Originally Posted by EIL132
[All these problems are extreme cases, it's only the M52 engines that suffer from Nikasil and it wasn't fitted to every car. Peak torque in the hand book will tell you if it was, although many dont have the original. Only early E36's were fitted with plastic impellors and were done away with quick smart and would have shown up by now. The only thing that does effect them and I've experienced it, is the rear top mounts and as you say E46 solves it
Out of the 4 328s I looked at 3 had had a new bottom end with BM at soem point - unfortunately the North West was the worst area afflicted because the Stanlow refinery supplied most of the petrol. Untreated engines can and do still go with excess bore wear even a long while after the intro of low sulphur fuel - have a look on e36coupe.com and search for Nikasil. Depends where the car has been re-fueled in the main in it's early life but I felt it worth pointing out to Stu/Nicole as something to watch bearing in mind their location.
Steering shaft replacement also very common but worth checking all the same in case it missed the recall - mine was done and it's a 98.
Plastic impellor pumps were still being used on late cars ( bloke from work's went ) and BMW still haven't learnt as although they switched to metal on later E36s they have used plastic since.
Also, Stu/Nicole, check the rear springs aren't broken on the bottom coil - easy to check when jacked up. A common fault because of a design issue
If it's got the OBC and the warning message about brake light circuit pops up, it's just the pedal switch (Scrub that one as I've just seen your dash pics ).
By the way, all the above was just to try and help not to panic you or take the shine off your new purchase
