332ti, a compact story.

[YoungCR]

Spoiler alert: This car has successfully been rage drifted.

[alexw]

I used Tapatalk to upload a bunch of random photos. Nothing spectacular here, but It'll help with the story... Sorry if the photos are too large.

 

So, I bought this car in september after selling my 318is slicktop. The guys who came down and bought it found me on these forums. I felt that I was very open and honest but a few angry text messages later, they expressed that they thought I somehow was misleading. Sorry? So after the sale of my 318is and adding some of my own cash I came up with $5000 to put into a "new" BMW. I found this swapped 318ti and knew I had to have it. If you read my original post, you'll know that I used to dream about building one of these in high school. It seemed like a good deal so I jumped on it.

 

 

This is a photo the previous owner had on his original Craigslist ad. He said that there was some vibration issues that he felt were subframe or trailing arm bushings. I felt that even at $5,000 it was a good deal. I didn't get a chance to truly inspect the car, though I probably could have if I asked. I probably should have.

 

 

Every dang light on this thing is illuminated. I'll sort it out eventually. In one of my earlier posts I said that I think the gas gauge was not working. Not the MPG but the actual gauge. I have not experienced the issue again. What happened was I filled the car up (full) and it went all the way to 1/1 then fell to 0 and stayed there for about 2 minutes when it popped back up. I have no idea why.

 

 

The first thing I did to this car was remove the 318 ///M badging. I intend on putting back the 318ti on.

 

 

I went to one of our WiBimmers meets and drove Earl around. I also took a few other members around for rides. The general consensus was that my center support bearing was shot. So after the meet and some research online, I ordered a new center support bearing and tranny mounts. One saturday I met with Earl and Andy at Earl's shop. Earl and Andy will tell you they did all the work, but that was mostly because I'm fat and we clearly didn't have much room to work. 

 

What we learned was that the center support bearing was completely shot. Somewhere someone has a photo of the bearing. Basically the rubber surrounding the bearing was completely free from the metal hanger that attaches to the vehicle. The guibo looked OK, so I didn't replace it (though I probably should have tried). We felt fairly confident that we had successfully diagnosed the problem. We all hoped in the car for a victory lap to Mac Donaldz, but the vibration was still there, and not even slightly better.

 

 

After the failed attempt to fix the car I was fairly upset. All in all I didn't put too much into fixing the issue but I was no where closer to solving the issue. A member on the forums who I met at the meet suggested I visit his shop in Milwaukee for a diagnosis. I went ahead and took my car there. Ultimately, I was given a pretty high estimate for what they felt was a bad driveshaft. Apparently the shop had recently had a 318ti in the shop for the same vibration. They said the client had done the same thing my previous owner did, installed an aftermarket driveshaft, and chased the issue with guibo's and center support bearings. Parts and labor were just too high for me to accept. I appreciated the advice and decided I'd do it with some pals.

 

One thing I had some concern with while researching the issue was that my swap receipt that I had from the previous owner (which was done in 2001) showed a BMW LSD listed. I knew from being under the car that the original 318ti open diff was still in the car. I had my suspicion that there may have been an issue with the LSD at some point so they reverted back to stock, and perhaps the stock unit wasn't any good. I decided to invest in a 3.25 LSD from a E28 and do the small case to medium case diff swap on the 318ti. This meant creating hybrid axels and ultimately was kind of a pain in the ass for Chris, Andy and I who hadn't done this before. Here are some photos of the Diff. It was terribly filthy when I got it. Chris cleaned it up with the parts cleaner at his work. It was a whole lot better after that. 

 

 

So besides the LSD and axels, I ordered a completely new driveshaft which included a guibo and center support bearing. It also had a vibration dampener which was not on my aftermarket driveshaft. I wasn't sure if this was the issue, but it sure seemed like a step in the right direction. After reading online I found that BMW included this on the 318ti's after a certain manufacturing date. Not all have them. In fact some people (even in the e30 crowd) remove these, saying they don't do jack squat.

 

 

So... We get it all buttoned up and then realize we cant shift out of gear. The car's selector rod was rubbing on the vibration dampener. Chris and I researched the issue online and found 318ti.org member J!m who has the exact same set up as me (S52 with stock ti tranny). He posted that he had the same issue with his short shifter and found that when he installed a Z3 1.9 shifter, it cleared the dampener and he was good to go. Many of you got phone calls that night asking if you had a Z3 lever... ... ...

 

ANYWHO, We contemplated cutting off the vibration dampener. It definitely did not come off by unbolting, as it would appear on the diagrams. Ultimately, we called it a night after 12+ hours working. I left with the 3.25 LSD, which worked great... but still had a vibrating driveshaft.

 

 

So some research was done and I learned a few things... First I learned that if I had solid tranny mounts and the Z3 shifter, I should clear that dampener without problems. I then began reading that it's not uncommon for people to have to bend the selector rod to clear the vibration dampener. BMW actually shipped bent and unbent selector rods stock... SO I ordered a 318ti factory bent selector rod, all the goodies needed for a Z3 shifter (and some extras to freshen everything up) and I ordered UUC polly tranny mounts with the enforcer cups.

 

So, Saturday Chris, Andy and I met again. We installed all the goodies and noted a few things in the process. My shift lever was almost identical in size to the z3 shifter i bought new. It didn't look exactly the same, but very close. We also learned that the bent selector rod that I bought was about an inch too long. We learned the shift carrier was actually cut down and shortened. Looks kind of ghetto but its solid. The photo below is Chris grinding down the bolts that were used to reinforce the shift carrier.

 

Ultimately the new parts did not clear the dampener so we bent the selector rod. After everything was buttoned back up, I did notice a little extra engine vibration which i have to imagine is from the aggressive UUC mounts. What was gone was the violent driveshaft shake!

 

 

A lot of my "to do's" have been crossed off and new ones added. For the time being, I am going to enjoy the car. I might buy the M3 front bumper and side moldings for christmas. But I am not going to go crazy with this car. A few exterior mods and the rest is maintenance or minor performance upgrades... at least for now.

 

Thanks to everyone that has helped out with this car. It has really caused me a lot of stress and cost me more than I anticipated. 

[Earl]

Hell yeah=) That dampener had me thrown for a huge loop. Glad that bending the selector rod cleared it. I knew we should have done the poly mounts before =) Did you get blue or black?

[REKIII]

Needs more sleeves.

[B C]

and safety glasses

[DrLeadFoot]

Good to hear you got this straightened out.  Your car had to feel great to be in the confines of the Mecca of Milwaukee for BMWs!

 

Is 3.25 the stock ratio for the diff? 

 

I just got a driveshaft with the vibration damper on it and I just whacked out the bolts with a BFH, took off the damper and then whacked the bolts back into place.

[mkoepp]

Alexw wrote: What happened was I filled the car up (full) and it went all the way to 1/1 then fell to 0 and stayed there for about 2 minutes when it popped back up. I have no idea why.

 

 

I had a 95 325i and the first time I filled up after buying it and mine did the same thing! I drove it for a year and a half and never happened again. My guess was the PO rarely filled it all the way and things where maybe a little sticky. Anyway it never happened again which was good. I hope you have the same luck.

 

 

Mike 

[alexw]

Stock 318ti has a 4.10 open diff and E36 M3 stock was 3.23 LSD. So I felt that the 3.25 LSD from an E28 was a good fit.