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Thanks @qube, odd mine came with my mesh in it in the first place if it was an M3 thing. Helpful to know it's one less thing to worry about when I keep hunting to one in good condition, that's the right colour.

I made a mess of under side of my front bumper on my E36 318ti which has the M-Sport kit on it. Been looking to pick up a replacement but it seems there's two specs? One has a mesh style and the other has fins in the centre. Images here: Couple of questions, different specs? Will both fit? or are they part of different 'body kits' I saw something to suggest one is "AC style" (presumably ac schnitzer?) My own digging suggestions that that the mesh or fins are just an insert (I'd love to look on my but the mesh section is now missing) and that both could be interchangeable? Looking at images alone makes it look like the grill and lower section under the headlights are the same, unsure though. It doesn't look like an age thing as I've seen both styles on the same year of car.

Both resigned 'multi year' contracts last year. They'll end up keeping both, there isn't anywhere for them to go and who could realistically replace them (and is available)? Still voted for Hamilton though, as if there one to keep it'd have to be him, proven he can do it and the kicking he got from Rosberg when all his partying got to him will surely motivate him to refocus for next year.

Welcome Barry!

Thanks Glenn, looks like it's in an even more awkward spot where you've got dismantle stuff in the engine bay to reach them?

Cheers, having not had a car since arriving in NZ didn't even know there was a supercheap near Wellington! - I'll be ordering one asap, this car needs some love. I daren't look at the filter atm but I know it's going to of never been changed, at least since the last family owned it.

Looking to get a replacement one and can't seem to find any in NZ. Does anyone have any ideas of where I could get one at a reasonable price? Cheers

I may of misunderstood what I was looking at. I honestly don't know now as it appears to come on fine when I switch on the AC, and it didn't before. - I question my attempt my bypassing the switch actually worked now too.

Took it to the garage today, they were able to find a leak on around the thermostat housing, seemed like at the right temp the gasket wasn't working and leaking out water as he said there wasn't any water left in the engine? Which is supposedly why he thinks that when I tried to get the fan to turn on, because it couldn't see that the rad was too hot due to no water it wasn't kicking the fan on? - Car had new water pump put in by previous owner when the garage diagnosed the water pump to be faulty, he reckons that this was wrong and that there most likely wasn't anything wrong with the pump, the car was just leaking out water and then overheating. I guess I'll have to wait and see, it ran OK and a short burst today but will give it a harder drive over the weekend.

Replacement fan it is then! - Fuses were all fine. Fair point, didn't even think about that! If the fan is stuck in place and can't move (gave it as much force as I felt I could w/o damaging it) I wonder if the relay is the problem? - Sadly it's gone dark now and won't get to look at it again until tomorrow. Thanks for suggesting though, common sense went a miss for me there!

No, no it does not move freely at all. Should it move freely? Thanks for the suggestion Brent, sadly I do not have a 12v power supply to test this with. - I'm wondering if what Kelvin said has any bearing on why it isn't working when I try and bridge connections on the fan switch connector?

Tried to test to get the fan turn on without the switch and wasn't able to 'jump' it by bridging connections like this guy did: Fuse looked fine so I'm a little bit at a loss as to why the fan won't turn on. - Does that mean something more sinister in the harness? Perhaps I did a poor job of trying to bridge connections.

Started it up, no odd noises seemed OK. Took about 3-4 mins for it to 'warm up' till temp gauge was sitting the middle at 12'clock and then stayed steady for another 5 minutes before I turned it off. - Fingers crossed that means it's not something like a head gasket. At no point did the aux fan come on despite it reaching temp, also flicked on AC briefly whilst it was still warming up and that did not kick the fan on, although I didn't leave the AC running for very long at all. I'm thinking I need to find a way to test that switch.

Thanks Brent. I had a go yesterday evening at testing the fan, but didn't turn the car over out of sheer fear of what happened with it yesterday. I'd read that if the AC is on the fan should come on straight away, which it did not. Also you can apparently bridge connections across the fan switch connector, didn't have any luck there either (although I suspect using a crappy single piece of wire wasn't enough) If it's been ran hot before and head gasket or head is cracked I imagine that I need to take the whole thing apart to see that right? (definitely out of my skill set)

A friend offline is suggesting things too and they're guessing it's the thermostat and should just remove that it and see how it goes, does that sound like a reasonable suggestion? As I've said, my knowledge is limited so wanted to double check before I do thing

I've just taken a quick look, car is in covered parking so light still isn't that great but checked coolant and it's still the halfway point it was on Wednesday? Couldn't see any obvious signs of leaks (or what I could tell were) the belts and pipes I could get a hand too still looked intact and tight. I have very limited to skills so whilst I know I could confidently take some parts off I fear I'd never get them back on again so haven't attempted at taking anything off. Whereabouts in the bay would photos be help? I'm not that knowledgeable on where everything is.

That's a very good point and not something I'd considered! I do have some receipts for work done this year to suggest that two new fan belts were fitted, there was a comment in there about the a/c belt showing signs of cracking. Is there another belt that I should be looking at? Thanks for your comments guys, the more I know the hopefully easier it'll be to know what's gone wrong. Be interested to know if my observation about the fan holds up.

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind when I check coolant levels and oil tomorrow.

This is a big thing for me to consider as I don't have the tools or experience to do it myself. That's why I'd been seeking advice how I could check things along the way. Water pump was replaced and the thermostat and rad fan were checked in September. Took the car in for a service last week when I got the crankcase seal replaced (after having had the oil filter checked) and I did asked for him to check whatever he could in terms of cooling system, specifically those plastic tubes/pipes. Which apparently looked OK. I guess I'll just have to take it to the garage and pray they don't fleece me if it's that extreme. --- On a side note, garage is like 1km away. If coolant is topped up is it safe to nurse down to the garage?

Thanks for the reply Charlie, never had a car overheat so don't even know what to expect. I was told by the garage who did the service where to fill coolant too if I needed to fill it, at the time he showed me it was at the line that was approx half way up. I think it still had coolant (questionable how much) whilst I was limping it back home because it was only once I stopped that I was able to notice that it was leaking out of the bottom of the car. Just went to have a look at it, the engine is still fairly warm to the touch so I think I'm going to have to leave it until the morning now to check on oil and coolant. (guessing no coolant left). I don't have any kits or tools to test compressions sadly. I did a bit of reading to find out about testing aux fan and it supposedly should come on if the ignition is on and the AC is on? this didn't happen for me. Also read something else to suggest I could try and test it by bridging connections across the fan switch connector, I only have one weedy bit of wire which didn't seem to do anything so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find a shop open to grab some wire to test that. Any other suggestions for how I could test the aux fan? Curiously something I hadn't noticed (mostly because I've not had the bonnet up with just the ignition on) there is a terrible whine/buzz which I'm guesing is from the alternator. Normal? One thing I forgot to add, when i first turned parked the car up after it overheated there was a bit of a knocking noise (not like engine knocking but something similar?) I could hear from under the bonnet whilst I was still inside the car. The ironic thing for me is, ran OK in similar temps last weekend when I took it for a 70km spin (very little to no traffic though) however yesterday I bought breakdown cover and today I picked up some coolant. Now it overheats!

Just bought my car last weekend, took it for first proper extended drive (about 200km) over highways and hilly roads, all was going well until I was driving back in the city and in traffic temp gauge quickly shot up in to the red and could see steam coming out of the front of the bonnet. This was about 1 min away from my house so limp it home. (writing this now, in hindsight probably not the best choice) Now it's stopped, I'm waiting for it to cool down to take a look at it. Something is leaking out of the bottom, looks like water or coolant. Has anyone got any suggestions of my first things to check or do? I annoyingly didn't check coolant before I left this morning but it was only in for a service on Weds so had everything topped up so assume there's something else going on. edit/ I'll most likely take it to a garage on Monday but was thinking what can do I check or do in the mean time? Cheers

PM'd you, I do need them after all. Secondhand ones gave up after 2 days lol.

Anyone know a part number or where to find one of these filters?

Well, turns out I may of spoken too soon, maybe they're temperamental to the weather but now it's slightly colder they don't work anywhere near as well as they did on Sun/Mon. Where abouts are you based?

Very good point! Any idea if fuse box is the same across all E36s? I'm guessing so. http://www.bimmerwerkz.com/forum/attachments/3-series-e36/29864d1315673496-1994-325i-english-fuse-diagram-wanted-e36-325i-fuse-relay-diagram.jpg