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Any Beemer gurus here? All fixed and almost road ready.

tRustyK5

tRustyK5

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Been looking for a decent DD for a while, and ran across a little '96 E36 2dr that looked damn decent. Gave it a good look over and nothing raised any flags for me, so I pulled the trigger. Bought it for $2000.

Obviously I bought it "As is, where is".

I got maybe a 1/4 mile down the road, and this car is just downright spooky to drive. I did get it home, but holy crap it's easily the scariest car I've driven to date. It feels like the rear of the car is all over the place, especially transitioning on and off the gas. More speed is more bad.

I had a look at the rear tires when I got home and they're toed in about an inch. That is my best guesstimate standing at the rear tire and looking straight down. That explains the spooky handling. I obviously need to get it jacked up and see what I can see.

I'm curious if there are any common reasons for it to be toed in that bad in the rear? No damage to the car, no recent paint work and rust wise it has a couple of very small surface areas on the exterior, I don't get the impression it's rotted out underneath...but I have yet to slide under there. I just picked up a Haynes manual for it.

I'll chuck a pic or two up in a few minutes. I don't think I did bad regardless...just kind of annoyed at the moment.
 
Pics

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Im not a BMW guru, but have worked on a handful over the years.

ALL BMWs go through tires. They run a lot of camber and soft bushing around the whole car to absorb the road.So a irs, rwd car with negative camber and soft bushings will naturally wear out tires.

The front is just as bad and they seem to eat inner tie rod ends, ball joints and control arm bushings.

They stop excellent but at the expense of pads and rotors every brake job......and lots of dust

When working well they are fun cars and very cool looking (IMO) but have their share of leaks, vacuume leaks, misfire problems, driveshaft and suspension whoes.

In the end I thing it just depends what is acceptable to you.

Ive followed your posts before and your a tech. You wil learn to like it or it will piss you off.
 
I'll probably like it...

Like I mentioned, the rears are seriously toed in, not negative camber. Gonna get the heater fired up and have a better look I guess.

It does have a misfire at idle too...but other than that runs great and has plenty of power. First is to get it going down the road nicely.
 
I thinkj Dhcomp has a car similar to that... might wanna check with him and see what he has to say
 
With rear toed in and negaitive camber on the drive wheels is a tire wearing nightmare.

I think rear spec is around -1.5 camber or so.
 
Ever done an alignment on one of those? I'm not seeing anything that grabs my attention under there, it's not rusted or anything...what would cause so much toe in on the rears? I did find one shock is blown out.
 
I had the euro spec of that same model when I lived in Germany...the 1.8 motor is a great little runner, and excellent mpg as well. Get an M rear spoiler and call it good.

I'd say a good score for the $$
 
you got your garage cleaned out!!!!!

Looks like a good deal...if the body is pretty sound, I think it worth putting some $$$ into to make it right.

Good show Rene'
 
Alignments suck on those. Been a while since I've done one.

But check the bushing real well for slop.

I dont remember 100% but there may be a knock out for the rear toe adjustment at the trailing arms
 
I'd say you did pretty well for the dollar! Put a few bucks into it to straighten the suspension out (there is always something more than meets the eye with a "good deal" like this one, eh? :doah:) and you should be good to go!
 
Check out these sites for E36 info.

Here is a good forum that has a lot of info on your E36. Make sure to read through the stickies.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=97

PS. Listen to herkdriver007. Almost all of these have rear trailing arm bushings wear out which throw off the toe. Look here for comparison. http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=342420

You also need to closely inspect your rear shock mounts because they will fail.

As someone else mentioned, check your tie rods ends in the front and also have your ball joints checked, front and rear. They can both cause sloppy handling.
 
X3 on trailing arm bushings. My current e46 needed them as well as lower control arms when I bought it. Thing used to follow every crack in the road.

Check your front springs really well too, I had both break at the same time from rust around the base. Luckily my tires escaped...

The cars drive nice, but mine is gone come springtime... But mostly because the wife ok'd a search for a supra:D
 
Rene,

I'd guess bushings too...

It's tough because on an alignment rack everything might look "normal" but under dynamic driving conditions, those alignment specs would be substantially different.

My Mercedes is notorious for rear toe changes under hard acceleration....causes squirmy handling when you want it least. There is an aftermarket kit that replaces the rubber bushings with spherical rod ends to solve it permanently. My guess for your car though is that when you locate the wasted bushings and replace them with stock parts (and get a fresh alignment) the car will feel completely different......and in good way! :)


-G
 
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It will be a fun little car after you fix it.
I wish it was at my place... I'd like to work on it.
 
I've got an E34 (89-95 5 series).

There is a guy on here who is a BMW tech. xCalix maybe? Something like that.

Yes, they go through tires, but the rear end shouldn't be toe'd in. Often times they have negative camber, but not sure the E36 had rear alignment. Don't know much about them.

Definitely check out all the bushings.
 
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