Project Thread - 1997 E36 M3

[Tnhl1989]

Today was the day I finally was able to title and register my 1997 BMW M3 that has been sitting since 2017. This was a barn find and due to particular events it will finally hit the streets again. For the time being a few photos of the beginning.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240228/63b5445784de9af400fea86b7c891b5a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240228/076083861e7959a1ba0909fa22feeb90.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240228/79d151145c4baafe7694bd1175b1c90f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240228/188dd296987ba8c889678a22743864d9.jpg
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[cakM3]

That's a nice find Tony! Looking forward to seeing progress on this M3 :thumbsup

[Tnhl1989]

At my previous job at BMW, a woman came in to buy a station wagon. She also asked if we could do anything with a car that she didn't have a title for. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything with it, as it was going to the scrap yard anyway. I offered to purchase the car from her and when I arrived to pick it up, she gave me more information about the vehicle. It turned out that it had belonged to her previous husband, who had passed away in 2005. This was in 2017, so the car had been sitting unused for about 12 years. When I saw the car in person, I noticed that it had stickers for New York inspection and registration on the window. However, the owner had the car in Massachusetts and there were no tags or registration in the car. Despite this, I decided to buy the car for $500 and towed it home. The car had a lot of mouse poop and mold on the inside which I didn't document at all however did do a decent job at cleaning it up prior trying to get it to run. Over time, my personal circumstances changed and I moved to California before returning to Massachusetts at the end of 2022. I spent some time trying to figure out if I could get the car registered in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New York. However, I was unable to find any information about the car in any of these states. I even looked into the Vermont loophole, but it had been closed down the previous year. I went to the DMV, but they weren't able to help me either. Eventually, I tried to get a bonded title for Massachusetts, which seemed like the only option left. After sending in all the necessary documents and waiting for 35 days, I was contacted via email and asked to pay sales tax and a title fee. I was happy to do so and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the title was a clear title rather than a bonded title. Overall, the car was valued at around $1000 to the RMV, so I only had to pay tax and a late fee, which came out to a total of $66.53. It was a long process, but I think it was totally worth it in the end. Now time to start the rebuild.

Here is the first clip of it running on Feb 2nd of 2018. Also you can tell there was a lot of mold in the car as well. Of course I spent a good amount of time wiping everything down and cleaning up the car afterwards.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4tEXRXe15426gekq9

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[Oli77]

I admire your dedication and ability to tackle what to me, would be a really challenging task (I never worked at BMW, perhaps that is why).
Anyway, nice to see a build thread come to life!
I'll be looking....

[fredo]

Great story! I love it.

[slater]

cool story! so the car has effectively been sitting for 19 years. damn. how many miles does it have on it?

[Tnhl1989]

cool story! so the car has effectively been sitting for 19 years. damn. how many miles does it have on it?Titled and registered at 139309 :)

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[Tnhl1989]

Will be adding this project to the car to get a more oem look for the vdo continental tr7412ub-or replacement (https://imgur.com/a/TCCy32R) stereo deck.

I have already installed the vdo however the lighting is way too bright and orange compared to the redish hue of the oem.

Leaving these links here for VDO Continental LED FIX

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/e30-technical-forums/car-audio-electronics/381595-e30-era-correct-stereo-recommendations-needed/page2
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/24/simple-hack-creates-an-inverted-watch-display/
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/sunled/XLM2MOK11W/4901619
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lite-on-inc/LTST-C194KFKT/2356228
https://imgur.com/a/TCCy32R
https://www.reddit.com/r/E30/comments/9h5pob/review_continental_tr7412ubor/

90 degree polarizing filter



You invert the display by peeling off the top polarizing filter, and installing that new one rotated 90 degrees relative to the how the original one was installed. You have to buy a new 180 degree polarizing filter for LCDs, ebay or amazon has them.

Just like this: https://hackaday.com/2014/04/24/simple-hack-creates-an-inverted-watch-display/

For the LEDs, I simply desoldered the original ones on the face plate PCB, and installed new ones that I bought from digikey. I do not recall the part numbers. I just looked for 0603 surface mount 605nm color LEDs for the buttons, and two 5mm 605nm color LEDs for the display.

I picked the brightest LEDs at 5mA test current for the 0603 sized LEDs, and the brightest LEDs at 20mA test current for the 3mm LEDs. Digikey.com lets you search by color, size and brightness pretty easily.

You have some small margin to adjust the brightness too. All of the LEDs have a series bias resistor, which you can adjust up or down in value by +/-20% or so if needed. To find which resistor controls which LED, just follow the traces on the PCB.


If you don't have surface mount soldering experience, I do not recommend changing the button LEDs. They're quite difficult to replace because the traces are very large, and the 0603 LEDs are quite small, with very small pads.

If you're really not feeling confident you can PM me, I might consider some sort of service.

Edit:

Here is what I actually used for LEDs.

Display: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/sunled/XLM2MOK11W/1497-1262-ND/4901619
Buttons: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/lite-on-inc/LTST-C194KFKT/160-1833-1-ND/2356228







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Also picked up a used UUC System U DTM tips Gen 3 Exhaust (https://store.uucmotorwerks.com/systemu-exhaust-for-92-99-e36-3-series---dtm-tips---generation-3-p44.aspx) to replace the oem M3 one.

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[BMWCurves]

Nice! Will follow along vicariously

[Tnhl1989]

I had the opportunity to check out the M3 yesterday to find out a few things that I thought were done back in 2019 but wasn't. So while I was in California and my brother wanted to move the car around and have some fun with it, it turned out it was having a hard time starting. At the time I thought maybe we should just do a EWS delete on the DME and that way it shouldn't have any issues. We ordered the delete through EBAY and got it back. He did everything as instructed and yesterday when I went to check the glovebox and stuff I noticed a few wires that were strange. I realized that maybe he never actually bypass the EWS and it was still connected. It turned out it was barely connected as he left the wires as in the photo.

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I then contacted the seller and asked him if that was correct and he told me that I have to disconnect the ews module and tie the wires together which then I proceeded and everything seemed to fix any issues with the car cranking. I will probably revisit this at some other point to see what else I can do however its nice to know that the car will always crank now.

Secondly not sure if anyone is familiar with the E36 however I have a random connect on the left of the EWS module and a coax cable that I am not familiar with. Does anyone have any idea what they are for?

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[Tnhl1989]

Sometime back in 2019, my brother helped out with getting the car running so it would be able to move around the property. We diagnosis some of the issues with bad rubber and he was able to replace them. The intake boot, a hose under the intake, fuel pump and fuel filter were replaced. Slowly but surely we will get this thing back to spec.

[Tnhl1989]

Pretty big update with overhauling the struts and shocks of the M3 yesterday. I had bought a set of used E36 Turner Motorsport H-Stock/I-Stock Suspension which to my surprise was a great amount of firmness and really gave the car new life compared to the original oem stocks that were on the car.

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(https://web.archive.org/web/20081203022713/http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=E36TMSISTOCK)
Of course when I started taking things apart that's when you find out what the car has been through. As I took the rears of first since they were easier to do I found out the right rear had some damage to the top strut mounting point. I'll have to come back to address that at a later time. While taking off the left rear part of the spring was broken and that may have been a factor why the right side was damage. Due to the age of the car everything was a tad rusted so the tie rods were a pain to take apart. I ended up finding an angle grinder and cut them off before wrapping up the install.

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Overall happy with the results. I also did get a set of replica contours 16" however with the tire profiles on there currently I don't think it would work so will have to change out the tires. Now time to chase down vacuum leaks and idle so I can get a inspection sticker.

[fredo]

:like

[Oli77]

Great update indeed. That should a smile on your face.

[Tnhl1989]

Yes totally! Once I get it running normally and doesn't die out on me it will be super nice. At the same time I'm looking into the rear strut area having to be fixed.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1283649-DIY-Rear-Shock-Absorber-Support-Replacement
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1429052-DIY-Torn-Rear-Shock-Tower-Repair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVzoE98ZJeY

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Some information regarding the rear strut tower fix above.

Part needed -
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-support-for-shock-absorber-right-41148169028
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-shock-mount-reinforcement-fcp-euro-b3300044

[Tnhl1989]

145379 miles oil change

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