Source
r/BMWE36•
Russki

E36 M3 rust check and recommended suspension/mods for occasional track use

Hi everyone. Got me a 96 euro m3 for dirt cheap (pretty much free) in Europe just before COVID and am finally getting to drive it. It has a ton of cosmetic damage with a bubbling up rust spot on the rear fender, which makes me concerned for the rest. It has high mileage (330K km) and some idle and power band issues under 4k RPM along with a falling power steering pump and shot suspension. Before I go all in and dive straight into an engine rebuild+extras to turn this into a track ready car, I want to make sure it's good from a structural perspective. Besides the jack points, what other rust-prone areas should I have checked? Also, any recommendations for after market parts after a rebuild? If it's all good and the rust checks out, probably getting kw3s and poly bushings along with new slotted rotors and steel lines throughout to start.

Edit: also remembered that my 3rd gear synchros are also getting bad so probably trying to find a lightly used 6sp getrag from E46 as I recall it should be identical unless there are better options there (and not much pricier).

Posted Dec 14, 2022, 10:55 AM UTC · edited

45
imnota_92 e36 325i / 02 e46 318d•

Jack points, the whole sills (pop off the plastic sideskirts), trailing arm pockets, above the trailing arm mounting point in the rear wheel wells (make sure to push and feel the undercoating, on mine I was pushing the undercoating and it was soft and floppy, ripped it off and big fist sized rust hole that was bridged by a thick layer of undercoating), remove front fender liners and inspect (mine also had rust there, bottom of the fenders themselves and structure behind fenders), all the drainage points and hole covers (not sure what they're for but often rust), other than that the things left are classic areas for any car, floors, subframes and subframe mounting points, etc.

As for upgrades, if you can get spherical RTAB or OEM with limiters instead of poly. Also lookup 96 m3 mounts switched side to see if your car applies, but basically on some m3's switching the left and right strut mount gives increased camber on the front for better steering feel and grip, but you might not need that with v3's can't remember if those have top mounts or not.

2
jogurtinsh323i bostongreen Coupe •

On top of my head.....

More structural parts: Jack points, rear strut towers, rear trailing arm mounting points, sometimes front strut towers in the place where its spotwelded on the chassis, front stabilizator link mounts.

Less "structural"(depends how bad is rust of course) but still important: rocker panels , floor panels, trunk floor(spare tire spot and battery spot), front pockets under fenders.

At least subframe mounts shouldn't be a problem since it's an M3.

2
DiboMaconi•

Floors, the floors rust on these things pretty bad in my experience. Get her on a ramp and check the whole underside. There’s a few plastic panels you’ll need to remove but you’ll get a good indication of how bad it is from there. Take the front wheel-arch liners out too. That gives you a lot of visibility to check the arches. I dunno if the ones I’ve seen rust bad because they’re here in Scotland but it’s worth checking.

1
DrSatan420247•

For the track you need larger front brakes with track pads. Stock brakes on that car won't work on the track.

1
MadFatty•

You needa check the seam weld on the corner where the floor pan meets the rear passenger feet from underneath as well as the inside under the carpet and fix any rust, paint and then seam seal

1