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Interesting thread. If I was in the market (which I'm not) for an M car, then this would be in serious contention: https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=2157038245. High kms yes, but seems no expense spared by PO. Two less doors and impractical but an M6 would be so much fun! IMO - if you got a V10 M car for under $20K and got at least 12 months of 'maintenance only' (oil/inspection services and fuel) bills then you are ahead. After that just enjoy it and fix things as they happen (cos they will happen eventually as with any car. The risk , as should be accepted, is just higher with these). You would be paid in many, many smiles every time you drive it and these will far outweigh any purchase + maintenance costs and headaches. Trust me ?. I reckon we sometimes get a little too wrapped up in a 'preventative maintence' mindset and forget to actually drive and enjoy our cars (thats the universal 'we' and 'our') ?. I sometimes wish I still had one when I do my long trips and get stuck in traffic through the Desert Road haha

Aaaaaaand... it’s finally here! Now I have to do without it for another couple days while it gets ceramic treated ? Interestingly, I was convinced it was coming with run-flats - all the marketing guff mentioned RF’s and the sales guy reckoned they fitted Pirelli P-Zeros. But the actual car arrived with Michelin Pilot Super Sport’s. I’m not complaining. ?‍♂️

I'm not sure what the problem with the questions/answers is? People are asking if things that don't need doing have been done? The seller responded that they haven't in his ownership, he has only maintained the car, which is totally fair. I sure as hell am not doing 10 grand worth of work on mine at 100km unless something is dead. There isn't a great deal of preventative maintenance you can do to be honest, if something wears out or needs replacing then I will do it, I don't call that preventative. At $20k I think it's cheap for what you are getting, it's one of the best colour combos in my opinion and appears to be in decent condition. What you do need if you buy one of these is cash flow. If $20k is a significant sum of money to you, or you can't summon $10k within 24 hours then you can't afford M5 ownership. It might sound a bit snobbish but that's just the reality as every little part costs over $1000 a piece and there's often multiple of the same part. With regard to the M6 with 230k, that would be a prime target for rod bearings, even though I agree the problem is probably a little overblown. I would 100% go with the M5 for the same money, no contest. And finally vs the E39, apples and oranges. The E60 is the more capable car and demands you have your big boy pants on if you want to push it. The E39 has a more analog driving experience. Both are engaging and exciting to drive and I can respect and enjoy both.

I have four e36s and I am definitely a moron

Unfortunately it is well known that if you don't do preventative maintenance on the S85 it will destroy the rod bearings, waiting until they NEED doing means you are up for a new crank as well!! I did mine at 150k and they were truly on their last legs.but for me it was money well spent for peace of mind and potential resale value if I ever sell it, which I won't, because M5 touring!! ?

I second this. Motion carried! Any other business...? I drove mine for the first time in three weeks. Going to have to buy a trickle charger.

Lol,BMW. Every time I hear the ding for reserve fuel I have a minor episode. BMW PTSD.

Personally I'd rather have the E39 as well. (or maybe an E34 touring)

It’s because the E39 M5 is just so much better (totally my opinion of course ?... is there a stirring emoji?) That V10 is glorious though.

nope. nuh-uh. no way. I dig the e60 M5, there's no denying it. But this one. It's white. And look at that number plate. Just. No. Even a personalised plate won't rid the stains. SMEG, perhaps? ?

Have both the n54 and n52. N52 is so much fun in the small roadster. Suits the car being naturally aspirated, nice sound too. I’ve replaced every single gasket on it at 65kms. But the n54 is so much nicer in the bigger car. I would take it over the N52 just for its character. It feels nicer than a V8 but the economy rocks compared. Reliability, meh, it’s a 10+ year old BMW. They all have their issues. Had the n54 for 5 years and never once had an issue.

Gave it a full clean, shampoo vaccumed the carpet and took to the wheels with some scotch brite and handy andy. Given it some life, might even hit it with some 2000grit, meguiars polish and wax it now trying to sort some wheels - all though those stock standard ones don't look too bad all cleaned up might make the stock ones plasti-dip black in the mean time or something

Money well spent. Had a Ctek 5A for years, and never failed to do the job. A+ would trade again.

Get a Ctek or similar, will on demand charge and not destroy the battery Removed all the heinous wood trims from the x5 to get them painted piano black. Will have to do the shifter surround also as that's silver. I don't know why it had the wood in there and the silver sport pack stuff all mixed up. Black is good.

Good thing you drive an M5 so it doesn't happen often......?

Very nice, that's a smart looking car. Very much looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. Props dude. ? +1 on the tyres, score.

Looks great man! Those are great tyres too, you definitely scored there. It’ll be worth the wait I’m sure!

These aren't near the bottom of their depreciation curve yet. E39's definitely on the way back up, bork potential from the V8 probably less as well. I wonder if the fact there seem to be very few Japanese imported E39 M5's (as compared to the majority of E60's being from Japan) is a contributor.

And still, a lot of car for $6-7k. Its stupid what the prices are falling too at the moment, surely they cant get much lower. I paid 12 for my E91 330, UK import Msport and well spec'd 18 months ago

Always a roll of the dice but this looks to be a nice example at an excellent price - and I personally like them in white Not sensible but amazing. Love driving mine ... crazy car!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=2202940113 Would look great with these wheels.. .....

And fuel... lots of fuel.

I'm quite keen on Blue Oyster Cult. Most of their better work was released during the 70s... you'll be familiar with big hits like Dont Fear The Reaper, Burnin' For You or perhaps This Ain't The Summer Of Love, so perhaps have a listen to 7 Screaming Diz-Busters or Flaming Telepaths. (Too lazy to figure out how to insert links on a phone... sorry)

Seems to mee like "no, not in my ownership" is a reasonable answer to those questions. What more do people want?

He isn't completely wrong though. They are cheap and disposable RWD cars now, so too many have ended up in the hands of drongos.

Sold the hateful thing. I think that's me done with bmws for a while.

Ok so now it's not pitch black I popped the bonnet and had a look, Some wise ass didn't plug in the coolant level sensor. Warning light gone One more problem to fix lol

After that, things went on hold for a few months while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do for wheels. A little while ago, I picked up a 5 lug adapter kit from a r3vlimited user. I was planning to use it on the coupe, but then abandoned that idea when I got a front RX7 brake kit (designed for the factory 4 lug). Well, I was still hoping to use the RX7 brakes on the touring with the TRM C1 wheels. But that would require spacers (nope), or chopping the front struts up and having the coilover sleeve shortened and welded lower down. That seemed like a lot of work. So a few weeks ago, I decided to do a 5 Lug conversion on the touring. The front would be done with the adapter kit, standard E36 front wheel bearing/hub, E36 328i rotors and calipers. The rear would be done with trailing arms from a 318ti, and potentially E34 brakes at some point. Remember those 16" Style 5 wheels I picked a while back? They're going on the touring. Freshly wrapped in some Michelin rubber. That is some good motivation right there. The touring had been sitting under a cover for a few months. Time to get it airborne again. I had already managed to source the parts I needed for the front end, so I jumped on that first. The E30 front brakes and hubs all came off without an issue. I mocked up the hub adapter with the E36 hubs, Things fit nicely. I slapped a used 328i rotor on and got a wheel bolted on to check for fitment. Not too shabby. The main nut of the hub adapter doesn't have a locking tap like the factory setup. Instead, it uses a left hand threaded locking nut. This requires a thread on the inside of the end of the spindle. This is done with a left hand M16x1.5 thread. Quite and annoying size to find. Ready to go with the caliper adapter. New rotors with some EBC greenstuff pads. All bolted up. Here you can see the L/H locking bolt. Not bad. So this is basically where I am at the moment. I'm still waiting on trailing arms to do the rear end 5 lug. I'm going to drop the whole rear subframe, clean it up, and then paint it. Then I'll rebuild it with the 318ti arms, some poly bushings and new stainless brake lines. If anyone around Christchurch has some E36 318ti compact rear suspension available, I'm interested. That's it for the massive post dump. Peace.

Now it was time make some progress with the exhaust situation. A few months prior, I purchased a used custom twin pipe exhaust system from a local. The problem was that it built for an E30 with an M20. A friend was looking for an exhaust for an E30 325i, and it was a bolt-on solution, so sold the exhaust to them. The plan at this point was to build my own stainless exhaust system. After many hours of youtube videos about TIG, I picked up a used welder and some equipment to get stuck in. After I'd played around with some simple test pieces, I decided to get started on the exhaust. I chose to do a 2.5" single pipe system. The factory M52 exhaust manifolds would be modified to accept V-band flanges. A 2-into-1 section would be formed to merge both 2" pipes into a single 2.5" pipe with another flange. The rest of the system would be a single piece consisting of a flexible section, a resonator in the middle, and then a muffler at the back. I ordered a Vibrant muffler and resonator. I also picked up some 304 stainless pipes and mandrel bends. With only having weekends and some evening, it was going to take several weeks to complete. I found a semi-permanent spot for the touring to sit while I worked on the exhaust. I didn't get a great deal of photos of this process as I was still a complete amateur at TIG, and I was focusing on learning how to weld. Here is what I did get. Steering joint clearance could be better, but it's not terrible. Complete system mocked up with zip ties for support. Sound check. I'm quite happy with the result Added some mounts to system. Modified factory mounts to bolt onto the muffler. I also added an extra flexi joint in the merge section to allow for differential movement due to thermal expansion. Got it all installed, and finally back on the ground again. And with that, the exhaust is done...mostly. I warped one of the v-band flanges during welding, and this has resulted in a mild leak. I will need to get the mating faces flattened off at some point.

The project went on hold for a few months while I settled into the new place. The touring was able to drive around under it's own power, but the power steering system was still not happy. At first I assumed the new purple tag rack was damaged, so I swap the E36 rack back in, but the problem persisted. Then I tried using the original high pressure hose that I had bent to work. That didn't work either. I was starting to run out of ideas. Meanwhile, I'd managed to piece together the bits I needed to build the differential setup I wanted. A 2.93 gearset and LSD center were assembled into an E30 medium case housing. This should pair nicely with the 1:1 ratio 5th gear in the ZF 5 speed gearbox. Looking at around 2600rpm at 100kph which, if my 328i E36 is anything to go by, should result in pretty good fuel economy. I gave the case a good clean and fresh coat of paint. Paint drying by the heater. The new diff is good to go, so yanked the stock 4.44 small case from the touring. Interesting to compare them side-by-side. Diff about to go in.

My 2.0L Z3 with a M52TUB20 engine (same as the M54) and 112,700 miles (182,600 km) had the dreaded VANOS rattle really bad. Anti-rattle rings were installed in the VANOS pistons when the seals were changed. This provided an improvement but there was still rattle at idle. Today I changed out all major VANOS spline parts and the rattle is gone. Parts changed were: · 11361744263 Sprocket inlet · 11361438306 Tooth sleeve exhaust · 11361715027 Double spline cup, 2 of Do not attempt to replace or alter the spline on the end of the cam shafts. You’ll totally loose your timing with no way back if you do. You need the double VANOS timing tools to do this job as you upset the timing when changing the parts. Timing instructions are in TIS and are easy to follow. The difficulty of the job is the same as replacing the VANOS seals, so if you are tool handy, you should be able to do the job. The hardest part was getting the plastic bung out of the crank lock hole and fitting the crank lock pin. I did this with the Intake manifold in place (right hand drive car) by reaching up from the bottom and feeling my way around. Very pleased with the results.

I like yellow! But I'd prefer a white Z4 coupe...

E46 M3`s x 3 `03 Gray ideal for a race car build.

I spent far too much time and money just fixing the previous owners f**kups. Would've been fine if he had been honest about the issues it had that I had to fix.