Thinking about buying a BMW

Icey1174 · 08-20-2009, 12:11 PM

Hey guys!

I am very active on the Porsche side of this site. I have an '87 944 and I now do ALL the work myself. I foolishly bought the car at an auction with no paper work. Nothing worked 5 years ago. Now it drives like a brand new car and is very dependable. I am thinking about buying a '95 or older BMW 3 series. I am brand new to BMW, but I see them online for about $4K to $5K for a car that looks to be in real good shape. I am most interested in '95 or older because '95 and older are not required to pass an emissions test for our New York State Inspection.

On the Porsche side of the site we all know of a great website for repairs for our 944s, www.clarks-garage.com. Without that site I would have been lost in making the repairs to my car. Does such a site exist somewhere for these cars?

What are things I need to look for besides the obvious when looking at the 3 series? With the 944s timing belt and water pump maintenance is a huge concern. I can turn a wrench and I am not afraid to dig in and get the job done.

I do plan to keep the car on the road and use it year round. I do intend for it to be my sole daily driver during the winter months in NY.

Any input would be great guys! Thanks!

Jeron · Jeron's Garage

It will have a timing chain with no service interval. Everything is easy to work on. There are many good sites but most are forums. So you have to search the forum to find what you are looking for but pretty much everything has been done before and you can find a writeup on it.

There are also summary sites like http://www.bimmerdiy.com/

You biggest common expenses/repairs will be clutch or an automatic tranny.

Cooling system is a common failure on BMW's and the inline 6 tends to warp heads, so testing for a blown head gasket is advisable.

Icey1174 · 08-21-2009, 12:09 PM

Thanks for the info! It's a good thing there is a moderator. The Porsche side of this site is much more active.

trekkor · 08-21-2009, 04:13 PM

I'm looking at a '91 325i right now.

KT

Manolito · 08-21-2009, 07:49 PM

I have seen several good collections of "Common e36 Problems" posted.
A Google just now turned one up at
http://www.unitedbimmer.com/kb-e36-common-faults-faq.php
Most of the worst problems were on models prior to about 96, but those were great cars as well, they just had a few more glitches that were corrected in later years.
Some problems were never fixed on the e36, like the touchy SRS and the flaky climate control module, but those problems can be resolved for not a lot of money.