Just joined and recently purchased a 1998 e36 M3. I adore the car and want to take the up most care for it. I'm still new to this world but would greatly appreciate some guidance and suggestions. I am currently living in New Orleans but will be making my move to Houston for a New job. If anyone on here has some suggestions on some respectable service/restoration shops in the Houston area that would be fantastic!. I look forward to getting my feet in and hopefully meeting some amazing BMW enthusiast! Thanks again guys! -Andrew Rothenberg
Welcome to the club & forums! See the pinned post here in Member Introductions for ways to search out a service shop - I think E36's are pretty robust vehicles, although dealing with interior upholstery & headliner degradation can be a nuisance issue. Google up info on chassis reinforcement, I don't think it's universal, but it's not unheard-of for E36's to suffer chassis metal fatigue and tearing in the subframe attachment areas. See drvanos.com for vanos info. Plastics aging/failure can always be an issue - if you're going to keep it for a long time, an all-aluminum radiator, even if expensive, should preclude the pre-emptive every-60k radiator replacements (upper plastic neck on the stockradiators inevitably always fails - cracks/breaks, &, ta-da, catastrophic coolant leak). See: http://www.zionsvilleautosport.com/store/bmw-cooling-solutions/ If you google BMW E36 problems &/or issues, you should find a whole bunch of info.
Welcome and congrats on the e36 M3 I would see if you can get in touch with your Houston chapter to see if they have any advise on what repair shops to use and to stay away from.
Thank you some much for the suggestion, l'll look into the radiator replacement. I believe the previous owner just replaced it, but I will have to look at all the service receipts to verify that. How much do they usually run for? the aluminum replacements?
Not sure, but, not cheap, although it's a more-permanent fix - the zionsville website link in above reply shows prices. If the current radiator is new, you should be good for awhile - not a bad idea to replace a stock rad. after 5-6 yrs. or 60k.
