Motortrend's Cars - Gojira

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I'm very jealous right now haha. Not only are you driving the hell out of the M5, you're modding it and you just bought an awesome SUV. I'm trying to do both as well but I'm failing miserably.
 
hemisport15
I'm very jealous right now haha. Not only are you driving the hell out of the M5, you're modding it and you just bought an awesome SUV. I'm trying to do both as well but I'm failing miserably.
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:lol: give it time, it took me two years Of fixing stuff until I finally got to some fun mods and the car is still stock power wise. Hell, my M5 still doesn't look as clean as your M3 after all I've done haha but I guess that's the price I pay for driving the snot out of it from time to time.
 
On a scale from 1-10, how reliable would you rate your E39 to be? Compared to, let's say, an E46 M3 or E36 M3?
 
Swara
On a scale from 1-10, how reliable would you rate your E39 to be? Compared to, let's say, an E46 M3 or E36 M3?
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It depends of your definition of "reliable". Things I've NEEDED to change are very few, only VANOS solenoids, brake disks/pads and tires. However, with all the small and big bits of restoration plus the mods put together it would all probably go over the original purchase price of the car.
 
motortrend
:lol: give it time, it took me two years Of fixing stuff until I finally got to some fun mods and the car is still stock power wise. Hell, my M5 still doesn't look as clean as your M3 after all I've done haha but I guess that's the price I pay for driving the snot out of it from time to time.
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Believe me, your M5 is wayyyy cleaner than the M3 haha. Any plans for power mods? Maybe headers, cats, and a tune first?

Swara
On a scale from 1-10, how reliable would you rate your E39 to be? Compared to, let's say, an E46 M3 or E36 M3?
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motortrend
It depends of your definition of "reliable". Things I've NEEDED to change are very few, only VANOS solenoids, brake disks/pads and tires. However, with all the small and big bits of restoration plus the mods put together it would all probably go over the original purchase price of the car.
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The US spec E36 M3 is the cheapest/most reliable out of all three for sure. The US S52 is just a slightly hopped up M52 (no throttle bodies amongst other things) and is not as high strung as the S54 from the E46 or the S62 from the M5. That being said, they all have similar maintenance items just at different costs. For example, VANOS and the cooling system on all of these cars really need to be taken care of. Subframes on the E36 and E46 are other failure points. And both the M5 and E46 M3 need valve adjustments ever so many thousand miles as well. That's just some of the major stuff. Buying one and owning one are two different things... if that makes sense.
 
hemisport15
Believe me, your M5 is wayyyy cleaner than the M3 haha. Any plans for power mods? Maybe headers, cats, and a tune first?





The US spec E36 M3 is the cheapest/most reliable out of all three for sure. The US S52 is just a slightly hopped up M52 (no throttle bodies amongst other things) and is not as high strung as the S54 from the E46 or the S62 from the M5. That being said, they all have similar maintenance items just at different costs. For example, VANOS and the cooling system on all of these cars really need to be taken care of. Subframes on the E36 and E46 are other failure points. And both the M5 and E46 M3 need valve adjustments ever so many thousand miles as well. That's just some of the major stuff. Buying one and owning one are two different things... if that makes sense.
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That sums it up pretty well, though I had only heard about valve adjustments for the older (S38, S14) engines. The other costly thing here is the chain guides.

I the short term I plan on only doing a ram air I take with the fogs and a tune. After that, considering I'll have the oil cooler, I might do the supercharger and no headers.
 
Yeah... I've been having some pretty terrible luck lately. I'll try to sum it all up:
At the beginning of september I was driving along the highway in a rainy night, didn't see that a manhole cover was slightly lifted off it's base, clipped it, it lifted up and hit the driver's side undertray. What happened? Side airbags went off, many curse words ensued:
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Parked the car and started using the LC. Had a misshap with the LC that ended up messing up my rear bumper but that's another story and not relevant.

Anyway, called up BMWNA to see if there was anything that they could do since the airbags went off and it wasn't in the case of a crash. Long story short, they didn't do anything and gave me the stupidest answers possible but hey, that's BMWNA for ya. Cut up the airbags, and went to the mechanic. He gave it a look over and told me that the headliner could be fixed and I would only need the pillar trim as new parts (the plastic broke) and that the airbags could be sourced from parts cars for cheap so that made it all way less expensive. Anyway, since the mechanic hadn't sourced the parts yet I kept using the car from time to time in short journeys aaaaaand the last time I used it there was a 🤬 huge branch right in the middle of my lane in a corner so I decided it was best to take it head on instead of trying to avoid it and getting myself in a dangerous situation. That led to this
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Now I need a new bumper and the fan in front of the radiator went to 🤬 so I need that as well

Aaaaaand to top it all off, the leak in my radiator has been getting progressively worse, to the point of losing 1 inch of fluid from the reservoir in about a week.

So, the car will sit until I muster up something like 3 grand which will be about how much it will take to do all of this IF I don't use all OEM parts and take my time.

That means that y'all won't be seeing much of this car until the end of the year probably, but some small things are coming right after I take care of all these problems.

Sometimes I think about selling it since this year it's eaten up more than a monthly payment on a pretty damn nice car. However, I look at it, (momentarily see money burning in the combustion chamber) drive it, and it all goes away.
 
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Ibonibo
:( :(:(

Update matey??

What happend in the end?
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Still in process, all Is going well, albeit a little slowly. The new bumper is painted and on the car since almost a month now.
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The radiators are still not ready to ship but mine should get here early January. As for the airbag issue, I still have to buy two of them but that's the least of my worries. By mid January it should be up and running and ready to rip at the track.


As for the LC, it's got 4 new tires, a recent oil change (today) and fixed the rear bumper on it so it's almost better than when I got it. Still some things to do but it's been an amazing DD and taken a lot of stress out of getting the M5 ready in a hurry.
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The M3 got a tune and a set of turner test pipes and ohhhh my god that is exactly what it needed. Now it feels as fast if not faster than the M5 at low speeds and over 80 it pulls like you couldn't believe. Currently it's losing traction in 1st through full 2nd gear if I leave the throttle pinned
 

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I'm happy to announce that the M5 is almost 100% back. Aluminum radiator is installed and it went to its first track day of the year. Airbags are all here, just saving up for the install. I'll keep tracking the car a couple of times a year but I'm looking for something to rag on and I can really push without worry at the track. I'll probably get the most track ready civic I can find, so stay tuned for that by the end of the year maybe or early next year.
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As the title states, this will be the last update for the coming months, because I will be studying for the MCAT and thus won't have time for anything else pretty much. Since march the airbags were installed, as well as a new third brake light and driver's door handle. The headliner got wrapped in cloth as OEM quality alcantara couldn't be sourced locally. Before the end of the year the car will have an alcantara headliner again probably, just need to get a few things out of the way first.

The oil cooler is finally here!
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I haven't been able to take it to get installed as my LC is not currently working because it has a braking problem.

In the last month I've done a couple of small things to the car -
I got some new carpets as the old ones were in dire need of replacement:
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Also changed the trunk release button and the hood struts as they weren't holding the trunk up anymore and the button looked like this:
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Sin título[/url] by josegt5, en Flickr[/IMG]Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
At the same time the car got the airbags put in, a brake line went bad and the system lost pressure so that got changed as well. The car is now better than ever
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In other news, my dad is working in FL for a while so he got an MK7 GTI and man is that fun to drive. He'll probably get a tune in the next couple of months and with 93 octane it should be almost on par with my M5 at lower speeds. Here's a pic:
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He's back 👍

The plasti'd rims look really good on it.

Are the Bi-xenons non OEM. They look OEM (no "fancy" stuff) Looks good :cheers:
 
Ibonibo
He's back 👍

The plasti'd rims look really good on it.

Are the Bi-xenons non OEM. They look OEM (no "fancy" stuff) Looks good :cheers:
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They are Morimoto EVOX-R which are derived from the EVO X mitsubishi. The system also comes with 6000K bulbs, new ballasts, a relay and all the wiring. The only thing that doesn't look OEM at first glance is the extra cabl that has to go to the positive battery terminal, the rest of the system looks like it came with the car because we modified the OE braclets to fit the new ballasts and put the relay below one of the headlight housings so it's virtually invisible.


Right now the car is getting the oil cooler and some HT-10s installed :mischievous: october 2 will probably be the next track day. The diffuser is currently off the car and getting wrapped in real carbon fiber. Will post whatever happens first.
 
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As the title states, I got an E36! Picked up a manual 328i sedan for cheap and plan to turn it into a track day car. The M5 is fun as hell and I plan to keep taking it but I want something I can beat on and can put a half-cage and a harness on so it's safer.

I replaced the cracked windshield, and got some OEM tails and put them on:
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The cluster was bad so I got an M3 one:
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Started stripping out the car:
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Today coilovers arrived:
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Stay tuned for more!
 
coilovers installed, my dad is bringing the seat Saturday, waiting on pads to install all brake components, mirrors arrived, headlights and M3 bumper installed, etc. etc. only need two more tires and the roll bar install and it'll be ready for the road.
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Need to get some black door cards so this doesn't look like crap

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I'm leaning towards vinyl wrapping the car myself in this color
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Don't order from Metro Restyling. I ordered a vinyl sample from them months ago and never got it. It was only $4 though so I let it slide.
 
Wow you just killed it haha! Gotta love an R32, my buddy has a GTS-T and it's super fun. E36 looks killer..! Still got the E39?
Also is it the same 25 year rule on import in Puerto Rico as in the US?
 
eiriksmil
Wow you just killed it haha! Gotta love an R32, my buddy has a GTS-T and it's super fun. E36 looks killer..! Still got the E39?
Also is it the same 25 year rule on import in Puerto Rico as in the US?
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Thanks! I've never driven one but I'm ready to live out my Gran Turismo fantasies haha. Yes, the rules are the same, but there are a couple of extra importation costs since the car has to go to mainland USA first. That had been holding me back for some time but this Mine's car popped up and it just had to be done. Yes I still have the E39, I've been using it a little less as it's too low and it's extremely annoying with my current commute, but soon I'll change out the springs and hopefully use it more often. I've owned it for 6 years already so I took this comparison pic between 2013-14 and now below
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