95 M3 vs. 96 M3

[Evan]

Bimmer-heads skool me on which is better, the 3.0 OBDI or 3.2 OBDII?
I know some have said that the 95s are better, if thats the case then Im curious why.

[.RJ]

OBD-I - you dont need an expensive scan tool to read the codes, sometimes OBD-II ecu's are picky and dont respond to mods as well as an OBD-I ECU, and generally more emissions crap. Although in some places with OBD-II you dont even need a sniff test for emissions, just check the ECU codes and you're done.

[Evan]

Given that I will most likely not touch the motor much (if at all) OBDII doesnt scare me much.
And according to this link (courtesy assmeter from the other thread)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dsm.org/~today/overrev/bmwdigest.htm">http://www.dsm.org/~today/overrev/bmwdigest.htm</a><!-- m -->
that teh OBDII has an overrev log,
also the 96s supposedly had a fix for the misshift problems.

[.RJ]

If you dont plan on touching it, it dont matter one way or the other. But I think you should get a 95 and b00st it

What was the fix? Stiffer tranny mounts? I'd replace them (and all the other prone-to-failure shit) anyways.

[JohnC]

If you dont plan on touching it, it dont matter one way or the other. But I think you should get a 95 and b00st it

What was the fix? Stiffer tranny mounts? I'd replace them (and all the other prone-to-failure shit) anyways.

And be *very* careful about shifting near the redline - reference the poor E46 M3 at Summit this past weekend with a rod through the block

[John]

And be *very* careful about shifting near the redline - reference the poor E46 M3 at Summit this past weekend with a rod through the block

I'm still scratching my head on how he managed to do that... hrug:

[.RJ]

Was that due to a mis-shift? The early production E46 M's had some connecting rod bearing issues. BMW had blamed mis-shifts until the SMG cars started blowing up too.

There was one at Mid-ohio (SMG) that blew up in the braking zone off the back straight (probably coming down from 135 mph in that car), slid sideways into the gravel trap and rolled over.

[JohnC]

Was that due to a mis-shift? The early production E46 M's had some connecting rod bearing issues. BMW had blamed mis-shifts until the SMG cars started blowing up too.

Apparently the guy was at redline in 3rd and instead of hitting the lever on the right to shift to 4th he hit the lever on the left and shifted to 2nd. It was an SMG - I would've thought that the computer wouldn't let you make a mistake like that, but I really don't know. Of course, all this was heard secondhand, so take it with a grain of salt - I don't know much about E46 M3s...

[ButtDyno]

Given that I will most likely not touch the motor much (if at all) OBDII doesnt scare me much.
And according to this link (courtesy assmeter from the other thread)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dsm.org/~today/overrev/bmwdigest.htm">http://www.dsm.org/~today/overrev/bmwdigest.htm</a><!-- m -->
that teh OBDII has an overrev log,
also the 96s supposedly had a fix for the misshift problems.

There is some other way to minimize the risk of it.. transmission mount or shifter bushing or something else that isn't that hard to do. I forget who I talked to. Did you sell the WRX or are you going for car #3?

[Mike]

95 over 96? only reason would be for the obd1, which responds better to mods. i'm looking at obd2 only, cause i really don't care to mod my daily drivier much...

[BLINGMW]

If you aren't going to be searching for much more than stock power, ie, larger TB, different intake manifold, exhaust manifold, injectors, or yes, turbo shite, then it's probably a wash. The 3.2 does have a little extra torque, but it also gets a little hevier as side airbags and more such options come in. I'd still prefer the '95 because, like Ryan said, it's cheaper to diagnose problems. Of course, finding a nice '95 isn't as easy as finding a nice '96.

As far as the mis-shift problems go, I've never heard that the '96+ was any less prone to it. In fact, the part numbers for the transmission and engine mounts are the same. Even the shifter and bushings that mount it are the same. And the trans is the same. The crossmember that the tranny bushings sit on is a different PN, so it's the only thing I can find that MIGHT make a difference, but I think they're interchangeable and locate the trans in the same place, so I can't imagine it's different. Don't know what's available from the computer in the OBD2 cars, it probably does track over-revs, but if compression and such is good, which you'd probably do anyway if you were buying, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Mike]

after seeing what happened to chris hawley (i'll post pics if he allows me to do so), i'd want the side airbags...

[G.Irish]

Was that due to a mis-shift? The early production E46 M's had some connecting rod bearing issues. BMW had blamed mis-shifts until the SMG cars started blowing up too.

Apparently the guy was at redline in 3rd and instead of hitting the lever on the right to shift to 4th he hit the lever on the left and shifted to 2nd. It was an SMG - I would've thought that the computer wouldn't let you make a mistake like that, but I really don't know. Of course, all this was heard secondhand, so take it with a grain of salt - I don't know much about E46 M3s...

Most of the SMG systems don't allow you to make a misshift like that. If it was a SMG car it was that rod bearing thing fo sho.

[BLAIR]

didnt even look to see what other people said but i was looking into a e36 (FIXED haha) m3 very seriously for a while. I was only considering a 95 due to the OBD1 and there much larger power gains over the OBD2 cars.

[Evan]

i was looking into a e25 m3 very seriously for a while.

:?:

[Maengelito]

i was looking into a e25 m3 very seriously for a while.

:?:

the 3-6 is next to the 2-5 on the keypad, which i assume is what happened

[.RJ]

E36 325is (94-95ish) will be my next daily driver, probably waiting until I move.

[Mike]

so hard to find in half-decent shape with half-decent miles....