A new member dorkens among you!

[e24kronus]

hello guys, after verifying that it might actually fit through my garage door, I am now the owner of a beautiful 99 arctic silver coupe. It's not as stock as I had originally wanted, but all the performed modifications were done at a extremely competent level and I'm beginning to grow into them. The most important bit is that the body is in fantastic shape and looks to have not had any work done to it.

Here it is about 45 seconds after I signed the title, in Los Angeles:


A few hours later, outside of a fish&chips place in SLO:


Somewhere in between, turned down a random side road in hopes of seeing the ocean. No luck, but grabbed a few shots with a real camera..





Anyway, I didn't get great documentation on the car's modifications, so I'm still finding things here and there. The ones I know for a fact:

BBK, ZCP rotors and Brembo 4-pot pistons on all four corners
gigantic ACS 3-piece wheels, 225/40r18 fronts 295/35r18 rears
H&R springs, Bilstein dampers
Active Autowerke Stage 2 (or 3? can't tell yet) supercharger with IC, oil cooler, meth injection
Vibrant? mufflers, full dual 3" exhaust piping (I hate these already, after 7 hours of driving my head feels like it's going to fall off)
real ACS splitters


I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys! Coupes have been a dream car for me for a long time and this community seems very close.

[Eson535]

beautiful coupe. hopefully you'll be able to come out to some NorCal Coupe Gruppe meets here in the Bay Area - would love to see your car. congrats and enjoy !!

EDIT: I have a pair of OEM mufflers if you're interested. I swap them on for trips etc, but I could live without them in my garage most of the time.

[ssbuchanan]

Nice, change the mufflers and you'll have an awesome beast!
So does it fit?

[ZoO]

very nice, awesome to be able to drive it such a long distance right after you bought it.

side note, and im sorry if you might not want to know, but from the pictures, the front right fender, hood, and bumper seem to be a different color from the door and hood gills.

[dimm6]

Beautiful car. The ACS wheels are beautiful. If you ever decide to part with them please PM me.

[moonvan]

Nice find on the car. there are a lot more boosted coupes showing up on the west coast now.

[JeffyD]

Coupe Cartel membership status: Denied
Reason: Maximum Occupancy Reached

Please cease and desist all further Dorking(tm) immediately. You are hereby to relinquish all E36/8s in your possession to card carrying members of the Coupe Cartel at a price of 20% your transaction cost. Please be advised that, if actions have no been completed within 72 hours of this notice your coupe/s are forfeited to the Coupe Commonwealth.

PS- I'm so sorry to hear this tragic news. I shall personally write the check to buy it off of you. I'm so so sorry.

[jrmartin03]

Congrats again! Those wheels look so right on a coupe.

[Eurospec]

Congrats! Did you take hwy1 on the way back? Must have been a fun drive regardless.

Looks like a well sorted example. The ACS pieces look fantastic.

[e24kronus]

Thanks all!

eson: name the place and time, and I'll try to be there. I'll be at sonoma raceway the weekend after next, also, I see coupes there from time to time. Interested in your stock exhaust, but I am apprehensive that it might choke the sc.

jeffy: argh dang what if I dorked too hard already

zoo: I see it in the photos, but in person it is spot on, which is definitely weird. I'll be taking a closer look, but having done practically everything but rubbing my face on it up close, it looks good.

eurospec: I didn't take the 1 because I was a bit concerned of issues coming up with the car and didn't want to be too far from civilization. Once I've had a closer look at the mechanicals, it will be time for a tour north, and the 1 is interesting in that direction as well.

I'm also beginning to like the wheels more. They are much easier to clean than some others I've had. Interestingly, though they seem to have been made specifically for a narrow-axle z3, they still have 10mm spacers all around. It might be to clear the brakes, they are awfully close in the front..

[robrez]

Welcome old friend, and congrats. Those are prolly proper M fitment ACS wheels. Nice find.

[JeffyD]

Freeze! This is a stick up, see! I want all the coupes ya got, see? Put em the bag, or you'll sleep with da fishes, see? Me and my ol' boy Tommy, here, say that this our way, see? I actually did write see a few times there. Enjoy every. Last. One.

[totalazneclipse]

Congrats! The car is awesome!

[BIGSOOJ]

Congrats!! Car looks great! Always nice to have more coupes in the Bay Area. And another boosted coupe at that!

[robb1887]

I would swap exhaust in a heartbeat with you if you werent on the opposite coast. I also enjoy those wheels considering I have a set sitting in my garage to refresh! haha. Awesome pick up. Also want a set of those flippers if you're trying to ditch them

[CaliAgents]

Welcomate aboard matey. Looks like your Coupe has some quality parts all sorted for you and those Schnitzers are classic modulars mayn!

[e24kronus]

Sounds like we're due for a meet, I see lots of Norcal members in this thread now

I'm beginning to gather information and address some small issues the car has. Some questions:

- WTF is up with the fuel gauge? I can drive for about 100 miles before it gets past the F mark, another 100 before it gets to 1/2, and then about 40 miles before it empties. This is the least linear fuel gauge I've had the displeasure of attempting to interpret. Sender issue, or is this just how they are?
- my driver's side window switch has dropped through the center console. I'm guessing this is a broken tab issue, but haven't taken the center console apart yet. Is this a common problem?
- the TrafficPro display is almost unreadable in day mode due to sections of the screen not displaying. It's perfect in night mode, though. Anything to be done about this?
- also in TrafficPro land, the aux input doesn't seem to work. I can get the HU to go into aux mode, but get no sound. The aux cable seems to be connected allright..
- both little armrest-cubby-hole-thing lids are not connected to the pivot rods anymore. Looks like the tabs break off easily as the plastic gets brittle. Seems like it should be straightforward to epoxy the brackets back together, but is there a better approach to dealing with this?

[BMWBergy]

- WTF is up with the fuel gauge? I can drive for about 100 miles before it gets past the F mark, another 100 before it gets to 1/2, and then about 40 miles before it empties. This is the least linear fuel gauge I've had the displeasure of attempting to interpret. Sender issue, or is this just how they are?
- my driver's side window switch has dropped through the center console. I'm guessing this is a broken tab issue, but haven't taken the center console apart yet. Is this a common problem?
- the TrafficPro display is almost unreadable in day mode due to sections of the screen not displaying. It's perfect in night mode, though. Anything to be done about this?
- also in TrafficPro land, the aux input doesn't seem to work. I can get the HU to go into aux mode, but get no sound. The aux cable seems to be connected allright..
- both little armrest-cubby-hole-thing lids are not connected to the pivot rods anymore. Looks like the tabs break off easily as the plastic gets brittle. Seems like it should be straightforward to epoxy the brackets back together, but is there a better approach to dealing with this?

- Fuel gauge - yup.
- Window switch - don't go tearing the console apart to diagnose this. Remove your shift knob, boot, and the foam piece. This will give you enough access to fish it out. Once you do, you can push the pass. side one out and compare the two to see what's wrong.
- TrafficPro - no input
- Cupholder console - there were like three+ different configurations of center cupholder/armrest consoles, and yours seems hardest to find. They occasionally pop up on ebay, however, though rarely in great shape. You might want to consider a 'newer' non-lid type, and adding a high-quality armrest from Andy Maddux (leatherz.com).

[diablobmw]

- WTF is up with the fuel gauge?

Mine comes on about half the time I start the car. The other half, the needle sits pegged to the left like the car is off. Don't know what it costs to fix, and don't intend to look into it.

[Scarceas]

Welcome, excellent score with it already boosted and sorted.

- WTF is up with the fuel gauge? I can drive for about 100 miles before it gets past the F mark, another 100 before it gets to 1/2, and then about 40 miles before it empties. This is the least linear fuel gauge I've had the displeasure of attempting to interpret. Sender issue, or is this just how they are?

That is how they are. The shape of the tank helps explain it:

[e24kronus]

that's a goofy tank, but I see now. Surely they could've built some scaling into the gauge... It would actually be not inconceivable to build a small chip that scales the 90-0 level sender input to be a bit more representative of actual fuel level.

[Zman57]

That is how they are. The shape of the tank helps explain it:

So that explains it, we should always give a heads up to prospective buyers to watch out for the last 1/4 tank. I was in unfamiliar territory after picking up my coupe in Delaware. Got stuck in traffic on 95'N , and couldn't believe that I could see the gauge moving real time towards totally empty on fumes. Scored a pit stop with minutes to spare.

[OrigamiCoupe]

Hey e24kronus,

Welcome to the Coupe community and I hope to meet you and your beautiful Arcitc Siver M Coupe at the next NorCal Coupe Gruppe gathering and of course at this years Dorkfest in Sonoma! You have a lot of awesome mods. and I'm so glad that everything worked out for you in a positive way, during your journey to inspect the Coupe.

Your patience finally paid off but be very careful about parking your Coupe and take it very slowly with only one inch to spare on either side to get through your garage opening. Hopefully you can learn to carefully fold your mirrors, which should give you a bit more leeway and possibly replace that 14 year old spring in the mirror so it doesn't break off.

Congratulations on a great, solid find that you were after! All the Best! Ci

[MDICTED]

Welcome. I'm thinking those mods will grow on you.

Yeah exhausts are loud in these cabins but I would miss that noise so much when I take my coupe out. Try a set of stock and see how you like them before selling yours.

[e24kronus]

OrigamiCoupe: Thanks! Your advice and measurements made this possible

The garage insertion is currently a hairy process, but I've been successful 100% of the time so far. It helps that the rear wheels have some camber, so the rubber would hit before the fenders do if I do mess up, but that is pretty much the last thing I want. I do have the geometric assurance that if my mirrors clear and I hold the steering wheel perfectly straight, the rear is guaranteed to clear.

MDICTED: I like the tone, but it's not very polite db-wise. It's possible that a pair of glasspacks will quiet it down. I'll be lifting it up tonight to see how much room I have to play with.