BMW E36 Compact 318ti Bought Sight Unseen on Ebay | E36 Compact Build Project Review & Intro | 001
Possibly an unexpected video, but I've bought myself a BMW E36 Compact 318ti as our latest project car.
The E36 was a car that I felt didn't age particularly well into the 2000s, but this past few years the 90s design had really come back around for me and they look better every time I see one, which is now a very rare occasion.
The compact is especially controversial. Even back in the day I think I'd have sneered at the light version of the E36. But for my current needs and wants, I can't think of much better than this, and the compact factor only adds to it.
I was looking for a new runabout, a small, practical but fun car I could use regularly to make the mundane journeys a bit more fun, giving me an excuse to take the occasional long route home through Yorkshire countryside.
Unexpectedly the E36 compact turned out to be just the ticket, and with their values being at absolute rock bottom, it seemed to be the right time to pick one up.
However, I did the thing they always tell you not to do. I purchased this E36 compact 318ti sight unseen on ebay, and from a faraway place. As ‪@JayEmmOnCars‬ once said, "EBAY STRIKES AGAIN"! You'll notice I took inspiration when I created the thumbnail, although this car is already red and it says what it is in the title so I didn't feel the need to obscure it.
Experience tells me that the further away you travel to look at (or come good on a purchase in this case) a car, the worse it is. Luckily this E36 318ti was honestly described so I wasn't recoiling at the terminal laquer peel, or the obligatory rust patches.
The sellers were very pleasant and turned out to be BMW enthusiasts themselves, sharing stories of E46s and E30s they'd also had the pleasure of owning. It turns out that this E36 compact has even been on tour to visit the Nurburgring in Germany. Somewhere I've never visited but always wanted to. Who knows, this pocket rocket might one day find itself back on the Nordschleife.
Having headed down from sunny Yorkshire by train to the south coast, I was eager to jump in and head for home, knowing I'd be driving into the night.
Sadly, the return journey was not without it's surprises. A few hours into the journey the 318ti's rev happy M44 engine started to complain, misfiring quite badly and appearing significantly down on power. Not ideal when you're trying to cruise at motorways speeds and make good time.
I stopped off at the services a couple of times to have a fiddle with the injector wiring, to no avail. Luckily it was intermittent and I managed to continue with my journey. Thanking my lucky stars that I didn't lose another cylinder en route.
After getting back in the dead of night I hit the hay excited to have a better look around the car at first light.
That morning, I headed onto the driveway to give the car a closer inspection, and determined the likely cause of the misfire was water in the spark plug tubes. Similar to an issue my son had with his E30 318is which has almost identical but earlier M42 variant of this 4-cylinder. Although his problem was oil seeping in from the rocker cover seals.
As this E36 compact had been sat on a sloped driveway for a very long time, somehow water must have made its way in, rainwater, not coolant luckily. With that dried out the car was purring again on all 4 cylinders.
There are a few modifications with this car, and a decent stack of service history. For a 175k mile car from the 90's, it seems to be in reasonable mechanical condition, only the cosmetics look as battered as you'd expect. It comes fitted on sone OE BMW wheels which look like you'd expect on a 5-series. Slammed on some very bouncy budget coilovers and with a meaty sounding cat-back stainless exhaust system, blowing slightly and with a free backbox rattle to investigate.
Fundamentally though, the car is a hoot to drive with only 140ish horsepower, its certainly not as powerful as the Renault Clio 182 I enjoyed before it, but you can really have fun driving this car at 9/10ths without losing your license.
The rear hatch and folding seats make it extremely practical as a small grocery getter car too.
The first order of business is a mechanical decommissioning to get it through an MOT, then we will look to do some period correct modifications and have some fun.
For more helpful how-to guides and restoration project logs, visit our blog: www.spannerrash.com/
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