Bought a not so broken BMW E36 convertible

[Vince70]

Today was spent collecting my new car which to my surprise is an absolute dream which I won on eBay for £730 because the hood doesn't work but my theory was if I couldn't get hood working I would still have a nice completely rust free E36 low mileage car which is fully loaded with gadgets.

It's only done 64000 and I think the original owner must of spent a fortune on the extras as it has stuff like sports seats in leather and the onboard computer etc and has an Mot till next June and it really does drive spot on with a full history etc etc

So the plans this week are to get it in the garage and give it a service and pressure wash the muck from under the arches then waxoyl the jacking points etc and read up on any info to get the roof working then maybe put it on a multi car insurance policy.

And this one is a bargain servicing as it will only cost just under a grand to keep up the BMW service history lol

[EssDeeWon]

Where did you collect it from? Is it dark green or that dark montreal blue?

[EssDeeWon]

Also, holding it upside down won't get the roof working!! 

[Vince70]

I collected it from Coulsdon which is just outside Croydon and it's a Boston green one.

It seems that 99.9 % of my cars end up being Metallic green

[EssDeeWon]

Thats a nice colour on these.

 

Looks really nice, get it all spit and polished up.

 

Who cares if the roof doesn't work? We only have about a week of summer left anyway.

[surprisingskoda]

There are three roof options, manual, semi or full auto. Which one is it?

[Vince70]

Mines a fully auto I think as it has no handles at the front of the hood.. And it has a hood button on the centre console which is constantly flashing red.

[BorniteIdentity]

Looks great.

 

I've thought a lot about buying a car with a broken roof, removing it completely and just using it on high days.  Park in garage when not in use.  Beat the system and win at life.

 

Enjoy the car. Looks to be lovely.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Does the front motor work? If not, could be a shagged motor or no volts - use an allen key to unwind it away from the screen surround. Lift the back seat base and you'll see a lever - pull this and the motors will be disconnected from the hood enabling the hood to be pulled up at the back, the rear horseshoe to be lifted and the hood folded away. A mate had one with a similar issue. He just left the motors disconnected, found the wires that ran from the front motor to the control unit and wired in a simple switch to activate the front motor only - manual hood. Or you could try a used control unit and fix it properly but as with all power hoods, they can be a right bastard. 

The hood worked on mine, but it was only a matter of time before it failed.

 

I wouldn't entertain a power hood now. The manual hood on the Z3 is a genius of simplicity.

[Cavcraft]

Proper bargains these are, really cheap for what's quite a lot of motor. I'd have kept mine (longer than two weeks or so) but I got the offer of a CLK320 (not convertible) which was an amazing car.

[Supernaut]

Bwahaha! £730 for an E36!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

My brother once had an E36 convertible - a 328i manual in black with saffron leather. It looked great and was a lovely car all-in. I'm a fan of the E36.

[surprisingskoda]

What bluejeans said. Full auto ones are the pigs. flashing red light means it is out of sync rather than broken motor, IIRC, so you may be able to get it working again, if you were into that sort of thing. Fixing things, I mean.

[stripped fred]

Sounds like a nice car for the money and if you do manage to get the hood working, even manually, you will be winning at autoshite.

[Vince70]

Does the front motor work? If not, could be a shagged motor or no volts - use an allen key to unwind it away from the screen surround. Lift the back seat base and you'll see a lever - pull this and the motors will be disconnected from the hood enabling the hood to be pulled up at the back, the rear horseshoe to be lifted and the hood folded away. A mate had one with a similar issue. He just left the motors disconnected, found the wires that ran from the front motor to the control unit and wired in a simple switch to activate the front motor only - manual hood. Or you could try a used control unit and fix it properly but as with all power hoods, they can be a right bastard.

The hood worked on mine, but it was only a matter of time before it failed.

 

I wouldn't entertain a power hood now. The manual hood on the Z3 is a genius of simplicity.

Cheers for the info I might try a roof reset in the next few days and see if I have any luck..

 

If I could find out somehow if it's a motor then I would look out for a secondhand one but I'm not sure if it's a good sign or not but all the windows go down a touch when the doors open etc so I think the ecu must be ok but in some ways I wish it was as a second hand one is a doddle to fit and only about £25 on eBay.

 

I've got the manual roof on my Z3 and its brilliant and it can be thrown back in a second the problem with this one is its too complex for me to work out as I can't repair it with a hammer and cable ties lol

 

At the moment my place looks like BMW dealership circa 1997 as my three are all the same age if I had room I would buy more of them as it won't be long till all the decent standard ones will have gone and the prices will then be on the up.

 

I've just checked the reg and it was registered in my hometown when new so I hope it's an omen that I've got a goodun.

[Junkman]

It seems that 99.9 % of my cars end up being Metallic green

 

Nothing wrong with that, paint the remaining 0.1% metallic green as well.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Cheers for the info I might try a roof reset in the next few days and see if I have any luck..

 

If I could find out somehow if it's a motor then I would look out for a secondhand one but I'm not sure if it's a good sign or not but all the windows go down a touch when the doors open etc so I think the ecu must be ok but in some ways I wish it was as a second hand one is a doddle to fit and only about £25 on eBay.

 

I've got the manual roof on my Z3 and its brilliant and it can be thrown back in a second the problem with this one is its too complex for me to work out as I can't repair it with a hammer and cable ties lol

 

At the moment my place looks like BMW dealership circa 1997 as my three are all the same age if I had room I would buy more of them as it won't be long till all the decent standard ones will have gone and the prices will then be on the up.

 

 

The dropping windows are controlled by the body control module (windows, locking) but the roof module is separate. 

[Vince70]

Thanks for the info.. I don't know if the front motor is working as all I have is a light flashing soon as I put the ignition on but it doesn't make a noise when pressed so I presume it's dead

[stripped fred]

Cheers for the info I might try a roof reset in the next few days and see if I have any luck..

 

If I could find out somehow if it's a motor then I would look out for a secondhand one but I'm not sure if it's a good sign or not but all the windows go down a touch when the doors open etc so I think the ecu must be ok but in some ways I wish it was as a second hand one is a doddle to fit and only about £25 on eBay.

 

I've got the manual roof on my Z3 and its brilliant and it can be thrown back in a second the problem with this one is its too complex for me to work out as I can't repair it with a hammer and cable ties lol

 

At the moment my place looks like BMW dealership circa 1997 as my three are all the same age if I had room I would buy more of them as it won't be long till all the decent standard ones will have gone and the prices will then be on the up.

 

I've just checked the reg and it was registered in my hometown when new so I hope it's an omen that I've got a goodun.

I would get a secondhand module if only £25 to give it a try, especially if it's easy to fit. You can always sell it again if it doesn't work.

[dugong]

I like the way main agent service quotes are included with every AS old BMW purchase now.

[Vince70]

Well I think I'm half way there as I now have a roof that goes down after a lot of persuasion but only by hand and now the tonneau cover motor engages after the roof sync and lifts a few inches when I put the roof up then nothing from the actual roof motor.

 

I noticed the the motors were already disengaged but looking at the actual roof motor it's covered in watery rust so I'm guessing it's siezed up as the gearing is covered in iron filings also.

[Six-cylinder]

Roof lower/rise motor has to be disengaged before you can lower/rise it manually, so if it works manually the motor will not work until it is engaged again.

 

My own E36 convertible plays up sometimes, I have had it looked at at a BMW specialist and they tell me it is because the elastic strips within the roof are tired and sometimes the rear window is not pulled forward far enough to tell the hood deck to lower. They showed me if I have a problem all I have to do is pull the rear window open a little further by hand and the deck panels works fine.

[omegod]

Ohh tasty that is, really hope it's an easy fix

[EssDeeWon]

I really want to perv over this, but im not breaking my neck to do it.

[Parky]

Hold an iPad/LCD Monitor/cinema screen in front of a mirror and then the reflection is the right way up. Bingo! Neck muscles are saved and myriad stupid questions will be posed from other halves!

[Tamworthbay]

It's a known iPad quirk, just put rotate lock on and turn iPad upside down to take pics.

[Parky]

Yeah but that's no fun!

[oldcars]

I really want to perv over this, but im not breaking my neck to do it.

Turn your computer screen around 

[Guest Hooli]

It's a known iPad quirk, just put rotate lock on and turn iPad upside down to take pics.

 

It's a rare occasion when Apple have done something right. They are almost the only people to use the rotation tag on jpegs to denote where up is. Unfortunately they held their ipad the wrong way up when they did it, so to get your pics upright you need the button on the right when you take the pic.

[Vince70]

Today I thought I would have another go at repairing the roof and greased up the hood mechanism and found some broken plastic and pop rivet heads which had jammed up the upper motor.

I also sprayed up the motor with a bit of plusgas while I was at it and now I have a working roof.

 

It does catch sometimes on the back cover but apparently it's quite common and only needs a bit of tension with some elastic..

 

It's quite a posh roof really as I can leave all the windows open and roof down and doors unlocked etc and only have to press the fob and the roof and Windows go up on their own and it locks the doors etc but it takes forever as in my old Z3 I can do the same manually in less than half the time, so it seems I got a bit of a bargain.