Leaderboard

Finally chucked them on. Bbs rk 002s 18×8.5 et13 215/35s Front needs about a 12-15mm more lower...? Removed silicon from inner of rear guards-?.. rolled all 4.. Had to share

Thinning out the fleet. 1999 540 Touring with 270000km on the car. Refreshed with 120000km motor and trans recently. All M5 susp.,Dif ,interor,Mirrors, AC backbox with decat. $8500 ono.

Sorted out an oil catch can. It's just a cheap unit from ebay which I stuffed with iron wool. I made a bracket, and mounted it under the intake manifold. Installing the driveshaft hoops was the next task. Marking and drilling holes from inside the tunnel turned out to be far more difficult than I anticipated. But I got there in the end. I also had to replace the crank position sense as it had died somehow while sitting. Things are slowing coming together. Intake on. M20 coolant overflow tank mounted. First time out of the garage under it's own power. Front end back on.

Signed off the paperwork today. Not picking it up til Tuesday (to fit in with salary cycle). But had to sneak a tiny peak. You have no idea how much self control it took not to yank the cover off.

Ok, just cause you asked so nicely, and I happened to be out at the farm yesterday, so I managed to grab a couple of pics of the parts car for you

Here's the new (to me) vehicle ... 2003 E46 325i Motorsport with Individual Estoril Blue paint 123KMs on the clock and crosses off a number of BMW 'to-dos' for me ... 3-series E46 more modern straight 6 blue Intend to use as a daily driver in and out of work. Purchased from another BMW Car Club who has taken excellent care of it. Thanks to Jon at Auto38 for a thorough PPI and it'll go in next week to get a few bits seen to. Will report on that soon.

Seriously, you won't get a more reliable 10k car now than a Leaf, be wary there are some worn out ones in that price range, but some good ones as well. An EV might not suit the driving they are doing but they would be missing an opportunity if they don't at least consider it.

Yeah when you live a newer=better society that's what usually happens, applies to many things. I do my best to explain to people when i can and that's about all i can do. Despite the number of fools operating under a false economy when it comes to car maintenance, there are normal people who don't mind spending on maintenance and know the reason for it. Hopefully your friend is in this category. As far as suggestions go if you want the cheapest to run\maintain smaller is better, Toyota Yaris\Vitz or Honda Fit\Jazz in manual or CVT are quite decent in sport versions like the RS etc.

Hi Guys, Just brought a M325i and wish to find a few of the BMW e30 performance bibles that people may have lying around and want to get rid of It's fairly tidy and all complete but will be a rolling restoration with the eventual aim to fit a stroker kit but keep it standard looking. Cheers

Looking for a 6 disc stacker compatible with sony stereo Be great if it had brackets to mount also.

With the touring tucked away awaiting it's new engine, it's time for the coupe to go under the knife. M52 out Mission success. Now to insert the mighty M40B18. All buttoned up. Almost ready to be road legal again.

We bought an ex rental 2012 Corolla to replace the E46 diesel. Last of the old shape but the 2013 new shape can now be picked up for under $10k. Nothing exciting about it but the BMW was becoming temperamental and I cbf working on a ‘daily’ on a monthly basis like I was with the BMW (crank pulley, window regulator, LCAs, blower motor not going). The Corolla with 140k on it will likely last another 10 years and 200,000km with minimal R&M. Corolla gets down to 5.6 open road and 8-8.5 around Wellington city (hills and short running). The 320d was 6.0 open road and the same around the city. A return trip to Auckland sees the Corolla over $50 cheaper after RUC taken into consideration. Also considered NZ new Honda Accord Euro 6 speed manual (no decent ones on the market), Mazda 3, Mazda 6, E87 130i and Ford Mondeo 2.3. The Mondeos are good value for money, and it appears the 2.3 are near bullet proof. But they aren’t Japanese, so no price premium, or they carry the stigma of being a Euro car (so apparently costly to run). Was really tempted to go a 120d or Alfa 159 diesel that was on the market at the time but similar story to the 320d, no doubt I’ll be chasing my tail with issues further down the track and diesel is false economy in small cars.

its the little things, high kms means wear, seat springs, windows mechs, door handles, key barrels,hinges, rubber seals on doors boot etc the engine and drivetrain can be fine but when you start talking shocks, steering, braking everything has a life, they may still be working but they are never tight like a low kms car, of course some old cars are immaculate and some new ones are cheap weak crap but generally eventually you do tire of older vehicles when you step in a reasonable newer one

Unless he wants something modern then this is just plain wrong. Id never tell anyone to get a BMW for the sake of it and there's is much better selection for the usual makes no doubt. One of my friends is still rocking his E36 318is he bought in 2006 for 10k and its cost him next to nothing. If i bought something like a 10k E36 318is these days off someone who really looks after cars then id trust its reliability would be as good if not better than most cars. I DD'd my old E34 535i manual with 450,000km on it for years without spending or doing hardly any work on it. Plenty of good reliable and cheap to run BMW's

Had some downpipes put on today and had the wastegates adjusted as they had quite a rattle for the first minute or so when starting up. Turns out at full vacuum one was still open about 6mm, be interesting to see how it drives now. Hopefully I will get 12 months out of them before I have to pull the pin and replace both turbos.

Unfortunately i've sold it and moved on to buy an E36. ...which I've sold yesterday. I'm still keen share my experience though

Some sort of boring Mazda 3 would be my choice. But who knows. All that "reliable" stuff has been well neglected. It's just luck these days.

So picked the M3 up from welly in the weekend, love it. Got a bit to learn in terms getting a feel for it and setting it up the way I like, with various adjustments available around the dct, throttle response and edc etc. One thing for sure, it doesn't give the thump in the back the way a tuned 335i does. No doubt she goes hard when the revs are up, but you can understand why BMW may have deliberately kept the boost pretty low on the n54, so as not to sabotage the s65. Re gas mileage, here is what it looked like about 260kms into my trip from BP Mana, near Porirua, to New Plymouth. I haven't been able to verify this with a refill, but even if it's 20 or 30% optimistic, I'm more than happy with it. It crept up to 10.1 litres per 100kms by the time I got home, as the roads got more entertaining and I took a wee detour through some twisty bits ?

Welcome! Pics or it doesn't count! ?

Haha, to be honest you didn't exactly pick a cheap to maintain model\chassis, but you could of done much worse. Many people would happily spend more on the purchase price to buy something newer or more reliable etc, even though buying something cheaper\older and having to spend money on fixing it to a decent standard could up cheaper in the long run. I think everyone hates dealing with cars now and again.

Day 343: With the tyres removed, and the faces repainted, we're on the final stretch for getting these sexy circle-bois on the M3! Dropped off to Christian at OCD to get them ceramic coated, then I believe another few weeks to let it cure and they'll be ready for the rubber to be put on and slapped onto the car! The guys at Wheel Fix It really did nail the paint code, the cost for them to be repainted was just shy of $600. They advised the wheels to sit for a couple weeks to let the paint settle, before going about the next steps. Oooooohhhh we're on the final stretch now!

155,500 kms. New rubber time. In preparation for the new Michelins I got Auto38 to check my suspension as my old Eagle F1s were wearing unevenly. The LF lower control arm and LR upper arm were shagged, so they were quickly replaced. This also got rid of an annoying suspension clunk issue I had ?. Then a new set of Michelin PS4s. I can’t believe how much the old worn tyres were holding this car back. It’s got way more traction, the steering is more responsive, it handles a LOT nicer and the overall drive is noticeably smoother. Finally got this car driving exactly how I want it to. Really enjoying it at the moment.

Great purchase! Nice wheels too - I have the same ones on my Touring.

Cooling was a big concern as I'd be removing the viscous fan from the front of the engine. I trial fitted a few radiators but ended up settling (if i recall correctly) on a ti Radiator. It fit nicely ion the front and kept the bay looking clean without the need for a remote expansion bottle. Its also slightly taller than stock so should provide a tad more cooling. This setup has been working well on the open road and in traffic, however it is something I'd like to do more research on before this car sees a track. Probably E36 M3 evo radiator. I bought a generic SPAL fan and wired that to a 80/88 degree temp switch on the radiator and also to a manual bypass switch so I could have the option of having it run full time (wiring carried out by another AV mate, Cheers Howie). The plumbing was a bit of whatever I had lying around. It was a mix of the E36 hose from the donor car and a 90 degree tube from super cheap to go from the upper radiator point to the thermostat housing. This also something I'm not the most happy with and will get looked at in the future. After that I added the OEM blue coolant and bled it through, following the procedure multiple times. I was extra cautious at this stage as I really couldn't be bothered pulling the motor back out . One of the biggest and most expected headaches was getting it to start. Overall I think I was hung up at this point for probably over a month. I was adamant It had to be a stray wire that I cut or a bad connection somewhere. I spent many a night with a multimeter following the wires from the pins on the DME to its destination. Everything seemed fine but still no luck. The fuel pump would prime but that was about it. At the time I was in the Air Force which is a mint place to be if you happen to have a project car. I had already had the metal shop weld the shifter linkages, the crud bay media blast the BBS RS, the paint shop painted the BBS RS and now, an Avionics mate give the DME a look over to see if I had fried anything. It all came back OK. It had to be the dodgy EWS rigged up with the key zip tied to the transponder etc. I asked on here and luckily @Kobra came to the rescue. I shipped the DME down to Christchurch to have the EWS removed via his bench rig. When I received the DME back in the mail, I was absolutely fizzing. Slapped in the ECU and we had lift off... (AUG 2017) First Start Second Start First Drive I found a reputable place in Takapuna to do the exhaust work so it would be a little less obnoxious. Probably my biggest regret with the swap as it was easily the most expensive part at around $1200 and not what I want. At the time I was just keen to get the car home but in hind sight I should have got a quote which would've have stopped the price hiking up and also should have refused to pay until I got what I had said. That being said, the car sounds and performs well, it's just not the best. I'm fussy (which is why I do all my own maintenance I guess). The car then basically was ignored For awhile. I left the Air Force for greener pastures, which also meant relocating to a house with a single garage. Which would have been fine, but with all the other car stuff I had hoarded, there wasn't enough space for fiddlin'. But there was a silver lining to it all. My new landlord just happened to be a panel beater before he was a teacher and also a lover of E30s. I mentioned to him in passing that I'd love to paint the bumpers to imitate the IS/SE look. He was dead set he was going to paint them. They came out so mint and had completely changed the look of the car. We also painted the rear lower apron too. It looked so much cleaner. This definitely wasn't the car I had started with. A quick polish and wax to try make the most of the ageing paint helped. The above pic is a bit of a spoiler alert into the next purchase. The RS's weren't quite built up yet and the bottle caps were, well.. meh. I found some tired 15" x 7" et20 Euroweaves and refurbed them. Still haven't found centre caps One of the biggest motivators for getting the car looking spic was the fact that our wedding day was coming up (might be confusing if I've mentioned a "wife" in previous posts. Same girl just retrospectively writing ). We decided to go with E30s from the E30 Car Club. Admittedly we wanted something else ( even emailed RWB NZ ) but we had left it too late sussing other parts out. We had a mad rush to finish the RSs and try sort the ride height out. Shameless scenic wheel pic. The current suspension made the wide but short RSs look very weird but I hadn't settled on what suspension I want to go with long term. So out came some OEM springs, guard roller, heat gun, beers and the makita one-ways (thanks Hammy). Not my proudest moment but somehow the big day was only two days away and it needed more low. After all it was only temporary. Finally the car was ready. ish. I still wasn't stoked with how it looked. Mostly due the tyres only being 15" and the offset I was trying to achieve. Also the front couldn't go any lower with the sump sitting 2" off the ground. Then the big day. Mandah and Daniel brought their Mtech 2s whilst we used AutoStances E28 as the bridal car (just happens to be for sale here). Perhaps I should have said pic heavy at the start of this thread? Couldn't have been happier with how the cars turned out in the end. Was a mint day! Post wedding, we had a new goal... A bigger garage.

Yeah, Sorry about that. I had asked around on Facebook for a M325i and he replied. I then had to update my everyday car so did't go through with the sale so I was surprised when I got back in touch with him a couple of months later and he still had it. Its going to be a project to restore it slowly as funds (and the wife) allow. I had thought about a S50b30/b32 conversion originally but because the car is too good for that I think I will just get an Ireland engineering stroker kit and massage the head/cam to see if that fits the bill lol. It certainly goes much better than the mk2 escort sport i had ?

yes i agree with you but "normal" people dont see it that way and anything over 100-150kms is scary to them. also, people dont spend big money on a reliable old car with service history, they spend the littlest possible money on the cheapest on the market of a new import or one with dubious history. they are then left with bad impressions as to why the car failed even though its a "german engineered vehicle". btw, blackrazor, had a look at the i30 crdi, cheapest is like 12k. pity i didnt know about your car, would have been perfect at 10k with those specs.