Questions from a new BMW-owner

Hi,

I recently purchased a 2000 328i sedan. Since I bought it from a used car dealership rather than a BMW dealership, I was hoping you guys could give me the scoop on a few basic questions:

-Gas: What kind of gas should I use? I've heard conflicting info as to whether I should use premium or just regular unleaded.

-Stereo: The car came with a factory CD changer/tape deck but no CD player. I stopped by a car stereo shop that informed me I would have to buy the CD player from a BMW dealership and that it would cost around $800-$1000(!) Does this sound right? Any other alternatives? (Apparently most CD players have some sort of electrical or battery issues with BMW's...)

-Owner's manual: My car unfortunately did not come with an owner's manual...any idea where I could pick one up for cheap? (I suspect a BMW dealership would charge a hefty price).

Thanks!

1. Gas - If you had your owners manual it recommends Priemium.
2. CD Player -shop ebay.com in the search box put "bmw business" this will pull up alot of CD players make sure its the one for your year.
3. Owners Manual - Again shop ebay Ebay.com I was looking to replace a manual for mine and ended up finding one that had the orig leather case w/ BMW logo and had all of the manuals that came w/ the car for only 13.00 us dollars.
:pimp:

Thanks for the info...a couple of follow up questions:

On the CD player, any idea what installation would cost if I end up buying it on eBay? And would I need to have it installed at the dealership?

As for the gas, I'm not doing any high-speed/high-performance driving (mostly just commuting to and from work in traffic). Am I OK using the cheaper gas, or will it hurt the car?

GAS - I dont think it would hurt but I use premium anyway I dont want any .

CD Player - Take it to a local shop these things are real easy to install a dealer will charge you more. When I worked as a Car Audio Tech I use to charge 45.00 to do head unit swaps. If you like I can email you the directions on how to take the radio out its real easy. Let me know.

I would recommend that you use the Premium Gas, that is what the car is designed to run on.
Using the wrong fuel can cause premature engine wear, detonation - 'pinking' as it is sometimes called. Not good for the engine.
Often if you use lower grade fuel then you need to reset the engine timing to a lower setting (less advance).

just commuting to and from work in traffic doesn't really make much difference, as it still affects the engine every time you accelerate,go up a hill, any load situation.

But, anyway, it is your call.

Rossco,
1996 E36 320i

Interesting. How would I go about resetting the engine timing to a lower setting? Is this hard to do? And would it prevent some of the potential problems you describe? (I obviously am not very knowledgeable about this stuff). Thanks.


I would recommend that you use the Premium Gas, that is what the car is designed to run on.
Using the wrong fuel can cause premature engine wear, detonation - 'pinking' as it is sometimes called. Not good for the engine.
Often if you use lower grade fuel then you need to reset the engine timing to a lower setting (less advance).

just commuting to and from work in traffic doesn't really make much difference, as it still affects the engine every time you accelerate,go up a hill, any load situation.

But, anyway, it is your call.

Rossco,
1996 E36 320i

You could put any single DIN size CD player into your car, the only thing is that some of the BMW's have a factory amplifier in the trunk which you'll have to rewire to get the aftermarket unit to work properly. I recommend you to buy and install a stereo at a local shop (Not eBay). You should be able to get away with a very decent CD player for $250-$300 installed (rewiring included). Let me know if I could help you with anything else as far as stereos go.

It is probably not to big of a job for your local workshop, I also don't know everything about them. I would suggest you ask your local mechanic about it, see what he suggests. It normally doesn't cost anything just to ask!

Cheers Rossco.
1996 E36 320i
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=518748

I would recommend that you use the Premium Gas, that is what the car is designed to run on.
Using the wrong fuel can cause premature engine wear, detonation - 'pinking' as it is sometimes called. Not good for the engine.
Often if you use lower grade fuel then you need to reset the engine timing to a lower setting (less advance).

just commuting to and from work in traffic doesn't really make much difference, as it still affects the engine every time you accelerate,go up a hill, any load situation.

But, anyway, it is your call.

Rossco,
1996 E36 320i

This is no longer true. Today's vehicles have anti-knock sensors that make it perfectly safe to run ANY car on regular. In fact, it is a LAW that ALL cars in the US MUST run on unleaded regular.

That said, you MAY lose a slight amount of performance by not using premium. With regular, the computer may retard the timing, and take a few percent of performance. No damage will ensue, but you DID buy the car for performance, right?

This has been verified by several engineers/car enthusiasts that I know AND the service manager at a major BMW dealer in the SF bay area. It wasn't asked (my wife's car. She bought it for the "cute" aspect, not the performance), and I doubt that they would suggest such a thing while offering 4 years of free maintenance/warranty service. Unless they are looking for trouble...

Look into it. I can't say that I've done the research, but it's out there.

That's to say, I have done the research, I just didn't do the actual studies...

Sorry, that was confusing.

Yes of course you are right, I forgot about the 'knock' sensors.

So all cars in the US have to run on Regular Unleaded... Bummer! :disappoin

Rossco.

Yes of course you are right, I forgot about the 'knock' sensors.

So all cars in the US have to run on Regular Unleaded... Bummer! :disappoin

Rossco.

You know you spent premium money on the car to start with, WHY would you not give it the best? For the few cents difference you can be right!
The other consideration is, you might end up with a carbon build up on the heads that will eventually result in a knocking noise using a low octane fuel. That happened to me on one of my other cars.
Just my 2 cents! :wink:

for gas put in 91 octane, it is the only way to go. my homie put 89 octane in his 98 328ci and his engine became defective pretty quickly, thank god it was still under warranty, and he got it fixed, the dealer who fixed it got mad at him coz he put in 89 octane.

for gas put in 91 octane, it is the only way to go. my homie put 89 octane in his 98 328ci and his engine became defective pretty quickly, thank god it was still under warranty, and he got it fixed, the dealer who fixed it got mad at him coz he put in 89 octane.

89 - 91? Is that the octane ratings in the USA?

In New Zealand we get Regular 91 Octane and Premium 98 Octane! :)

Both Unleaded.

Rossco.