. Anyway we got the new muffler and resonator installed and now the truck is back to being super quiet.
https://youtu.be/d7pqycxxyBk
 

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#4,188 · (Edited)
The joy of living where there are competing net service providers! We had 20MB service through Brighthouse as our service provider, but AT&T is available also. AT&T just upgraded their customers from 16MB to 24MB service, so Brighthouse upgraded everyone in the same area to 50MB service at no extra charge. :bigpimp:

 
#4,189 ·
Ya same here, Google is moving into NC so TWC got all nervous and upgraded everyone's basic package to their 50down 5 up speed, which was previously their fastest plan. They are now advertising something like 300 350MB down plans as their fastest speeds, based on when I worked for them I think they came up with this number based on their DOCSIS 3.0 modems and their maximum throughput on their network. But I don't believe for 1 second that those are the speeds customers will get on that plan. Funny thing about Google is while AT&T is going door to door in the neighborhoods where they have upgraded their infrastructure to fiber, and offering their mediocre plans, Google will be using their fiber for when they actually do move in. I can't wait for Google to come, but now that NC has taken a stance against the LGBT community maybe they will boycott us too.
 
#4,190 ·
And we have NO competition for Centurylink, so we're stuck with lousy 8Mbs. Look at the crappy upload speed! The top two are through the DSL, the bottom two are off the cell tower. Pretty sad when the cellular upload is many times faster than a DSL.
 

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#4,198 · (Edited)
There's a company on the island that specialises in MAKING automotive components such as diffusers, splitters and such and this E36 FOLDING carbon fibre side skirt is so cool....

The E46 M3 in the picture is the owners personal car with a supercharged motor, superlightweight rims and carbon fibre body panels producing over 600 bhp....

The URL link on the side of his car in the bottom pic is his site.
 

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#4,200 ·
Honestly a friend who saw the car at a mechanic sent me these links a couple of days ago and I'm really intrigued in finding out how they fold.... I've certainly never seen this before. Apparently this guy bought a special machine that cuts out these carbon components and can make custom pieces... That folding side skirt is €150 from what I saw on his site.
 
#4,201 ·
Ya I saw that too, and saw pictures of the side skirts off the car, from what I can see there is no hardware or design for any kind of "folding" action. Perhaps this is something lost in translation, and it is just referring to the fact that the bottom lip of the side skirt looks like it folds up.
 
#4,207 · (Edited)
I love these new Koni shocks that is all.







It's awesome what brand new shocks/struts all around will do for the car both in handling and bringing some comfort back.

Should have done it since the beginning but no time/money for first time but there is always time/money to do it a second time.


That's why I'm taking my time with the 5 speed swap lol. I have everything parts wise but replacing some stuff too so I don't have to get under there anytime soon.



Hey guys are the E36 valve cover nuts TTY or reusable? I have a small oil leak on top of the VANOS cover.
 
#4,208 ·
Hey guys are the E36 valve cover nuts TTY or reusable? I have a small oil leak on top of the VANOS cover.
They're reusable, but the rubber seals which go around them should be replaced to prevent leaks. Also, when replacing the valve cover gasket, I highly recommend using a torque wrench. The nuts get tightened down to 89 INCH-pounds, and the studs are very easy to strip. Fortunately, if you do strip a stud, they are easily replaced (even without having to take off the valve cover).
 
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