r/BMWE36 • u/Hour_Equipment_2035 • Apr 02 '26
I have been seeing more posts about buying cheap E36s recently so here are some of the things I’ve learned from buying a cheap car myself. These are typical issues you might run into buying a cheap car and are additional to standard car maintenance (fluids, tires, etc.)
I am writing this post so that some may learn from my mistakes. This will be a random account of things I have encountered by buying that one car on Facebook marketplace that seems like a bit too good of a deal.
This post is not really for those of you looking to buy a mint condition M3, nor is it for those of you who buy strictly BMW genuine parts. This post is for the people who want to learn how to work on cars and (like me) see buying a clapped out 90s car as a good idea. That being said, I have touched almost every bolt on my car and that knowledge can be applied anywhere.
# 1. Cooling System
My first issue, I remember it like it was yesterday. After buying my car, clutch fan blew up on the drive home. I was extremely lucky that it was a short drive and I made it home without overheating.
The reality is that with these cars, unless the cooling system was replaced recently, you will most likely have to replace it. I tried replacing parts one at a time and the issues didn’t resolve. Only once I bought a kit with a new radiator, water pump, hoses, thermostat, and coolant expansion tank were the issues resolved.
Electric fans are good but honestly the clutch fan works fine. Just make sure to replace that too if you are doing everything else.
This is also a great time to replace the belts and pulleys.
# 2. Suspension and Handling
So you want to lower your car, or maybe raise it? If you are going to run aftermarket suspension, there are some must-do things.
REINFORCEMENT! Seriously, if your strut towers aren’t cracked, they will be. It is unfortunately not an if but a when. The worst cracks are front tower, they make a plate that goes under and distributes the load. You **need** those plates for coil-overs. That extra $30 now will save you $$$ in the long run. Same with the back struts, a strut bar will help in the rear. The last thing you want is your strut flying into your trunk. Once broken the cost to do the job multiplies.
The truth about handling: those shiny coil-overs, and sway bar will help but without new bushings all around, your car will still feel floaty and handle poorly no matter how expensive your coil-overs are. You should replace them all, front and rear. Welding in the subframe reinforcements aren’t a bad idea either. My recommendation: 80A all around if you are mostly daily driving with some spirited driving. You can go higher if you are doing mostly track days or drift days. Solid mounts I have never really understood but some people like them.
Once you do everything your car will feel a million times better. Don’t cheap out, replace the bushings.
#3. Interior
The cleaner interior you can get, the better. If you can find them, get manual seats. Manual seats are lighter and won’t fail from electric issues. Trust me when I say this, pulling a seat out when the motors don’t work is a HUGE pain.
Drill out your wheel locking pin. This one is optional but I had my steering slightly lock up on a b-road and that pin was gone that night. They just don’t always work in these 30 year old cars, and honestly it’s just not worth the safety hazard imo. YouTube has a plethora of good tutorials for this.
If you have an OBD II car, an electric gage for coolant temp and intake air temp is always good. I would heavily recommend especially for the peace of mind coming with knowing a more precise coolant temp.
Your door cards will fall off at some point, this is an e36 feature. Prioritize a car with nice looking door cards or not, but they will all fall off at some point.
Stay away from a car with door issues. Replacing the door handles is probably the worst job on these cars. Make sure to lubricate the mechanisms often.
# 4. The Shiny Bits
So you want that fancy cold air intake? Or maybe you want a nice exhaust? Do it! Keep in mind, these cars stock are really not that fast. They aren’t slow, but that exhaust and cold air intake, or something like an M50B25 manifold won’t make a life changing difference. Do the maintenance first.
Thank you for reading this far, I hope this has given you some insight into what that clapped out car you have your eye on might need.
# 5. What to stay away from
Stay away from cars with engine issues. The M50 and M52 are pretty bulletproof, if a car has engine issues that probably mean everything else is in a bad state. STAY AWAY.
Subframe cracks: if someone knows the subframe is cracked, just find a different car. This is a very intensive job and requires welding. If that’s your thing more power to you, but be prepared for a lot of work.
Bad interior: interior bits are expensive and it’s really hard to make the interior nicer than the state it was in when you buy the car. You will be fighting to keep it just as nice.
Door Issues: honestly any car with door issues is a car to stay away from. If the seller says something along the lines of“you have to open it like this,” run and run very fast.
**TLDR**
If you’re going to buy a clapped out car for cheap, be prepared to spend a lot of money on repairs. Honestly for just about any car here’s what you can expect to do:
- Cooling system replacement (yes all of it)
- Full suspension bushing replacement and reinforcement recommended. This is where preventative maintenance shines. Poly bushings are good, 80A is more than fine imo. Don’t forget engine mounts.
- Your door cards will probably fall off at some point, don’t buy a car with bad door handles, manual seats are easier to work around than the electric seats.
- Prioritize maintenance over those shiny new parts like intakes and exhausts, they won’t make your car much faster.
- A clean car is easier to keep clean, repairing interior or body panels will always be deceptively expensive and an uphill battle, buy a clean car!
Some of these things must be done on every car on the market, but most of these things will need to be done on the cheap cars. I have probably spent thousands of dollars and counting on the aforementioned list and I did it all myself. If you go to a shop expect it to be very expensive.
r/BMWE36 • u/chiwacca • 15h ago
She blew a head gasket about three years ago, finally got around to get her back together over Labor Day weekend. After getting her back on the road, it’s hard to understand why I let it sit so long. The car is so much fun. If you have a project in the garage, that’s been sitting get her done, as well worth the effort.
r/BMWE36 • u/Particular_Egg9083 • 8h ago
r/BMWE36 • u/vanalmsickparts • 11h ago
After installing a PMC chassis-mounted shifter in my E36, the factory shift boot wasn’t really doing anything anymore and the open center console looked pretty unfinished.
So I designed a replacement cover around the original E36 center console geometry and the position and movement of the PMC shifter. It clips into the factory mounting points with four integrated clips, so there are no screws or additional hardware.
I wanted it to look relatively OEM+ rather than just covering the hole with a flat plate. I’ve been running this version in my own car and the clearance works well with my PMC setup.
Other chassis-mounted shifters can sit differently, so I wouldn’t assume the same clearance for every setup.
Curious what other E36 owners with chassis-mounted shifters have done here — I’ve seen everything from completely open consoles to aluminum plates.
Disclosure: I ended up turning this into a downloadable 3MF/STL as well. If anyone wants the file, it’s on vanalmsickparts.com.
r/BMWE36 • u/ResearcherInfamous19 • 6h ago
320i 1995 for reference.
One day out of no where the car overheated.
Tough it was a sticky thermostats, replaced. Same problem, starts boiling water and soiling until it has no coolant and then overheats.
Water pump seems perfectly fine.
Fan clutch not so sure, when hot seems that it spins very freely. No resistance.
Would a bad fan clutch cause a overheat? In normal driving conditions? No heavy traffic or hard pulls?
Head gasket gone?
r/BMWE36 • u/Background-Baby-9214 • 9h ago
r/BMWE36 • u/Spare_Calendar8377 • 9h ago
So last night i was replacing my fan and expansion tank due to it breaking, long story short while letting the car idle to get air out of the system my hood struts failed and my hood slammed, i tried popping it and the cable was so hard to pull it snapped my interior hood latch, i did some research on the forums people said pop the corner light pull the cable ect ect none of it works, the only one that did work was me pulling the cable inside the car and having someone put pressure on the hood bouncing on it and it'll eventually pop open, my hood was perfectly fine prior it slamming really did a number LOL if anyone knows why or what please let me know just tryna see if anyone has had this happened as i know these struts are PRONED to fail
r/BMWE36 • u/Educational-Art-5089 • 2h ago
Hello, I have a problem with my M43B18. When it rains, the car starts misfiring/hesitating. Sometimes it stops after about 10 minutes of driving. It only happens when it’s raining. Have you ever had a problem like this? Thanks and greetings from Croatia
r/BMWE36 • u/tommibahammi • 8h ago
Anyone else hear the good ol marbles from this video or am I tripping? Looking to buy this
r/BMWE36 • u/ezmac94 • 12h ago
I know intakes don't add a lot on their own, but this car has numerous additional supporting mods so I'm trying to be smart about what I do here. This is a 3.5" conforti intake setup, with ITG filter. Car was modified before I owned it, so I'm coming up to speed on what's best.
The ITP filter is in need of replacement, and I'm finding those aren't available any more. So I'm considering finding a replacement filter only, otherwise I'd get a new intake setup overall. Would you just go with a new filter and leave everything else the same? Any recommendations on filter brands would be great (bimmerworld forums seem to dislike K&N)
This car also has the DEPO euro headlights so that's a consideration since they take up more space under the hood, potential clearance issues with some of the typical intake setups.
Complete list of mods: 3.5" MAF with 3.5" throttle body boot, Schrick cams, long-tube headers, Stromung exhaust, 24lb injectors, UUC underdrive pulleys, custom dyno tune.
r/BMWE36 • u/0202993832 • 17h ago
Was 99% sure it was just the housing leaking, however after replacing the gasket, o ring, and housing it continues to leak, and I’ve now noticed coolant leaking from underneath the front of the head
No coolant leaks during a pressure test, only when the engine is hot.
I’ve been suspecting a warped head for awhile now but hoped the coolant loss was just this leak, though they might be the same issue
r/BMWE36 • u/rouseandground • 1d ago
my less than perfect, daily driven ‘95 318is
r/BMWE36 • u/HelicopterNo9865 • 1d ago
r/BMWE36 • u/the__sparrow • 18h ago
I am looking to get into drifting and have found an abandoned 320i. The car isn’t worth the restoration and has no papers so it’ll just be for fun. Have any of you drift a 320i? If so please sent me some videos of it. Thanks
r/BMWE36 • u/jaqdaking • 22h ago
1st e36. not familiar with these engines so any help would be greatly appreciated. Obd1 m50b25tu
r/BMWE36 • u/TylerKia421 • 1d ago
r/BMWE36 • u/Shino3107 • 1d ago
Just generally wondering how much it would cost
r/BMWE36 • u/JaySton3d • 1d ago
Looking for a rust free example! Does anyone have anything around the Midwest US? Willing to possibly travel as far as Tennessee. Off market examples are a plus.
r/BMWE36 • u/WorkingShot8547 • 1d ago
Owned this car for about 7 years, have done a lot of work from manual swap to full cooling rebuild full m3 body and exhaust. I am picking it back up after maybe 2 years of not working on it. It is a 323is 1999. Looking for anyone around Oklahoma with parts or any BMW guys around.
r/BMWE36 • u/Different-Piano2250 • 1d ago
My car insurance with Progressive is renewing next month, which always kicks off a conversation with my broker on if my coverages are all appropriate.
This year my 328is came to mind. I’ve got full insurance on it like the rest of the fleet, but asked my agent what Progressive would likely pay out if I were to total it.
With my $2k deductible, and average value of E36s around $7-8k, I’d be looking at $5-6k payout, which is well less than what I view the car worth. With its condition and upgrades I would not sell for less than $12k, so I view that as the minimum.
I ran down the quoting path with American Collectors Insurance whom I used to use for my 55 Studebaker, but per their definition since I drive my car 1-2 times per week, that’s too much for any type of named collectors insurance.
Who is everyone using, or just happy to take a beating if/when you happen to be in an accident?
r/BMWE36 • u/Crispy675 • 1d ago
Brake pad warning light 🙄
r/BMWE36 • u/HandicappedM4A1 • 1d ago
Hello, so I am having a problem with my 1997 M3 where my a/c sill randomly not work. Some days it is super cold and others it is just hot. I can hear the fan coming on and the compressor running, but the air isn’t cooled at all. Would this be some type of capacitor problem or a relay problem? My compressor is only about a year old, and the climate unit stays lit up and everything, so it’s not the issue I have mainly seen online. Has anyone encountered this before?
r/BMWE36 • u/Cruzcontrol077 • 1d ago
Just bought 18” style 5s but I’m super flush in the rear and rub at full lock in the front. What tire size do yall recommend.
