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Alternate answer: "it's not unusual (to be loved by anyone)..." [in your best Tom Jones, of course!] or: "what, you mean you don't?" or: "it's like New York, New York. They had to name it twice; these are so good I needed two of em!"

^questions BMW guys get asked- number 247: Why do you have two of the same car?

Sold.

I doubt Auckland has EVER had weather that would justify rear fogs... You have to wonder how many drivers even KNOW they have rears, AND have them on!

"My BMW made me do it!"

small update , got sick of looking at the front of this thing , so picked up some facelift sedan frontal parts in silver stripped the front off , gotta replace all he guard liners and brake ducts etc need to modify the guards to line up all the side molding lines etc , graft the front/top section of the sedan guard to the lower back half of the compact guard to make it all line up etc . guards are being worked on today by my local panel beater guy

Mostly done just a bit a aligning to do on the bumper etc then some paint

I Just want the parts. Not planning a restore or anything. My 38a has a horrible interior complex haha

E36 has dash lights, two in fact, front and rear. But I agree with you Graham, they should be auto-off.

There's sufficient fog down our way to sometimes qualify as being appropriate for using fog lights. The issue is that it is possible, in older BMWs at least, to switch on the foglights, and forget them. There is no indication on the dash to say they are in use. And turning off the headlights/sidelights does not cancel the foglights - the next time those lights are turned on, the foglight is there waiting. I don't think the button on the E36 lights up to say foglights are in use, for example. Mercedes have a system where you turn a knob to switch on headlights. Once turned, you pull it out to one position to enable one set (front or rear - I don't recall which comes first) of foglights, then pull again to enable the second set. When you turn off the side/headlights, the foglights are automatically cancelled - the knob returns to it's initial 'in' position. So simple. So effective. So not used by so many manufacturers.

Two's company. Three's allowed.

It does but your point holds, it's very infrequent and idiot mugs drive around with their rear fogs on all the time, blissfully unaware that they're being a nuisance. What's actually becoming worse in Auckland (elsewhere?) is people that think rear LED tail lights are actually brake lights. I don't know what's worse, manufacturers including auto-on tail lights (they seem to solve a problem that didn't exist), or the uninformed masses that don't seem to know auto-on tail lights are now a thing. Every.damn.tunnel and people hit their brakes because they think the person in front of them has done the same. Nope, the car in front just went into a darker area and their tail lights automatically came on. No 3rd brake light? Who cares, I'm hitting the picks. Getting a license should be much, much more difficult. And I'm inclined to start feeling that everybody should be retested every year... :-/

"it wasn't fair just to have one; when I take the bus he was lonely, hoping for a playmate. much better in pairs"

only one guard option for the ti , 2 bumper options , one std and one msport both pretty ugly the way the bumper clips to the guards is like all the newer cars e87 e90 etc bumper comes up higher meets at the point of the indicator lights where as the e46 sedan and coupe bumpers sit below the guards and indicators etc

I cant tell you about the rod bearing replacement, but I can tell you about sump removal. Its a bit of a pain as the engine has to be supported and then the whole subframe dropped to remove the pan. After that it will need a wheel alignment, so it makes sense to replace the control arm bushes (common wear item) at the same time. I didn't think rod bearing failure was common on these engines, but someone more knowledgeable will be able to chime in hopefully.

Don't have a blue Z3 (yet). I'm in Timaru and my daily drive Z3 is Mora Red (think purple) You don't know until you try. At the least put in a complaint with the Police. The person will not like having the Police knocking on their door and asking questions. That alone would likely stop them thinking of doing it again.

One side mostly done

^ really? is this an assumption or do you recently get a job from trademe? cuz last time I checked tm really dont give a sh*t about anything except collecting their success fees and banning accounts that are owing money.

I had something similar in the e30, though it was both indicators that stopped working. It was a faulty relay. Looks like in e36s it's in the fuse box. A few things to test would be when it happens, so use your hazards and see what happens. And also remove the relay, and then pop it back in while the car is running. If it works perfectly after doing so, it's most likely your relay.

Updated pics of progress today

badly fitting exhaust, strange v12 badge and wrong offset wheels...

Roadtrip to Tongariro at Sparrows fart for 8 hours of torture, aka the Alpine Crossing. Some great driving roads on the way. Managed to get 10.7 l/100km before i got bored and started hooning when i got past Otorohonga.