Leaderboard

To all the doubterz and ones who dont have faith in the Bimmer fellow brotherhood....yous owe me a Fizzy Bubblech...?

So the 6-er has been an...interesting car so far. This is the tale of my recent rear brake change... The rear brakes were getting on, with the little orange car showing up every time I start the car. Now, I have driven top-shelf German cars for the longest time and know full well the maintenance cost associated with them, but BMW New Zealand is taking this piss when it comes to part prices. Rear brake pads and a sensor for almost $500, I think not...thank you very much. With the F12 not being all that popular in NZ none of the spares places have any brake pads for them, nor for the F10 it would seem, so I went the eBay route (which I have done plenty of times before). I bought these: EBAY LINK. $250 for front and rear pads...sweet. Then I get a letter from Auckland Transport in the mailbox. "Dear so and so, your next WOF is on us!"...yep, the WOF that was done on my car when I purchased it was done by one of the now-suspended inspectors, and I need to get it re-checked before the end of January 2019. No worries, brake pads are on their way so once that's sorted the car will be good as gold. Shipment "with" pads arrive from the UK...tracking status updated to "shortage" which means that the pads were on the manifest, but not in the cargo. Great, no I have to lodge a claim with eBay. Fine, I'll get a refund, but now my car is screaming "330km to go until the brake light turns red". I consider the BMW route again but decided to reference the HELLA PAGID catalogue for OEM part numbers, and I find them. As luck would have it an Aussie store sells them: LINK for just over a hundy. Order, pay and delivered i 4 days flat. #Winning! Now in the meantime, I had my car's wheel balance and alignment done, after getting the front tyres replaced. This was done by Beaurepairs Takanini. All good, car feels much better afterwards. On Monday I finally get the ISTA+ software working on my Mac (needed to put the electronic park brake into service mode, else you have to disassemble it in order to wind it back for the brake pad job). Ready to rock and roll...let's get the wheels off. Nah, not happening. Bolts are on so tight that my bar won't budge them. Go up to Beaurepairs so they can loosen them...super surprised that they are on so tight. Can't get the one rear locknut off. After trying for 45 minutes they give up...so off to BMW I go. They tell me that the inside shape of locknut is damaged...how? Because Beaurepairs used a rattle gun on the bolts. BMW try for 45 minutes and give up. The bolt is screwed (pun intended) and the lock nut simply slips out when you apply pressure. They recommend getting it drilled out...but the place they use is closed until mid-January. While I was there I picked up 4 new regular wheel bolts to replace the locking ones ($55). On the way home I call Beaurepairs head office and speak to the area manager, who is very apologetic and helpful. She calls me back having found a place that could help me on Friday morning. I call them and explain the situation in detail, nah...beyond their skills. Recommend I go to Pitstop Botany. Call them, and they ask me to bring the car in today (Thursday). Go there this morning and an hour later the bolt is out. They welded a blob onto it in order to get it out, with no damage to the rim ($200). Get home, get the wheels off and replace the pads and sensor. 90 minutes all in. Not a bad effort and floating callipers make it a super easy job. Moral of the story: do not let anyone with a rattle gun near your car if you have lock nuts. -The End-

Got me some new monsoons for the 316i for $1. Super excited Will hopefully get time to paint the style 32s this weekend and chuck them on. Then drive slowly everywhere

Yes, it is an old internet thing mocking Honda fanbois. An M54 is slightly more technologically advanced than "VTEC yo", and has no distributor. Get it scanned, that's the trick- by someone who knows their stuff. It may be throwing nonsensical codes that an unknowledgeable scan operator will take as legit.

Hi team, long time no post. Wanted to ask if anyone has done this particular 'job' on an e39 before? There is a major coolant leak under my intake manifold (M54B30) and I'm pretty sure it's one of the coolant / heater inlet pipes. 15 minutes of driving makes a noticeable difference in coolant levels in the expansion tank to know that its a big leak. From what I've researched, the only way to replace these is to have to disconnect and move the intake manifold altogether. Just deciding whether to tackle this job myself or expect to dish up $$$ for 20 hours of labour at a shop. If anyone has done this before - any indication of how big a job it is? Cheers

Did the previous owner do the CCV and the vacuum hoses. I am doing that job at the moment on an E46 328i.

WOW. Looks practically NEW!

Went for a ride tonight & misfire feels like it could be as simple as valve adjustment or plug gap, was barely noticable. Its an awesome car & drives the way a low milage 7 series should. Looks sweet & has the BMW new car smell to. Well done on the buy Mad_Max.

Sounds great. Always happy for you to see my project, and would love to see yours. Gavin is an absolute genius, so it will be interesting to see what improvements he gets.

Your average tyre shop is like a zoo, many breeds of monkeys present.

Yes, they are refunding the new bolts, the removal of the stuck one as well as what I paid for the wheel balancing that started all of this.

Thanks. Uhm, I assume a dizzy cap is the distributor cap? What should I check? Sorry, I have never done this before...and youtube is not very helpful when searching for videos that show me how or what. I do know that when I purchased the car in Aug, the MAF was replaced by Winger BMW...

Thanks! Wow, lots of great info, really appreciate that. Planning to visit Winger today to price up the coolant stuff. Not gonna lie, I was considering using other coolant as oem stuff is typically more pricey, but if it's a reasonable price as you say then I'll use that for sure. Will try make it to that meet if I'm back from my holiday in time. How do you subscribe to subforums? (noob) I've spent more than my fair share of time on realoem the last few days, brilliant resource, thanks for the tips. And finally, yes she's on 002s, the rears are getting low, but an excellent tyre and definitely impressed me at the viewing to see them, made buying it easier. Thanks for the warm welcome guys, appreciate it. Have a good new years

No trust ay....?....how sad has this world become?

yes, I did it in spring 2 years ago (Dunedin to Invercargill), nice touring roads and stunning scenery with new spring lambs in the fields, and cherry blossoms in bloom.

Another blanket meaningless legislation. The exact same model car, registered on two different days, can have a front/back mix of tyres, or not. Because someone said so. I can see some potential merit in all 4 tyres being run-flat or not (maybe), but mixing tyres on a vehicle (front/back, not on the same axle - that is dangerous) presents no hazard. The only argument in favour of 'all the same' is the possibility of tyre rotation causing mixed carcass construction being present ont he same axle. However, if you want to take the ridiculousness of some poor WoF inspection further, I was presented with a 'fail' because my car had different manufacturer tyres on the same axle. (Correct size etc radials were fitted all round.) Same carcass construction, weather use, size, speed and load rating... I took it up with the manager of the premises and had a WoF pass issued after I cited the manual entries to him while he read it.