Great cars. They like to eat brakes in regular intervals. With 70k make sure there is no front end shimmy that is the result in worn control arm bushings/warped brake rotors.
My lovely girl friend has a 2 door BMW 1997 325i. It's a very pretty car with 176k miles on it. We drove it all over and one day it hit me, when was the last time the oil was changed? She thought her parents maintained it, but after some digging the oil hadn't been changed in 1 1/2 years and possibly 30k miles. I pulled the filter out and it was worse than this, and just fyi BMW filters like these do it kinda often from what I have read.
Then engine had 2.5 out of the 7 quarts it is supposed to have. (poured the oil in a 4 quart jug to see). I have absolutely no idea how it lasted so long. It was a ticking time bomb. So after 6 quarts of oil and the seventh being sludge cleaner, the engine has no more ticks and runs very well.
+1 used those on my e90 BMW last year during the 'record' snowfall and the were great.
Brakes are excellent
The OEM brake pads were painfully inadequate for anything more than street driving. Interestingly enough, the rest of the brake components were designed very good and they have a lot of capacity. A simple pad upgrade and brake fluid flush proved sufficient for more serious track days.
I vastly prefer my R to the BMW. I think the R drives better, its more tossable, i feel like the steering is better weighted and the brakes are much better.
Looks to be exact same procedure as on my e46. Perhaps the easiest oil change I've ever done. In fact, I've used the same brand and spec oil too, which is an BMW LL-01.
I tried/am trying to fit a set of E36 lights into my jetta. They are a bit wider, and shorter than the stock headlights. You would need a hood spoiler to fill the gap above the headlight, you would need to make a custom spacer to fill the gap between the headlight and the fender, you would have to cut up the headlight, the radiator support, and part of the inside of the fender. I got one light to \"fit\" and it looks pretty dope, but it doesn't fit the contour (sp) of the car, they are more square and flat than the stock lights. Oh and you would have to make the brackets to mount the lights to the car. Quite a PITA for something that looks kind of cool, but doesn't quite fit right...
the steering lacks the consistent weighting and tactile communication that a Porsche offers. For a car this rapid, it's not as talkative as it should be. We've also got reservations about the brakes. Our test car was fitted with competition-grade brake pads to cope with track use, but they still faded badly after a handful of hard laps.
they look like crap imo. too many gaps on the side, top, bottom etc... they just don't look like they belong. that and you have to bootleg the install just to hide everything. shouldn't have to be like that. keep it clean.
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