I'm a member of Bimmerforums. However, I mostly look in the racing forum. The general forum was getting a bit too silly. In general, it's not a half bad, but I agree with the post about youngsters buying them and getting on the forums.

I have found that I don't much care for most of the BMW community. Too much attitude. Matt's right about the E46 group having their own forum (E46fanatics). I hate that one. Those guys are mostly riceboys with money. Mostly they are all image and don't really understand cars and car dynamics. Much as I've always wanted a BMW and a Porsche (never thought I'd have both), I generally can do without the "Beemer" community. I don't much care for most folks who call them "Beemers" either. It's mostly yuppie types and posuers who call them Beemers (it's BIMMER dammit).

I do wonder what some areas of Rennlist outside the 944 community is like however. The racers of course are pretty serious and the 944 guys mostly know their stuff. I wonder if the real knowledge is there in the other forums on Rennlist (honest question, not an accusation).

As for the E39 540i, you may want to consider a 530i as well. According to Bimmer magazine, the 530i is more the enthusiast car.

 

If you think that BF is bad, don't ever visit DTMpower.net. I think the term "ICE" was spawned there. DTM'ers ironically bash ricers while posting Q's and pics of their all-white cataract tailights, 500lbs stereos, Transformer-type body kits, and chrome dubs.

 

I visit this forum a lot. Specially their Kill Stories. It's kinda funny to read how they kill every car they face. What's even worse than this is the S2Ki and SRT Kill forums. They are unbeatable. They seem to smoke every car they face.

 

You mean you posted a question at S14.net and never got an answer? That surprises me, most of the people there are very serious, and they still take the time to answer my dumb noob questions.

And the body kit question, I get that all the time too, it's funny and sad at the same time .

 

No, I meant bimmerforums. Wasn't really a noob question, I needed to know what wire sent the speedo signal to the obc. My speedo and Odo work, but any function of the obc that requires a distance input doesn't. (It's the red/black wire) I haven't had a chance to tear into it to check it out, the M3 is put away along with most everything else.

Wish I could remember what forum was able to help me out. It wasn't very popular, I posted my question, it was answered maybe a week later and my post was only 5 or so down from the top.

 

Probably Beemer owners.

 

I am a pretty active and long time member over at bimmerforums. I have to agree that there are far too many kids there with no interest in learning about the cars themselves, and trust funds too big for thier own good. The fact is, most of the cars there are still on warranty, or coming off warranty, there is very little real technical knowledge about the cars there. There are a lot of like minded, serious enthusiasts there though, you just have to cut through the BS and recognize them, but that takes some time. I find the same problem over at audiworld, since warranty takes care of the cars, there is no real technical knowledge yet.

BTW...I know an E30 M3 when I see one. I have one in my garage!
I can also probably tell you which Moderators you are talking about without even reading the thread. There is real point to being critical of them at BFC, all it will do is earn you a nice "timeout", and Kill Stories is the one section of the forum I tend to avoid.

 

Haha, we should have a rennlist BMW get together .

I highly recommend the S14.net forums for the E30 M3 stuff. There's also a reasobly large buying/selling forum over there with some great deals. I got an enitre tail light assembly for $20 shipped. There are also vendors on the boards there that make M3 specific priducts just like here. It's my other daily visit forum .

 

I joined the Bimmer forum, but I have hardly looked at it. I actually hate my BMW 328i. Yeah, it handles better and is faster than my 944, but it is not built as well and it is almost impossible to get information on. For instance, you cannot buy an official shop manual. If you manage to get the CD, it does not have all the information on it and it was expensive last I looked.

It seems like everything requires a trip to the BMW dealer - reading codes, resetting things, even some maintenance checks. Indys do not have access to some of the special tools, especially computer-related.

As to the drivers: I've participated in both PCA and BMW CCA driving events. Overall, the Bimmer drivers do not seem as knowledgeable of their cars or driving them fast as the P-car drivers. The instructors and mechanic-types are about equal - and really know their stuff.

I've seen the same "kids" at both, but more often at BMW events. Probably 'cause the car is cheaper and they sell a lot more. They have a strong tendency to brag - but weren't we all like that when we were young? Why, I remember the time my GTO took on that Boss Mustang ...

I hate Bimmers.

. . . Steve

 

I'm sure I agree with "not built as well." Have you disassembled a 944? They are put together with tape and glue. I'm not kidding. What a shock it was to me.

I will say that I'm really disappoined in the reliability of my Bimmer. It's been in the shop more than my last two cars already. It's now off warranty and for the first time I'm considering buying an extended warranty.

But you can get a Bentley's, which I wish were available for the 944.

For $150 you can get a scan tool to read and reset most codes. Furthermore, the Bentley's manual discusses alternate methods of resetting codes.

Actually, I find the opposite reason for the kids being such *******. The cars are more expensive and they have no mechanical aptitude, so their basis of comparison and argument is always superficial.

 

The Bentley manual is much cheaper and far superior/usable to a factory shop manual. The Peake OBDII tool is $139 new, and resets everything except the SRS lights.

The M52 6 cyl is an excellent powerplant, requiring very little maintainence. Only issues are the plastic waterpump impeller shattering at 50k miles, plastic thermostat housing cracking at 50k miles, radiator neck cracking at 6 yrs/50k miles, upper timing chain tensioner going soft at 50k miles.

The weak points on the E36 chassis are the rear strut mounts (40 k mile life) which should be replaced with E46 units, rear control arms which usually get bent when used as dyno or towing tie-downs.

 

time to defend bmw reliability... my 150k+ mile e34 only went in the shop once (for a fuel pump) in the year and a half i was beating on it.


i dont know anything about your special tool and computer woes because of my job though

 

Boy, I wish.

In the first month it was on the flatbed as much as my two previous cars (broken water pump shaft).

I've had the following issues:

* sunroof shade off tracks
* bad hazzard/lock switch
* bad map light switch
* broken rear power winder regulator (other one was about to go as well)
* fluctuating cold idle they can't seem to fix
* bad cam sensor
* airbag light..... TWICE

This may all seem petty (and does to me somewhat after reading it), but this is all in a year of ownership. And I know I'm forgetting something.

My two previous cars, 91 Nissan Setnra SE-R and a 91 Infiniti G20 (300k combined mileage) didn't have this much go wrong in the entire time I owned them. Combined.

 

Mine was absolutely problem free BUT my E34 is a cooling system nightmare. I am over 1K dollars and I did the repairs myself. There is not a new hose on the car. As I fixed one 3 others would leak. That thing has to have 100 foot of cooling hoses. My next car will be aircooled!
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