Dan's BMW Motorsport Page
       

Dan's BMW Motorsport Page
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This page is all about the care and feeding of E30 (1984-91 3-series) and E36 (1992-98 3-series) BMWs. As my cars are both daily drivers and track cars, I have information on maintenance and repair for daily drivers and performance modifications and other important items for track cars.

If you have lots of cash and no time, you can pay the dealer to repair and maintain your daily driver and any of a number of reputable race shops to prepare your track car. If you prefer to do as much of the work yourself as possible, you should join one or more of the relevant BMW mailing lists. There are lots of knowledgeable, experienced Bimmer pilots out there and you can save yourself time and money by leveraging their experiences.

Some good BMW mailing lists are:

UUC Digest A high-traffic BMW list, not specific to any particular model. If you're interested in general repair and maintenance of your BMW, you should join this list.
E36 M3 List A medium to high-traffic list dedicated to the E36 M3. There are lots of very capable and helpful list members. Many track their cars regularly and have significant high-performance driving experience. If you have an E36 M3 and are interested in repairing or tracking your car, you should join this list.
E30 List A medium-traffic list dedicated to all E30 models. There's lots of E30 repair and autocross experience on this list. This is a worthwhile list to join if you have an E30.
E30 M3 SIG Dedicated to the E30 M3. I don't know much about this list, but it comes highly recommended from several sources.

I have collected a number of posts over the years from these mailing lists that I found useful. Perhaps you will find them useful, too. Richard Nott has compiled a larger variety of useful posts from these lists, as well.

In addition to the mailing lists, there are a number of sites on the web with helpful writeups of various repair, maintenance, and upgrade procedures. The following are among the more popular of these sites:

  • NeilWerke.com -- excellent writeups with pictures on many E30 and some E34 jobs.
  • BMW E30 Network -- lots of articles on E30 maintenance and repairs. Good message board, too.
  • Unofficial BMW -- writeups on lots of different jobs for many different BMWs.
  • More to come

    • Parts Vendors

  • Ultimate Garage -- good source for consumable parts (brake pads, O2 sensor, spark plugs, etc). Good source for Facom and BMW tools and garage building advice. Great service.
  • UUC Motorwerks -- high performance aftermarket parts. Great shortshifters and good service.
  • Bimmerparts aka Zygmunt Motors -- good place for general OEM parts (tune-up parts, brake rotors, water pumps, etc.).
  • Koala Motorsport -- BMW special tool rental. Also sells tools, some parts. Repair and race car prep.
  • The Parts Bin aka AllOEMBMWParts -- another good place for general OEM parts.
  • Turner Motorsports -- lots of mostly aftermarket street and track performance parts (suspension, brakes, etc.) They also do race car preparation.
  • Rogue Engineering -- high performance aftermarket parts for BMW and Mini.
  • TC Kline Racing -- another good source of mostly aftermarket street and track performance parts. I think they also do race car prep.
  • Zionsville Autosport -- good source for used OEM parts. Also carries new parts and M50/S50 E30 transplant kit.
  • Bimmer World -- used OEM parts, aftermarket street and track performance parts, race car sales and prep.
  • Korman Autoworks -- high (mostly aftermarket) performance parts, engine rebuilds, race car prep.
  • Ground Control -- high performance aftermarket suspension parts mostly for E30/E36/E46 cars. Some E28/E34/E21/2002 parts.
  • Ireland Engineering -- high performance aftermarket parts primarily for the 2002 and E30.
  • Vines BMW -- used and new OEM parts.
  • Circle BMW -- dealer with good mail order discount on OEM parts.
  • Tire Rack -- great source for wheels and tires. Knowledgeable and helpful sales staff.
  • Leatherique -- good leather care products. Mention BMWCCA for a discount.
  • Car Care Specialties -- great source for quality car care products such as waxes and cleaners. Great customer service.
  • BMP Designs -- lots of primarily aftermarket parts from suspensions to body kits.

    • Maintenance and Repair Records

    Work in progress

    Useful Links

    Work in progress

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