Holler!!!

Merry belated Christmas and an early happy new years!!!

Phew, I'm glad I found this board again I was getting scared. Anyways if you guys don't remember my last post I was in the midst of buying an 95 325iS, and well I did, I have yet to take any of my own pics of the car so here are the ones that were posted when it was being sold...





I love the car, especially the motor, its smooth and a lot faster than what I was used to on my 88 super ETA. There are a bunch of tiny things I would like to fix, I really need to spend a good half hour with my car to make a list. The interior of the car is amazing, I'm pretty sure it has new carpets aside from the original floor mats. Which brings me to my first complain lol, you'll notice in the picture there is a nice looking BMW mat in there, well I noticed after I picked up the car that the originals were thrown back in which aren't so nice looking. My second complaint is the VDO on the car, if thats what they are still called. It's missing a bunch of pixels, and is the more simple one, you'll notice if you look closely in the picture that the VDO is the better one with ALL the buttons. Why this happened I really don't know, since he told me he wanted to buy a Honda, I'm beginning to think he's getting another bimmer or knows someone else who has one, but that kind of pisses me off, I hate dishonest people. Also in the picture there are no heated seat buttons, and I'm wondering if they were moved from the possible locations on the seats, because right now they are on the same panel as the traction control just in front of the shifter. I do know that this is an interior pic of my car because i can see some similar markings on the door panel. The right side view mirror no longer has that circle mirror on it, and i think its because the whole mirror was replaced with some other one which may explain the passenger side mirror having rust on the edges and the drivers side mirror being fine.The other little thing is there is something wrong with the coolant level sensor, because it always says to check my coolant level. The next thing is the traction control, when we first got the car, the traction control warning light was always on meaning it wasn't working, but since its gotten cold its been working perfectly, so I'm not sure what the deal with that is. The other thing that has got me worried is some signs of rust. On the rear wheel wells on the outside where it is painted there are some rust bubbles that need to be taken care of, I'm just glad I don't see any actual rust. Another shady thing that happened was the guy showed me a new ac belt in the trunk of the car, he said he cut the existing belt off because he said it looked like it was going to go and he didn't want us to get freaked out if we heard a belt snap. Personally I think this might be a big run around for not being able to prove that the AC doesn't work.

Since I've got the car I've loved it, feels very solid, but the right rear shock does need to be replaced, I found this out when it got cold. I want to buy a completely new suspension, springs, and shocks. I saw some packages on Ebay selling Bilsteins with Bavarian Autosport springs, and I thought the price looked right for that but i can't decide on sport shocks or heavy duty shocks. I've been told both shocks are the same except one is meant for lowering springs while the other is not, this may be true, but I really like the boots that the sport shocks come with, I don't understand why all the shocks don't come with boots, and if I do get lowering springs, is it going to be a pain in the ass to get a proper alignment? Because I'm definitely not buying camber kits, and I'm not going to waste my tires either. Some things I've done so far are, I replaced all the tires on it with all-seasons, because they had flat spots, and they weren't tracking right, this also wasn't noticeable or barely noticeable until it got cold and the roads got slick, once that happened the car was driving very strangely, and it was because of the tires. I've also tinted all the windows as much as legally possible, installed a block heater, and new expensive hinge-less wiper blades. Its a beautiful sexy car, with black paint, black windows, and black leather interior, so I'm fairly pleased. The car came with all of the tools, but the spare wheel surprisingly does not match the rest of the wheels. I suspect the wheels were replaced because they are in near perfect condition, and I don't know how that can be since its a 95 and its been driven through Ontario winters. So I love the rims and have no desire to change them, I just wish i could afford a set of winter tires with steel rims, and then i could put studs in the tires and I'd be ripping all over the place in winter haha. Oh and I love the factory alarm on it, and the chirp sound it makes instead of a honk when i lock or unlock the doors or activate the alarm. DAMN which brings me to my next point, my horn doesn't work anymore lol, and I don't know where the problem is, I suspect its a problem with the connection in the steering wheel because I got to work briefly just a lil while ago, the horn worked fine when I first got it, oh well.

As we speak I'm visiting my family in North Carolina and my car is in Winnipeg being worked on. The AC belt is being put on because i would like to know if the ac works or not and if it does work i don't want to lose it by never running it. I'm also thinking about changing the serpentine belt because there is some more than normal swooshing sounds as well as squeaking if really cold, it could be an alternator bearing since the squeaking will get louder if i turn on accessories. I'm also having a 3500ft 2 way remote start installed in it which I'm very excited about. the moulding on the drivers side door is also being fixed because first the edge behind the fender popped out so when i opened my door the fender actually pushed the moulding so the other side was sticking out further than my door, so when i shut my door it popped that end off, and long story short a bunch of clips got broken, arrrrrrrgh i hate winter lol!!! One thing I would like is an oil recomendation, I was thinking of 10w 40, i ran my old car on 15w 50, but that might be kind of thick especially this time of year haha.

I've talked way more than I should have for a first post here. If you actually took the time to read all of it I'm very grateful for your time, and if you can just touch on the many things i'm not sure about and offer your input. I feel weird not having an E30 anymore, but there is no other place I would rather be. Plus, how different can the 2 cars really be......... Right? lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 05:17PM by Andrew.

Glad you found the place. I had to ask for help to find it myself. Sounds like you have a great car but will take some hands on time. My son has one and they are very different cars. Not much interchanges. His is a more modern but more computerized BMW and more difficult to work on.

Bimmer forum has an E36 group I think. They should be a great help in solving any problems. There is a bently manual for it and about 90 pages of it are electrical diagrams.

I think I will just stay with my E30. It is not as simple as a 2002 but almost as much fun to drive.

Bob in Everett

Thanks Bob