BMW E36 318ti/318is Service Guide M44B19 Oil & Filters | E36 Compact Build Maintenance | 002
Although this BMW E36 Compact 318ti has nearly 180k miles on it, the previous owners have been pretty on the ball with the servicing. The last owner had for around 10 years, and I have all of the receipts as well as the service book showing that it has had basic service every 7 - 10 thousand miles, and the receipts show that it was decent oil!
Here's what I used:
MANNOL 5L Fully Synthetic Engine Oil 5W-40: ebay.us/15BPNI
MAHLE E36 318ti Oil filter: ebay.us/5INk5Z
MAHLE E36 318ti Air Filter: ebay.us/k8WPn1
I have had it for a couple of months and I have already put a couple of thousand miles on it so it is coming up to around 7.5k miles since it last had oil, so I thought I had better pull my finger out and get it done.
The BMW E36 318ti Compact is pretty easy to service, it was built in the days when engine bays were not chock full of wires, pipes and sensors. And you don’t need 3 elbows to get at everything. It has the BMW M44 1.9 (M44B19 motor) litre engine which is well regarded for both power, relatively, and longevity if looked after. The BMW E36 318is and the E36 318ti both have the same engine, so require the same servicing. This video guide cover's both cars with this 4-cylinder engine.
The hardest part to reach is the sump plug. Because the car is designed to also accommodate the BMW six pot engines, the 4 cylinder sits quite far back in the engine bay. It is almost mid-engined, in that most of the engine sits between the front and back wheels.
The oil filter is a cartridge type and sits at the front of the engine in a place very convenient to get to. I always use good branded filters as I believe some of the cheaper ones are a little longer and end up getting slightly crushed when fitted, although I suspect they still work fine.
I found getting the air filter out a little fiddly, not for any good reason, and once you have had the top off once it should be pretty simple for the next time. I noticed that a couple of the mounts for the air filter box need replacing, but it isn’t an urgent job so it can wait a little.
I also knew that the car had new spark plugs during its last service, and I had looked at them in the last 1000 miles or so when I had that initial misfire, so I decided they weren’t needed this time.
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