BMW E36 Blog

Hi Guys,

Today, I found this video with tons of information about the BMW E36 history and its progress. It also describes some of the important characteristics of this great car and some information about its design.

Enjoy.

Wait for more from … BMW E36 Blog.

Best regards,

Tony Sticks.

Hi Friends,

As I promised you, I’m writing today about how I upgraded my BMW E36 sound system without doing any damages to my car. I was not happy with the standard sound in my car as I kept recalling the sound system that I used to have in my previous BMW E30. It was a sound system with (Kenwood speakers, Subwoofers, Boschmann amplifier and a Sony Xplod headset with a CD changer). So, I wanted to do a similar change to my new car, but I didn’t want to make any damages to the car as I had to cut through the metal to place the speakers and the subwoofers in my old car. I found a new way which I think it’s away better than the old one and I’m going to explain it with photos next . So enjoy and I hope you’ll find this article very interesting.

Disclaimer: Use this procedure at your own risk and don’t blame me of any trouble 😉

With that said, we can start now. . .

The first thing that I had to do with is to remove the covers that BMW used to hide the rear speakers. By using a screwdriver, you can easily do that but you have to be careful in order not to break them. After you remove that cover, you’ll be able to see the rear speakers. See screenshot below:

and this one:

Now, after your see this, you can use the screwdriver again to remove the 2 screws that hold each of the rear speakers. After you remove the screws, you can easily remove the rear speakers, but you should do that from the trunk side, not from the room side. Don’t forget to unplug the speakers first, see screenshot below:

Now that you’ve removed the speaker, it’s time to put the new speakers. See screenshots below:

Now, you have to remove the speakers cover, like screenshots above. This will give you the ability to stick the rounded area of the speaker which holds the small speakers (Tweeters) in the whole of the original speakers.

After that, you’ll have to use the drill to make two small wholes (or four) from the trunk side for each speaker to hold it using screws. This was a little bit hard for me because there’s no much space in the trunk to do it, but after some hard tries/fails, I successfully did it.

The next step is to connect the wires of the original plug of each speaker to the new one. After you do this, it should look something like the screenshots below:

So, now we have the speakers placed in the trunk and without cutting anything in the car steel. After that, you should put the rear covers back in the same way your removed them (from the car room side) and everything will be done.

In the next few days, I will be writing about connecting the new CD headset. I’m putting these photos for the headset after it’s installed for you to see.

Hello friends,

I found this article about on board diagnostics for your BMW E36 and I thought wow! that’s cool. Unfortunately, I tried to do it on my BMW E36 1993 318is but it didn’t work 🙁 I’m not sure whether I did it right or not, maybe some of you guys will try it. I think it should work, but in my case, I don’t know why it didn’t. Anyway, I shouldn’t forget to thank Jared Fenton, the author of the article. Ready? here it goes:

Disclaimer: Use it at your own risk !!!

Did you know that your BMW 3 Series has an internal diagnostic program built into the computer? Not many people know about this. On the BMW 3 Series, there is a way that you can diagnose common engine problems without having to purchase a code tool or take it to the dealer to have it scanned. This is one of those neat little features of the Service Indicator Computer; the series of lights directly under the tachometer and speedometer that remind you to change the oil and perform service. In this tech article, I will provide you with the procedure for checking the fault codes and what the codes mean. This guide will help you to diagnose any possible problems with your car.

This article is written for both the BMW E30 and E36 3 Series cars (up to 95) and should work on both models where a Service Indicator Computer is used. I will go over the small differences between the early and late cars, as they differ slightly. Keep in mind that this procedure will not work on early cars with Motronic 1.1.

Now on the E30 models, get in the car and put the key in the ignition and turn it to the second turn or �ON� position, but do not start the car. Now, press the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor, then let it release all the way back. Now repeat the depress/release cycle 4 more times fairly quickly, but not too fast. It may take some time to get this timing down correct. It should only take you a few seconds to do this. What this does is activate the wide-open throttle switch and the idle switch 5 times. This then sends a signal to the Motronic ECU to send fault codes to the Service Indicator Light.

On the E36 models, the procedure works the same way, but the timing at which you press/release the gas pedal is faster than on the E30. Just keep at it, and you will eventually get the correct speed.

Watch the �Check Engine� light. It should blink once, and then start blinking a series of four numbers. For instance, say this is a sequence you see� the light blinks once, then twice, then four times and lastly four times. If you read it correctly this means that the SI light is reading out the code 1244 (faulty camshaft sensor) The codes appear as a series of flashes for each digit. The flashes indicating one digit are about one second apart, the next digit will appear after a couple seconds interval. If there are no faults in the car, the computer will flash out the number 1444.

Here is the list of codes and what they indicate.

1211 DME Control Unit

1215 Air Mass Sensor

1216 Throttle Potentiometer

1218 Output Stage, Group 1

1219 Output Stage, Group 2

1221 Oxygen Sensor 1

1212 Oxygen Sensor 2

1222 Lambda Control 1

1213 Lambda Control 2

1223 Coolant Temperature Sensor

1224 Intake Air Temperature Sensor

1225 Knock Sensor 1

1226 Knock Sensor 2

1227 Knock Sensor 3

1228 Knock Sensor 4

1231 Battery Voltage/DME Main Relay

1232 Throttle Idle Switch

1233 Throttle Wide Open Throttle Switch

1234 Speedometer A Signal

1237 A/C Compressor Cut Off

1242 A/C Compressor

1243 Crankshaft Pulse Sensor

1244 Camshaft Sensor

1245 Intervention AEGS

1247 Ignition Secondary Monitor

1251 Fuel Injector 1 (or group 1)

1252 Fuel Injector 2 (or group 2)

1253 Fuel Injector 3

1254 Fuel Injector 4

1255 Fuel Injector 5

1256 Fuel Injector 6

1257 Fuel Injector 7

1258 Fuel Injector 8

1261 Fuel Pump Relay Control

1262 Idle Speed Actuator

1263 Purge Valve

1264 EGO Heater

1265 Fault Lamp (check engine light)

1266 VANOS

1267 Air Pump Relay Control

1271 Ignition Coil 1

1272 Ignition Coil 2

1273 Ignition Coil 3

1274 Ignition Coil 4

1275 Ignition Coil 5

1276 Ignition Coil 6

1277 Ignition Coil 7

1278 Ignition Coil 8

1281 Control Unit Memory Supply

1282 Fault Code Memory

1283 Fuel Injector Output Stage

1286 Knock Control Test Pulse

1444 No Fault Codes
 

I hope you enjoyed this article and I hope it will work for you.

Wait for more from . . . BMW E36 Blog

Best regards,

Tony Sticks.

Howdy,

Today, I spent half the day working on my car. I changed the headset of the car to CD player instead (Sony Xplod) and I replaced the rear speakers with brand new Pioneer speakers. I will be writing about this change in the following posts here. But today, I will post to you this new red BMW while it’s making some donuts in a very tight place. I thought it’s cool and that you should see it . . . agree? ok lets go.

Wooooo

Wait for more from … BMW E36 Blog.

Best regards,

Tony Sticks.

Hi,

Now this is some crazy donuts that are hard to find. This guy is very good in this, so I thought you should see it here. A very nice BMW E36 doing some serious donuts.

Enjoooooy

Now if you excuse me … I have to go to sleep because I’m really tired and it has been a very long day. See you soon

Wait for more from … BMW E36 Blog.

Best regards,

Tony Sticks.