Today I bought my 98 318ti [probably a club sport]
 

Black 5 spd/leather and cloth/sunroof/fogs/"m" badges/61000 miles/awesome original condition/ASC/5 spoke alloys/paid $6800/cd changer/no cruise... I'm thoroughly thrilled with this deal! I fly into Miami Wed. to pick it up and drive it home [perhaps via Key West].

only problems: lightly sagging headliner Brake lights [taillights only- up&center is okay] don't light and needs rear brakes.

http://images.autotrader.com/images/..._A.240x180.jpg
Questions: Can OEM CC be added? Is there a timing belt/chain maintenence issue?

niiice man sounds like a hella deal. take good care of her where shes in tit condition.

What you have there is a Sport. Club Sports where only in 95.
Cruise control can be added but there is a lot of labor involved.
Some people have had headliner problems.
These cars have timing chains. Not really an issue.
Brakes are easy DIY jobs.
No rear lights? Are they just burned bulbs or are there electrical problems?

Congrats on the car. If you have questions try the search function. A lot has already been covered.

The third light works, not the taillights... I'll know more wednesday.

Hopefully it is just burned out bulbs.

Could be the wrong bulbs, too. Ti's use odd bulbs and some places aren't familiar with how to source the correct ones.

And the entire headliner is really not that expensive, considering how cheaply you bought the car!

Nothing odd about the bulbs, replaced a tail/brake light bulb about 3 months ago. Got one at NAPA, it's a Wagner 17916.

It's easy as long as you match them up. Dealers have been known to simply swap in a non-ti E36 bulb that is not the same.

this problem of BOTH taillights going out at the same time seems at least somewhat common, so as steven first mentioned, start there (and make sure you get the CORRECT bulbs, two filament, not single) or get two of each bulb and plug away until you get them to work again :p

fixt the lites NOT!
 

It was the wrong bulbs. I put the wright ones in and voiila...

This morning there were no brake lights at all. a check of the power shows no power to the brake light switch.

congrats on the purchase! and welcome to the ti community.

-chris

I love it when I'm right. Good deal!

The Brake lights went bad again.
 

Now there is no power to the brake light switch. I'll be hunting around the fuse block again Saturday. Is there a possible computer reset sequence i could try or is it possible the bulbs are of the wrong amperage and could have cooked something?

How hard is it to pop off the panel at the store/dealer, two thumbscrews? That's what I did. It's always better to have the part in hand, I don't like making extra trips.

Headlight circuit has nothing to do with the ECU. Wrong current value would not short out anything or "cook something" as you state (I=E/R). Rather than "hunting around the fuse block", why not just find the numbers on the card inside the top cover of the fuse block?