Dark Blue Mark

Morning all,

Just wanted to ask a few Q's about these, looking at a 98 model Sport Coupe to replace the scoob. Really want to know what they are like on fuel. At current my WRX drinks a £40 tank of Optimax in 250 miles = 23 mpg. Also, Are all 2 doors sport models? Do they have 200 bhp. Does the TC work?!

Im buying a house so basically need omething cheaper to run, with a bit of poke and a bit more stle

Any experiences useful...

MB

Tommy 2000

Mark, I swapped my Scoob for an E36 328i Coupe for similar reasons to you. Not all coupes are sports but sport is preferable model to have with M3 front bumper, leather, air con, etc. Mine wasn't a sport but had AC Schnitzer kit on it instead. Handled very well with ACS suspension, I guess the sport's is similar. Averaged 32mpg doing a mixture of motorway cruising and A-road ragging - far better than the Scoob. I did 50k miles in 2 years and nothing went wrong! I would thoroughly recommend one...

what would scooby do

Make sure it has a full BMWSH and check to see if 1998 models where affected by the bore-wear problem. I had a 1996 328i coupe that had the problem and BMW popped in a brand new short motor F.O.C

I'm not sure if they'd fixed the problem by 1998 model year..

The TCS works just fine, just turn it off for fun..

Dark Blue Mark

Ta for the info all.

I would like the convertable but they're a bit more pricey

Still, you get a lot of car for 10k, low miles 1998 sports seem to be around that price.

Tommy, 32 mpg seems a bit more reasonable than 23

Scooby Doo, did you buy yours from BMW? Impressed they replaced the engine FOC.

MB

V-techland

Tommy seems to have pretty much covered it but here are some extras that you requested:

-The cars true power output is 193bhp

- Try and find yourself a car with the £2k Limited slip differential option fitted, as this will make the car easier to control (+ more fun) and worth more at the time of resale.

- I think those economy figures are about right

- Full BMW history as you probably know is vital!

-Be wary of a car aproaching the 100k mile mark - reason being that the 328 engines are based around the 325 block. This essentially is no bad thing but it has meant that the wall in the cylinder head have been weakened due to the 'Boreing out' of the engine capacity. Cars with 90k miles and above can be prone to having issues (i.e. head gasket failure) due to this fact so be vigilant when buying!!!!!!!

- The 323 engines which were like the 328's (bored out from a smaller block - in this case the 320i) have some clearance issues to do with the pistons too. Apparently the gap between the pistons and the head was too large and many of the 523i cars were needing extensive engine work after about 80k miles or so as the internals had begun to burn out components. I'm not sure if this is also an issue on the 328i's but I was warned of this when I looked at putting an E36 328I block in my classic E30 325i Sport

That said, enjoy your hunt and I hope you find one you like

Skittles

Economy figures in line with what I used to get.

Also the sport models have as standard:
-half leather
-17" polished BBS wheels, 225F/245R tyres
-M3 body kit all round (side skirts etc etc)
-M tech suspension etc

Basicaly they look and go a LOT better

I beliebe there was an engine recall for these, go get it checked out - call a dealer with the car reg to get the history.

BTW, topgear (amg) did a review of this against the merc clk and the Pug V6, BM was better, only downside was the ride was firmer than the other 2.

47 NAT

I found this to be handy:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/index.php?url=/carbycar/index.htm

and this:

http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/

Sorry dont know how to do clickies....

Nath

what would scooby do

Chap I bought mine from an independant garage, it had a full BMW SH though.

When you consider it was 5 years old when I had it, took it to the local BMW for a small service, when I went to collect it after service - this is what the service manager said (IIRC)

1. Service all complete.
2. Only service problem was your BMW torch is missing from the glovebox
3. Rear trailing arms need to be replaced due to factory recall.
4. Engine is using oil due to bore-wear - factory re-call, book it in and we will give you a loan car and replace the engine

The bore-wear problem is to do with the UK petrol (high sulphur content) eroding the special coating they put on the cylinder walls.

top notch service - it was a revalation !

Dark Blue Mark

Thanks for all the info, some knowledge on here!

Going to go for a test drive later this week, so ill post my thoughs. Anyone know if this one's a sport?

http://users.autoexposure.co.uk/parkgaragecars/

MB

Skittles

not a real one, the side skirts are wrong

what would scooby do

does seem a bit cheap for a sport, it's for sale at £500 less than a standard coupe (according to parkers) - but I can't tell to be honest

Dark Blue Mark

Yep, they confirmed its not a sport. No air con, no leather etc.

MB

Spudgun VI

i bought my e36 328 coupe about a year ago from a dealer. paid 11k for it so it had warranty, bmw assist etc. best 11k ive ever spent on a car. maybe i couldve got one cheaper, but it has all the leather, electrics etc etc. most comfortable seats ive sat in, and in sport mode (mines an auto) is suprisingly pretty nippy too. thoroughly recommend one, aint had a single problem, its done 55k miles, and its sweet. imho, a fantastic car.

AllanB

Weren't there some major issues with the Nikasil liners on these engines . I think most were recalled so it might be worth checking to see if the recall work was done.

Not 100% sure which engine capacities it effected but I'm sure it was 97-98 that it came to ahead as we had a few company cars with terminal engine failure after very low miles.


AllanB

Blackscooby

The Nikasil liner issue had been mentioned earlier in the post.
This article discusses it in some depth.

http://www.lestac.co.uk/bmw/nikasil.htm
Basically it affected a number of engines including the M52 (328) engine upto the build date of Mar 1998 I think.

I found this out after I bought mine ! However mine has a build date of July 98.

Mine is a 328 coupe (none sport) with leather, a/c, climate, manual. Really well screwed together. Goes OK, but certainly doesn't set the world on fire. Certainly a comfortable M-way cruiser and good A road machine. Fantastic straight 6 howl when you open it up.

Check the MPG quite regularly and get about 27MPG. Not often over 27MPG mind, and thats a good mix of motorway and fast A roads.

Dark Blue Mark

I see Superchips can get it to over 200bhp and 270 lbs/ft

MB

Brun

I thought the E36 323's we're actually 2.5l?

Blackscooby

I always thought the 323 engine was a "detuned" version of the 325 engine. ie same capacity and everything just running a different mapping.