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My Old e36 and I may be parting ways.

 
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PJK



Joined: 14 Feb 2002
Posts: 1829
Location: Shingle Springs, CA

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 1:17 pm    Post subject: My Old e36 and I may be parting ways. Reply with quote

Just over a year ago while commuting to the SF Bay area a tread came off a truck and took out my plastic bumper and electric cooling fan. It turns out the engine driven fan clutch was bad and I was not aware. With the loss of the electric fan the engine started to overheat. All this freaked out my wife who pushed me to get a newer car. I did replace the fan and got the e36 useable again but bought a 2001 MB c240 with a 6 speed stick. OK car, but NO BMW. The emergency brake is operated with a foot pedal, the funky instrument cluster is menu driven, and don't get me started on the POC Bose sound system. About a week ago Bambi jumped in front of me and paid the ultimate price. The insurance totaled the Benz. I was somewhat sad about the Benz and I didn't even get any of the venison but at least I got the reason to cross back from the dark side. My e36 was still there and serving me until it started missing severely. I got it home and started trouble shooting. It is an engine management issue. I got a Lambda failure from the Peak reader. It runs fairly well for about 2 minutes from starting cold then becomes undriveable. I'm still trying to figure it out. Clearly it is not worth spending much money on it since it has over 300 K miles and the front damage still has not been fixed.

With the money for the Benz, I was able to get a very nice '99 328i sedan.
It is sure nice to have a proper car again. I'm pretty happy with it. It has the halogen headlights which are not all that great. I think the e36 USA lights are better and for sure the e36 euro lights are. I'm thinking about what to do with them. The stereo which is just the basic is sort of OK but in my view vastly better than the Bose POC in the Benz or what came with my early e36.

I'll spend some more time with the e36 to see if it can go to a new owner or has to go to BMW heaven.

Phil
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mmaldin



Joined: 19 Oct 2001
Posts: 288
Location: Boulder, CO

PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 2:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Phil,

Sorry to hear of your car misfortunes. My 94 only has 191K, a youngster. Still runs great.
I believe your 99 is an e46?
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Michael
94 325i, 178K miles, original owner
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PJK



Joined: 14 Feb 2002
Posts: 1829
Location: Shingle Springs, CA

PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the condolences for my beloved e36.

Yes, the '99 is an e46. Nice car. It feels similar to the e36. In some ways it is more refined but not too different. I have the standard halogen headlights. I would say the standard USA NAL lights on the e36 are better as far as beam pattern. For sure the euro e36 lights which I had until I fell asleep driving the car were very good. I'll be needing an up grade for these lousy e46 lights.

The stereo in the early e36 was abysmal but I have gotten it to sound quite good. The e46 stereo is better than where the e36 started out but still leaves a good bit to be desired. The electrical in the e36 Bentley is useful and I have the ETM as well. The electrical in the e46 Bentley is fairly useless and getting an ETM nowdays is difficult if not impossible. The stereo in the e46 will require more detective work.

Over all I'd say there is little incentive to replace an e36 with an e46 until the e36 becomes impractical to maintain.

Phil


mmaldin wrote:
Hi Phil,

Sorry to hear of your car misfortunes. My 94 only has 191K, a youngsteer. Still runs great.
I believe your 99 is an e46?
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mmaldin



Joined: 19 Oct 2001
Posts: 288
Location: Boulder, CO

PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My wife has an e46, 2004 325xit. We have had it since 2007 and I have been the exclusive mechanic on it. Good car, much more complex than then the e36. Ours came with HK audio which is pretty good. The e46 fanitics forum is and excellent resource, fyi.
Good luck with it and ping me anytime if you have questions.
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Michael
94 325i, 178K miles, original owner
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PJK



Joined: 14 Feb 2002
Posts: 1829
Location: Shingle Springs, CA

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the heads up on the e46 fanitics forum.

I spoke too soon on the e46 headlights. Someone had put the H7 bulbs in upside down in the low beams. After finding and correcting that I have almost good Euro pattern low beams.

Phil

mmaldin wrote:
My wife has an e46, 2004 325xit. We have had it since 2007 and I have been the exclusive mechanic on it. Good car, much more complex than then the e36. Ours came with HK audio which is pretty good. The e46 fanitics forum is and excellent resource, fyi.
Good luck with it and ping me anytime if you have questions.
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