HOW TO FIND AND BUY PARTS

One interesting thing about owning a BMW is that the parts are rarely available at a local auto parts store. The following questions are then raised, “Where do I buy parts?” and “How do I accurately describe what part I need for my specific car?” The following are different ways of getting these questions answered:

EQUIPMENT, SKILL, TIME, PARTS

The 3 series coupe was so popular that BMW decided to give it its own series and so we now have the 4 series. There is a published manual on it: F32 BMW 4 Series Bentley Repair Manual

But I have discovered that since the 4 series is based on the 3 series, many of my 3 series books help as well. My two favorite BMW 3 series repair books are:

101 Performance Projects for Your BMW 3 Series 1982-2000 and E46 BMW 3 Series Bentley Repair Manual I have found both to be absolutely indispensable.

METHOD #1:

ASK THE DEALERSHIP

When my car was only a year or two old I would go to the dealership and walk up to the parts department desk. What they would do is: Ask me for the year and month my car was made and/or for my VIN. They would then look up the engineering drawings on their computer and hunt for the assembly and part number of the part I was looking for. After doing this for a few times one of the parts department guys pulled me aside and told me that there was a better/cheaper way of doing things and that brings me to method #2
METHOD #2:

USING THE PART NUMBER TO BUY BMW PARTS ONLINE

If you need to find a part number you can look up the engineering exploded view drawings on this site RealOEM then use the Bill of materials on the drawing to find the part number. To buy the parts online there are many options. My two favorites are Amazon and Pelican Parts. Pelican Parts has everything and they also have many repair guides as well, (in fact they produced the 101 book I talked about earlier). Amazon usually gets me parts faster and cheaper.

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