1995 BMW 318i -- CARNAGE PICS!! -- MAJOR UPDATE!!! w00t!!

[RedRider_AK]

Whew! You're rollin' in style now. Time to get Syko to fly up to Willow and do a sick paint job for you, unless he's afraid of the cold

P.S. I second that the wheels are ugly as hell. Seriously, why make your wheels look like turbine blades , it makes me think a jet is flying past me sideways.

[Nick_R_23]

Are you going to do the motor work yourself?

Yup!! Im gonna start tearing into it today and check out the gears and chain first. I think if that is the problem, the Im gonna have to pull the head anyway and change the valves in case they are bent, which is probably why it doesnt have compression in the first place.

P.S. I second that the wheels are ugly as hell. Seriously, why make your wheels look like turbine blades , it makes me think a jet is flying past me sideways.

Thats what I thought at first, but now I think I might keep them, I just found out that theyre super rare factory BMW forced air brake cooling hubcaps!!!

-Nick

[Nick_R_23]

I found this pic on ebay, this is the real color of the car. Now you can compare it to the pics I took and realize how color blind my camera really is.



-Nick

[edog]

Thats what it should look like nice!

I love German cars!

[ProCarbine2k1]

Nice score, if for some reason you wouldnt decide to keep it.. I think you could make a strong profit on Ebay! Ive always liked the 318's.

[Nick_R_23]

Update on the motor - popped the valve cover off to check the timing, and its spot on...chain feels better then brand new, and everything under there is in great condition. Dig around in there a little bit more, cant find anything that looks out of whack, so I take out the sparkplugs next, and weve found the first sign of carnage!!! They are the platinum +2 plugs (the kind that have the 2 arms instead of one), but the odd thing is that the electrodes are fine, but the arms have been pushed against the electrodes??? The valves are too far away to hit the plugs, and looking into the cylinder, the pistons show no signs of striking the plugs, plus, the like I said, the electrodes are untouched....how weird is that?!?! I think the plugs may be my problem after all....since timing is good, and Ive found nothing else wrong, and it actually fired up when I bought it.....so Im putting it back together now, and we'll find out if the sparkplugs were the only problem.....

-Nick

[VenomRS4]

Man, i wish I saw this thread sooner. My daily driver is a 95' 318is. Even though I beat the ever living piss out of it...its been an awesome car. I have owned it for a long time and now have almost 210,000 miles with no problems. Since I have owned it, I have never had any problems or done any major work except front control arms at about 160k and a clutch at about 190k miles. Other than that, i just do basic maintenence like oil changes and stuff...and the car just keeps running great.

Also, contrary to what some people say, BMWs are not that hard to work on....Especially 318s. Theres tons of room to work and most stuff is pretty well organized. As far as parts go....yes, in general, they tend to be more pricey than a ford. But they arent as bad as people think. And most parts can be bought at your local parts stores like napa, cap, autozone, etc.

The only thing i dont really like about the 318 is...well...its a 318. The engine (m42) is far from a fire breather. 138hp....and linked to an automatic....its not going to be fast. BUT....if you keep your foot out of the gas, it will get 30-35mpg. And of course you have bimmer handling...they corner very nice. That and insurance is fairly inexpensive too.

I highly recommend joining bimmerforums.com. Its a great web site wih tons of info. Check it out.

Anyway, you got a realy good deal on a great car. It seems like it was pretty well maintained so it should last a while. Take care of it and it will take care of you.

Just for shits and giggles....heres a few pics of mine. Since these pics were taken, the lower grey trim has been painted to match the rest of the car, ive put in adjustable coil overs and the car sits 1/2 inch lower in the back and about 1.5 inches lower in the front, and I have tinted the windows

[Nick_R_23]

Hey, its nice to see someone else with one of these beautys!! Ill definately check that site out. The only thing holding me up right now is that I cant figure out the @#$!% firing order, and how to route the wires.... its 1-3-4-2 (per the manual), but on the coil pack it shows the wires being labeled as 4-3-2-1 (--> front of motor) and the cylinders are numbered the same....so its kinda confusing on how they go.

After further inspection of the old sparkplugs, it looks like they were purposely screwed up, because theres just no way anything in the cylinder could make them look like they are, the car just plain COULD NOT have even started. This doesnt fit the guys story of 'the car lost power going down the freeway.' Theres just no way....

-Nick

[Nick_R_23]

Ok, heres a pic trying to explain the problem Im having with the firing order...



Theres a coil pack, with 4 wires coming off it labeled 4-3-2-1 as shown in the pic...the cylinders are labeled the same. My problem is, the firing order is 1-3-4-2, which is obviously the order the CYLINDERS fire in, but I dont know the order the coil pack fires in, so I dont know what wires to place on which cylinder. Does it fire in the order of the numbers on the coil pack?? Im confused....

-Nick

[New2ATC]

I love the color of the car, but I dont know the firing order on the coil packs. did you trace the plug wires back to the coil as you removed them? I would say search through the manual, or get a haynes manual if you haven't already. If nothing else, try to find a foreign car shop, and ask a mechanic.

[RedRider_AK]

Well, since you have 4 different plug wires... and 4 different plugs... that's only 16 different combinations you can possibly have. Get to pullin' and poppin', you'll get it eventually

[smokinwrench]

One way the plugs could be bent is it spun rod bearings and both peices of bearing are on cap side causing the piston to hit the spark plug. I could see thsi on one piston but both at the same tiem seems very unlikely. If it had spun bearings it should have had some serious knocking.

Good luck with it. I just bought a Lexus SC400 last week for $950 it runs and drives great needs a little TLC.

[J.D.]

If the coil pack is labeled, just follow it. They may be just 4 individual coils, and the PCM controls them individually following the firing order. Not 100% sure though not really familiar with the setup on these. Just follow what the coilpack says and you should be fine.

[The Goat]

i suddenly think of the sound a car makes when you try to run it without the wiring in the right order. lol.

look online, someone will have the correct order posted. very nice car by the way. been thinking about picking up an old 3 series and selling my scion. doubt i'll get that deal like you did though.

[Nick_R_23]

Got this one all cleaned up today also, I havent made any progress since STILL nobody can tell me what the correct firing order is....I think its gonna be stuck in the garage soon and Ill just go ahead and pull the head off and replace the head gasket soon.

Anyway, Ive been having way too much fun with my new camera so heres a few shots now that its had a bath!





-Nick