<E36> few nit picks...

["Felix Vicente" <fvicente@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, it's finally time for me to tap the collective.

I've had my '95 325i for roughly a year and a half now, and I have three
recurring problems that my local dealership has had no success in repairing
for more than a few months before I have to take the car back for yet
another attempt. At this point, with only 10k miles and 7 months left of
warranty, I've decided to start taking things into my own hands. Perhaps
some of you have had these problems as well and can shed some light on
them...

Clutch pedal squeak- pedal groans and moans most of the time I use it, but
particularly on hot days when the car has been left out to bake for a while.
Pedal was replaced in October, lubricated in January, and re-replaced in
August, with each attempt solving the problem for about a month or so.
Haven't really had time to gripe about it to them again.

Alarm- this one is the most perplexing, at least to me. The alarm works some
of the time. Others, the system just completely ignores my demands to
lock/unlock the car. Other times, I arm the alarm only to have it go off
five seconds later, with no telltale LED code to tell me which sensor
tripped. Sometimes, the siren doesn't work, but the doors lock and unlock.
I've also noticed that the LED blinks twice in rapid succession occasionally
while I am driving around. I notice it more at night, but that may just be
'cause it's dark in the car so I can see it better. Alarm module was
replaced in July, remote replaced in August, sensitivity on glass breakage
sensor turned down in August as well- never mind the manual says to set the
sensor at the high position for the sedans and coupes. I've contemplated
yanking out the alarm and replacing it with a plug-in third party unit, but
I'm worried if there is a wiring fault this will not solve diddly squat.
Another note of interest is that it happens less as I drive the car more- ie
the first few days after I get back into town to use the car it's really
naughty, but after that it settles down for a while.

Catalytic Converter- After buying the car I noticed a strong sulfur smell
after driving it. I glanced under the car and saw some black goo on the
converter, and assumed a plastic bag had caught on and melted, thus
producing the smell. But then this grinding noise started happening when I
would restart the car when it was warm (after like a five minute stop, say,
or even as long as two-three hours.)  The dealer evaluated this to be the
Cat Con, and replaced it in January. This was actually problem solved, until
a few weeks ago when the grinding noise and the smell reappeared, although
much more faintly than before. I have an M3 muffler waiting to be installed
but I don't want to do it before this is fixed- don't want the dealer
voiding the warranty on me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as the proposition of losing the car
for two or three days while the dealer tries yet again to fix this without
any clue is not exactly appealing.

Felix Vicente
Miami, FL (occasionally)
'95 325i, blk/blk, BL/SS'd, Sharked, and X'd
soon to be M3-Muffler'd

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