confirm this is a sport model for me?

[cmoore]

i am still close to getting a Ti, just biding my time til the right one comes along (nearby). if i go this route, i'd love the club sport or a 99, but at a minimum, i want to get a sport. from all the descriptions i read, post 95 all the sport models had the "aero" front bumper. from everything i see, it would appear that this car for sale does have an aero type front spoiler with the little lip on the bottom.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/3075127979.html

the mileage on this is pretty high, and the pricetag is about 1k to high, but still, it looks pretty clean. am i correct that this is the aero bumper? and unless oddly ordered OEM set of options, is it safe to assume this is a sport?

i intend to call, but as the owner listed the car as a 318 i and not a ti, he may not know.

[teetime4one]

This is not a sport.
Someone put the front bumper cover on the car.

[Coyoteh]

Yep, it lacks the sport rear bumper, side trim, interior, and wheels.

[1996 328ti]

Probably an Active.

[cmoore]

there are a decent number of these for sale locally (philly) but they rarely seem to be sports or if they are, they are automatic.

[bullmand]

The better tell for the sport models is the seats. While it's not impossible to swap them, it's a lot harder than putting a new bumper on. The sport seats have leather bolsters and sides with cloth on the actual seating area.

[teen ti]

id say its an active

[cooljess76]

definitely an M5

[Bobtail_Bimmer]

Its an active and a nice one!

[ryszardsh]

I suspect the seller does not know what he has. Ad says a 97 but the instake manifold in the engine pics in the ad looks a lot like the intake of an M42 engine, not an M44 - and I do not see any cat preheat air pump in the pic at all...Maybe someone dropped an M42 into a 97?

RAS

[BimmerBum]

Originally Posted by ryszardsh

I suspect the seller does not know what he has. Ad says a 97 but the instake manifold in the engine pics in the ad looks a lot like the intake of an M42 engine, not an M44 - and I do not see any cat preheat air pump in the pic at all...Maybe someone dropped an M42 into a 97?

RAS

That's an M44.

[cmoore]

If this motor is the later m44, the mileage does not bother me as much. but is there a definitive way to tell? (car was a trade in at a car dealer, and the seller is a "used car lot" consigning the car for a dealer)

Is there a # on the engine somewhere which should (or in this case) won't match the VIN #? And if so, where?

And assuming there is a visible #, is there a way to decode what car that originally came from? (if it did match the VIN, carfax the vin and might be able to determine what mileage was on the motor)

i am reconsidering this car if motor mileage was lower. While it wasn't perfect, i just looked at one with 50K on it and the body was much worse.

thanks for all the good info so far.

[cmoore]

wait - now i am confused - wikipedia says that the M44 was in the TI from 95 on? given this is a 97, it is supposed to have the m44? am i missing something? rereading, some people are suggesting its not an M44 but an M42? what distinguishes them visually?

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by cmoore

wait - now i am confused - wikipedia says that the M44 was in the TI from 95 on? given this is a 97, it is supposed to have the m44? am i missing something? rereading, some people are suggesting its not an M44 but an M42? what distinguishes them visually?

95 = M42 OBDI 1.8L
96-99 = M44 OBDII 1.9L

Easiest way to tell the difference, M42's have an aluminum thermostat housing while M44's have a plastic thermostat housing. Towards the end of '95, they started using plastic oil filter housing caps, so some late model '95's had plastic while the earlier model '95's had aluminum oil filter housing caps. Since '95's are OBDI, they don't have a post cat o2 sensor. So if you look under the car and see two o2 sensors, you know it's 96 or newer. The car in the craigslist ad appears to be a '96, since it doesn't have the ASC valve or actuator. Perhaps it was a late '96 build and registered as a '97.

[zoner]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

95 = M42 OBDI 1.8L
96-99 = M44 OBDII 1.9L

Easiest way to tell the difference, M42's have an aluminum thermostat housing while M44's have a plastic thermostat housing. Towards the end of '95, they started using plastic oil filter housing caps, so some late model '95's had plastic while the earlier model '95's had aluminum oil filter housing caps. Since '95's are OBDI, they don't have a post cat o2 sensor. So if you look under the car and see two o2 sensors, you know it's 96 or newer. The car in the craigslist ad appears to be a '96, since it doesn't have the ASC valve or actuator. Perhaps it was a late '96 build and registered as a '97.

+1

Also, MAF sensor on an M44 is the like the one shown in the ad: black ABS, tubular, and inline with intake boots.

An M42 MAF sensor is a big, cast aluminum box with a smaller black box sitting on top of it, is attached to the intake boot and looks like this: