My new 328i touring :-)

Bought an N reg/95 E36 328i touring at the weekend. Had to collect it in
Bournemouth, a 600 mile drive from Aviemore!

We were meant to fly down but due to all the chaos at the airports we
got a hire car instead, a Merc E200. Not a bad car at all, but the
location of cruise control stalk so close to the indicators had me
constantly choosing the wrong one - most annoying. Nice, but not a BMW
by any means. Horrid dashboard design too.

Pair 1300 quid for the touring with 114k miles, just needs a damn good
clean as the last guy wasn't a "car guy". What I can't believe is that
we managed 40+ mpg on the return journey, outstanding! Loads of power
too, didn't handle at all like an estate car ;-)

Only one problem, it pulls to the left. Calipers are OK and wheels turn
freely. I'm going to swap the front tyres to see if that's the problem.
Failing that I'll try an alignment. Any other ideas?


--
Who needs a life when you've got Unix? :-)
Email: , John G.Burns B.Eng, Bonny Scotland
Web : http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk - The Ultimate BMW Homepage!
Need Sun or HP Unix kit? http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/unix.html
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John Burns wrote:

>
> Only one problem, it pulls to the left. Calipers are OK and wheels turn
> freely. I'm going to swap the front tyres to see if that's the problem.
> Failing that I'll try an alignment. Any other ideas?
>
>

Didn't think that you'd need to ask but check the control arm bushes
and ball joints.

In article >,
John Burns > wrote:
>Only one problem, it pulls to the left. Calipers are OK and wheels turn
>freely. I'm going to swap the front tyres to see if that's the problem.
>Failing that I'll try an alignment. Any other ideas?

Alignment is the obvious thing. You're even asking ? :-)

The other thing I'd so is cyhange all four soft brake hoses. Over
5 years they're no good - the swell and allow different pressure
to actuate the calipers resulting in a pull to one sie if one is
older than the others (ie, mr non-car-guy replaced one when he
was told to). The dates should be on the hoses.

--
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Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
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"John Burns" > wrote
> Bought an N reg/95 E36 328i touring at the weekend. Had to collect it in
> Bournemouth, a 600 mile drive from Aviemore!
> ...
> Only one problem, it pulls to the left. Calipers are OK and wheels turn
> freely. I'm going to swap the front tyres to see if that's the problem.
> Failing that I'll try an alignment. Any other ideas?

I agree on the tires.

I'm sure you're ashamed that there are no pics on your website, yet. ;->

FloydR

That's only because you are not attuned to driving in a relaxed
drawing-room-style ambience. You need this boy-racer aggressive cockpit
found in BMWs...

Whoops, mustn't say this in a BMW NG... :-))

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"John Burns" > wrote in message
...
[...]
> Horrid dashboard design too.
[...]

> > Only one problem, it pulls to the left. Calipers are OK and wheels turn
> > freely. I'm going to swap the front tyres to see if that's the problem.
> > Failing that I'll try an alignment. Any other ideas?
> >
> >
>
> Didn't think that you'd need to ask but check the control arm bushes
> and ball joints.

Swapped the front tyres over and it cured the problem :-)


--
Who needs a life when you've got Unix? :-)
Email: , John G.Burns B.Eng, Bonny Scotland
Web : http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk - The Ultimate BMW Homepage!
Need Sun or HP Unix kit? http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/unix.html
www.Strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible price

> I'm sure you're ashamed that there are no pics on your website, yet. ;->

Sooooooon............ :-)

Got the shock of my life when I opened this month's BMW Car, they had a
half page feature on my website.


--
Who needs a life when you've got Unix? :-)
Email: , John G.Burns B.Eng, Bonny Scotland
Web : http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk - The Ultimate BMW Homepage!
Need Sun or HP Unix kit? http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/unix.html
www.Strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible price

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:23:01 +0100, John Burns
> wrote:

>> I'm sure you're ashamed that there are no pics on your website, yet. ;->
>
>Sooooooon............ :-)
>
>Got the shock of my life when I opened this month's BMW Car, they had a
>half page feature on my website.

I'm surprised no one from the magazine contacted you, but I guess I
shouldn't be. I had a web site about 10 years ago on laptops, when I
had a small local ISP. Suddenly, my hit count went through the roof
and my ISP wanted $300/month in fees, since my web site was generating
more traffic than their commercial customers and bogging the servers.
Turned out the site had been mentioned in a magazine, though I'd never
heard about it. My ISP and I couldn't come to terms, and I ended up
closing my account and the site...
epbrown
--
"Everybody wants a normal life and a cool car;
most people will settle for the car." Chris Titus
2003 BMW 325i Black/Black, 2003 BMW Z4 Black/Black