BMW E36 Blog

I’ve been contacted yesterday by Peter (he’s of the blog readers) and he sent me this link which has a review for BMW Australia. Peter has suffered from problems in a number of BMW cars that he owned.

It’s really sad to read how much of pain he suffered with these BMW cars. I’m really sure these problems were annoying and maybe dangerous in some situations. I recall that my E36 used to turn off when I turn my A/C on and in some situations, it turned off in some bad areas that really scared me (in traffic intersections sometimes). After that, I had to do some research and keep looking for solutions until one mechanic successfully fixed it.

I know for sure that these cars need good maintenance which can cost a fortune sometimes, but I think you all agree that you enjoy driving them. I’m not affiliated with BMW in anyway but I have to be honest about this. These cars are fun to drive.

I have also noticed that every newer model of BMW is a little bit more complicated than the previous one and in some cases leaves you with some problems that no one can help you with. That’s a real situation that I’ve been in couple times lately. It seems that every newer BMW generation gets even more complicated which results in more faults and more money to pay for fixes. I guess the new Mercedes and Jaguar cars are not better though.

With all that said, I know that the cars (especially new models) have some serious problems and in some situation hard to fix also, but BMW is a cool car when it’s working fine 😆 and I guess that’s what keeps the crowd hungry for more of that product.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 M3 information source.

I’ve posted previously about BMW Options List and I said that you can find the list of options that your car is equipped with. In that post, I thought that a sticker should be found on the backseat with a list of numbers that are actually options codes. That was correct, but the location of the sticker was not on the back of the rear seat as I thought. It was actually placed on the back of the rear bench instead. I know that because I went and looked for it and simply didn’t find any until I removed my car’s rear bench and there it was. So, here are some simple photos for it:

Disclaimer: Use this info at your own risk!! I’m not responsible if this didn’t work for you :-).

Pull in the direction of the arrows below to remove the rear bench

After you remove that bench, you will see the sticker in the back of the bench

I took a photo of the sticker itself, I’m sorry for the dirt. I couldn’t remove it because the sticker is actually a normal paper, so using a little water or cleaner on it will simply ruin it

From the list of numbers that you can see (at the bottom of the sticker), I got my car’s list of options

031	?
055	?
240	Leather Steering Wheel w/ Airbag
320	Script Name Plate … what is this?
354	Anti-glare Windshield Strip
401	Sliding Sunroof Electrical
415	Sunshade for Package Shelf
423	Velour Floor Mats
428	Warning Triangle/First Aid Kit … this is missing! I’d better go find the previous owner!
440	Non-smoker’s Package
473	Front Armrest
481	Sport Seat – Driver/Passenger
494	Heated Seats Driver/Passenger
510	Headlight Adjustment Low Beam Light
554	On-board Computer V
661	Radio, BMW Business
690	Cassette Box
704	Sport Styling (body and suspension)
801	Order Control … What?
848	Enlarged Cable Harness … excuse me?

This is really awesome to be able to find all the options that came with your car. But unfortunately, I don’t recognize some of the options like 031, 055, 801 and 848. Anyone knows what are these options? Now, I would love to see you guys doing the same thing and lets see if you have any special/rare options on your cars. Try it and let me know.

Are you looking for more do it yourself procedures (DIY) ? I recommend the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual for you. I got it and I think it’s a gold mine for us -BMW E36 Owners-. If you didn’t grab your copy yet, get it right now! I’m sure you’ll find this book worth every penny you’ve paid for. Get the Bentley BMW 3 series service manual

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

If you’re reading my blog frequently, you may know that I have discovered recently that my car has heated mirrors LOOOL! 😆 . I’m sure that some of the readers here knew that a car with heated seats should have heated mirrors as well, but still, I think many of you didn’t. The problem is that there are some options that you may not see or even know by just looking at the car’s interior or exterior. This made me think about a better way to determine what are the options installed in my car. To be honest, this information is really hard to get and I spent some time looking until I found the list of BMW options. This list has the options codes and their names. Still, you will need one more thing to determine what the options are for your car. Well, this is no brainer, you should find the list of options codes for your car. I heared from some guys that you should find the list of options codes on the back seat of your car, but I didn’t verify this information yet. I will look at it while I’m going home today and see if I can get the list of options for my car.

This is the complete list of BMW options with codes. Please feel free to download it and keep it for your reference.

BMW Options List

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

It’s time for a new poll here on the BMW E36 Blog. I’ve read many posts that are talking about the posting frequency and how this would affect your audience. To summarize, your readers normally like a certain number of posts per week and that you should seek their opinion about your posting frequency and whether they like your current number of posts per week or not. Then of course, you should follow their will. I’m expecting that the number of posts per week is fine but that’s just me (I’ve voted by the way), so I will leave things up to you now. So, if I’m making you overwhelmed or thirsty for more articles, this is your chance. I’m listening.

About the previous poll, the question was "Would you like to participate in BMW E36 Blog by posting your own articles?". 43 votes were made. The result of the poll was that 72% of the voters would love to participate. Take a look at the result of the vote below:

After I saw that result, I’ve published a post about Participating in the BMW E36 Blog. So, if you didn’t read that post yet, please do now and let me know what you think. If you don’t know how to start, please contact me or leave me a comment and I will be glad to show you how easy it is.

Alright, now it’s your turn to vote. Please take a look at the poll on the right sidebar and let us hear your opinion. Have fun!

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.

I’ve started a poll couple months ago with a question which goes like this "Would you like to participate in BMW E36 Blog by posting your own articles?". The result of the poll was 68% with a Yes answer. Making many users participate in writing on this blog will be a very healthy thing (well I think). It can provide the blog with fresh voices who will add variety and enhance the user experience on this blog. So, I’ve decided to give this a try and see if it’s going to work or not.

Starting from today, if you have any article that you’d like to post to this blog you can do it. You will have to register on this blog (right sidebar). After you register, you can login to your account and write a new post. These posts will need to be reviewed by me to make sure they will have the necessary formatting and other stuff. For those of you who are already registered, I think you may need to contact me in order to modify your user role to become a contributor on this blog. So, please feel free to contact me or submit a comment below.

Please keep in mind that this is just a trial and it should not affect this blog quality or post frequency in anyway. If it worked well and found it helping the blog readers to get more useful information about their BMW E36 cars, I will keep it.

Of course, if you have any opinion about this new idea or you simply hate it. Please post your opinion. You all know that this blog is for you guys which means that if you don’t approve something, I’m not going to do it PERIOD.

BMW E36 Blog: The ultimate BMW E36 information source.