Some Q regarding 1995 328i E36

[Gordvisr]

Hallo eveyone, as i am fairly new to the brand i have a few questions.

1. I have found that my right front wheel locks up on very hard braking ( had a prick jump a stop ) or on gravel roads, soft braking it lock up too, it has abs, i have no alarms coming up but clearly there must be a problem.

2. The sunroof : how do i service it if id does need it, i love the sunroof and do not want troubles with it in future.

3. I have seen some smoke, the papers and everything i have says the car has done 166XXX km, really cant think that this could be rings, it is when i accelerate though.

4. When on idle and i switch on the aircon there is a sqeek rattle noise, could this be the vanos, this is only on idle and only when aircon is on.

5. The left side mirror looks like it hooked out of the motor adjuster, how do i safely opn this without damaging anything ?

My cab is an Arctic Grey 1995 E36 328i manual.
Love the car too bits, might be an old lady but drives like a new one.

 

[LPM320]

To offer some advice:

1. Locking up upon hard braking is definitely a sign that your ABS is not working. There is usually a tell tale pilot light (orange) in the instrument cluster to alert you to any faults, but many people physically remove this bulb so that the light does not illuminate anymore. The fault will still be there, but all ''appears'' normal. Locking up upon soft braking is not normal at all, and could be an indication that there is a problem in the hydraulic brake circuit.

2. E36 sunroofs are quite robust, but can fail if neglected. If there are any crunching, snapping or slipping noises, and if the sunroof battles to close under its own power, then the sunroof needs attention, preferebly before it leads to bigger issues that will stop the sunroof working altogther. Another area to be checked is the allen key fastners that hold the motor and cable conduit to the sunroof itself, these work loose, and if not tightened leads to the whole assembley working loose and causes the cable to jump of the track and jams the sunroof, often breaking the plastic clips that attach to the tracks. If all is well, then cleaning the tracks and all moving parts of dust and debris and then lubricating with white lithium grease should ensure reliable operation of the sunroof.

3. The smoking could be down to 2 reasons. The PCV (oil breather) system. These gunge up after a while, and prevent oil vapour from draining back into the sump. Oil is therefore forced into the intake and burnt up, causing smoke.
Another reason could be the engine itself. 1995, 1996 and a handful of 1997 models (they used aluminium engines) suffer with an accelerated bore wear issue due to a negative reaction between the Nikasil bore liner and fuel with a high sulphur content. I had a 1996 328i with this same issue, and tried everything under the sun to sort the smoking out and eventually had to accept that the bore was excessively worn. This also started occuring around the 160000km mark. Later model 328i's are safe from this problem by virtue of having cast iron engine blocks instead of alloy. The cast iron blocks are extremely durable with a lifespan of over 350000km+ according to the research that I have done..

4. The squeak you are hearing when switching the A/C on could be coming from the aircon compressor itself when the compressor clutch activates and puts the compressor under load. Signs that the compressor or the pulley could need some attention.

5. Never opened up an e36 mirror before. Google can be your friend here maybe?

Hope this helps.....

 

[Major]

How freely does your front right wheel spin when it's off the ground?

 

[Gordvisr]

To offer some advice:

1. Locking up upon hard braking is definitely a sign that your ABS is not working. There is usually a tell tale pilot light (orange) in the instrument cluster to alert you to any faults, but many people physically remove this bulb so that the light does not illuminate anymore. The fault will still be there, but all ''appears'' normal. Locking up upon soft braking is not normal at all, and could be an indication that there is a problem in the hydraulic brake circuit.

2. E36 sunroofs are quite robust, but can fail if neglected. If there are any crunching, snapping or slipping noises, and if the sunroof battles to close under its own power, then the sunroof needs attention, preferebly before it leads to bigger issues that will stop the sunroof working altogther. Another area to be checked is the allen key fastners that hold the motor and cable conduit to the sunroof itself, these work loose, and if not tightened leads to the whole assembley working loose and causes the cable to jump of the track and jams the sunroof, often breaking the plastic clips that attach to the tracks. If all is well, then cleaning the tracks and all moving parts of dust and debris and then lubricating with white lithium grease should ensure reliable operation of the sunroof.

3. The smoking could be down to 2 reasons. The PCV (oil breather) system. These gunge up after a while, and prevent oil vapour from draining back into the sump. Oil is therefore forced into the intake and burnt up, causing smoke.
Another reason could be the engine itself. 1995, 1996 and a handful of 1997 models (they used aluminium engines) suffer with an accelerated bore wear issue due to a negative reaction between the Nikasil bore liner and fuel with a high sulphur content. I had a 1996 328i with this same issue, and tried everything under the sun to sort the smoking out and eventually had to accept that the bore was excessively worn. This also started occuring around the 160000km mark. Later model 328i's are safe from this problem by virtue of having cast iron engine blocks instead of alloy. The cast iron blocks are extremely durable with a lifespan of over 350000km+ according to the research that I have done..

4. The squeak you are hearing when switching the A/C on could be coming from the aircon compressor itself when the compressor clutch activates and puts the compressor under load. Signs that the compressor or the pulley could need some attention.

5. Never opened up an e36 mirror before. Google can be your friend here maybe?

Hope this helps.....

Thanx for the reply, no the bulb is defenitely still in tact, when switching on the car all lights goes on on the cluster ( testing i assume ) and then go of after a few seconds ( did saw the abs one ). the other wheels does not lock.

Sunroof runs smooth though thanx for the input for servicing it.

i will have a look at the PCV system you refering to, the oil left a lot of carbon build up inside the engine , the oil filter paper was brittle, was last changed in 2012 (date stamp from BMW ) so it might be that it is clogged.

I'm holding thumbs that i do not have to remove the motor for a rebore. Mine has the ally block

---

How freely does your front right wheel spin when it's off the ground?

Have not checked this yet but will do. what affect will that have on the ABS ?

 

[Major]

I wouldn't jump to ABS being the issue. There's a few things it could be; air in the system on the front left, a seized piston on the front left, already dragging on the front right, different tires/wear, wheel alignment, badly warped disk, etc.

 

[Gordvisr]

I wouldn't jump to ABS being the issue. There's a few things it could be; air in the system on the front left, a seized piston on the front left, already dragging on the front right, different tires/wear, wheel alignment, badly warped disk, etc.

will check for air, the disks and pads are 100 %