I just bought a 1996 318ti with a build month of 06/96. It appears to be a base model (5-speed, no sunroof, no cruise control, has steel wheels) and has 177k miles, but it passed CA smog with flying colors and seems to run great. I hope to replace the entire cooling system this weekend as a precaution; just waiting for one more coolant hose to be delivered. I'm also replacing the Guibo, because it is cracked around the bolt holes & I get a vibration in second and third gear (similar to other postings here on this forum). I'm replacing the center driveshaft bearing and support while I'm in there, too.
Two weird things about the car:
It has a tan & dark brown "sisal" woven headliner and A-pillars. It looks factory, but I've never seen ones like it and I doubt someone would go to the trouble of making a custom set. I can take pics if someone wants to see 'em.
The kicker is that it has rear drum brakes! The BMW part number is 1162401 clearly stamped on the outside of the drum, and 1162400 clearly stamped on the inside. The drums looks really worn (my calipers are in my storage unit right now), based on a quick-n-dirty tape measure check and the big lip on the outer edge of the drum. The stamping on the inside says maximum wear diameter of 229.5mm & my tape measure shows 9-1/8" (or roughly 231.8mm). Anyone else seen a drum brake setup on their 318ti? More importantly, where can I find replacements?
I did a VIN decode on it, and it says it is a USA model. But it did come with a set of Italian language owner manuals. I plugged the part numbers into
www.realoem.com but couldn't find matching parts. Any advice?
Geoff
SLO, CA