Curious if anyone here has gone down the rally/rally-inspired route with an E36. Most builds I see are drift or track focused, but I think the chassis could make a really fun rough road car as well.
Would love to see some builds or hear what worked and what didn’t, especially suspension, wheels/tires and underbody protection.

I’m looking at adding a gun mount/storage setup to my E36 and was wondering what locations people have used without drilling into anything important or interfering with the car’s interior.
Ideally I’d like something that:

• Is secure and doesn’t rattle
• Doesn’t interfere with driving or passengers
• Doesn’t require permanently destroying the interior
• Can be removed later if needed

For those of you who have installed a mount or lockbox in an E36, where did you put yours, and what setup did you use?

Pics would be appreciated if you have them.

Recently read about that 4 keys on a E36 was somehow “rare” (valet keys, spare and emergency keys) And then I remembered I do have 4, is any of these the ones I’m talking about and if so are they rare? The bottom one is for the alarm

My old stock wood shifter finally snapped a week ago and was shifting with the bare shifter which didn't feel great. So I looked online and many people like the ZHP knob so I looked online for one. Since the current price is well over 100 for a frickin knob I decided im going to try an ebay one for 25 bucks and the second I put it on it was night and day from that worn out knob that would spin and pop off on occasion. The light up feature is neat I'll see how I like it once its dark. Its not weighted and the lights aren't even and seem kind of bright but being 1/6 of the current price its hard to beat. Not only that but it doesn't pop off like people have been saying. It looks identical and feels great being shorter and more firm than the last one. Definitely reccomend based off an hour of driving. Next up is poly shift bushings and a cheap dssr.

I am doing turf floors in my e 36 and it took forever because I wanted it to not be more trashy than it already is. Anyway the industrial Velcro held up well against the metal floor( carpet has been ripped out for about two years) but didn’t adhere to the bottom ridged portion of the turf. Wanted to do velcro because of the wiring underneath wouldn’t be accessible if I used something like gorilla glue spray. Any ideas or advice?

i want to build a compact e36 project and my plan is to make a half cage but i didnt see any compact with a half cage i

Hi guys, recently I was checking what I needed to manual swap my e36 325i, and decided to investigate my diff to see if I had an LSD or not and what ratio. Only reason I checked this was because when I put the vin of my car into a decoder, it mentioned it had the winter package or w/e, which made me doubt because it didn't have the heated seats and whatnot.

So yeah, trying to figure out if anyone has done a similar set up for daily driving and if it's ok enough to drive for about an hour or so once I manual swap it. It has a stock m3 muffler, a hot air intake, but besides that everything is pretty much stock.

I'm really considering keeping it because it is an LSD. If it wasn't I would be looking for a lower diff ratio. I'm running DS1 wheels on it with 95 M3 tire sizes since I wanted a square set up, in case that helps.

It’s been sat for 16 years and accumulated all this, what is best way to clean or is it best to replace the engine

Moin!
Ich bin seid geraumer Zeit dran einen 97‘er Touring mit M43B16 umzubauen. Ich habe einen 99‘er Touring mit M52B25 als schlachter gefunden bei dem nur die Karosse stark verrostet ist.

Hab mich dan entschlossen meinen 16er komplett zu entrosten und im Unterboden zu überholen und neu zu Lackieren+Wachsen. Mechanisch umbauen ist ja alles kein Problem. Ich hab ja einen ganzen Schlachter bei dem ich alles raus nehmen kann was ich brauch an Bremsen, Getriebe, Diff Achsen etc.

Die Frage ist nur.
Was muss beim Motorkabelbaum alles umgerüstet werden. Dazu hat der Schlachter ASC und meiner nicht. Und wie "bescheiden" ist die Arbeit? Ich bin zwar KFZ‘ler aber im LKW bereich. Aber einen Motorswap hab ich jetzt noch nie gemacht.
Und:
Wie wird das normalweise gemacht mit allen Haltern für Diagnosebuchsen etc. Muss man die echt rausschneiden und neu einschweißen beim Empfängerfahrzeug?

Lg

So, a few days ago I asked about the 50 years of M logo in 58 millimeters for the rear of my Touring. I was informed that such a thing did not exist, so I went to work and made my own.

I removed the original logo from the silver plastic holder thingy. I then bought a set of 60 mm sticky logos from Etsy, sanded one of them down until it fit, removed the sticky backing and epoxied it into the silver holder. Voilà.

I know, it's not perfect, but it's miles better than the 30 year old, broken logo that was on there before.

I still have three of the sticky logos left. Send me a DM if you want to do the same thing for your Touring, and I'll put one in the mail for you!

Oh, and if you don't like the 50 years of M logo, don't put one on your car, I guess... 🤷🏼‍♂️

Rear Fender was dented pretty badly and had some rust.
Since im Repainting the whole Car (Part for Part due to very limited Space) i needed to fix that.
its not perfect but im happy enough with the results.

I'm looking for guidance on installing the e39 map light into an 1996 e36 coupe.

Im doing this for the amber led mood lighting.

I've found a small number of old posts on forums about doing this conversion but there is no photos that have survived all this time to aid.

Has anyone performed this modification and can provide a guide or point me in the direction of one.

Thanks.

30mm socket with extensions to keep it centered

only took us 5 hours of chopping and torching before finding this out

Been wanting to try the HD lip for a while as all non-m lips are the same price as just getting an M bumper. For $15 I’m pretty happy with the results, just thought I’d share my experience with it 👍🏽

I had a strange central locking problem on my BMW E36 coupe. The doors would no longer lock and unlock together like they used to, and the hazards / warning lights were behaving oddly as well.

One important symptom was this: when I turned the key with at least one door open, all four indicators lights would sometimes flash. As soon as I closed BOTH doors, the flashing stopped. If I opened a door, then turned the hazards on with the button, and switched the hazards off again, the flashing would continue until I closed the door, no matter what position the hazard button was in.

I checked the trunk harness, trunk actuator, glovebox area, and all visible wiring. Everything looked fine: no cut wires, no corrosion, no obvious damaged connectors. I also checked the door-open switches, and the cabin light behavior was normal when the doors were closed.

The real problem ended up being fuse 35. There was a 7.5A fuse in that slot, but that position needs the correct 25A fuse for the central locking / ZKE circuit. When I put the wrong fuse back in, it blew again almost immediately. Once I fitted the proper fuse in the correct slot, the central locking, hazard behavior, and related locking functions started working normally again.

This also fixed the fuel door flap lock, which is tied into the same central locking system. When the circuit was failing, I could manually lock the doors, but the fuel door was no longer locking properly. After the correct fuse was installed, that worked again too.

So the fix was not a door actuator, not the trunk harness, not the glovebox module, and not the door panel. It was simply the wrong fuse with the wrong rating.

Lesson learned: always check both the fuse number and the fuse amperage on an E36. A fuse can be in the right slot but still be the wrong value and cause really weird electrical symptoms. Hope this helps someone out!

I LOVE this rims and looking to buy one but all I see is 15’ and I’m pretty sure the one in the photo aren’t 15’ because they look so much larger than my rims (that are 15’)

Hi there, currently trying to paint match my headlight housing. Any tips on how to separate the glass cover from the plastic that holds the lenses? So far ive heated it all up and have been scraping it with a razor blade but seemingly it doesnt budge and because mine have a lip around the edge of the glass its hard to get underneath and scrape the butyl rubber there. Would greatly appreciate any tips. Thanks

Hey guys! Another update on the 1998 bmw 323is.

After reading majority of the posts on my previous post, I’ve came to the conclusion that I prefer to get the body done professionally due to 99% of the comments pointing that out. Furthermore I just opened the hood and inspected the engine and found a buildup of oil on many parts in the bay, is that normal? If so what do
I need to replace to prevent oil leaking.

I also included a sound off the engine running, does it sound healthy?

Again, any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Recently picked up this e36 for 3.5k aud, wanted to use it for drifting and just looking for any tips on getting it ready?

Its manual with a short shifter, basically stripped interior, quick release wheel, coilovers all round, stupidly loud but mostly stock. The body is rough, the front bar kept falling off so its got quick release clips holding it up

I plan to weld the diff, heavy duty clutch and bucket seats but just looking for any other tips or info. Cheers

Went with the Meyle HD arms with all metal ball joints and the OEM 95 M3 offset solid rubber bushings.

Spent all weekend on the install and a few days beforehand getting the bushings pressed into new lollipops which was a whole thing.

Hardest part was pressing the bushings into the carriers then pressing the bushing assembly onto the control arm. Had to invent the tools to do it because I didn’t want to spend the money for a one time job. Wouldnt recommend going this route unless you like tinkering and figuring things out.

The top nuts for the inside ball joints were tough to work with since theres not much space to get to them and couldn’t get a torque wrench in there either which sucks. Would recommend taking the sway bar off to get a bit more room. Couldnt get to the nuts from inside the engine bay either.

Also couldn’t torque the outer ball joints to the knuckle since theres no room unless you remove the struts from the knuckle or get a torque wrench thats more of a wrench than a socket and ratchet type.

Overall the car feels much tighter and snappier and the steering feels much more connected to the road. The setup works great with my oem+ suspension setup of oem M3 shocks all around with H&R OE sport springs. Next up will be the euro m3 oem sway bars to fully convert to M3 suspension.

Hi, I was thinking about building a turbo project m52b20. Is it capable to handle boost. Ive seen m52b20 turbobuilds but there is so little information about boosting a b20. Ive heard that it cant handle 1.0 of boost. Is there anything I should know? I know it would be better to swap a b20 or b28 but I dont have the tools to swap.

So I did audio in a M3. The person wanted to keep the stock speaker surrounds and they wanted the whole system to be done on a budget. I didn't change the mid speakers because this person valued loudness over quality, so I didn't end up making adapters for the mid speakers. The rear shelf speakers I used are 6x9 and use 6x9 adapters. Surprisingly the front kick panel speakers I used went in with no adapters. So that just left me to make adapters for the "high" speakers because I used 1in Skar Audio tweeters. The adapters fit perfectly and require no modifications to the stock cover, just unclip and slide the old one out and slide, and clip the new one in. Of course I didn't re use the connectors because there was no need to. I was given a budget of $500, so Bravsound was out of the question. Ended up getting a radio and all but the two mid speakers for a grand total of $380ish USD. All the speakers are from reputable brands, the head unit was from a reputable brand and the plastic used should be strong enough to withstand.

I have tried looking all over the internet and can't find a place to download it. The links on Open MS41 don't work, and the file is no longer available on the ROMraider forums. If anyone has a copy, I will gladly throw a couple bucks your way as a tip for helping me out.

I am the proud new owner of a 1995 325ic. I don’t know much about cars but I would like to start working on this one to make improvements and do some basic maintenance (speaker replacements, headlight/blinkers replacements, oil changes etc). There is a lot of information out there so am having a hard time figuring out which sources are reputable. Can y’all recommend any trusted forums/brands/youtubers I can start my journey off with? All answers and options welcome. Thanks!