How it works
From a question to the factory diagram
Ask in plain language, get a straight house-written answer, then drop into the full detail — cross-referenced to the factory exploded diagrams for the job.
Swipe to see the flow
Ask anything — a torque value, a diagnosis, a procedure, a known fault — and get a straight, accurate answer with no forum guesswork and no "consult your manual." He is the manual — and what he doesn't cover yet, he researches for you.
Ask in plain language, get a straight house-written answer, then drop into the full detail — cross-referenced to the factory exploded diagrams for the job.
Every answer is an original, house-written reference. We review and synthesize the best of every relevant source — factory manuals, official data and hard-won owner knowledge — into a single, quality-checked article, cross-checking the facts and resolving conflicts to the factory figures. Ask something we don't cover and we research it, then email you the finished write-up.
316i through the Euro and US M3, the M40/M42/M43/M44 fours and M50/M52/S50/S52 sixes — engine specs, known faults, procedures and recalls.
430+ tightening torques straight from the Bentley manual and BMW factory tables — head bolts, VANOS, suspension, driveline, brakes, body and HVAC. Source conflicts resolved to the factory figures.
Hit a gap in the reference and MrE36 doesn't guess — he flags your question, our team researches it properly, and you get the finished, verified answer by email, added straight back into your thread. Every question makes the reference sharper for the next owner.
Paste a VIN into the app, or open the free VIN decoder — get the model year, a genuine-M3 check, the engine, and whether it's OBD-I or OBD-II, worked out right in your browser.
Ask follow-ups in context, save threads in your browser, and share any one by link. Detailed answers open a full workshop page.
Grounded in how E36s actually break and get fixed — common faults, owner reports and hard-won community know-how alongside the factory data. Add your own notes to any thread and share what you've learned.