Tunst's Fern Green E36 M3 Cabriolet

[Tunst]

Bought this a few days ago, not in the circumstances id have liked but anyway its mine!


So Details...

BMW M3 3.2 Evo
Fern Green
Currently Sitting on 57,000 Miles
Full Grey Leather Interior
Convertible
NO RUST!
Been off the Road since 2011, Stored in a garage, previous to that it done 700 Miles in 2 years!
Obviously No Tax or Test


Only Pictures of the car I have atm are these..

Hopefully il be keeping this for a while, that is unless someone comes with a wad of cash

So Today's progress! No pics unfortunately..


First up the steering was a bit vague to say the least, once I got it up on the lift, moved a few things about and found the TCA bushes were worn out! So Ordered up two of those, managed to get one delivered today and the other is coming tomorrow!

Next up was a "Brake Circuit Fault" on the centre console, after checking the bulbs and finding them to be fine off I went to Google, found out the Brake Light Switches are a common fault, so got one on order for tomorrow!

Whilst it was up in the air I checked out the tyres, Passenger front was basically a slick, drivers front wasn't illegal but I changed them both anyway, the rear tyres may need changing soon but iv left them for now...

Once I got all of that out of the way did a quick bulb check to make sure everything was dandy, swapping out 4 white indicators for some shiny new orange ones all was good!

Also you could hear a bit of a tick underneath the car on idle, so got underneath to find the flexy joint in the exhaust manifold is cracked :dapprove: again another common E36 fault, so it will be going to the local exhaust place to have a new/better flexy joint welded in and hopefully that will sort that out!

Now the Possible Unfortunate news...

The engine has A rattle, which i'm 99% sure is coming from the Vanos Which im sure is what is causing the hesitation when accelerating


Future plans

I have no idea right now! Fix it up make it nice get a little bit of use out of it before the bad weather sets in, once thats here it will be going back into the garage till spring/summer!

Again.. Sorry for the lack of pics!

 

[matt_132]

s**t luck with Vanos if it is the case.

Looks really clean!

 

[Tunst]

Yeah its a good clean example, no rust just a few teething issues...

Hopefully its not the vanos but its looking likely tbh no idea what thats going to cost me!

 

[f0xy]

Unplug the Vanos and see if the rattle is still there... also if you have any diag kit you can turn the Vanos solenoid on and off with the car idling, see if the noise comes and goes. Last thing to try is if it has any codes stored like 'Vanos Jammed or Vanos Unresponsive'..

Buy the kit off Besian Systems and rebuild it yourself, there is a full guide on there too. Although you'd need the timing tools. If not send the Vanos unit off to Dr Vanos... most places would probably try to tell you to replace the whole Vanos unit..

 

[Daz.]

This has potential...

 

[jamier27]

Very gentlemanly!

Identical to my mates old one

 

[Nick172Cup]

Looks good! Get that up to scratch and that'll be worth a small fortune!

Whatever you do though, DO NOT TAKE IT TO MR VANOS. The guy gets this massive following on BMW forums however when you speak to the old school guys, they strongly tell you to avoid. Shame as Ive got his old car thinking it was a minter, well maintained example. £7,500 later there's still work that needs doing.... Iridium Engineering is the place to go for Vanos related issues, they think highly of Mr Vanos! Lol

 

[Rob]

Shame on the Vanos mate, keep us updated. But beware, updates without pics are like women with no tits. Pointless.

 

[Lal B3N]

Better keep this, and use it! Much better than the mini or clio

Hope you put proper rubber on it!

This could be epic.

 

[Chi]

Thought I'd subscribed to this and lost track. . Should be a nice project.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

How much you pay for the M3 after buddy?

 

[Tunst]

Haha rob il try to rememer to take pictures!

As for the price id rather not say but it was cheap


Small update...

I fit the new brake light switch earlier and it sorted it for about 5 minutes.. Fault is still there so now il have to strip down the rear lights and check for cracks in the metal citcuits... Either that or its a faulty switch..

Dropped it off for MOT earlier to fingers crossed the old girl passes!

 

[Scrooge]

Awesome car!!

 

[cat171]

I really like it, the colours not bad either!

 

[Tunst]

So she passed her MOT! with advisory on a rear tyre and a brake hose so all in all not bad!


Grabbed a quick video of the rattle it has...



[video]http://s555.photobucket.com/user/iTunst/media/IMG_2248.mp4.htm[/video]

Embed isnt working Also neither is tagging...

 

[Tunst]

@Nick172Cup @Sir_Dave @Jȯrd

​

Hmmm it seems just the previous post it wont let me tag in.

 

[Tunst]

Also found this...

We didnt hpi it, due to the price we got it for, but im suprised haha..

 

[cat171]

Are you going to sell it on now you've found that out?

 

[Tunst]

Not sure, cant see any evidence of previous damage tbh.. Drives great etc...

 

[Rob]

Ouch. Was it still "cheap"?

 

[jenic]

Quite like these, the green suits it.

Must have been a fair bit of damage to write off a 2 year old M3 though!

 

[Tunst]

Quite like these, the green suits it.

Must have been a fair bit of damage to write off a 2 year old M3 though!

Yeah thats my thinking! Its been repaired well because i cant see any evidence of damage anywhere..

 

[Scutch]

Bugger finding that out, Mark. Still, like you say it drives well, it's passed it's MOT etc.

VANOS failure could be extremely costly though, so fingers crossed buddy.

 

[Scrooge]

Cat C could've been stolen and recovered with bits stripped of it at 2years old.

 

[Rob]

Fair point ^^^

 

[Mr R.]

Year's ago the company I was working for repaired an M3 the bill came to £14.5k

The car wasn't that new but they still payed out. The owner lost it on the ice and did lots of damage even had to buy a new set of wheels from BM.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Nice little project! Although a few die hard fans on here would tell you you've made a mistake with the roof.

I wouldn't fret too much on the Vanos, it's not just you. There was an absolutely mint one going near me that had very low mileage. The chap asked a premium and got it. Anyway, the Vanos hadn't been changed and went shortly after...

Probably find like quite a lot of cars at the time it was written off on finance. Was very easy to get quids in back then with insurance fraud. My mates 200SX was written off less than a year old, and you'd never of known otherwise. Car was immaculate.

 

[Tunst]

Not much woth updates tbh...

Been enjoying driving it

But the small things...

New Brake Light Switch

That cured the 'brake light fault' on the centre console..

Then another thing that annoyed me was a headlight washer was missing... So got onto BMW and £54 later I had a new one...

Also the idle was a bit low and it was running a little rough so A new ECU temp sensor was fitted which sorted out the idle and also made it go through the revs alot faster and you can actually feel the Vanos working now!

It also misfired alot so a £60 later a new set of spark plugs were fitting and it got even better :rasp:

Hopefully the snow stays away so i can enjoy it more

 

[matt_132]

With mine, a quick spray clean of the MAF helped a lot with a rough idle. Worth 10 minutes of your time.

 

[Tunst]

With mine, a quick spray clean of the MAF helped a lot with a rough idle. Worth 10 minutes of your time.

Idle is fine now thankfully

But I took it out earlier and it had a bit of a hickup... Hasnt done it since though so have to see what happens..