Subject: Saga of the E36 - Highway Queen

Summary: E36, 1993, 111,000 miles, all highway.

Repairs - Does not include Fluids & Filters

Miles Item

63,000          Ventilation Blower - $550
63,000          Tires - Replaced original MXV4's with MXV4's - $500
65,000          Rear shocks - Bilsteins - $130
70,000          Fan  Resistor - $25
75,000          Water Pump & Thermostat - Preventative.  we were in doing 
                the belts, and threw this in at the same  time.  There was
                no apparent problem with the original water pump, but           
                75K seemed  long enough. - $110
90,000          Front Pads & Rotors -  $175
105,000         Power window relay  (Comfort control relay).  
                The wiring book proved most useful.
111,000         Needed and pending:  Front struts (needed since  
                75K actually), ball joints/control arms, alignment.

At this point, there is a driver's door rattle, the halfshaft seals have a small leak, the O2 sensor is due (the interval is 50K), the muffler is going, and there has been a clanking sound from the rear end going over bumps. This last item defies identification, even on the lift. The drive train feels amazingly solid, and should hit the 200K I have targeted with ease.

The only other item is the differential. At about 105K miles, it started to growl in sharp turns. I had had Red Line in there, and this noise developed after about 20K miles, which surprised me. Turns out that BMW changes the diff fluid every 15K (not 30K). I changed the fluid back to petroleum based products, and most importantly added the GM differential additive (GM #1052358, $6) that BMW also uses in dealer service. The noises went away, so far so good.

There were no significant repairs performed by the prior owner. The saga continues...

History:

Two years ago, I noticed my 77' 320i up on the sidewalk in front my house. Since I had not parked it there the night before, this caught my attention.

Turns out there was a little scuffle at a party across the street, and one of the participants decided to leave by backing up at about 30 MPH. When my car got in the way, he dediced that drive was better than reverse.

After running the old rust bucket up to 192,000 miles I felt that 1) the cars really were better made than average, and 2) a newer one might go even farther!

I had been shopping anyway, and came across a well-priced, two year old E36 325.

This car was and is a 1993 325I with every option except the CD-player. It came with the complete Trip Computer with the anti-theft setting, leather, 10-speaker stereo, sunroof, split rear seat, and automatic (unfortunately). It is the elegant black on black combination, which looks great, but is tough to keep clean.

I bought it used from a gentlemen who was in the mortgage origination business. His job kept him on the road all of the time, and the car was offered for sale with 63,000 miles on it after only 18 months! The seller was a terrific guy who knew absolutely nothing about BMWs. He bought it for the panache, and did not know how to do all those destructive things like use the manual kick down with the automatic, use the manual setting, and so on. It was start and drive, and that was fine with me.

Highway milage has never bothered me, since my theory is that these are the easiest kind of miles for a car to drive. This seemed to be the case here. He had done the two early oil changes, and then had oil changes done about every 6,000 miles (on average, every six weeks), the 50K Inspection II had a good mechanic check it out, and the engine compression across all six cylanders did not vary by more than 1/2 pound. To me, that was like new.

The problems were largely wear items: The tires were gone (no surprise) and every single rim on the car was dented. This is a terrible problems, as the BMW light cast wheels are known as the softest on the market. The Volvo rims are next: lucky me, I both of these cars. These were shipped out to the wheel collision center in Bath PA, and they did a great job.

The car also had gone through the blower motor. This happened shortly before I bought it, and cost $500.

In the end, at a final price of $18,500 for a two year old 325, I bought a black automatic - the two things I never said I'd go for. But the price was right, and I didn't think I could go wrong. Looking back, I would say that this has been accurate.

I immediately threw on got new oil and filter, tires, mud flaps, plugs, brake fluid, straightened two rims, fuel and air filter (K&N), Bilsteins for the rear, and a couple of doses of Techron. And what was my reward for all this attention? It decided to play the punk! Within about 2,000 miles, the SRS light went on (after leaning on the horn), the engine light went on, and all of the windows stopped working. I said: "OK, what have I gotten into here?"

Turns out that this was just serious testing. Detecting a new driver, the car decided to see what it could get away with. The SRS light just needed to be reset, as did the engine light, and have never gone on again. The window failure was related to the circuit breaker, and that was about the end of it.