BMW E36 Blog

Still waiting for comments on my previous post!

31st August 2007

Still waiting for comments on my previous post!

 

I’m still waiting to get response on my previous post BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part2!. After I finished the post, I asked you if you want me to post the third and last part of this review which will have some statistical information about BMW E36 and some advice to new buyers or not and I didn’t get any reply until now! Woo guys, does this mean that you don’t want that last part? I expected you to ask for it. Come on, lets see some comments about the previous post and if you want the last part or not.

For those of you who missed my previous posts about BMW E36 car review, you can find them here:

BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part1!
BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part2!
BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part3! … could be here! you want it? 😉

 

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

 

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posted in Technical Info, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Still waiting for comments on my previous post!

29th August 2007

BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part2!

 

This is the second part of the BMW E36 review. As I’ve promised in my previous post (BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part 1), I’m talking about the bad things in the BMW E36. Especially, the parts that are almost guaranteed to fail and how to try to avoid that. Avoiding these failures will save you from calling your dad for a ride back home in the middle of the night!. Now, about these bad factors that I’m going to mention below, I’m not sure if you all are going to agree about them and about which parts will fail more often than the others, but I think the review is fair and that these parts really need some special attention and closer watch.

The last part in this review will be about BMW E36 cost analysis and some advices to new buyers, but I’m not sure if you are going to like this, so I decided to wait and here what you’re going to say? Do you want that last part? I’m going to follow your decision about it :D. OK, I have to admit that I’m being mean (a little bit) for asking this question, but I really want to know if you guys like reading such series of posts or not. So, I will leave it up to you to decide. . . mean while enjoy this post and if you didn’t read part 1 yet, please do.

Oh . . . One last thing, please welcome with me Mark Harris our latest member who posted his information on the Welcome BMW E36 blog readers!. Until now we have 9 members and I hope we will be able to get more in the near future. If you didn’t read that post yet, I recommend you do and post your information as we love to hear from BMW E36 enthusiast like yourself.

BMW E36 Review – The Bad

The content of this post was taken from here. The author of the original article didn’t approve his content to be published on this blog, so I had to remove the content of the post and post a link instead.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

 

 

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posted in Technical Info, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

28th August 2007

BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part1!

 

Today I’m going to post a review about BMW E36. I decided to split this review into two or maybe three parts starting by what’s good about these cars and ending with some advice to new buyers. I hope you will find this review useful and somewhat objective. Now, if you’re asking me, why I chose to start with the good things, I will respond that I love this car and consider it one of the best BMW cars ever. So, it’s unfair (in my opinion) to start by counting the bad instead of counting the good. It’s just unfair. Anyway, if you’re anxious to read about the bad things, stay tuned it won’t be long and you know me, I will post the bad things too (as usual) 😉

BMW E36 Review – The Good

The content of this post was taken from here. The author of the original article didn’t approve his content to be published on this blog, so I had to remove the content of the post and post a link instead.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

 

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

 

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posted in Technical Info, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | Comments Off on BMW E36 Car Review . . . Part1!

27th August 2007

BMW E36 Fog lights removal . . . DIY!

 

First of all, let me welcome our new friend here Ricardo Mollinedo. Until now, we have received 8 responses from readers for the post Welcome BMW E36 blog readers!. Well, I still hope that I receive more response from the loyal readers of this blog. So, please if you are a reader of BMW E36 blog, please submit your information here (Welcome BMW E36 blog readers!). We will be glad to hear from you!.

Today’s post is about BMW E36 fog lights removal. I was thinking that this is a very hard task to do because I already tried it on my car and it was just hard. The problem is that the fog lights are in a very bad place that you can’t easily remove or change as my car is maybe 10cm above the ground. This means that every time I needed to change a burned bulb or something, I had to dig deep until I reach it.

It seems that this plan was not very good and that there’s a much easier way to do it. So, if you either looking for changing your burned light or want to change/clean your fog lights, this post is for you. I hope you find it useful.

For those of you who like to fix their BMW car(s) by themselves, I recommend you to get the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual which is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I got it and recommend you to get one for you as it will save you too much time and
money while fixing your car.

Disclaimer: Use this info at your own risk!! I’m not responsible if this didn’t work for you :-).

The fog lights on the E36 are prone to stone chips because they are so low on the ground and can also crack due to thermal stress if you go through a puddle of water when they are hot. Fortunately they are easy and not too expensive to replace. German & Swedish sell original quality replacements for 60$ or alternative ones for 40$.

Pictured below is the drivers side brake duct and fog light. To release the fog light all you need to do is insert a screw driver in the hole at the top and push the releasing clip forwards. The fog light will then pivot on the opposite side and come out.

The picture below shows the release clip on the left and the pivot point on the right of the photo.

If this plastic clip has broken then it is more difficult to remove the fog light. You need to remove the 4 bolts and 2 plastic rivets holding the plastic panel underneath to the bumper. You will probably have to force the rivets out and buy a couple more. They are only about 12p each from a dealer.
Once the panel is off then raise the wheel up a little by for example driving onto a kerb and put your head underneath.

The picture below is what you should be able to see. You will need to hook a flat bit of metal over the top of the bracket and down between the bracket and other side of the lever and then twist it.

The finished result. You might wish to replace the fog light the opposite side as well as you can see from my photo the old fog light glass discolors after a while.

 

Are you looking for more do it yourself procedures (DIY) ? I recommend the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual for you. I got it and I think it’s a gold mine for us -BMW E36 Owners-. If you didn’t grab your copy yet, get it right now! I’m sure you’ll find this book worth every penny you’ve paid for. Get the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

 

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posted in Do It Yourself, Exterior, Technical Info, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments

23rd August 2007

Bentley BMW E36 Service Manual . . . A gold mine!

 

To be honest with you guys, I’ve never been a fan of cars books or service manuals as I think they will not help you much to understand how your car works or even help you fix a problem inside it. I always thought that it is simpler to find what I’m looking for on the web (mainly forums) and so on. However, I think I’ve just changed my idea about these books or at least about a specific book that I heard a lot about. The book is the Bentley BMW E36 Service Manual. I’ve been told that this book is very good and it’s a real gold mine for BMW E36 owners but I was suspecting that it’s being over estimated until I ordered that book from Amazon and started reading it. Well, I didn’t finish reading yet, but I decided to check how I can solve a problem that is happening to my car using this manual and see if it goes well.

My car started hesitating in the last week and the problem seems to be getting worse, so I tried to check it and I know that I have problems in both Oxygen Sensor and Knock Sensor because I’ve tried to clean my ICV (Idle Control Valve) already with no success in resolving this problem. I’ve started reading the section about fuel injection in the Bentley BMW E36 service manual and to my surprise, the book is really awesome. You won’t believe how precise it is when describing the procedure to check your whole fuel injection system starting with the main relay testing and ending with the ICV (Idle Control Valve) testing.

I’m really impressed with this one and I strongly recommend this book to every BMW E36 owner. So even if you’re not into the car do-it-yourself stuff. I think it will help you understand how your car works and even help you trace some of the problems in your car without the need to pay big $$$ for BMW mechanics.

I’m listing below the content of this book so, you can see what does it offer:

  0 General Data and Maintenance
    0.1 Fundamentals for the Do It Yourself Owner
0.2 Maintenance Program
  1 Engine
    1.1 Engine-General
1.2 Engine Removal and Installation
1.3 Cylinder Head Removal and Installation
1.4 Cylinder Head and Valvetrain
1.5 Camshaft Timing Chain
1.6 Lubrication System
1.7 Ignition System
1.8 Battery, Started, Alternator
1.9 Fuel Injection … this is really awesome!
1.10 Fuel Tank and Fuel Pump
1.11 Radiator and Cooling System
1.12 Exhaust System
  2 Transmission
    2.1 Transmission-General
2.2 Clutch
2.3 Manual Transmission
2.4 Automatic Transmission
2.5 Gearshift Linkage
2.6 Driveshaft
  3 Suspension, Steering and Brakes
    3.1 Suspension, Steering and Brakes-General
3.2 Front Suspension
3.3 Steering and Wheel Alignment
3.4 Rear Suspension
3.5 Final Drive
3.6 Brakes
  4 Body
    4.1 Body-General
4.2 Fenders, Engine-Hood
4.3 Doors
4.4 Trunk Lid
  5 Body Equipment
    5.1 Exterior Trim, Bumpers
5.2 Door Windows
5.3 Interior Trim
5.4 Central Locking and Anti-Theft
5.5 Seats
5.6 Sunroof
5.7 Convertible Top
  6 Electrical System
    6.1 Electrical System-General
6.2 Electrical Component Locations
6.3 Wipers and Washers
6.4 Switches and Electrical Accessories
6.5 Instruments
6.6 Exterior Lighting
6.7 Heating and Air Conditioning
6.8 Radio
  7 Equipment and Accessories
    7.1 Seat Belts
7.2 Airbag System (SRS)
  8 Electrical Wiring Diagrams

If you don’t have this book, just get one. It will definitely help you.

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posted in Technical Info, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | 4 Comments