Just thought I’d post this awesome E36...

 …because the owner is about to have it repainted and I'd like to preserve its current awesomeness. 

Britney Spears had a white E36 M3!

Of course she did!

Who knew she had good taste?! I suppose she was at the top of her game when this thing was new, so why wouldn't she have a BMW. Imagine her booting this 326bhp monster up the road at that tender age. Oops... I lost it again!

Other celebrity BMWs:
Easy-E 850i
Will Smith E28 5er
Elon Musk E21 320
Bob Marley Bavaria New Six

BMW Front Outline / Silhouette Gallery - All Models

Another great chart of BMW front-end outlines detailing almost every model, or at least every major model release, right from the word go... which one is yours??

1936 328		1952 501		1955 ISETTA 250		1956 507 ROADSTER
1962 1500		1965 3200CS		1968 2002 Tii		1973 3.0CSL E9
1975 316 E21		1978 M1 E26		1978 M535i E12		1986 M3 E30
1988 M5 E28		1989 8 SERIES E31		1992 M3 E36		1996 Z2 E36/7
1998 M5 E39		1999 Z8 ROADSTER		2000 M3 E46		2002 Z4
2004 6 SERIES E63/64		2007 M3 E90		2007 X5 E70		2011 1 SERIES M COUPE
2011 M5 F10		2014 i3		2014 M4 COUPE F82		2015 i8

BMW BTCC 60th Anniversary Poster - E36 318i, FINA team Steve Soper - 'Memphis Design' - [1191x1684]

2002Ti, Works team 1965 - 'Pop Art'
E9 3.0 CSL Alpina, Works team 1973 - 'Collage Art'
E30 M3, Mobil team Frank Sytner - 'Tech Noir'
E36 318i, FINA team Steve Soper - 'Memphis Design'
E90 320Si, RAC team Colin Turkington - 'Stencil Art'

Era: 1993
Car: E36 318i SE
Driver: Steve Soper
Team: FINA Racing
Style: Memphis Design
Artist: Yukai Du

What is Memphis design? - Memphis design Wiki here.

These are a bit out of date, but I think they're great and I've been after some higher resolution versions for a while. BMW UK had them designed in 2015 to mark 60 years of competing in the BTCC, Super Touring and World Touring Car series, with the posters evoking a popular art style from each decade. Here, Memphis design from the 1990s and Steve Soper's almighty FINA 318i.

Retro BMW Phone Wallpapers [iPhone, Samsung, 750x1338 smart-phone]

Some nice phone wallpapers / home screen images I adapted from posts on the /BMW sub-Reddit, which is full of this sort of thing, so you should check it out...

E30 M3 Grille ------- E30 Cabriolet Sunset

M3 Evolution E30 / E36 / E46 / E92 / F30

M5 Evolution Grilles ------- 3 Series Evolution Grilles

The Compact is up for sale!

With the E60 alive again and a new house project costing the earth, I can't justify keeping two Beemers on the road so the stalwart E36 Comp will have to go. It's been a great car for me while the 5er has ben off the road, so if the practicality doesn't draw buyers in, then the E46 Coupe arm-rest / centre-console sure will...

I've paid £15 to list it as a classified on eBay here - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181669438132?ss

And also stuck it on Gumtree here - http://www.gumtree.com/p/bmw/2000-x-bmw-316i-compact-e36-/1100726371

It's your for £450 or near offer!

Advert text (being as honest as I can):

BMW 316i Compact. Titan silver, 164k miles. MOT until end of may, tax until end of April. Good solid reliable little car.
Blow from exhaust, nothing some putty can't fix and the passenger window does not open, but the glass just needs remounting to the regulator frame as it still works and can be heard going up and down without the glass. 
Brakes, chassis, suspension all good, as are all tyres. Bit tatty inside and out, but no major dents or damage at all, there are no rips or tears in the seats. It has the larger, later 1.9 engine from the E46 and is the later spec with front fog-lamps, traction-control and air-conditioning. It features the twin front arm-rest and centre-console from an E46 coupe.

E36 Compact: M43 Oil Change + Filter Removal.

Got round to changing the oil and filter on the Compact, as I've been running it for a month with the mayonnaise filled concoction left from the dodgy head-gasket / cooling issue.

Removing Oil-Filter:

The filter-housing on the later M43 316i / 318i is right down in the bowels of the engine and impossible to get to easily, as they are on almost all other BMWs. The lid has no nut either to undo it from above, so the only way is to use an old-skool oil-filter removal tool from the side, only most of the engine prevents this.

The simplest way to get it off is to remove the fan-cowl and fan. This way there is just about enough room at the front of the engine to get a turn on the filter with the removal tool. I found a chain based removal tool works well, but a steel-belt one would probably be just as good. It isn't essential, but I removed the top inlet-manifold too, just to see what I was doing more clearly.

1. Remove the fan-cowl by undoing the two top screws with a 10mm socket and lifting it off, popping it out from the air-inlet ducts at either side.

2. Remove the two 8mm screws holding either side of the rear edge of the fan-housing at the top and lift the fan vertically up, sliding it out of the two bottom lugs.

3. Slide the removal-tool in from the front and there should now be room enough to get a turn on the filter-housing lid, even if it's as tight on as mine was.

E36 Compact: E46 Driver's Arm-Rest Retrofit

Just as on E46, the two bolts holding the handbrake down hold the right side of the arm-rest bracket. The third threaded-hole is covered by putty a bit further down the left side of the trans-tunnel.

The three existing holes fit the E46 arm-rest bracket, longer 13mm bolts and shims perfectly.

The rear roll-down ash-tray trim screws to the rear of the arm-rest bracket.

The centre-console trim took a bit of getting in under the gearstick trim panel, but fits the rear and arm-rest pretty well.

As does the handbrake handle and leather gaiter. Just deciding now whether to retrofit the gearstick trim panel and window-switches from the E46, or cut the centre-console trim to fit the E36 better. Hmm.

E36 316i Compact: New head-gasket.

Well, it's been a busy month again in Beemer Lab and I've just bought a new house which hasn't helped. Firstly, I finally removed the stuck head-bolts from the E60, got the head off and found where my oil leak is coming from... The lower timing case has a big crack in it! It's too big a job to replace that and do the new piston, so it looks like the 530d does need a new engine after all, what a shame after my £500+ spend.

As there is no E46 progress still, I decided a cheap runaround BMW was needed on a temporary basis so I shelled out a quick £200 on an X-reg E36 316i Compact, again in Titansilver. It has 4 months tax and 10 months MOT so seemed ideal as a stop gap. That was until I went to pick up a fridge and it majorly overheated. After I limped home I found oil in the water, water in the oil and a constant bubbling from the radiator. Blown head gasket then!

I had to use it for 2 weeks in this state, only doing the 2 mile trip to work and no further, but still it was getting to max temp as I pulled up on the drive. The gasket was only £18 off eBay and is FAI. The job only took about 4 hours (oh the joys of working with a single cam!) and it is back on the road and running quite cool so far, though I will need to put it through its paces to find out if it was just a dodgy gasket or if there is a real cooling problem that's caused it.

I will cover the poor E60 and it's future in more detail soon. Oh, and I've also bought a new secondary air-pump or the E46 so watch this space. 3 Beemers and counting...

£18 delivered. eBay FTW still.

By gosh, that looks like some hot oil.

The centre two head-bolts [1 and 2] were finger loose when removed!
This has obviously allowed oil and water to mingle. Blast marks round
the front cylinder show where combustion was stopping water entering the head.
This whole head-gasket swap took about 4 hours, so how
hastily the last one was thrown on is disturbing...

Lots of burnt oil and split gasket over the head, but it cleaned up well.

Think I will leave cleaning the cooling system for another day though. The head is caked with 'rad-weld' type stuff.

Amazingly, after all that overheating, the head is straight as anything! BMW alloy heads are forgiving to say the least.

10 minutes with a razor-blade and the block is good as new. PIston don't look half bad either.

New gasket on. The re-tightening sequence is 30nm, 90 degrees and
another 90 degrees. I wonder if the last guy to work on it only did
the 30nm and forgot about the torque angling?

The curse continues! 318ti blown head gasket! [E36K]

I don't believe this! Nathan has been using his E36 Compact for work this week while the wheels are off the 330 Clubsport. Yep, the same E36 I was about to borrow so I can get to work with the broken E46 and E60. It's been running like a dream while it's for sale, then this morning he gets 2 miles and the head gasket blows, then he runs round and dries home like a red arrows display, so it looks water related... why? its not like he was ragging it in eco mode. Drat!

It has a minor running fault as it is, where the engine cut out when the auto-box is put in 'D', probably the torque-converter. This I could have lived with, even the 'sport-o-matic' box, but more open-engine is out of the question I'm sure anyone would agree!

3 dead Beemers in 3 weeks! What is going on.