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Put the 520i back together- new viscous fan hub, fan, thermostat and housing, waterpump, belts and its pulley and a few other bits. Spent a long time chasing a coolant leak- I had forgotten to put in the o-ring that seals the thermostat Gave the Titansilver 530i touring a check over, heading up to Northland tomorrow so don't want any surprises.

Was just speaking to the Army guys at work and that is what they had to do in Afghanistan. The locals taught them how. Xmas was awesome though. Quebec City is beautiful. Our first white xmas was a success. Makes such a difference when the houses are warm and built well. And the city is designed with bad/cold weather in mind. I wish I had seen this before I washed the car. I used an air dryer (like a leaf blower) and the doors were still stuck shut a little. Would have been in trouble if I had not dried it. But I park in a heated car park at work so the car is happy again. Next trip is to Key West hopefully not as cold.

That'd be a great daily for my Whitby-Seaview commute... hmmmmm...

Spending my only week off dealing with leaking rear door foam moisture barriers and a door card that’s separated. Old car fun.

Couple of new tyres Potenza S001s for the fronts before Xmas, $1050. normal annual service, WOF etc. everything else has been great, spare a fiddly issue with the window washes on the drivers headlight needed some sorting and a new cable tie. Had a couple of runs up to Auckland recently. Avg 11.8l per 100ks overall off the trip computer. Getting 11.2 on the open road trip up and back, get stuck and slowed with holiday traffic along at 80 it soon comes back to 10s so can’t complain. We’ve had it for a while now so might look to move back to a 550 or there abouts. Plenty to think on. Sitting at 162ks now

Couple of days for decent wheel cleaning, full car decontamination, machine polished and sealer on. Pleased with the results. Colour pops really nicely now Usual new car replacements of fluids and filters, air and cabin complete. Hardwired detector in also. CIC sorted and music loaded to the HDD. Bosses plates on, Ready for service thinking of a rear roof spoiler to close it off ..

Have been looking for a smaller car for Jan for some time, after looking and trying X3s, 3 series, we settled on the E87 and got a nice Msport Spec 2010 LCI 130i with 118k for $12990. This Lemans Blue metallic with black leather interior including sunroof has a nice balance with sportiness and spec. The N52 honks along very nicely thank you ☺️ With CIC upgraded I Drive needs maps updated, which we may do later and phone integration still, prep only currently. NZ RDS radio and HDD drive. overall in very good nick and the 17s instead of 18s help soften the ride which on these Msport cars can get a bit harsh. 2nd NZ owner which hit the country at 70ks. Ordered new air and cabin filters which are pretty suspect. Just had a service but will get all fluids inspected and replaced where necessary. Needs a decontamination and clay bar, plus a minor polish to really bring out the awesome colour. Xmas leave job. On the list is a radar detector which is pretty necessary as no cruise on this one which would have been nice however getting one with a sunroof in Le Mans was more important to me, I mean my wife Jan

Wet the rear window with the door card removed and then open the door. You’ll see exactly where the water comes through between the foam and the metal of the door. Removing old butyl is such a c&nt of a job, I completely removed all of it from the foam and metal on the drivers back door. Sika mastic and a caulking gun made it easy to apply a new bead on the foam. I got lazy with the passenger back door. I tried just heating up the old butyl and sticking the foam back down. Still leaked. So i just applied some sika mastic along the bottom of where the foam joins to the metal. This seems to have done the trick because i spent about 4 hours cleaning old butyl off the other door and there was no way i cbf’d doing that again in this humidity. The sika mastic is white coloured but you can’t see it once the door card goes back on.

Decided to go for a white xmas. Spent some time in Quebec City and then headed down to Pittsburgh, New Hampshire (Not the Pittsburgh you may know). The cold weather has been hammering the NE coast of the US and Canada. Makes for interesting times on the roads. The little E46 with snow tyres has done well getting us to wherever we wanted to go. But this morning she wouldn't start. Sitting in the cold for two nights looks like it might have frozen some moisture in the fuel lines. Too cold to work on her, so off to a garage she has gone to defrost overnight.

Depends how fast you want to go I guess. These new Jaguar XJs seem like a good deal, mid range power though 380hp / 515nm https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/jaguar/auction-1505447948.htm?rsqid=f60ada76eebb49978f7d5623efd19121

I don't mind the blue either - I like interiors that are a bit different. I didn't spot the adjustable ride height! Yes that was a ~$US500 option and can alter the height 1-2 inches apparently. Looks like it has three levels. That's cool Good spotting Nathan!

Yeah I tend to get restless, possibly impending move to Auckland may also land the S8 as the daily .... not what it’ll be best at. Time will tell. The 38 will stay Sunday driver duties no matter what. Trouble is once you start the options are near endless from turbo N54s in every disguise, shape and type to 535ds which are also tempting. Plenty of time to work it out

follow the locals. if nobody else is washing their cars, don't do it. freezes locks, seals, doors closed etc. In those temps you gotta be sure you can get everything warm enough to thoroughly dry. Also see if you can source GummiPfledge from your BMW dealer; it's the rubber conditioner that BMW sell for your door seals. Keeps them flexi, and helps reduce sticking in low temps. great adventures! HTH/

I'd stick with the S8, it's stylish unique car, few compare. The BMW substitutes seem bland and generic. All will have their problems I suppose.

gone !!!

That's for a proper gangster with a family! I wonder if it's a V8?

In which case I have a towbar that would suit... Up in Waikato, though. (Guess how I initially found this info? )

Thanks @gjm for the pointer on spare wheel well depth. The car has a space saver spare and a plastic packer on top of it. So, I would say the car has a standard spare wheel well. Post #1 has been edited. Regards Murray

Great experience to learn. Thanks for the post.

Yes, thanks, in particular this Post shows the extraction tool, and a few posts later he shows them using a hydraulic press to reinsert them, I suspect the OEM tool allows the job to happen with the subframe in situ though, where as his required complete removal.

Totally love Dakar Yellow! Seen this a few times on the Welly motorways and at first glance it looks like an E36 M3 Saloon lol. This will be so cool as a 'run around'

Is this the thread you’re thinking of?

$500

The guy that’s rebuilding an E46 (I think) M3 from close to scratch has built his own and might lend it out? I’ll try dig up the post, he did it with his father who appears to be somthing of an engineering genius.

Welcome Phillip - yes good score on getting the 3l very nice. Like the silver on red. You should catch up with @Breaker and he can give you a run down on the BMW Car Club too - we do a decent few runs around the lower half through the year for Club members and BimmerSporters ….

I reckon it would be cool to buy 20m and vandalize your mates cars with it

Do what the Russian truckies do and light a fire under the fuel tank before starting up in the morning. Not sure it works so well with petrol though... I hope the cold didn't affect your Christmas Dan.

You were in block heater territory with those temps. It’s cruel and unusual punishment to not park indoors in those temps. ?

they are about $3 for 10m or so on Wish.com hardly an expencive exercise and can take it off easy enough if ya change your mind. SOmeone elses car they can do what they want

Haha. Welcome to New Hampshire! I’ll be there next week for two weeks. This is where I grew up and I’ve now been away so long I’m kind of dreading the cold.

That's a bargain for an "M3"...I am very tempted to buy it now!! But in all honesty, I don't mind a stripe here or there, but that is WAY overboard. What were they thinking??

The fun continues , today was mancave day on the 530 for: Upper rear suspension wishbones (right side was going to fail next WOF), new radiator (original one still in car, not happy with fit of new one, Schmiedmann claims its OE quality but the shroud not quite right, it's in though..), and exhaust bracket replaced due to breakage. Lucky I parked the other e39 out front as an emergency trip to SCA was needed for more tools... also had to hunt high and low for a nut to fit exhaust bracket, happy to say there's a little bit of HQ Holden in the Beema...

Did something in my new shed for a change.

Just a good old fashioned clean! Also whoever designed basketweaves clearly didn’t have cleaning them in mind. Hopefully Santa is bringing some mag wheel cleaner (hoping the photo taken with iPad is acceptable size...)

$85 for pads? Are they made of compressed chinese recycled cardboard or something?! Ive paid more than that for smaller pads on lesser cars, lol.