E36 M3 buying advice

Hey there darren,

By the age of the car your looking for i take it your after a m3 evo version (3.2lt) They have Vanos problems with them and a servey on another forum site had results of 40% of these cars having this problem. You can tell if its gone by reving the car up for 3k and letting it settle. It sounds like a marble in a tin can rattling. The thing is it cost 1500 to get fixed. So if you really want an evo spec then get it from a dealer and make sure the vanos is covered.

Hope this helps

Darren (senny)

Darren,

           Senny is right about the vanos units, had mine done under warranty before I sold the car, total bill was over 2k. You either need to buy the car from a dealer, ( at a premium ) and make sure the warranty covers for such things as vanos units, buy one private with proof of work already done, or maybe allow for this in your purchase price. Finally, whatever you decide to do have the car checked independently, I've got to know the guy at my main dealers that service and repair all the M cars, he will do a thorough and fair inspection on any future car I buy, peace of mind. This might entail travelling some distance from where you buy the car to where you want it inspected, but if the seller is genuine he should not object, if they do object walk away??.

            AS regards price, there are a lot of these out there at the moment, scan the internet sights, autotrader is a good one, so you can get a good idea of what you should be paying, and go look at as many as you can to get a good idea of the standard of car thats out there.

             Hope this has helped and not confused you, good luck and keep us posted.

                steve. (looking for E30 M3 chaps )

John

I'm currently running a Fiesta Zetec S as a private car and an Astra SRi as a company car. I bought the Fiesta for the purpose of keeping insurance costs down three years ago. It's a fun car, as long as there are no straights around! I'm now after a car from a quality mark with plenty of performance for the odd track day.

What are peoples opinions on the Sequential manual gearboxes fitted to M3 Evos?

Darren

Darren,

          Good section on E36 M3's in august edition of BMW car mag (2001), you might be able to access this online at www.bmwcar.co.uk good luck.

                                                                               steve.

Hi Folks

I've been test driving a few more M3s this weekend. I have driven a few dog, and one or two great cars. However, one car in particular seems very good. It's an 1998 E36 Evo coupe with 51,000 miles on the clock. It drove like a dream! However, i thought that the clutch pedal seemed a bit high off the floor in relation to the foot rest. Is this normal in these cars, or i it something that I can have adjusted?

Cheers!

Darren

51000 miles on a 98 is sweet mate, just beware that it'll be looking at an inspection II in the next 8000 miles, which can be costly. Nice miles though! :-)

Can't helpyou with the clutch pedal question, but I'm sure you can have them adjusted. See when you drove you first M3, did you not feel as if the pedals were a bit over to the right, feeling odd? Or maybe I was just used to the Honda!

Bairn

its around 1.5k

darren

Why do you think so many people favour the Evo despite the potential problems? Later models with less miles? Can i ask at what revs the M3 makes it's 286bhp?

How much torque?

Newbies