1998 318ti Owner Looking for help ...

[Hamlet]

hello everyone, im not fluent with cars but the thing is i own a 98 318ti and its not in great condition. It needs a tune up and little things here and there. Anyone in the southern california area know of a good place to take the car in for a check up, hopefully somewhere trustworthy. Any other suggestions on how to get this puppy back into shape i'd appreciate it. Thanks again.

[Hamlet]

Anyone out there ?

A little help please

[yeehawbob]

I am in Northen CA but I can suggest some options. How many miles do you have on the car and if possible what modifications if any?

If you do not know how to change the oil or replace the spark plugs then you can take the car to any oil change place, like Jiffy-Lube. DO NOT let them charge you extra just because its a BMW, yes the filter costs $10, but that is the only thing extra. If anything else a ti's oil change shuld not take them more than 15 minutes.

Talk to your local mechanics and or other friends who use mechanics any you can take the car to any trusted one, if no one else suggests one here on this board.

The spark plugs are easy to change too, and they are a little extra $4.95 each if you want to stick with the OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

Then there is the timing. normally this is not off that much but when you replace the spark plugs you can have that checked too.

Next is the belts, yes I said Belts, there are 2, again real easy to replace but you may want to have them replaced, depending upon the condition they are in.
Goodyear goo 4060680, I was told by BMW service man that these are better than the OEM's.

One final note, Make sure that you put 91 octane or higher in your car no matter what anyone else says.
Also do NOT put synthatic oils, just the simple SAE30 -50 will work best in the Southern CA.

Hope this helps!
Welcome to the Board!!!

[Hamlet]

It has 60,000 miles and no mods. Thanks for your help.

[bimmerboi318]

to my knowledge there is no way to adjust the ignition timing. it is controlled entirely by the ECU and cannot be adjusted by normal means. you can change the timing curve with an aftermarket chip, however it's not a maintenance thing. if someone's telling you that your timing needs to be adjusted, they are trying to take you for a ride.

as far as plugs i recommend the bosch platinum 2's. stock mine had regular bosch 2's so i just went up to platinums. i would not go with the 4's as they have had problems with one or more of the extra electrodes actually breaking off.

as for oil, as long as you replace it regularly, the brand shouldnt matter a whole lot. however, castrol gtx is my favorite crude based oil. i have run amsoil in my car for quite some time and i have 115000 miles with no engine problems. the thing you have to worry about with synthetic oil, is that if you have an oil leak already...it will get worse with synthetic. the book stated that it requires 15W-40, but i ran 10W-40 as that was the closest i could find. i have recently switched to amsoil's 5W-40 European car formula. no complaints as of yet.

[clex2]

I have taken my cars to Callas Rennsport in Torrance ( South Bay Los Angeles) for the past 10 years. (310-370-7038-) The owner, Tony Callas, is a very good guy. I will say that he is not cheap, but does a great job and doesn't do any unscrupulous things. Very trustworthy. He is a factory trained Porsche and BMW guy. In fact he has been crew chief for a number of Porsche racing teams that run Lemans, 24hr Sebring, Daytona, etc. He track prepped and maintained my 911 when I was doing driving events. He also took care of my 318ti. He will do a proper and thorough check of your car. If you decide to take it to him, tell him Chris Lee refered you. HE knows me well. I have been on the east coast for a few years, but I stil keep in touch now and then.

[Hamlet]

thanks guys. i appreciate it. Thanks again Chris :)

[Jeff Spooner]

Not to shoot you down bimmerboi but in refrence to using the Bosch+2 plugs. I'm a member of a BMW Tech groupe where there is a lot of complaints about cars coming in with misfire problems related to dead +2 plugs. The oem 2-electrode plug is much more reliable, for a upgrade you can use the OEM-Ngk plat. plug that is good for 100K.
A really neat plug is the ones in the M motors, it is a four electrode plug. Used a set in my 90 525 W/m20 motor and they big improvement in throttle response, only down side was it would skip a little bit when first started. Only lasted about 30 seconds then would run smooth.

[aceyx]

a friend of mine had good experience with avus motorsports. when he first took his car ('95 m3) to them, they looked it over and told him everything that was wrong. he had an oil change done as well and that's all they charged him for.

to my knowledge everything they said was broken was in fact, broken. they also were able to diagnose the timeframe in which certain repairs would have to be made; "this is crucial, this is not, you don't really have to fix this but it'll clean up steering," etc.

i'll see if i can get a phone number, as it's not coming up on a search.


one of the owners lent my friend of 24 yrs his personal f150 while his car was in the shop.

[Hamlet]

Wow ... dude must have been really nice. That place sounds kinda familiar, is the owner or the manager or something like that named Andy ?

[aceyx]

yeah, that's the place. it's actually http://www.avusautosport.com/ not motorsport, my mistake.

looking at the garage, i almost wish i were in LA.

[aceyx]

here's what he says:

They're real good. The only fault is that they'll try to sell you Dinan
[stuff], and they're overly thorough -- they'll tell you EVERYTHING that you
should fix in the next five years. But, if you tell them to keep it on the
cheap, they'll do nice things -- like use the used exhaust hangars from a
dude that just put a rice-r-roni on the back of his car.

And say, Mike Walton sent you... the dude with the
M3 with the red squares.

[Hamlet]

Thanks Mike ... i really appreciate it.

[1996 328ti]

If you go to Avusautosport, also ask for Leif.