Hello! Firstly a little introduction, I work for Evolve Automotive/Eventuri producing media content, so working at an M car specialist it was only a matter of time before I got one of my own!
That's where this 1997 E36 M3 Evo comes in, I searched for a little while even flying to Frankfurt for the day to view a Daytona Violet one. Truthfully this was only the second car I saw, but with looking for a Purple car, and at the low end of the market my selection wasn't great.
The advert as you can tell was pretty poor but after a couple phone calls and a few videos me and my father set out on the 450 mile trip up to Perth to go view, and ultimately buy the car. It had sat for 2 years after the previous owner passed away, but with the tyres pumped up, a full tank of 99 and the fluid levels checked it was time to drive home, and to be honest the car performed pretty flawlessly on the 450 mile journey back home.
Here's a few photos of how the car looked after the drive home:
The car obviously isn't without its flaws, for example...
A few initial things I noticed were that the clutch bite point was very low, and it ground going in to reverse. There was a slight knocking noise I first thought was VANOS but later worked out is the flywheel. Also the central locking didn't work, the car idled a little rough, and the headlights and DRLs were fucking awful.
The eagle eyed of you will have also noticed that the interior has been changed from grey to black, some of it using actual black items, others painted. The car also clearly doesn't have 36k on! Having had a clock change and unfortunately having had MOT's with the incorrect mileage showing.
With the car having no alarm system this was something I urgently wanted to get fixed, but without the central locking working it was a little pointless! I booked the car in with @kamice1 on IG to have a Clifford 650 Mk2 fitted, and set to work out why the central locking didn't work. After a little snooping around I found the boot wiring had been 'fixed' before...
Unsurprisingly this was shorting out and blowing the fuse for the central locking, luckily one of the other companies is a professional wiring firm, and one of the guys did a great job fixing it for me!
With that fixed it was time to get the car up on the lift and give the car a general check over. I was hoping for little rust, but the usual drivers side jacking point looks pretty crusty, the rest of the car doesn't seem too bad though. Nothing that can't be fixed with the help of the techs at work!
With the car in the air I gave it an oil and filter change, fuel filter and gearbox oil change. I also had intended to fit a Hack Engineering braided clutch line to see if that fixed the low bite point, but after aimlessly wiggling the disc, I noticed this.
Not the best sight to see after having driven the car 450 miles home! Benefits of doing this at work means I can get ECP deliveries, so with a set of Pagid pads the brakes were rebuilt, only to find one caliper was stuck. with this being a second car I decided to strip the brakes off and refurb them all, so an order was made with Bigg Red and I set about doing a quick brake refurb.
Upon rebuilding them I discovered the same piston still wouldn't go all the way in, so it wasn't the corrosion I first thought it was. It turned out to be where the bleed nipple had been drilled and re-tapped. With very little nipple seat left I just ordered a refurb'd caliper from ECP, and luckily it was an ATE caliper with the M stamping!
With these all fitted up and the Hack Engineering braided clutch line fitted I finally had a decent clutch pedal, and brakes that weren't spongy!
Finally KamICE came and fitted the Clifford 650 Mk2, meaning I could leave it outside without wondering if it was still going to be there the next day!
This first post has probably gone on long enough, so I'll leave it there for now! Next up is making the car a little more OEM.
That's where this 1997 E36 M3 Evo comes in, I searched for a little while even flying to Frankfurt for the day to view a Daytona Violet one. Truthfully this was only the second car I saw, but with looking for a Purple car, and at the low end of the market my selection wasn't great.
The advert as you can tell was pretty poor but after a couple phone calls and a few videos me and my father set out on the 450 mile trip up to Perth to go view, and ultimately buy the car. It had sat for 2 years after the previous owner passed away, but with the tyres pumped up, a full tank of 99 and the fluid levels checked it was time to drive home, and to be honest the car performed pretty flawlessly on the 450 mile journey back home.
Here's a few photos of how the car looked after the drive home:
The car obviously isn't without its flaws, for example...
A few initial things I noticed were that the clutch bite point was very low, and it ground going in to reverse. There was a slight knocking noise I first thought was VANOS but later worked out is the flywheel. Also the central locking didn't work, the car idled a little rough, and the headlights and DRLs were fucking awful.
The eagle eyed of you will have also noticed that the interior has been changed from grey to black, some of it using actual black items, others painted. The car also clearly doesn't have 36k on! Having had a clock change and unfortunately having had MOT's with the incorrect mileage showing.
With the car having no alarm system this was something I urgently wanted to get fixed, but without the central locking working it was a little pointless! I booked the car in with @kamice1 on IG to have a Clifford 650 Mk2 fitted, and set to work out why the central locking didn't work. After a little snooping around I found the boot wiring had been 'fixed' before...
Unsurprisingly this was shorting out and blowing the fuse for the central locking, luckily one of the other companies is a professional wiring firm, and one of the guys did a great job fixing it for me!
With that fixed it was time to get the car up on the lift and give the car a general check over. I was hoping for little rust, but the usual drivers side jacking point looks pretty crusty, the rest of the car doesn't seem too bad though. Nothing that can't be fixed with the help of the techs at work!
With the car in the air I gave it an oil and filter change, fuel filter and gearbox oil change. I also had intended to fit a Hack Engineering braided clutch line to see if that fixed the low bite point, but after aimlessly wiggling the disc, I noticed this.
Not the best sight to see after having driven the car 450 miles home! Benefits of doing this at work means I can get ECP deliveries, so with a set of Pagid pads the brakes were rebuilt, only to find one caliper was stuck. with this being a second car I decided to strip the brakes off and refurb them all, so an order was made with Bigg Red and I set about doing a quick brake refurb.
Upon rebuilding them I discovered the same piston still wouldn't go all the way in, so it wasn't the corrosion I first thought it was. It turned out to be where the bleed nipple had been drilled and re-tapped. With very little nipple seat left I just ordered a refurb'd caliper from ECP, and luckily it was an ATE caliper with the M stamping!
With these all fitted up and the Hack Engineering braided clutch line fitted I finally had a decent clutch pedal, and brakes that weren't spongy!
Finally KamICE came and fitted the Clifford 650 Mk2, meaning I could leave it outside without wondering if it was still going to be there the next day!
This first post has probably gone on long enough, so I'll leave it there for now! Next up is making the car a little more OEM.
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