Project Green Hell: 1995 BMW 325i/4/5 Sport

[Jake]

I finally got photos taken in decent lighting of my new DD, so now I can make a project thread. Woohoo!

So, I can't introduce Green Hell without first mentioning Blurple. In a half-priced-margarita-induced hangover on a Saturday morning, Joey and I found ourselves in Ashburn, looking at a 1996 328i sport package sedan. It was a cool color combination, Montreal Blue (aka, blurple) on Dove Gray. And it was a sport pack, with the good seats! And it was only $1,000!



...and it had rust. Rust that I thought I could fix. Rust that, when I got home and examined the car more closely post-haze, was far beyond what I wanted to take on as a project. I quickly said "oh, shit, what have I done" and put the car back on Craigslist after throwing $400 in parts at it (pads/rotors/battery/rear shocks). I flipped it and got my money back - a large black man named Nigel rode the Metro from Maryland to buy it... and plans on driving it to Georgia. With a rusty shock tower. Yes, really.

So, after owning Blurple for eight days (if anyone is curious, it cost me $4.67 to insure it for that time), I sold it and also sold the E34. Suddenly, the "new DD because Jake is tired of DDing a 21-year-old car" search was on.

I found this car up in Maryland and jumped on it. It's a 1995 325i, sport package. I insisted I didn't want another black car... in an ironic twist, this car was originally black. It was repainted at a BMW dealership about four years ago, and is now Oxford Green. So, I have an Oxford on Black sport sedan, which is apparently rare. Probably because they didn't sell Oxford on the E36's (not to my knowledge, watch me be wrong). And most green ones came with the "meh" tan interior.



It has this many miles on it, I bought it at 146,050:



The paint job seems pretty quality on it.



Seats aren't dried out and/or torn!





After putting ~900 miles on it in about a week, I discovered a few little items that needed attention. This weekend was Round One of the Bimmerlympics. I replaced the rear shock mounts as they were busted and making a little clattering noise. Since the shocks come off to do that, and were presumably original, I replaced them with new OEM sport shocks at $35 per side. Thank you, Rock Auto.

A new head unit was priority like... 1.5. The car came with a Clarion unit that, I'm sure, was really pimpy and nice in 1997. It played muddafuckin' CDs, yo. Unfortunately, there was no auxiliary input, the CD player skipped over the smallest of bumps, and (a pet peeve) it lit up green in an otherwise amber-lit interior. So, I fixed that with a Kenwood "Digital Media Receiver" which is ├╝ber-pimpy.

And since we were doing the wiring for that, it only made sense to run wiring for my subwoofer as well.



The sub is the same 10" BassLink I've had in the E34. Still sounds good. And that 25.x MPG readout is a highway/city mix. I love that I can beat on the car and still get 20+ MPG. That never happened in the 535. It'll do an OBC-indicated 30-31 MPG all highway, too.

All 184 hp of fury right here.



Joey and I got our E36's washed yesterday, too. Dan and others will certainly rag on us for going to a touchy-feely carwash, but when you don't have the facilities to wash the car yourself, you take what you can get.



All spiffy and clean:




So, that's Green Hell. Custom plates are coming shortly and I need to source a Nurburgring sticker to put next to the rear plate (get it now?). Otherwise, the car needs a few little things (rear door lock actuator, rear deck speakers, I think that's it) and it'll be a pretty sweet DD.

[BLINGMW]

I think it better have some ring history first.... :evileye:

Anyway, looks good. I had the same wheels on my 95 325, a good looking fit IMHO.

If you need a set of forged track wheels with good tires, please take mine, I doubt I'll use them. They're still shiny and pretty, I have the centercaps too

[Jake]

I think it better have some ring history first.... :evileye:

Anyway, looks good. I had the same wheels on my 95 325, a good looking fit IMHO.

If you need a set of forged track wheels with good tires, please take mine, I doubt I'll use them. They're still shiny and pretty, I have the centercaps too:

Yeah yeah, I know. It'd make more sense if it had been driven on the 'ring or something. But as it's an E36, you know things will break... so the "green hell" plates have a handy double-meaning built in.

I don't hate the wheels on the car now. I don't love them either. They're easy to clean, that's about it.

Don't really need track wheels for my daily, but I'll think about it

[BLINGMW]

Don't really need track wheels for my daily, but I'll think about it

what you DON'T NEED is the miata. :wink:

[Goodspeed]

Nice purchase Jake, this definitely looks like much more of a winner than Rusty McHolesinthebody. Looking forward to updates on turning this into a pimpy DD :thumbup:

Don't really need track wheels for my daily, but I'll think about it

what you DON'T NEED is the miata. :wink:

SILENCE!

[D_Eclipse9916]

CLEAN black interior!

[Jake]

Currently cheering on #TeamOzium to get some funk out of it. Fingers crossed.

[ScottyB]

that's in great shape for 145k. i'm so glad you didn't try to make the last heap work out knowing you would have missed this one.

[Jake]

So, updates on this thing.

I freakin' love it. It's older and not all complicated like a brandy-new BMW, it has everything I want (save for heated seats) and gets decent gas mileage.

Speaking of gas mileage, I made it better. The thermostat was stuck open, so the motor was never really warming up on my drives. Even 3 hours on the highway, it'd waver between 1/3 and middle. I bought the $11 t-stat when I bought the other parts (aka, a month ago) and never put it in. Finally, last week, when the morning temp dropped from 55 to 37 overnight, I decided I couldn't handle "no heat" any longer.

Replaced it that night (thank you, Kaan for drinking beer with me and helping a bit), and of course, it's not a 10 minute job like it is on a Honda. Took us a little while, but we got everything back together, seemingly with no leaks, and it's holding coolant properly (so I guess I bled it right). Oh, and it heats up fast now.

AND my MPG's went up. According to the OBC, I was getting about 22.5 MPG on my commute. Reset it and now it tells me 26.1 for the same drive.

Rock on.

[Beej]

Dig the Oxford Green to the max. :thumbup:

Since they're both kinda in the same cheapcomfy market, how's it compare as a DD to the e34?

[Jake]

Dig the Oxford Green to the max. :thumbup:

Since they're both kinda in the same cheapcomfy market, how's it compare as a DD to the e34?

Thanks, it's growing on me

I like it better than my E34 as a daily. Notice I said "my." The M30 motor in my 535i was super old-school and got 17 mpg everywhere I went. It was kind of clattery. Driving an M30-equipped E34 feels like driving an E30 that's bigger, with more leather and wood everywhere. Same "scrappy" characteristics. If you've driven an E30, you'll get it.

My E34 also had the "comfort" seats which are sized for American rear ends (i.e. big, i.e. not mine). The sport seats on the E36 fit my body better. The M50 motor gets far better MPGs (26 commuting, 30+ highway) and drives so differently. The car is more nimble and fun on the day-to-day drives.

For pure highway, the E34 has it. I bought it thinking I'd drive the Miata more, but with the coilovers making it so rough (and the overall cramped nature of a Miata...) I spent a lot more time in the E34. And it wasn't as fun as I'd hoped, even with the 5-speed and LSD. The E36 has been plenty entertaining for a commute, does better on gas, and while only four model years newer, was designed as part of the 'next generation' beyond the E30/E34/E32 cars, so it feels way newer.

Having driven E34's with the M50 I6 and the M60 V8, they both behave worlds newer than the M30 cars.

[Jake]

Lemme tell you all a funny story. It's not really that funny.

So I went for state inspection last Saturday, because it expired in March and suddenly it wasn't March anymore. Whoops. Took it to "Mr. Tire" at the end of Monument and 29, because they are very close to our apartment (this is key for a few paragraphs from now). Dudebro said everything looked great, except my front tires were down to 1/32nd. State law says 3 is safe. Earned myself a big ol' fail.

Asked the inspector if I could bring the car back with different front wheels/tires that would pass, and if he cared about mis-matched sizes of things. He said nope, so long as tread was good I would get the sticker.

So I call my buddy Rodrigo, who is perpetually owning kinda ratty E34s, and ask if he has any spare wheels I could borrow for oh, an hour. He comes over with two spares from his old and current E34s. They are 15's, with ancient tires (never used though, so full tread) that are most certainly dry-rotted. The wheels don't quite fit on the E36... wrong offset... but they'll do.

While Rodrigo was on his way over, I decided, "self, it's a great time for a quick oil change!" and started working on that. The drain bolt wasn't coming out though, just spinning in place. Now, anyone with a brain would have found a flathead screwdriver, applied some pressure to get it on the threads, and backed the bolt out. I looked at David, said "gimme my impact!" and impacted that bitch off of the oil pan. Except I only impacted the head of the bolt, and the body of it stayed firmly in said oil pan.



As I began to enter "aw-fuck-I-gotta-order-an-oil-pan-maybe" mode, Joey informed me that the drain bolt is hollow and designed to break as it does for just this reason. Thankfully, we have a "stuck screw back-out kit" or whatever it's called, and Joey was able to get the bolt out in a few minutes. Quick trip to BMW of Fairfax for a new bolt/crush washer and we were in bidness. Except now it was too late to get re-inspected with my muddin' tires up front.

I left the correct wheels on the car and went to an early dinner with Rodrigo and Joey, at which Rodrigo bought us margaritas as a thank-you for all the help we've provided on his E34. This was at 5.

I then showered and left to pick a friend up, with the goal of meeting others in Clarendon for some dranks and crappy Top-40 music. This was at 9. He lives over near Tysons, and I near Fairfax, so I didn't want to take 495 and perhaps get stuck in traffic. Took a back way through Vienna, was looking for the street to make my next turn on, and neglected to notice I was going 40 in a 25.

A nice officer of the law, however, kindly informed me that I was doing such. He also asked about the failed inspection sticker - and was nice to inform me that A) I should not drive on it and B) he wouldn't ticket me for it. He also gave me directions to my friend's place, which were very helpful. As he's giving me my license/registration back, he goes, "now are you sure you can make it to your friend's house?"

"Um... yeah, I think so! You gave me really good directions, and I know where I am once I'm in Tysons, so I should be okay."

"No, I mean... your eyes are bloodshot and I can smell alcohol on your breath. I'm not gonna do all the tests, but have you been drinking?"

At this point in my head, I was like "ohwhatthefuck"

"Well sir, I had two drinks at dinner, but that was at 5... I'm on some medication that really dehydrates me, and I have awful allergies though, so the redness is probably from that."

He let me go, and I was in NO way inebriated. The smell was probably because oh, I dunno, tequila smells pretty strong. I couldn't smell or taste it four hours later, though.

Anyway, I put the muddin' tires on the car on Sunday:



Took it Monday morning for re-inspection, got my sticker, and promptly put the other wheels back on. But I have more tread up front now, so it's set up for oversteer. I dislike the wheels on the car, so I won't buy new rubber for two of them. Thus, the hunt for wheels with decent tires on them begins.

</saga>

Oh, and I think my front shocks are blown and I need new mounts. Whoop de freakin' do. I'll get to it soon. Maybe.

[CaptainHenreh]

Go buy a lotto ticket.

[JustinG]

seriously.....nicest cop ever.

Or it was a shift change and he didnt want to deal will all the BS paperwork for 3 tickets.

[Jake]

I mean, I think he could tell that I was legitimately new to the area (hadn't driven through that part of Vienna before) and felt bad enough he had to give me a speeding ticket. The DUI thing was a BS claim, and I would have passed the sobriety tests and car search sooo that was a non-issue.

As far as the inspection sticker, I told him I was a car guy and it was front tires, barely failed, and I had others ready to go on and be re-inspected on Monday morning before work. So I guess he was nice there. I dunno.

[Kaan]

vienna cop + speeding + admitting to consuming ANY alcohol EVER? you do need a lotto ticket

[V1GiLaNtE]

You're one lucky sonovabitch...

[B1MM3R]

Im not big on green but I do like that oxford...nice find.

[Jake]

Sooo we lost some project posts. Guess I need to do a quick rundown of what's happened since April.

She's been tracked and pressed into duty as the NASA Taxi:



Got some new shoes, front and rear. Kumho Ecsta AST/ASX, I forget which is on which axle. Needed spacers to clear the front struts for some reason, so there are ECS 10mm spacers with longer bolts on the front end.



Got Performance Friction Z-Rated pads on the front, so I wouldn't crash on track. They are great on the street too, nice and quiet.

Still needs new tie rods, which I have in my garage. I think they will be going on next weekend, along with an alignment.

Oh, and the headliner is finally starting to sag and it's kinda awful looking. So I guess I'll do that too. The one door lock doesn't work with the central locking (guessing it's the actuator, still don't care) and the window tint is starting to peel, so I might have that re-done.

The BMW keyless entry system that I put in a few months back (thank you Mike D!) works flawlessly.

[Jake]

Gather 'round, children, for a brief tale as to why my career will never change paths to that of an alignment technician.

I replaced the tie rods on Saturday. Very easy job on the E36... I had never done tie rods before, and it was pretty self-explanatory. So, I pulled the old ones out, and attempted to measure the length of the old tie rod to compare to the new one. Did that on both sides, got them to what I thought looked good (well, good enough to get down the road), and headed off to the alignment shop.

This was "straight ahead, captain" on the way to the shop:



The car drove "fine" -- as in, I didn't die in a fire on the way to the shop.

Left the keys with them, got Chipotle while they worked, and walked back over. "Sir, has the car had any front end work done recently?"

"Why yes, it has, I did tie rods about, um, an hour ago. Why?"

"Oh good, because this alignment is WAY out."

Stock toe setting on an E36 non-M is 0.9°. My passenger wheel was something like 1.2° (NotBad.jpg). My driver's wheel, though?

3.3° of toe.

Oops.

The alignment guy was this Puerto Rican man who could tell I was a DIY-er/enthusiast/dumbass, and was showing me all the things he was doing to align the car in the shop.

"Is good that joo brought de car to us now, becos joo go anoder 5 mile on dese tires, you hab problem. Joo go anoder 10 mile, tires worthless."

He also pointed out my front balljoints to me... the driver's side balljoint is pretty bad. Passenger side is "okay" but they both need replacing. So, I just ordered new LCAs with balljoints, as well as new brackets with new bushings pre-pressed. Shouldn't be too hard to pop everything in. I figure I should have it done before I go to VIR in October... whargabbling down the track is not my idea of a good time.