charles28

I personally have a 1997 Facelift 320i auto, jap import, but the main reason i purchased it was because I got it for $5k. which at the time was bloody good value.. (still is now i guess, but k's are upto 137,000k now). This is my 1st BMW, I used to always have Jappas, but my last car (a Golf GTI) got me into Euro cars. Fuel Economy Wise, its not that economical around town, I get about 200ks from $40 (which is about 24litres) so 8km's per Litre of fuel basically. On the open road its totally differn't, on an average trip i'll get 15kms per litre, i think the main reason for this is that the lockup torque converter kicks in at open road speeds, the RPM at 100km is just under 2500rpm, which is good for a 2litre engine. Around town the car is a bit of a slug, unless you put it in sports mode, turn the ASC off and put your foot down alot. Handling wise the car performs ok, however mine doesn't have supportive m-sport seats, so you tend to fall out of your seat on hard cornering.. the stock brakes are fairly responsive even by todays standards (imo). Now i'm hooked on BMW's, but my next one with have a manual transmission and some more power.. I'll probably keep this one for years as my missus loves driving it.

Hehe.. mmm my 1986 Mitsi Sigma GSR had rain sensing wipers too..... they have been around for a while..

Hi Guys, I'm wondering if I can possibily install a 3litre V8 engine from a mid 90's 730i BMW into my 1997 320i, this would give me better fuel economy than the stock 150hp 2litre straight 6 as the engine wouldn't have to work very hard to carry the E36 chassis around. (and I get the added bonus of a V8 Soundtrack) Has anyone performed a conversion like this before? I would keep the transmission auto, but i'd assume that I would need to use a 7 Series transmission anyway.. What other engines should I consider for this conversion? I thought of the 730i engine due to only being 3L but still having the V8 sound. Cheers

I just tried that Vin Decoder and got the following... I was wondering if this info is correct? as Its a Jap Import BMW, i was told that the transmission is some Japanese type. Are Jap Import E36's assembled in Germany? thanks. Chassis number AM94689 Vehicle code CB62 Series E36 Model 320i ( 320i M52 ) Body type saloon Catalog model ECE Production date 1997 / 04 Engine M52 Transmission Automatic Steering Right Catalyzer YES Production FROM : 1995/09/01 TO : 1997/08/31 Engine M52 Engine Oil 6.50 Liter Transmission Automatic Transmission Model A5S 310Z Transmission Oil 9.60 Liter Rear Axle Oil 1.10 Liter Coolant(w/o Air Conditioner) 10.00 Liter Coolant(with Air Conditioner) 10.00 Liter Brake fluid 1.00 Liter Remarks : Automatic transmission: lifetime oil filing

I ended up getting Firestone Firehawk TZ100's, they seem to be good enough for the 320i e36 that i have.

Heya, has the problem come back or is it all good now? mine does the same thing, also a 1997 320i like yours.

I have thought about trading it on a manual 325i, havn't driven one, how much faster would it be? annoyingly it will cost a good 12k to get one thats older than the one I got for $5k.. but I guess you pay the price for a manual due to being rarer in NZ

Heya Guys, This is my 1st BMW, I have owned it for about 3 months now, its got the 5 speed auto, seems to be a face lift model as the auto trans lever is a knob instead of a T-Bar. The car runs well, and seems to have good power on the open road, but around town shes a bit laggy. I got it cheap at $5000, was a dealer trade in, 135,000ks on the clock. is there any basic performance mods I could do to get it moving quicker off the mark? I assume the stock 0-100 time is a good 10 seconds.. although I havn't bothered timing it.

Hey guys, I am trying to install my Sony MP3 headunit into my car. I have a wire conversion harness to go from BMW wiring loom to the Sony one aswell as an Aerial Adapter cable, however there is this small connector cable with AMP written on it thats going into the factory head unit (its not the usual RCA type connector, and theres only one of them), does this mean I have a factory amp somewhere in the car? if this is so.. then will I be able to connect my headunit to the normal part of the loom and just leave that amp wire unattached? (and run the speakers from my headunit) or will there be a host of problems?

When I drive my car around town, eventually it warms up and the temp needle reaches 1/2 way.. however tonight i took it on the open road.. and the temp hardly moved above the Start. wasn't even 1/4 of the way.. this resulted in the heater not producing much heat (annoying when its freezing cold) I'm assuming the problem is with the Thermostat, it must be letting the coolant go around the radiator all of the time.. this would explain why it didn't heat up much at all on the open road I assume? So my next question is, how much is a new thermostat, where can I buy one in Christchurch? and is it hard to fit myself? (I can do basic work on cars, like changing sparkplugs, oil, filter etc). Cheers

yeap its an E36, i'll give it a go. thanks

Hey guys, At random times i get 3 beep tones, but theres no warning lights or anything like that.. what could this be? Thanks its just a BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP.