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#1. Re: [E36M3] Aligned... Finally! - from melsilva@mindspring.com
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:44:24 -0400 From: <melsilva@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Aligned... Finally! Having had my former open-track Mustang re-aligned every month (usually because I changed the suspension some way), I have found that I got much better results through bribery. There are a few places that try to isolate the customer (you) from the technician doing your alignment, but I will never use one of these. Once a dialogue has been initaited with the tech, grease his palm with a $50 and tell him what you REALLY want. I have been able to get gnats ass precision from technicians that work on Civics and Camry's if they understand what and why it's important and not just because they think you are just a picky son-of-a-female-dog. Try it, you be amazed with the results, and isn't $50 worth the time and effort saved by needing to do it a second time? Mel On Fri, 13 Sep 2002 10:23:06 -0500 twisty M3 <twistym3@hotmail.com> wrote: Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 08:13:29 -0700 From: "twisty M3" <twistym3@hotmail.com> Subject: Aligned... Finally! Not that anyone other than me really cares much about this, but here goes anyway... ;) Finally found someone who could align my car with a fancy new Hunter machine. Even this place tried to tell me that the rear camber on E36 cars wasn't adjustable. He even showed me in their little manual. I told him that it was, and maybe it's just different on M3s, but it certainly IS adjustable. That was just the guy at the desk... luckily the alignement guy knew what I was talking about as soon as he got under the car. Here are some before/after measurements for anyone with a curious mind: * BEFORE (measurements listed left/right) Front Camber: -3.4°/-3.1° Front Caster: 7.9°/7.8° Front Toe: 0.66°/0.71° Total Front Toe: 1.36° Rear Camber: -1.9°/-1.5° Rear Toe: 0.06°/-0.03° Total Rear Toe: 0.03° Thrust Angle: 0.05° * After (measurements listed left/right) Front Camber: -3.3°/-3.1° Front Caster: 7.9°/7.8° Front Toe: 0.06°/0.04° Total Front Toe: 0.1° Rear Camber: -2.0°/-2.0° Rear Toe: 0.10°/0.12° Total Rear Toe: 0.22° Thrust Angle: -0.01° I can't say how accurately the "before" measurements really are, as the guy who was under there on Wednesday was tinkering around trying to get things visually, since he couldn't get accurate readings. Friggen' Bozo! ;) The guy who didn't get anything done still charged me $65 for wasting two hours of my life (though I would've paid him *something* for his time anyway) and the guy who actually got everything pretty much exactly where I requested only charged $69.95. Great, considering the last alignment I had cost me $125! The front camber is pretty much exactly where I wanted it, based on how I liked from when I had the camber plates rather than swapped strut hats. The caster is the only thing that really changed. I did have 7.0° previously, so it went up almost a full degree. Rear camber is maxed out for what we could get from the factory. Glad to have it all squared away, Jonathan L. _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ************************************************************* List Commands UNSUBSCRIBE - (in subject line) unsubscribes you from the mailing list. DIR - sends a listing of files available in the list's GET directory. GET filename1.ext,filename2.ext - sends the requested file(s). To issue a command/request to the server: Send a message with the command you wish executed as the subject of the message to the email address e36m3@bmw-m.net. *************************************************************
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#2. Steering rack question - from Burgess, Kim L
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 08:59:50 -0700 From: "Burgess, Kim L" <kim.l.burgess@boeing.com> Subject: Steering rack question Chester asked: "Just curious...if one were to replace the steering rack on the E36M3, would there be a better replacement? ...that is, a tighter ratio?" I recall someone on the list (a while back - 2+ years perhaps) provided the low down on rack ratios and p/n's for _ALL_ model years. I'd have to check the archives though. KLBurgess
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#3. Re: Steering rack question - from Neil Maller
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:04:16 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re: Steering rack question on 9/13/02 10:33 AM, Chester Wong <chester_p_wong@yahoo.com> wrote: > Just curious...if one were to replace the steering rack on the E36M3, would > there be a better replacement? ...that is, a tighter ratio? I think I maybe remember somebody once saying - is that enough disclaimers? <g> - that the Euro E36 M3 has a tighter ratio. Neil 96 M3
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#4. Re: Diff and Tranny Temps? - from Neil Maller
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:05:25 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re: Diff and Tranny Temps? on 9/13/02 10:33 AM, "Andrew E. Kalman" <aek@pumpkininc.com> wrote: > Any of you have temperature readings for E36 M3 diffs and trannies > under racing conditions? That would be interesting to know. My car sees 20+ track days - not racing days - each year, and I make a point of changing both those fluids annually. Of course final drive oil always looks and smells awful no matter what, so its hard to tell about that. > I noticed that VDO makes a 400F electrical temperature gauge labelled "trans". And Rogue Engineering offers final drive drain plugs drilled and tapped for sensors. I do recall that when the E36 M3 was first raced by PTG they had a rash of diff failures. Neil 96 M3
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#5. modified E36 M3 in Bergen county area - from Dorffer, Rich
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 12:08:18 -0400 From: "Dorffer, Rich" <RDORFFER@CleIndians.com> Subject: modified E36 M3 in Bergen county area Pilewan asks > > Has anyone seen the Angel eyes on the E36? Does it look nice or tackey? My personal opinion, I don't like them. I think I would use the term tacky to describe them. I am not even a very big fan of them from the factory for that matter. On the other hand, I like the Euro ellipsoids and some of the well done HID conversions. Best regards, Rich 95 M3 - UUC Pro Comp EVO, JC Intake, chip and Euro HFM (UUC exhaust and Bosch ellipsoids still on the shelf).
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#6. Anyone want some wheel studs? - from Peter Guagenti
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 09:50:45 -0700 From: Peter Guagenti <peter@guagenti.com> Subject: Anyone want some wheel studs? I got a double shipment of wheel studs from Turner Motorsport. Since they have a restocking fee, I'd rather pass on the savings to one of you all. I have 10 studs, at a 90mm length. It's the correct size to run 15mm spacers on an E36, but should fit all BMWs. Does not come with the required nuts, but you can order those separately. Turner lists them for $5.99/ea plus shipping. I'll let 'em go for $50 even and I'll pay for shipping. Not a huge savings, but $15-$20 is something. -peterg
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#7. Re: [E36M3] Gas Mileage - from Reid Conti
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 10:04:31 -0700 From: Reid Conti <reid@conti.net> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Gas Mileage >> this depends SO much on speed. Coming back across the mountains from >> eastern washington, I probably pulled 27-28mpg in my 95. Of course, I >> had the cruise set on 70 (in a 70 zone) because cops were EVERYWHERE >> and I'm paranoid after lots of tickets recently.. > > Another major variable here are the mountains. Mileage over the same > distance when traveling in mountainous or hilly areas will be much > worse than driving the same speed on flat terrain. Speed is certainly > a factor too, a major factor. I have found the mountains to have surprisingly little effect on mileage. I tend to maintain the same speed up and down. My brain would have told me that mileage would be worse, unless maybe you kick the car out of gear on the way down.. Anyway, this isn't scientific or anything, but I've found mileage in the mountains to be about what I would expect on flat for the same speed. It's probably slightly worse, but not bad... > Even more so in the mountains. Bumping up from 70 to 80 in Kansas > will have much less effect but the effect is greater as you continue > to add speed. Cruise isn't really relevant, it does not hurt or help > per se but simply maintains a somewhat constant speed. A person that > maintains speed as well as cruise will do just as well. A person who > decreases their speed up hills and increases speed down hills could > arrive at the same point as someone traveling a constant speed and do > it using less fuel. Yeah, cruise doesn't do anything magic -- I just meant that most people can't hold their speed as well as cruise can. >> If you cruised at 60mph you could destroy the 30mpg barrier in your m3 >> I bet.. > > Maybe, I don't think I would use the term destroy. You might be able > to reach it or eek over that threshold. There is a specific speed > where mileage is the best in top gear. Drop your speed too much and > you could actually use more fuel. mmm.. iirc, the mileage goes up as your speed drops for quite awhile. If you can your car at 45mph in 5th (around 2krpm yeah?) you'd get best mileage. even better at 1500rpm maybe, but perhaps not so good on the engine :) - reid
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#8. Re: Negatives to E30M3 Control Arms? [Long]> - from Neil Maller
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 12:43:19 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re: Negatives to E30M3 Control Arms? [Long]> on 9/12/02 12:33 AM, Chester Wong <chester_p_wong@yahoo.com> wrote: >> That would be extremely interesting to know. You'd think/hope that the >> designs would have improved with successive car generations. It's >> interesting that the E46 aluminum arm some 54% more massive than the >> equivalent E30 part. > > I managed to crawl under a E46 a few months ago and the control arm is > completely different than that for the E36/E30. It's much, much longer. I've only looked rather casually. Longer in which dimension, or both? What I did notice is that the E46 arm is also much more heavily triangulated or gussetted across the middle.. and on 9/12/02 7:53 PM, "Tim Ng" <s14realm3@peachtreebmwcca.org> wrote: > LET SEE, > E30 m3 weight=2850# > E46 M3 weight=~3300#s. > > E30 M3 had 15" 205-55-15 tires standard from factory > E46 M3 has 18" 225-18" in the front from factory > > E30 M3=192 h.p. > E46 M3=333 h.p. > > please don't start the E30/e46 thing again. Huh? > just pointing out the fact that > they are very different cars from different ERA. And that's exactly the point of this whole discussion. There's been a steady increase in power, weight, tire size, technology and whatever else from the E30 through the E36 to the E46 M3. So one should be careful about fitting parts from earlier to later platform cars. Neil 96 M3
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#9. Anyone in the Long Beach, CA area? - from Sue Kraft
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 12:54:30 -0500 From: Sue Kraft <suekraft@new.rr.com> Subject: Anyone in the Long Beach, CA area? The factory exhaust from my M5 is sitting at a shop out there. I was wondering if someone in the area might be willing to stop and take a look at it and let me know if it is worth the expense and trouble of shipping here to Green Bay. The owner of the shop is currently in Florida, but will be back in Long Beach on the 18th. I don't know the name of the shop, but have the owner's cell phone number to make the arrangements. Anyone in the area who could help me out would be much appreciated. Suzy
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#10. E36M3 coils - from alex.fadeev@verizon.com
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 13:00:05 -0500 From: alex.fadeev@verizon.com Subject: E36M3 coils Folks, What's the best place to order new '95 M3 coils? So far I've got the best price quote of $50.25 from Hendrick BMW. I remember reading references to $40 coils. Where did those come from? TIA, alex f