BMW E36

E36 Buying Guide

Common problems to look out for.

Rear trailing arm bushes. A “tinking” from under rear seats over bumps normally gives this away.

Rear suspension top mounts - a “thunk” from the boot area over bumps.

Diff carrier subframe mounts sheared. Another thunk noise from boot, often when accelerating or decelerating.

Vanos knackered. Ticking noise for 3-4 seconds on start up.

Front arm lower bushes knackered, will make it wonder around on the road and steering won't feel very tight. Same symptons for lower ball joint.

Clutch pedal bushes screwed. Clutch pedal too close to tranny tunnel and has side to side movement.

Prop donut knackered. Clonking and loose feeling under accceleration.

Rot. Early ones rot around the rear arches. On the inner wings by the strut towers and across the back panel.

Pros.

Easy to find. Even good ones can be had for less than a grand.

Interchangability of parts. Lots of parts from the range will fit lots of models, meaning finding spares at the scrappy is a piece of piss and good bits from higher models can be raped for cheaps.

Bullet proof if you buy the right engine.

Common in manual.

Look awesome (in my opinion).

Z link rear axle offers lots of adjustability over E30.

Shares diff size with other models so a range of good ratios available if you are able to swap the internals.

Loads of aftermarket parts avilable for cheaps.

Chavs will buy leather etc. out of them for good money when you strip.

Cons.

Bit sluggish compared to turbo/bigger engined cars.

Hard to tune.

Common as muck.

Bit weighty.

Modifying

These will drift quite happily out of the box with a welder being the only mod. But you will soon grow tired of the body roll and want better things from your suspension/steering etc. so goes a brief guide on where to start.

Chassis (stock)

Reasonable as standard on most models. There is a bit of debate over which is strongest, but I suspect its the coupe. You may need to reinforce the rear top mounts or the diff mounts as lots of abuse can break them in extreme cases.

Chassis (modifying)

Strut braces dont do much but are cheap from ebay.
The cross brace from the convertible is straight swap onto most models and does stiffen things up.
A cage is overkill in a tramp car and not really necessary.

Suspension/Steering (standard)

Not bad for drifting but can benefit from some tweaks, particularily lowering and stiffening.

Suspension/Steering (modifying)

The beauty of the E36 is virtually any suspension component from any e36 model will bolt directly to your car. There are exceptions but its mostly true.

Extra camber on the front can be gained by fitting M3 evo top mounts back to front to give around 3 degrees. Also gives improved caster angle which helps self centering. Camber can also be gained buying adjustable top mounts or even fitting some small washers to the lower knuckle pushing the bottom of it outwards.

E30 front lower arms are cheaper than E36 items and slightly stiffer due to the omission of some sloppy rubber bits.

Z3 steering rack is a straight bolt for bolt fit to get quicker rack. With Spacers gets good lock as well.

Rear lower arms are easily replaced with camber adjustable ones reasonably cheap from ebay and makes the whole setup process a lot easier.

They tend to come with fucked trailing arm bushes as standard, but these are easily replaced for poly items.

Rear top mounts can be replaced with E46 m3 units with Z3 reinforcing plates.

£180 will buy you a set of coilovers from ebay which are fine for drifting at amateur level.

Front suspension rear bushes are easily sourced in polyurethane when you break them, which you will.

Drive train (standard)

Diff is easily removable to weld. There are a few different ways to get a better ratio. One is to swap the rear end from a small engined car in but these aren't as strong. Or you can swap the diff internals from an E30 or some E34s (I believe) into your casing but this takes some skill.

Props are strong but rubber donuts are not. Don't replace with factor parts they last about ten minutes - use genuine BMW.

Gearboxes tend to be pretty strong but saying that I have killed one. The 325 shares a box with the M3 and a couple of other variants so are nice and easy to source.

Engines.

Engines are something other people (probably Mike) know a lot more about than me, so I hope i will get his input here but the general rule is the 2.5 m50 non-vanos is the best for tramping.

316 and 318 8vs are hopeless.

(M42B18/M44B18) 1.8 16v is revvy but got no torque.

(M50B20?) 320 engine is a bit gutless.

(M52B25?) 323 is over complicated and a bit strangled.

(M50B25) 325 non vanos is the best.

(M50b25) vanos is ok, but best go for one without.

(M52B28) 328 lump has a tendency to blow headgaskets and crack heads but most powerfull of the non-M cars.

(S50B30) 3.0 single vanos m3 engine is strong but suffers from vanos problems occasionally.

(s52b32) 3.2 twin vanos is a hassley one to fit and very expensive and suffers more vanos problems.

I believe Nikasil is only an issue on M52 engines (323 and 328) and is something to do with the coating in the cylinders which was damaged by unleaded petrol (or something) and can wear through resulting in similar symptoms to a damaged piston ring etc. but thats probably all bollocks. Like I said, I need someone to rewrite my engine section.

Body styles.

Fuck it buy whatever you like. I like coupes. Trig doesn't. Coupes and four doors probably handle best but the touring isn't much different. Avoid convertible models they are heavier, weaker and you die if they fall over. Plus you have to learn to cut hair and take it up the arse.

Interior

Easily stripped. lots of weight to be lost. Bucket seats are hard to mount as they are off to one side on the rails but cunning fabrication or buying a mount solves this.Lloads of off the shelf wheels for them and 3 point harnesses are virtually a bolt in affair utilising the front seat belt lower mounting points, the mounting point for the seats on the rear shelf or rear seatbelt mounting points and a 3rd point on the transmission side of the seat. I found the best thing to do here is blast a big chunk of angle iron on my seat subframe and bolt it to that.

Condition

Dont let high mileage scare you, dont buy on service history or any of that bollocks - just buy the one that drives the tightest with the least rattles etc.

Wheels

Loads of wheel sex available and 15s can be had virtually for free for driftu rubber on the back, may have to beat arches with a hammer before nice dish will fit. Avoid 18s they are gay.

Guide written by: Gibson