BMW E36 316/318 daily driver?

Well, Veeky Forums, since I know I should go for a rather robust car that's not too expensive (especially insurance and fuel), I've figured out that the 316/318 is pretty good (~7.8L/100Km) when it comes to fuel efficiency, even through it's engine is pretty weak.

My dream cars are the E34 540, E38 750 and E31, and even through they're fucking epic and the E34 is even cheap (2900Euro), I couldn't pay insurance and fuel cost. It'd just fucking break my neck.

I'm from Germany so there's lots of used ones of these.
They're as readily available as miatas in America.

So, what I wanted to ask(to;dr):
Do you anons know any better daily drivers from BMW?
Are the 316/318 underpowered?
Still fun to drive?

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>buying the small engine in a sports car
hahaha eurocucks.

get a twingo.

You should try the BMW general for all your BMW related questions.

The 316/18 are trash, extremely unreliable engines that might or might not blow up tragically.
Then again, they just might endure 5 years of being beat like an unruly wife and not give a fuck.
They're quite underpowered for those heavy bodies.

Get the 318is compact and you basically have an euro hachiroku, but more powerful

Sorry user, my mistake - its 318ti

Killed my hopes ;_;

If I maintain them properly, can I make them reliable?

Also, how underpowered are they?
Can you still enjoy them, even if they don't feel like race cars?

Do you know any other efficient BMWs?

I'm not that long into cars so to be honest I don't know what's an euro hachiroku is supposed to be, but the 318ti is only 25HP more than the 318i and probabaly way more rarer and expensive.
Are they really worth it?
More robust aswell?

He is talking about the e36/5 or the compact.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_3_Series_Compact

316i was not introduced to the US, but the 318ti was. I've never seen a 323ti so I don't know the story on them, but apparently it has an M52 so that's your good old straight-6.

They're pretty sharp if kept clean, but of course being the cheaper models it may be hard to find good examples today. The only e36s I see in my area are the M3 or the 318ti, rarely I will see another model. I guess that tells you something about their enthusiast popularity.

My neighbour has two 318ti, one with an S52 swap. It would be interesting to see how it performs against my M3.

I daily a 318is. M44 is a solid engine and has been completely reliable and cheap so far. But yeah can be a bit underwhelming

bullshit, the M43 engined 316/318i's (from 1994 and above) are literally unkillable, you can beat the shit out of them with almost no oil and you wont kill them. I've owned a 316i with 400k km and I bought my gf a 318i, the engines are perfect, they are just very underpowered. The older M42 belt driven 4cyls were shit though.
There is literally a 0.5 liter difference in fuel consumption between a 328i and a 318i, yet the power difference is great. Dont bother with 316s or 318s if you want to save money on fuel. A 325 TDS would be more economical but the engines(turbos) are quite unreliable

For the love of god don't buy a 316i or 318i. They're fucking garbage.

My old 328i used to use 9L/100km and had double the power.

Wew these compacts are really ugly for an E36.

I can see the aesthetics, but I wouldn't buy a bmw if I wanted that style.

Good to know all that stuff tho user.

So the M43 and M44 engines are robust, the ones before not?

I know that you can get way more performance for just some more drops of fuel, but considering that I am searching for a car that would not give off the vibe that I race for fun since I can't pay that much insurance, and also every liter counts. (I wouldn't deal with E36s at all if it wasn't for that. The E34s got small engine cars aswell and they're really underpowered, that's why I search for passable E36s)
Tl;dr: really worth it for a student at university?

Can't you insure a 320i at least? Literally the same consumption as a 318i except it slunds nice (dat inline 6) and it has 150hp

>I know that you can get way more performance for just some more drops of fuel, but considering that I am searching for a car that would not give off the vibe that I race for fun
The only visual difference between a 318i and the 328i is two exhaust pipes instead of one.

They're non-M BMWs from twenty years ago, no one thinks you're racing.

>since I can't pay that much insurance
If you can't afford the insurance and fuel costs how do you expect to pay for general maintenance? It sounds like you can't afford the car at all and need reasons to justify buying the worst car in the E36 lineup.

>Tl;dr: really worth it for a student at university?
Just buy a Corolla and get it over with.

Would make more sense to get a 325i so the option of turbocharging it easily later is easy.

Well the ones on Wiki look like shit, but compacts I see usually have the M-Technic parts on them.

They remind me of Escort Cosworths.

Had a 325is until someone took the front end off, stock had 186 hp, but I nudged it up to 250.

Still miss that car

Well I guess it really doesn't matter which one of the series if it's not an M3, so it really just comes down to fuel expenses.

About maintenance, I'm pretty confident I can maintain it, I'm fine with some expenses from time to time, I'm just worried that repeating expenses break my neck when I've got no money at that point.


The 325i is easy to turbocharge?
What about the 328i?

I also don't real have fuel efficiency stats on the stronger models, can someone help me with that?

Also, is there any possibilty to drive a diesel without everything going to shit?

I kinda like the aesthetics of the car since I've been infected by initial d, but it's just not something I can drive as a person anons.

I didn't turbo my 325is. Fuel effenciency was good 20 city 28-30 highway.

I did hear turbo was easy to install but I didn't have the cash at the time

Sorry user but I don't really know about American efficiency calculations.
I think you did Miles per Gallon, right?

Would a turbo inevitably worsen efficiency?

Yea mpgs imperial system for the win.

Yes a turbo would diminish that. Sorry about the gas prices user

Tfw german gas prices.
~1.40€ for a litre.
If it was as cheap as murrican gas I'd drive an E38 750i as a daily driver kek.

Do you think that buying an 328 over an 325 is a clever decision?
Acceleration is faster, same HP tho, don't know about efficiency

>buying a BMW for efficiency
>Dont bother with 316s or 318s if you want to save money on fuel.
Listen to this guy.
Generally if you can perform your own maintenance you're not going to experience higher costs.

You will forever regret not buying a 6 cylinder. 316i is fucking slow as shit, a D7F Twingo would be faster. 12.4s 0-100. It's pretty nice to drive and will drift on wet tarmac if you weld the differential but in general it feels slow as fuck.

325i and 328i both have pretty much the same engine, M52 so I believe turbocharging either one would be the same.

Just buy a 328i and LPG it. Literally american gas prices.

M42 are chain driven I think you're talking about the M40? Those were belt driven

user mentioned the diesel engine issues that I already knew about and I was asking if there's any way to not have your engine fuck your ass, so you know anything user?

Yeah you finally got me off buying 316/318, 12.4 seconds frighten me.

Good to know turbocharging is a possibility.

But, user:
>just change your fuel type
How the fuck do you even do that? Doesn't that completely work different?
Isn't that like packing a battery and and an electrical engine in there? Completely changing your engine?

Read up on LPG installations. Literally everyone and their mother do it in Poland. You take your car to a mechanic, he does magic and bam you drive for cheaper. My 316 is LPG converted. Don't you Germans do it too?

318is with M44 is 9.9 0-100, only 0.1 slower than 320i. If fuel is a concern go for something with an M44 rather than M50B20. Have driven an e30 with M20B20 and that was horriffic, but i realise m50 is probably quite better. Of course if you can pay extra for 2.3+ do it.

Could you give me a short overview?
Like, how many parts are changed?
How much does it cost?
Too much engine talk user, I don't understand anything if you don't mention the model numbers.

318is has M44 engine
320i and higher (6 cylinder engines) have M50 or M52
Im saying unless you buy 323i or higher, I would say go for the 318is

I don't fucking know, use google. I paid 2000zł for mine, does that help? I don't know much about it from the mechanical side, I'll list out all the parts that they used in mine:
>regulator/evaporator
>shutoff valve
>tank
>multivalve
>gasproof housing
>fuel inlet
>pressure sensor
>ECU
>injectors
>gas filter
>fuel lines
The engine is still pretty much the same, it's not like they replace all the parts. Think of it like turbocharging I guess. When you turbocharge a car it's not like you get a new engine.

I drive E36 M43 1.6 LPG, 350.000 km and (so far) works like a charm. I pay like 4USD/3.5EUR for 100 km in Poland and the engine is indestructible. But as mentioned above, underpowered as fuck. You could buy 2.8 as well, LPG it and pay 5$ per 100 km, just make sure it is in good condition, that there is no rust (pain in the ass in E36's), suspension is stiff and engine is running smoothly because parts are mostly very expensive if you don't want the cheapest ones, and believe me you don;t want them.

>Well I guess it really doesn't matter which one of the series if it's not an M3, so it really just comes down to fuel expenses.
Hardly. A 328i with the manifold swap mod (325i and 328i both have pretty much the same engine, M52 so I believe turbocharging either one would be the same.
This is incorrect.

328i have the M52B28, 325i have M50B25. The former being aluminum the latter being iron and not having VANOS.

You can turbocharge either but not having to deal with VANOS makes it a lot easier.

>Yeah you finally got me off buying 316/318, 12.4 seconds frighten me.
For comparison a 328i with the diff swapped from a 2.91 to 3.23 will do 0-100kph in about 5.8-6 seconds.

That's because the 320i is also shit.

>Acceleration is faster, same HP tho, don't know about efficiency
That's due to a restricted manifold on the 328i. Basically everyone swaps it for the manifold off a 323i. bumps power by about 30-35hp. 328i also have considerably more torque.

The main thing to check on 328i is if the engine has been swapped for a non-nikasil version. Avoid the nikasil engines like the plague.

True. Basically get the M50B25 engine - the best choice.

Thanks user, I'll remember it.

I've researched German gas prices and using LPG I get 40% cheaper than normal gas, that's pretty fucking epic.

Still sounds a little scary to me changing so many parts tho
(2000zł = 455€) the price sounds p okay tho.

What's a manifold swap mod user?

Well, yeah, 0.5L more for a beast of a car over a steam powered model T sounds reasonable.

What's VANOS?
Well, but why buy a car that accelerates slower just to add a turbocharger?

>5.8s
Wew user, you're making me wet

320i being shit is noted down

>more HP, faster acceleration, more torque
>buy an 323, it's easier to turbo
user pls decide

Also, how much does changing the manifold or turbocharging cost?

Thank you user I will check for that.

FUCKING GODDAMMIT WHAT THE FUCK
I don't understand this.

>What's a manifold swap mod user?
>What's VANOS?
You have a lot of reading to do before buying one of these cars.

Go read about the Nikasil problems on the 328i as well.

>Well, but why buy a car that accelerates slower just to add a turbocharger?
Because the M50B25 has an iron block and will handle 16psi on stock internals and it doesn't have a VANOS so that'll never need to be rebuilt or replaced.

This user in the bmw general mentioned that VANOS shits itself after 100k+ and tend to 've noisy.
What's the advantages to having it?


You're right user and I want to do that later but I want to suck as much Information out of this thread as possible at first.

Besser shock resistance and a part you don't have to exchange?
That's what you waste 35HP on?

>Besser shock resistance and a part you don't have to exchange?
>That's what you waste 35HP on?
Also not having the engine lose compression randomly because of a wide spread issue with cylinder linings in the M52B28 and having an engine that handles boost much better.

Considering you don't even know what VANOS is you should probably know what you're talking about before you start making snarky comments.

Okay user, I believe you user.
Tell me more about the 323 please, if I have a stock one, how much do I have to invest for max performance?

>Turbo Manifold
>Exhaust
>Intercooler piping
>Intercooler
>Injectors
>ECU flash / tune
>Turbo (GTX30 or GT35R)
Probably get you around 400-450hp. Main issue is with the amount you'd spend you could probably buy an S50B32 M3 or basically any Japanese sports car that came with a turbo.

>tfw when you don't check what you wrote before you post

Well, I guess I got all information I could get from Veeky Forums about E36s, the rest will be my research.

Thanks for all that advice anons, rly neato board.

Well, yeah, would kinda defeat the purpose.
But all in all good to know, will get an overview over that later, thanks for the input user.

hau ab Achmed :DD

Fick dich weck bin Deutscher, Veeky Forums hat mir diesen BMW fetisch verpasst.

E46 sind die Kanackenkarren, alle anderen sind okeh.

> E46
den können die sich nicht mal leisten lmao
E36 sind Türken bomber

Und außerdem die einzigen E36er die du ohne blei in den augen anschauen kannst.

Finde E34 und E38 aber besser desu

>"ohne Blei in den Augen"
hab ich noch nie gehört, ist das so was was ihr ossis sagt?

Corolla is quite rare in Germany

If you realy like the e34 that much, id recomend a 525 with LPG

doesn't change insurance

Did you actually check the insurance? I dont realy think it will be that high on this car

no I didn't, I'm not a tripfag

yeah, the m40
Honestly I highly doubt a German high school student will be turboing his BMW any time soon
I've owned an E36 316i Coupe, E36 323i sedan, E36 318i+LPG (currently own, its my gf's daily driver) and my dad has owned several E36's
Installing a LPG system in Germany would cost about 1000-1500 euros and it can be tricky to find an LPG fuelling station over there but yeah it makes fuel very cheap
An M52 powered (1995+) 323i or 328i would be more fuel efficient than the older 325i (1991-1995) and the 323i has a better motor than the old 325i in general
A 316i drinks about 7liters/100km on highways and 10 liters in city
A 328i consumes about 7.5l/100km highways and ~12l/100km city
If I was in Germany I'd definitely be looking at a 323i or 328i, the power difference is great and they sound great when compared to 4cyl BMWs
ignore the nikasil engine problems they only affected cars in America, just make sure the engine and body is fine, parts for E36s are very cheap in general, good luck

2000zł to jakaś II albo III generacja.. Przepływomierz jeszcze cały?

in fact the insurance for them is relativly high, especially for beginners

the 316/318 are fast enough for the city or to travel with 130kmh for long distance. On higher speeds fuel consumption quadruples.

DON'T buy the 316 with 105 hp, the one with 103 hp are more reliable. The 105 ps engines don't get very old.

the w202 mercedes is a relativly cheap car
easy to maintain and parts are cheap
the w210 is also quite good and cheap, no one wants them but they are good cars too.

they only have massive rust problems, you can either deal with them yourself or look for one, which was already painted, c180, c200 or c220 are recomendable.

lpg conversion costs about 2000€ in germany, with tüv and everything else

na gasie najlepiej

the thing is getting a turbo upgrade is quite difficult to get (street legal)
you need an extra emissions check, which costs several thousand €

in German Abgasgutachten und Einzelabnahme

there is a chance to use someone else's papers and rebuild the setup in the papers but the other cars needs to have the same stock data 100%

>ignore the nikasil engine problems they only affected cars in America, just make sure the engine and body is fine, parts for E36s are very cheap in general, good luck
>in America
This is wrong. Go read about the problem again.

USA and the UK

"sports car"
ha

Pomyłka, 2500zł, LPG Tech sekwencja, działa w porządku ale za krótko mam żeby więcej powiedzieć - 18 styczeń 2016
Holy fuck, that kinda defies the purpose.

after doing my research I realized the 325 is the one with the M50 engine user.
Now I'm, slightly confused.

Blei in den Augen führt zu erblinden, und bin auch kein Ossi.

and I wouldn't want to drive a non german car anyways

why an 525?

never underestimate german insurance companies.

But yeah insurance is the smaller problem, fuel cost is the bigger one.

you're right, I was rather just asking for curiousity.

I've never really watched out for them but I kinda expected LPG to be rare around here since nobody really uses it.

>1000-1500 Euro
yeah no I'd rather do a roadtrip to Poland then

So you'd rather recommend the M52 engines since they're more fuel efficient?


Just noticed at some point I started messing up 323 and 325.
Sorry anons

>Nobody wants the w202
Seen that when searching for used Mercedes and I can relate strongly

the w210 is pretty neato tho

>they only have massive rust problems
>only
you're way too relaxed about this user.

are c180 c200 and c220 rust free?
your whole post is kinda confusing user, how are they related?

>2000€
I'm suffering
this

interesting to know user, thx

ah fuck c180 c200 and c220 are engines, that's embarassing

The M52 engines are more fuel efficient and the M52B25 performs better than the older M50B25 as it reaches max torque earlier and is lighter weight
A 323i with a 325i differential walks a 325i
Also you can increase the power for cheap with the M52B28 - all you need is an M50B25 intake manifold and a ECU remap

Those are not enigines but trims, just like 318i, 320i, 325i etc.

sounds good user.
so, 323 or 328 in your opinion?

at this point I'm considering suicide

well a 328i is faster with the same fuel consumption so its naturally better
but it depends on your budget, look for the best example you can find because a 323i that`s been well taken care off is much better than a beat to shit 328i with neglected maintenance
as some anons stated earlier make sure there is as little rust as possible and the engine and suspension is OK

thank you user, I guess that concludes my research.

328/323 with M52 engines for efficiency and general okayishness, the M50 engines if you want tuning and shitz.

(Kinda like Ganoo vs Arch)

And Australia.

Yes the 325i has an M50B25. The 323i has an M52B25. The M50B25 is a better engine overall but the manifold from the M52B25 isn't as restrictive as what's on the M52B28 which is why people put 323i manifolds onto 328i for more power.

>the M50B25 is a better engine than the M52B25
Better for turbo maybe
Aside from that it is worse in every way
Also people put M50B25 intake manifolds on 328s, not M52B25 manifolds

>Better for turbo maybe
>Aside from that it is worse in every way
I won't deny that. If you don't plan to mod a 325 or 328i with the replacement engine is the way to go. If you want boost a 323i is better.

>Also people put M50B25 intake manifolds on 328s, not M52B25 manifolds
My mistake there. Had just gotten up.

Random 318i out of fucken nowhere

Got the car around 2 years ago, and so far its been fine.
Radiator once blew up though cause i never noticed temperature rose rapidly when the fan failed.
no other major issues, has worked well, not costly to repair.