/bmw/ - BMW General

is it an e46 with the smg option? you'd be rather cucked
however, you can convert that smg to manual without too much fuss, since the smg system is literally built on top of their standard 6-speed box and you can take all the smg crap off there to make it a regular 3 pedal machine
m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=591095
that's one guide but there are many others

in fact there is sometimes some value in getting SMG cars because they tend to be owned by old people who take good care of the cars and don't drive them hard

Im actually not too sure ill have to ask him, but i think its a regular manual.
>he loves me enough to sell me his E46 for 2 grand after i get out

My family owns a diesel repair shop in florida. My uncle is trying to open a used car lot too and just got in with mannheim auctions.

>dad just bought himself a 2014 335i for 20 grand
>its the fucking automatic with fancy paddles

He likes it so much and it triggers my autism, but it was still only 20 grand.

honestly? don't get a modern bmw, get a modern mercedes. they've become too similar in driving dynamics but the newest mercedes have fucking incredible interiors
if you want actual performance and fun, get a cadillac. It's weird to say that but that is where we are

Im buying my marine buddies e28 335i off of him to fix it up and I want to mod it for him too. He doesnt know that im going to keep it for his 5 years and then give it back to him. What mods should i do and what should i look out for on repairs?

It's also an auto and id do a manual swap

Complete powertrain bushings kit for my 328i drifter, track spec, wear proof.
The differential bushings aren't even für sale yet, I'm stoked. Thanks, revshift! I love working in the automotive industry.

How fucked am I?

ok, for one
>is this at a bmw dealer or at a indie bmw shop
>what year and model of bmw is this

>dealership did free inspection
>2000 e46

alright, those are all things you should do, but none of them are particularly hard. i think the high price on the oil pan gasket is because you need to drop the front subframe to take the oil pan all the way off BUT you can cut a slice in the gasket to get it up in there and put some silicone gasket makert across the seam

there are various DIYs
you should google search all those problems plus "DIY" and start looking at tutorials/pictorials/video tutorials, to see if you're up to fixing those issues

if you'd rather not be bothered, you could probably do all that for 3 grand or less at an indie bmw specialist shop

thanks for the tips

thread is already dead

Was the E83 sold in the US with a manual, and if so, how difficult are they to find?

yes they were
and kinda hard, yeah
i wouldn't recommend and e83 though they were not that well build, neither was the x5, lots of issues

So I was working on my car and was running out of time, threw the bumper on, and left. Thought to myself I should check the fogs to make sure they are secure, but I didn't. Surely enough, when driving I heard something fling across the asphalt - I thought it was a screw that was poorly attatched. Well, when I pull into the parking spot I get out and I see my fog dangling off. Turns out the clip came off the pivot so it wasn't secure. Lost it somewhere on the road. Well, a tiny piece of plastic wouldn't be a bother if I didn't have to get an entire new bracket...

No luck for me. Hopefully I can fab one up myself else I'm out $25.

Anybody every do an m50 build
what do i need to do to make as powerful or more powerful than s50 m3 engine?

wait, turns out i need to code out the DRLs through software and code out the side light check so it isn't confused that the angel eyes are no longer plugged into the light control module.

but now i have to figure out all that coding and diagnostic shit though ncs expert or whatever the fuck it is.

i'll probably just make a virtual XP machine on my work windows 7 laptop and buy one of those usb obd2 com port dealies

oh well, more work

any way you slice it's not even close to worth it

Any one heard of someone doing an LS1 swap in an E46 M3 before? Considering it

>Umnitza

Is that prick still selling crappy ebay shit for 10x and making a comfy living off it???

...

>fuck it
>fuck it
>don't pay 169.00, they can pull the fucking code themselves they are raping you
>yes, but not here
>yes, but not here
>yes but not here
>fuuuuck that
>lol, hell no. DIY, jesus man so easy.

>umnitza
dude.
I guess some people haven't learned yet.

Not well built? They were the best built BMW to have come out it the last 15 years.

>x5, lots of issues
nigga what? only issues are engine/transmission common to all BMWs

what? works fine apparently, i just only did half the install
i would not know. Probably. at least their rep on bimmerforums responds lickety-split to questions

>works fine apparently
For now, their reputation has been shite since ever.

Any of you S54 e46/e85/e86 M owners ever have an alternator take a shit? Any collateral damage?

Anyone got some cool E30 builds to read through? Interested in comprehensive panel work repair and not your run of the mill M50 swap bullshit.

Is it air cooled like an e36? They could ingest some water possibly, although I've never heard of it.

Umnitza, Üro, JOM, all cheap parts. Depends on the part and price difference, but sometimes they can be worth it. For angel eyes, definitely not.

Sexy green, but what makes them so special over current product?

>Is it air cooled like an e36? They could ingest some water possibly, although I've never heard of it.
Nah air cooled, and the dang thing is $600 in parts alone. Really, really hoping it didn't destroy any electronics or corrupt the ECU programming when it went out. Car is running rough as shit and throwing a dozen fault codes. Buh bye money I had saved up for new wheels.

>$646 for an oil filter housing gasket
You're not fucked, but you will be if you don't know how/aren't willing to figure out how to work on cars.

Totally fucking fucked m8.
New head is already in, timing set to TDC or whatever as by bentley manual, bolts torqued according to same manual except for that last 35degree tightening.
Does it matter that I've done the second stage which was to tighten the head bolts to 80nm, but didn't have the time to turn the car over and warm it up for the final stage. L
Does it matter that the car has been sitting with the second stage tightening for some time now and will continue to sit till next weekend?
Should I check the bolts that they still are at 80nm and then do the 35 degree thing with an angle meter?

M30B30 by the way.
Some claim that the final torquing when warm is not necessary and ro just re tighten them to 80nm a second time after some time with a cold engine

got to play with an i8 the other night, hoping my homie lets me whip it at the airfield in a couple weeks

People are too busy driving thier BMWs to post in this thread, r-right?

yes, actually
have my E39

Are those people engineers?

In all seriousness when you have things like stepped torques or hot/cold torques or any combination therefor of you need to follow it to the "t".

Also were those wet or dry torques?
Did you have to use any attachment that lengthened or shortened the lever of the torque wrench?
Are you using new or old fasteners? (sometimes there are "hidden" values that are different deep in the back of some manuals for used fasteners)

also source

Marine Corps CH-53E CDQAR/QASO/AO for many years

>Did you have to use any attachment that lengthened or shortened the lever of the torque wrench?

that's not how a torque wrench works

it is

The torque wrench it's self is a glorified lever. If you lengthen or shorten it (say using a crows foot) you change the the force you are applying.

It's a big enough deal that the NAVAIR folks came out with an entire publication on what attachments must be accounted for and how to account for them when using a torque wrench. You can even find calculators online for it.

A side note is that if a manufacture says use attachment xyz-abc-qwe then you don't need to account for it...usually. Like everything there are exceptions.

For instance say I have a 1'6" long (end of handle to center of drive) torque wrench. I want a torque of 100ft lbs. I put a crows foot on that lengthens it to 1'8". If I leave the setting at (or let the needle on the scale go to) 100ft lbs I'll have over torqued by 11ft lbs.

Differences can be even bigger and more unpredictable if it is a wet torque.

A lot of new torque wrenches come with cheat sheets too but they don't account for some of the crazier attachments.

Pretty much the only type of torque wrench that would be affected by adding length to it are beam types (i.e. the shittiest kind), and with those you might as well be guessing anyways.

Additionally, your method of applying a simple ratio to calculate the effective torque would not even be valid for the beam type. Even assuming that whatever you use to lengthen it has the same area moment of inertia as the beam of the wrench (likely a poor assumption), the beam deflection formula is cubic rather than linear.

In practice, you would want whatever you use as a lengthener to be significantly stiffer than the beam of the wrench, and then you can just take the reading without any corrections.

tl;dr: get a clicker type, put whatever extension you want on it without worrying about how it will affect the reading

>Drop exhaust on E36 M3
>End up realizing how much of a rusty mess it is underneath (nothing structural outside of strut towers, but lots of flakey bits of metal falling)
>Actually choose to wear safety glasses
>Spend 4 hours trying to separate header from mid-pipe without snapping pressed in $25/each inconel studs (what the fuck BMW)
>End up breaking 5 out of 6 after multiple attempts of torching red hot, aerokroil, and candlewax.
>Now have to drill them out and replace them with bolts and nuts, because some stupid fucking engineer in Munich thought it'd be a good idea to use pressed in studs on a exhaust and make them out of inconel because fuck your drill bits

FUCK

>Finally drop exhaust, a huge fucking monstrosity.
>Actually have to lift the fucking thing with my legs because its almost 100lbs and I don't want to get a hernia from picking it up like a idiot

Every rubber hanger is torn, hanger brackets are frozen on (ordered new Bosal ones from Amazon for $15/each)

Get to driveshaft. this is what my guibo looked like. Still good? Hit 100+ mph on it multiple times last week....fucking car pulls like a freight train in 5th gear. Feels like it has as short gearing as my VTEC Hondas.

Wasn't so bad though the rear 4 bolt flange gave me some trouble. (Only fucking car that makes me use 18mm and 16mm wrenches).

this is why i will never buy a rusty car ever again, and why i had my 540i shipped from california and will be applying rust-proofing every winter

>>Spend 4 hours trying to separate header from mid-pipe without snapping pressed in $25/each inconel studs

Marked my driveshaft up, and left.

So I took my driveshaft to a local place. Figure why the fuck not? Its already out the car, and it's been in operation since 1997 for 133,000 miles.

Dropped it off at K&M Driveline in Brooklyn, NYC. U-Joints are apparently in mint shape, but the center bearing should be replaced. Made a whistling more like light grinding noise as he spun it around (spun freely, little play, just made noise). $175 to install a new center hanger bearing assembly. Apparently they can rebuild BMW driveshafts.

In the last half hour I just gave up and snapped the other 2 remaining on purpose. I haven't had Japanese cars that gave me this much of a trouble.

Forgot to mention that's $175 with the assembly included ($95 for the part alone). Supposedly they claim its from Dana/Spicer, probably a Meyle/MTC/URO. I'm not concerned though, as long as the bearing it uses is a name brand (INA/FAG or SKF).

Also, wear safety goggles. The time I actually wear them I manage to pour whiteout right on my eye marking the driveshaft up.

I really should make a build thread on m3forum/bimmerforums, I'm practically doing a full restoration of my 97 M3 after getting nothing but oil changes and brake pads for the last 10+ years.

And today I broke my nose removing my shift knob to install my UUC Evo 3 short shifter. Was pulling, pulling, then it let loose and I got myself right on the tip of my nose. Heard a light crack, started gushing blood everywhere. Probably gonna go to a ENT tomorrow before I look like a happy merchant.

Happened a bit over a hour ago.

>tfw instructions say explicitly to be careful with hitting yourself in the face
>tfw end up doing just that

gotta do the sword-in-the-stone stance and straddle the front console dude, that thing pops off like a gunshot

That isn't right at all

The click type is calibrated for a fixed length

Say you are set for 100ft lbs and your click type clicks accurately

You add a crows foot increasing the length. At the center of drive of the wrench it will be 100ft lbs at the click BUT at the center of drive of the crows foot it will be heigher.

This is basic highschool physics.

Also a properly calibrated beam type will be more accurate than a click simply because most people still apply a little more torque after the click. A properly calibrated digital is the best typically available one for everyday use.

Seriously do a quick google search on this. You are frankly wrong.

I just changed my tie rods today and now when I pass my wheel over a certain position it makes a light grinding noise. I went out and checked my tires and such but it even happens while stationary so I'm worried I might have messed up my rack somehow

>This is basic highschool physics.

And yet you're still failing so hard at it.

Torque is torque. The clicker mechanism measures a set amount of torque at the bolt. If you increase the length of the beam, the only thing that changes is the amount of force the user needs to apply to achieve the same torque. The mechanism will still click at the same torque threshold.

Here's one off of my e34. I kept wondering why it sounded like there was a rat holding on for dear life everytime I accelerated.

Shit, all this talk about attachments and wet torque got me paranoid.

I oiled up the head bolts lightly per the bentley manual and used a clicker type torque wrench, no crows foot but I did use a 15cm long straight extension attachment.

Are you the dude on BF with all the rust?
Yep.
I should probably inspect mine for age's sake. Got a noise that may be a TO bearing but it sounds more like a sloshing especially when pulling up hill at a higher gear than I should be at. Not a guibo probably cause I don't get it with clutch in, but it doesn't thump or sound like any video references so I'm still in mystery.
I wore these J Mascis like glasses just for the looks for a year and they've done me well. Except last week the frame broke, so today I got a nice piece of underpanel plastic in my eye. Figures, although hopefully by the end of this week my Ambermatic Shooters will arrive and I'll take on the personality of the drug dazed Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing.

Wow you really filled up the thread didn't you?

Anons, there is a 2013 335i nearby. 31 k eurogrand, 8k km. Is it any good, should I go for it?

Yep. I'm the guy who made that thread on BF.

Probably gonna take it to a regular body shop when I'm done with the shifter and driveshaft work, already see myself getting charged $2000+ if I go to a specialty shop (like one of the posters suggested which ends up being a BMW/Porsche/Exotic place). Kinda shitty, but it has to be done.

Thought about making a build thread but at this point its not like I'm doing anything crazy (just regular maintenance all work that has been documented on the forums since they were new).

I think your noise might be something else if its ONLY happening with the clutch engaged and under heavy load. Might not even be driveline...pinging/detonation? A sloshing is a weird noise.

I mainly just did it because the shifter on my car was so shitty to row gears in I thought something was seriously broken, so it was more of a "while I have the exhaust and driveshaft down..." kinda thing. Transmission crossmember was also cracked (already bought a new one + AKG E21 trans mounts).

Sounds decently priced enough. Clean and all?

>know nothing about cars
>bought a bmw
>bought a used bmw
>bought an old use bmw
>bought an automatic old used bmw

A 1991 325i isn't that hard to fix if I'm new to cars, right?

E36 or 30? I don't know where the gap runs with the 3 series.

E36

Well the M50 engine had a habit of losing camshafts, aside for that it's a very solid engine, chain drived unlike the M20.

The M50 lifters also can develop a very audible tick, which is more annoying than a real issue that hinders the engines normal operation

Yes, I was surprised by the milage, but it seems true. My concern is f30 in general, reliability and such.

The E36 is pretty reliable and has a huge aftermarket. You'll be fine.

Cooling might be an issue as I've heard that the radiators tend to bust themselves quite often

>tfw end up doing just that
>mfw should have worn a helmet

So I managed to complete a 1400 mile trip across the whole europe with my maintenance neglected 325i:
last oil change was 20k miles ago
squeaking belts
busted rear shock absorber
check engine light on
yellow oil lamp light on
leaking cooling system
The car gave me no problems during the trip or whatsoever.
Went from the UK to Latvia in about 30 hours, had a 40 minute nap.
Car still runs like a champ, outran a 328ci (which has more torque, lighter weight)

Oh and its noteworthy that my average speed on highways was about 80-100 mph during the whole trip

>hey guize I whipped my starved and wounded horse into completing a long journey
Fix your fucking car jesus christ

please fix that car up. it hurts to know its been so abused.

Yeah I had just bought the car and I had no time to fix everything, just did a clutch and brake fluid change before the trip. I'm not even moving the car much since I arrived anymore, it's awaiting service
meanwhile i'm driving around in my merc

>merc

I hope a muslim beheads you for being such an infidel.

Not him but I also own a Benz aside with my BMW. Is it really that bad? I've been trying to swap the benz for a BMW E34

If you could buy any BMW, regardless of price, which one would it be?

Not including the ones I already own?

Gotta go for an M6 Gran Coupe.

507. Got 3 million to spare?

>E34
my man. they were the best looking BMW imo, aside from the 8 series.

Owned one some time ago, was a total shitbox when I got it and was still a shitbox when I sold it, but at least it passed inspection.

I just love the E30, 34 and 32 era BMWs, they're simply gorgeous with the right amount of modern and classic look.
I might be a bit biased but I love the E32 the most, they're simply stunning looking cars. Those beautiful and slightly bold lines on that humongous low alung land crawler create a thoroughly beautiful look, looking like its commandeering the roads and dominating over everything else.

The 850csi is also a personal dream car of mine, fuck mechanical and electrical gremlins and unreliability, it would be like owning a supercar of sorts. Someday I might finally snap and buy myself a 5.4 V12 850.

i always like the E34 more than the E32. the trunk was more refined and modern. what was wrong with your E34? was it one of the ones with the M20 engine? i've heard they were pretty bad.

if i were getting an 8 series i'd probably get the V8 since they're apparently pretty reliable (at least more so than the V12). and oh yes, its my dream car too.

In terms of longevity, the M20s are fine. Just gutless and overstretched for a 1600kg sedan.

a nice old 6 series is second on my dream cars list.

Absolutely nothing wrong with my E34, it was M20 powered and that thing sipped down fuel like a madman without doing fuckall as the engine is severely underpowered for the E34.
Still, the M20 is the redblock of BMW, that 6 pot will soldier through hell and heaven as long as you remember to swap the timing belts in time.

I traded the E34 for my E32 which was love at first sight and which got me seriously into BMWs.

My 8 would have to be with the V12, it's either go big and live that short moment it all holds together in pure bliss or go home and cry myself to sleep.

i'd be too afraid of the V12 failing at any minute. i can easily live with just the V8.

funnily enough an old E36 325i got me into BMWs. i was looking for a first car and was looking at fords and other GM when i spotted 325 a street away from my girlfriends house. the guy had only just put it up for sale so i walked over to his place, knocked on the door, took it for a test drive and immediately decided to buy it. it was a brilliant car until it was written off in an accident. but since then, its been BMW or nothing. the handling and RWD is what really made me love these cars.

While I'm an E28 nut, I'll go for anything with chrome bumpers.

BMW was for the longest time the last bastion of both I6 and RWD. Now they've gone lax with their FWD soccermom shitboxes

i like the classic looking ones anyway so i'm not bothered by what they're doing now.

Just ordered new grills, badges, sideskirt clips, shift boot, e brake boot, coilovers, annnnnd now I have a valve tick that pops up randomly at 3k in third gear.