Ownership Verified: BMW (E36) 323i Coup? - A winter sledge from Germany

It looks like a mature BMW for adult people :p

It's probably one of the most sensibly kept E36 coupes in Finland.
 
Thanks everyone!

I cleaned up the engine bay as well...
2016-03-29%2018.52.42_zpsacfvf6te.jpg


...and it?s on summer tires now.
2016-03-29%2019.20.04_zpsrzu7abve.jpg
 
Last edited:
Cleaned the winter wheels and waxed them with Swissvax Autobahn.
Now they are ready for next winter...
2016-04-16%2017.31.09_zpscufpnpfp.jpg


Obviously the car had to be washed as well...
2016-04-16%2018.53.06-1_zpsab6sncrq.jpg
 
This has been standing still while I have been driving my summer car Porsche 944. It is receiving some maintenance though...

New spark plugs, waterpump (with a metal impeller) and thermostat on the list.
DSC_7563_zpsnjao5pi6.jpg


Spark plugs [x]

P.S. The stainless steel exhaust on the left is for my Porsche

- - - Updated - - -

So I drained the coolant (from various places into various buckets) slowly.
DSC_7562_zpsfmxvi6qu.jpg


It was also necessary to build a special tool to open the nut holding the fan in its place.
DSC_7545_zpsmq9srqt3.jpg


And that is how I gained enough clearance to work on the water pump & thermostat housing.
DSC_7550_zpszhkxfzkb.jpg
 
I installed the new waterpump and thermostat (with new seals obviously) and while I was at it, I had to clean and protect the thermostat housing. The fan pulley received the same treatment.
2016-09-13%2015.58.14-1_zpswvndig49.jpg


Ultima Trim & Tire Guard was used for protection - highly recommend
 
Thank you!

Being compared to a true legend like nicjasno is a great honour for me.

The pics with a watermark have been taken with my Nikon D610 (and the last set using a Nikkor 105mm f/2.0 DC) and the rest with my mobile phone (LG G4). Obviously it?s not about what you shoot with, but how you shoot it. I am trying to improve on that every time I shoot something. Most of the time I realise something new when I am going through the photos on my computer like "I should have done that", "Why did I do this" but it?s all part of the learning curve I guess.

At the moment I am waiting for the alternator/water pump belt drive to arrive (they had the a/c belt in stock). I ordered it via Schmiedmann.
 
Last edited:
So I got the belt and started putting the engine back together.

2016-09-20%2015.42.41-1_zpsxhewzvbb.jpg

I cleaned the radiator gently with a paint brush and replaced the bottom screw with a new one so that it won?t start leaking.

2016-09-20%2017.20.44_zpswhafiy5p.jpg

I washed (Bilt Hamber Surfex-HD) and protected (Wolf?s Chemicals Black Out) the fan, fan housing and the two plastic caps that cover the belt tensioners. These came out nice. I also cleaned up the front of the engine a bit while I was at it. I also put some lubricant inside the belt tensioner rollers, which removed completely the very small noise that the bearings used to make. Some corrosion on the fan, but I just left it as it is. It would require cleaning, sanding and painting but I simply couldn?t bother. It?s still in a fairly good condition and I like the fact that the original BMW sticker is still intact.
 
Last edited:
Oh, I didn?t know that. Thank you for the advice. It?s a bit late this time, but I?ll test it at some point and make sure it?s okay. It probably won?t overheat during the finnish winter but of course I want it to operate exactly as it should. Thanks Adu!
 
You can test it all you want, but they tend to continue working perfectly until the moment your engine bay is covered in bits of what used to be your fan clutch assembly, or worse.
 
Holy shit! But that?s not the clutch in pieces that?s the fan?
I?ve understood that the clutch starts to slip so that the fan doesn?t generate enough cooling power anymore. That shouldn?t do any harm to the fan though. Am I wrong? Something doesn?t match.
 
So as the belts were in place...
2016-09-25%2015.06.17-1_zpsfkrxsluu.jpg


...it was time to pour in the liquid.
2016-09-25%2015.05.56-1_zpswdej4uov.jpg


It all seemed to go quite well. What I did was to open the bleeding screw and squeeze the water hose. Then close the bleeding screw while still squeezing the water hose. This is how I managed to remove most of the air from the system. It did take quite a while but seemed to work very well. I had a helping hand though as alone it would be a bit difficult.

The problem arose as it was time to start the engine - it didn?t start. Thinking about what could be the cause of the problem didn?t take too long. The two water temperature sensors had to be disconnected so maybe if something happened to them or the wires or something.
2016-09-25%2015.46.48_zpsutmuvwpf.jpg


2016-09-25%2015.47.34-1_zpszoivaexb.jpg


It wasn?t easy to fix that as there was hardly any copper and both the copper wire and the plastic surrounding were brittle as hell, but I managed to do it. After that the battery was almost dead from the previous attempts to start the car. Finally, after some help with an external battery, I got the car running but it didn?t start normally, the idle was a bit rough and so on. While heating up it got better all the time and finally ran totally fine. I must add that my E36 has had some small issues with starting even before this.

Well... I guess I need to buy a diagnostics tool from ebay. That will tell whether the problem is with temperature sensors or crank/cam position sensor or even something else. Sad thing the same tool (from the same seller) that Loose Unit just bought isn?t available anymore.
 
Last edited:
I?ve been driving this for a couple of days now and it seems to be working just fine, strange...
Still waiting for that diagnostics tool to arrive.
 
Yes, exactly. I haven?t bought those tires though. They were already under the car as I bought it, but Continental Premium Contact 5 in 205/60 R15 are pretty much perfect for the car so I?m very happy.
 
I got continental winter contacts 195/65r15 for the compact and will mount them also on style13s :p Did this because 205/60r15 are hard to find tires. Just like the 205/55r15 for the e30. The luck i have with tires..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top