Best Place To Buy Parts

[chris328i]

Where's the best place to buy parts for an E36?

There's a number of parts centres locally and I'm not adverse to using ebay or similar but just wondered if there's that 'great place' that you all get your parts from. Somewhere that knows their stuff and can advise if I need any extra bits to do something. Maybe even supply genuine BMW parts where needed.

Thanks for any help.

[Guest DazH]

You have EuroCarParts which sell after market bits. Usually only good for small bits n bobs like light bulbs and stuff. Some of their suspension bits are good but use the higher priced ones aposed to the cheaper brands if you want decent enough life out of them

The dealer for dealer only parts obviously.

Ebay all day long for second hand genuine parts. For example, if I wanted a wing for a car I would try to get one used that's in good nick in the right colour for example

Some seriously expensive parts I've got from Europe. An example would be my Piston Rings. £410 from BMW. Genuine ones from Poland £105. German ebay is good for things like that...

Daz

[chris328i]

Thanks for the info :)

At the moment I'm after a couple of switches, some bits of trim and front disks & pads. I'm happy to take a punt on ebay for the switches and trim but is it worth sourcing genuine, maybe even dealer parts for the brakes? All advice welcome as I'm new to this and can't really afford to get it wrong!

[shadowface]

I'm wondering, if the manufacturer/dealer is the only reliable place to get auxiliary stuff, such as bolts, nuts, flanges (generally all the fixings you may need).

Main parts, such as control arms, are easy to find, the problem is to get new fixings to install the main bits. Any suggestions, or should I just ring the dealer and see what they can do?