BMW E36s Are Reliable (if you take care of them)

Hey, E36 Fanatics, Steven here

Today I want to talk to you about BMW E36 reliability. I had a friend of mine the other day asking me about my old BMW E36 I used to drive around

and was talking to me about how reliable it was. So I figured I'd make a video about it

If you have an A36 for all my subscribers out there and viewers watching this video

drop a comment below about your choice. about your experiences with ownership and its reliability or lack thereof and

before I jump into discussing BMW 36 reliability I want to throw out a message

to my subscriber now for all my subscribers out there I want to let you know that

I'm going to be expanding a lot of my videos in the next couple months I'm

trying to get back on a schedule where I'm posting every week you can expect

my videos coming forward at least once every week on Monday day and maybe some weeks I'll even post two depending on what I'm doing and for those of you who

are not subscribed hit that subscribe button because I post a lot of interesting content not just

concerning BMW-E-36s I also do stuff with more general stuff with BMWs DIYs and I'm also going to be

doing a few restoration projects over the next couple months so hit that subscribe button so in my opinion

BMW E36s absolutely do not deserve a reputation for being unreliable. I have owned personally, I am a little bit biased

Actually, I'm really biased, to be honest with you. I've owned two daily driver BMW 36es

which if you're subscribed to my channel, you've probably seen in some of my DIYs

Owned a 328I, a 318 eye. And then besides that, I flipped multiple BMW 36es

I parted out multiple BMW 36es. So I know a lot about these cars, and I've been working on them for a really, really long time

So that gives me a little bit more knowledge about these cars on a more personal level, owning these cars up to 200,000 miles, 250,000 miles

And I can say that these cars are generally very reliable. So what kind of different things actually makes these cars more reliable than a lot of other BMWs that you might

might see on the market today. Well, there's a couple of reasons why

First off if you ever seen my DIY videos on this channel you might notice that I very rarely do a really really big job Something dealing with the transmission the engine

Really, the most complex stuff I usually get into on YouTube is changing out the Vanos system on the cars

Those go bad, you know, the infamous rattle and stuff like that. Or, you know, changing out the cooling systems, which I consider, you know, not a very difficult job to be on

with you. But besides that, you never see me pulling transmissions, you know, redoing motors

pulling out motors, at least because something went bad. It's because the drive trains on these

vehicles are pretty close to bulletproof. You know, they're very, very tough. I've owned multiple

sets of these cars, and they very rarely have serious drive train issues. They do have a number

different, more minor issues, and there are some things to be weary of when considering a BMW

series, not just E36, but really all of them have certain issues. But when it comes to, you know

blowing a motor, throwing a rod, you know, transmission goes out. That is very uncommon with E36

So what are some drawbacks with E36 reliability that I've seen over the years? Well, this is very uncommon

really two big ones that I've seen owning a couple of BMW 36es

The first one is the coolant system. Jesus Christ, and it's not just E36s either

Every single three series, I've owned an E46 before, I've owned an E90 before, every one of

them had coolant system issues. You have to replace the entire coolant system after maybe 80,000 miles, give or take a little

bit and if you do not you are risking the vitality of the of the head gasket if you've ever seen

any of my videos where I'm talking about how I'm parting out BMW E36 is because I've done a couple

of them on this channel guess what how I got those things so cheap it was because somebody didn't

replace the cooling system the head gasket blew damage to the damage to the rest of the engine

and they sold it to me for 500 bucks so what do I I do with them, I take apart everything except for the engine and part that puppy out on eBay and Craigslist

So the coolant system is a huge issue with these vehicles but it kind of like an Achilles heel but it not something that actually kills these cars Because like I said also the cooling system can be

troublesome with the E36s. You know, you might have heard of the plastic impellers on the water

pumps. You might have heard of that stupid reservoir that cracks over time. But if you take care

of the car and you change out that cooling system every so, once it hits that mileage marker

then you're not going to have any issues out of it. Plus, I'm going to talk about this in another video

but there are multiple upgrades you can do to E36s to really reduce your risk with cooling system failures

They make an aluminum tank now for the reservoir tanks, and most water pumps nowadays, if you've replaced it

you've probably replaced that stupid plastic impeller with a decent metal one, so it doesn't give you serious problems

So the cooling system issues are dealing, are workable. There's some other common issues on E36s, the power windows and regulators

This car behind me right now, I've swapped both of the window regulators, both of the power window

motors. The door handles on these vehicles are also problematic. But really, it's only because

you know, once they get into these higher mileage cars, this car has more than 140,000 miles on it

Once they get there and these cars are like 20, 25 years old, of course they're going to have issues with door handles

I mean, they've been opening, you've been opening and closing the door for 20-something years

So it makes sense that they're going to have issues. But it's something that I need to, that I should tell you, because the door handles on these cars are a major pain in the ass to replace

It sucks. The exterior door handles, they're terrible. So I've replaced both of those door handles on this vehicle

And then just some other odds and end stuff. The AC climate control module usually goes bad on these cars

But once again, you've got to expect stuff like that. And my other major thing that I want to mention about E36 reliability

Now, this isn't necessarily controlling for just E36s. Really, it's an issue for any convertible that you might buy

However, I've owned those two dailies I was talking about. They were both convertibles and did something really stupid when I bought them I didn keep them housed in a garage on a day basis when I drove them home So I live in North Carolina We get some vicious rainstorms during the spring during the summer

And you know what? Any convertible you've ever owned, I don't care how old it is

It leaks when you have a major rainstorm. So what that causes to these vehicles to the E36s is because they're all leather

that leather degrades over time. The steering wheel even is leather. so that degrades over time and you can have a serious issue from just not keeping your convertible

E36 inside. Now this is a super easy solution to that. Just keep your car inside or don't buy a convertible

E36. So that's an easy fix. If you want to take a look at a video on buying convertibles, I actually

have another video and the video link is going to be at the top in the card so you can check that out

So other than those minor issues with E36s, I would say that yes, these cars are relatively reliable

And the reasons I would say that, because the cars just don't have major issues with engine, transmission, drives, train

The issues that they do have, if you are at all just a little bit interested in working on your own car, then you can do it

Trust me, when I first bought my first 318 E36, I didn't know a thing about repairing vehicles

I was 16, didn't know nothing. All I did was bought a BMW manual and watched some YouTube videos, and that's literally how I learned how to work on these cars, at least work on that first car

I got a little bit better over time, but pretty much any repair you'll need to do with the cooling system

the anything dealing with the intake or any any issues with diagnosing the car

you can find that on YouTube nowadays so these cars are relatively easy to work on for a DIYer

so you can really save on maintenance costs and the parts also they're more expensive than like

what you would find for a Honda or I got a Ford Ranger over there

and that thing is cheap on parts but they're not that bad

Like I said, the E36, I think it's a very reliable car even into the higher mileage

They do have some issues, but I've owned an E36 that made it to 250K

The only reason I got rid of is because somebody bumped into me and insurance totaled it

So I think they're very reliable cars. And I hope you enjoyed this video

If you did, please like it. Y'all have a good one