Bmw 318 Tds

almostover

Looking to get my first car....I know very exciting stuff Diesel is the only option really...budget is low like <1500....just wondering if there are any major problems with these and if anyone here has any experience they would like to share? Thanks

unkel

Not much wrong with them except that they're missing 33% of the engine. A very very old skool tractor engine at that. And 0-100km/h will take a day or two

-Corkie-

unkel wrote: »

Not much wrong with them except that they're missing 33% of the engine. A very very old skool tractor engine at that. And 0-100km/h will take a day or two

+1 on the tractor engine, tractor would probably be faster..:D

I purchased a 98 earlier in the year for 200 quid and got it tidyied up and tested. Nice motor though if your not in a hurry anywhere.:)

colm_mcm

tds = tedious

corglass

Did you buy OP?

coolbeans

almostover wrote: »

Looking to get my first car....I know very exciting stuff Diesel is the only option really...budget is low like <1500....just wondering if there are any major problems with these and if anyone here has any experience they would like to share? Thanks

Why is diesel the only option?

YBTurbo

coolbeans wrote: »

Why is diesel the only option?

Presume the price of Petrol and Diesel being more economical.




Although saying that something like a 1.25 Zetec Fiesta should also do the trick

VolvoMan

colm_mcm wrote: »

tds = tedious

I don't know about that, the 325tds was quite a revolutionary car in its day.

YouTookMyName

Good ones would be rare as rocking horse shit no?

unkel

VolvoMan wrote: »

I don't know about that, the 325tds was quite a revolutionary car in its day.

It was and the 318tds uses the same engine with 2 cylinders chopped off

I just don't understand why someone would buy one now. All the first generation common rail diesels are now in bangernomics territory. Unless OP wants to go veggie diesel

Seweryn

unkel wrote: »

It was and the 318tds uses the same engine with 2 cylinders chopped off

I just don't understand why someone would buy one now. All the first generation common rail diesels are now in bangernomics territory. Unless OP wants to go veggie diesel

But then there are more veggie friendly engined cars to buy. If I wanted to use PPO, I would go elsewhere .

_Conrad_

Hmm... so i guess none of the fantasticly useful input here was from anyone who actually ever owned one for any length of time? I've actually had them before, yes they're slow but most things that old and diesel arent exactly fast. The one i bought last year was cheap and was bought as a cheap runaround and viewed as such.
It had high miles on it when i got it and i put up around 25,000 miles extra onto it without any undue hassle. It needed rear wheel bearings at one point but they were on the way out when i bought it and were cheap to replace.
People have this crackpot notion that all parts are very expensive for all BMWs, for the E36 there are so many of them around that second hand stuff is easily got and service parts/mechanical parts aren't bad.
I used up the year and a half nct that was on it and just sold it off cheap as i couldnt have been bothered spending the money to test it again as someone had damaged the side of it and it was too rough to bother tidying up (for me anyway), it didn't actually require much to pass the test i just took a sort of bangernomics view on it at the time.
No matter what abuse i gave it it would get 40+ mpg and was a lot better to drive than many cheap diesel bangers.

They're only 90bhp (40-odd ccs under the 1.7 litre mark ) and have a small turbo. What power there it comes relatively late for a diesel but there's enough there to get you around. If you get a chip for one it'll bring them to about 115 and they're on par then with the late 90s VW TDIs for output but deliver it differently.

Of course a 325tds has far more power (they're not bad to go given the fact they're diesel and how old they are) but tax and insurance can be a factor with a 2.5 litre car, particularly with a bmw badge on it.

unkel

_Conrad_ wrote: »

I used up the year and a half nct that was on it and just sold it off cheap as i couldnt have been bothered spending the money to test it again

That's proper lazy bangernomics - I like

_Conrad_

unkel wrote: »

That's proper lazy bangernomics - I like

It is, i normally get too attached, and often like "saving" a wreck but sometimes there comes a point when It'd be more cost effective to just move on to another cheap runaround. That one by then only had a month or 2 of test left and i'd timed the tax to run out at the same time. If i'd kept it i'd have had to get the bodywork repaired as i'd have officially been too attached to the car then once i'd got a second test on it. The work for the test on it's own was ok, but add to that tidying it up (which i'd have ended up doing) and it was just better to get another old heap for less money than i'd end up spending and move on.
I originally bought that one to fill in for a month or two but ended up keeping it for a little over a year and a half so it had well served its purpose

A good tidy 318tds though (not a battered and slightly rusty one) would make a grand car though, and the one i had before that was great and is still going.

Fishtits

The 2.5TD and TDS (intercooler or not) beemer engines were futuristic in their time, the TDS was the first engine that introduced "quick" to diesel reviews.

The 318TDS was 4 of the 6 cylinders of the 2.5 lump, IIRC it was 1670 odd ccs. It was 90 BHP, it was never going to set the road alight but was respectible for a runabout nonetheless.

It was economical, reliable and being an E36, if looked after would be a pleasure to drive and well capable of serious mileage.

I've driven Beemers for over 20 years and still think, overall, the E36 was the best one they made.

Cheers

_Conrad_

Fishtits wrote: »

..... It was 90 BHP, it was never going to set the road alight but was respectible for a runabout nonetheless......

......It was economical, reliable and being an E36, if looked after would be a pleasure to drive and well capable of serious mileage.
....

Yep 90bhp and a good bit less than 1700cc yet always compared with the same output from a VW TDI which very close to genuinely 1900 and far rougher than either bmw diesel. (I even like Vw diesels they're great old engines but rough as hell and far closer to a "tractor engine" in nature than the bmws)




and yeah can do serious milage once maintained. The one i referred to earlier had 208,000 when i got rid of it and the engine was grand, good to go for another fair while. I even considered putting it in a 318 coupe with a blown engine but the deal fell through on that

VolvoMan

Fishtits wrote: »

I've driven Beemers for over 20 years and still think, overall, the E36 was the best one they made.

The E36 is probably my third favourite BMW over the last twenty years. They have a really timeless look about them imo.

I read an article on how early examples of the E36 suffered from quality issues and people who had just swapped over from an E30 were very disappointed in the car.

_Conrad_

VolvoMan wrote: »

The E36 is probably my third favourite BMW over the last twenty years. They have a really timeless look about them imo.

I read an article on how early examples of the E36 suffered from quality issues and people who had just swapped over from an E30 were very disappointed in the car.

that's very much an overblow thing, and mostly with the very first cars though part of that was down to the cars being different, and people picking trying to directly compare it to the E30 in terms of it's driving "personality". though tere were a few issues when first settling into production in 92-93. I believe that sort of thing to have been very much over exaggerated to make a story though.

Leonard Hofstadter

Wasn't there a big fuss when the E36 came out about how much worse to drive it was than the E30? I particularly remember people saying that of all the M3s, the E36 one was by far the worst.