The rebirth of a 1992 E36...

[Martin]

Wow, just amazing to see an e36 with that much rust. Nice work!

[PatAllen]

Just a bit of an update...

I replaced the front end suspension with everything new, bushings, chock,...new meyle control arms with solid balljoints, and so on. Money pit to say the least.

I also bought some cool 328is wheels with very agressive tires.

After some fight and couple hundreds of dollar invested over the 800$ for the wheels, i now have very straight and super nice wheels on this car.

There was this nasty vibration over 100kmh, common to all E36 and E46 "before" i started to change parts and figuring out that the wheels were in such bad shape.

A proper tire/rim matching is the only true solution and the final step to have the "like new" plush ride of these cars. Other than the tires are noisey (kumho ecsta mx), it rides like a 5 ton mercedes (but not handle like it )

I will post pictures of the wheels, just to keep this blog updated.

thanks.

[PSloan]

You've got balls. I would have bailed. FAST!

[PatAllen]

well, all i can say is that it worth it...the car realy drives like a new one.

realy pleasant to drive.

[PatAllen]

Update on the car itself...

Took it for a 2000km ride for my vacation...everything went ok except that the clutch bearing started to make humm, then scratching noise then horrible noise...time for a clutch rebuild.

As always, when you go play there on a 360 000km car, you can find anything wrong.

Clutch bearing was in fact dead, when i pulled the trany out, all its parts went on the floor...aouch ! one more km driven with it and i think it would have seized...

Flywheel needs to be resurfaced, this one is special, it is called a "dual mass" flywheel. The springs that are normaly into the friction disc are in the flywheel. It looks like 2 flywheel connected in the center by springs. Supposed to make the car smoother, but also more expensive...i went a hair close to change this all for a M3 solid clutch system...for about the same price !!

The intake must be removed on this car to access the starter bolt, then i found that the copper wire that feed the solenoid to the motor itself was torn...so time for a starter rebuild....

And then the shifter, there was some play in it. Turned out that the stub at the selector shaft was lvery oose, the pin was actualy loose in the hole, the stub looking brand new...fixed with a drill bit # B, and replaced all other bushings of the shifter while there. Super stiff now.

So thats it...what else to expect from a 360 000km car !!!

[brad_c-ville_VA]

i'd say that's one dead bearing.

[PatAllen]

Last update, as i sold this car to one of my friend.

As a summary, i bought that car 4 years ago, it was totaly toasted and rusted in and out. PO bought it from the dealer under a "super nice condition" for 9k iirc.

i was able to see all previous work, made by the dealer and some independend shop, which was all made wrong.

Wasted at least 4k$ in it. I learned a lot, especialy how to manage all the possible vibrations in the steering wheel, driveline and rattles on E36's.

Last summer, i had the transmission out 2 times to fix a shaking clutch pedal, and a shuddering clutch release. Turned out that the flywheel was toasted even surfaced, and the new clutch release bearing made of plastic is a total mess. I ended up installing a...E21 release bearing that fits tight and snug agains the slide shaft. Other than the trany noises, the pedal is super smooth, quiet and dont shake anymore. Asbestos clutch are more smooth than new kevlar combo clutch. The kevlar clutch bead-in is also realy touchy.

i balanced the driveshaft on the car with an electric motor and a vibration analyser on this thread since i wasnt able to render it quiet even with a new driveshaft:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,310494/highlight,hummm/

E36, SOLD !!! i bought a E46...i dont help myself...lol