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When you sort this out let the rest of the e39 world know ?

It's nice to see that car go to a decent owner! Most "nice" e36s are getting wrecked by flat bill hat wearing vapers, Will be cool to see this car tidied up properly

As requested by some of you a stand alone projectthread for my E39 530i - this will stop me spamming the WDYDTYC thread lol Backstory - April 2019 I decided to look fo an E39, 530i to replace my mint E46 320i, the E46 had served me very well for 9 years, i had modded it to the end of my wishlist and after a BME Club trip to Tokaanu with a 3 year and 5week old, my theory about needing a bigger sedan with the arrival of Bodhi, was proven correct. upon my return home - the search began. After looking at a few as "do ups" i decided as mint as i could get for 7k ish was the way to go. I wont go too deep into the unicorn i let go the previous year, as it still burns me - and was recently sold again - a mint individual grey 530i, nz New, with color matched interior stitiching. After some further searching and a well timed post on the BMW Car Club NZ Facebook page a local example was coming up for sale, a couple of views, a test drive and it was mine. it was mint enough for the 6k price tag including a full service history, with a few things needed doing to fit my desire for a "Project " Since picking the car up in April i have done (all in the WDYDTYC thread) some optional other maintenance / replacement of worn parts - brakes rotors and pads -recon ABS pump & booster - GROM Bluetooth adapter - refurbished parcel shelf and installed child seat anchors -new rear suspension links, top hats, spring pads etc to even the rise height out -panel beating to the drivers side frot shock tower (under bonnet) to straighten it out -new "Pork chops" to replace smashed ones incl dnew hardwas for the centre undertray also ( this cobined with other wrok makes me think the car was nose dived at some stage or repeately abused leaving an angled driveway - new arm rest inserts and handle - Bavsound speaker upgrade (awesome) - tinted windows -Replaced front and rear windows gaskets - made hard in the front by a misalinged windscreen and lots of glue used by whomeeer did that job - spark plug change -gear box flush - oil change and all filters, cabin etc... - new camshaft intake angle sensor - 2nd hand mint drivers side auto dimm mirror - paint correction at Auto Niche, Hamilton - claybar and degrease wheels - replaced center caps in wheels Future works - 2003 sterring wheel with multifunction and paddle shift ( in the garage just need ot sort install) - refurb the style 42s - new passenager mirror or great 2nd hand one - fix rip in drivers seat side bolster ( on the look out for material from good condition m psort rear seat) - new windscreen cowel - newA pillar trims (middle clipswere borken whe nwindscreen replaced, i beleive) Any further updates will be sposted here in due corse Cheers the old E46 The new to me E39

I’ve always loved this short advert. Remember seeing it when I was learning to drive.

Got a chance to do some nice cosmetic upgrades just before Christmas. First was the rear parcel shelf. It was faded and looked tired. I took out the rear seats, c-pillars and lights and @str8_6 very kindly helped me to dye the shelf back to its former glory. With the c-pillars out, we used this opportunity to glue the loose material back up to where it should be. I also cleaned and conditioned the rear seats while everything was in pieces. After leaving it out of the car for a week to dry, the shelf was popped back in and I'm very pleased with the result. The rear of the car looks much fresher! Next I installed the shiny new 540i badge. I reckon it looks epic. I also bought new centre caps and valve caps for the wheels. I was going to wait until I got them refurbished but I got impatient. The centre caps seem to be a slightly different design to the old ones - more sleek without the bulky outline (they also fit a lot more snug). Finally I got round to getting euro plates. Man, what a difference euro plates make (see picture of the M62 in its second home).

This one's not a project so it lands in the showroom. Although I do have some small projects on the way. For those that don't know I've been casually looking for a 130i for a few months, I say casually but I have put a fair bit of time and effort into checking around 7 out. Including putting 5 up on stands and taking the under-cover off. None were ideal, all were filthy underneath, only a couple were briefly tempting. I was disillusioned tbh. I was one of the first people to view this one (mine now) at a dealership and liked it immediately, interior 8/10, exterior 7/10, mechanical 9/10, extras 10/10 - all based on my scale of needs. Drove it home to look underneath and there was almost no oil so I did a deal for $8.5k including 12 months of AutoSure which I was very happy with. I've looked at $11k cars that are in way worse condition than this one. Been in NZ since mid '16 and has ~$3k NZ receipts in the glovebox. It's been covered by mechanical insurance since arriving in NZ and has had all the top end and vanos gaskets done recently with BMW parts. It's had the oil and filter replaced every year with great synth since it's been in NZ... 😍 It has an aftermarket stainless exhaust and coilover suspension which, amazingly, has been LVV certified in NZ! The springs are Eibach and the exhaust and shocks are from a bespoke Japanese tuning house 'Orange Wolf' - try finding that sh*t on Google! I had to search in Japanese to find them. The suspension and exhaust were installed in Japan, suspension obviously not detected upon import seems to have been cert'd before the first non-dealer NZ owner. Edit: also has an LSD... 🤯 I like both the exhaust and the suspension, it's got a real bark without drone (unless you hold it at revs too low) and handles like it's on rails. Some wouldn't like the exhaust for a daily but I don't mind it. It drives and feels way, way more stable at speed than the stock suspension yet doesn't bang and rattle around at all. Totally stoked. And it does a rev-blip in sport mode on the downshift, lovin' it 😂 (however pointless that might be in an auto). The wheels have been cheaply painted (whilst on the car! 🤨🙄) but that doesn't concern me at all and the body has a few scrapes and proper sun fade on the bonnet and roof but I'm okay with that too. The front bumper has had a poor respray but in the end it was all these (aesthetic) factors that I was looking for to drag the price down. Perfect. It is my new daily (leave anywhere) car after all. I'll have to replace the aftermarket (real) carbon fibre front kidneys because (unfortunately) they look like crap after too much sun. TL;DR - New car, very happy. Picked it up today, hope to wash it and take some proper pics tomorrow. December 2019... June 2020...

Here's a review of the M5 E39 M5 Review Then the M5 is the star of the movie Movie star Then the short version E39 M5

Excellent cond. Well maintained 202000 km. All M Sport options. lowered on H&R springs. Vehicle specs CIC upgrade kit available. $1 Reserve IMG_5848.MOV

While the wait for the cert plate was between 4-8 weeks, i would be cutting it fine to reach my goal of the mega meet. This wouldn’t stop me from revealing it for the first time. Taking out most modified at the 2019 New Zealand E30 Mega Meet. Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Massive thanks to those that have been involved or helped out in one way or another to get the car to this point. Couple of small things to sort then i can finally enjoy it!

Speak to Kiel at Kelfords (if he's still there), I gave him all of Cat Cams and Schricks specs 4 years or so ago when I was looking at getting mine done so he knows what is around. The problem is, the last I heard, is that no one is producing blanks for the M5X cams, there isn't a lot of material you can take off the BCD, and there is only so much you can do before the lobe becomes too large for the bearing ledge, as well as the lifter clearances becoming a problem. I'd have to look further into it but I do believe there is a VW? Audi? off the shelf solid lifter that drops straight in and reduces a lot of the problems with the lifters.

Mate has one of these and an e36 m3 as well. We both love it - such a weapon on NZ roads and a great daily. Just been booting around Coromandel in it and it is perfect for NZ B roads. It just puts a smile on your dial. Crazy value. Look forward to hearing yours with that fancy exhaust.

It appears as if the angel eyes have these in them based on bulb markings: https://www.luxangeleyes.com/products/lux-h8-189 Which is good, they're unlikely to start a fire. Cree panels to boot. They're very, very bright (edit: I can't take a pic from front on). When you unlock the car at night, with the lights on auto, it looks like a cruise ship at party stations on a dark ocean. How to address the crazing on the lenses? Is that on the inside or out? LED puddle lights alone are quite nice, lights on manual... Lights on auto ?... Crazy ? LED's...

I'd be interested in knowing this as well. I'm guessing maybe not. But we will see.

This car is a wolf in sheep's clothing, but unfortunately it's time to part ways in favour of something with four doors. With an M52B28 engine built with the rotating assembly from an M54B30, combined with a reasonably short diff ratio, this thing gets up and goes. Cruising around at low rpm, you have oodles of torque, and when you really open it up, it's a snarling beast of a thing. Some of the Wellington members might remember this car, I've been on a couple of runs with the club, but will endeavour to get it to the meetup at 1841 next week for people to have a look at it in person. Please have a look at my trademe listing https://www.trademe.co.nz/2472396464 if you're interested. I'll do my best to answer questions here as well. I'm looking for $8,000 ONO, but if you're serious, get in touch and we can talk. Regards, Hamish

Thanks John, its taken a bit of work, but I am very happy with the end result, and it was actually the colour that sold me when I first saw it, it certainly stands out!

Hi all, Time to finally report back after months of getting stuff on the BMW sorted, and I thought it might be best to put it on this thread for continuity, apologies if this isn't correct protocol. I will preface the following "novel" with the comment that I am really happy to have bought Brads car as it has been a brilliant starting point for my “little” project as the foundations were very solid, i.e. good motor, good body etc. I could only live in fear of the saga that would have ensued had I bought the Lancia Delta HF Turbo I was looking at before that. So thanks heaps to Brad for supplying such a good starting point! As with all 21 year old projects there have been a few trials and tribulations along the way, but I guess that’s what makes these things projects, I mean it would hardly be a project if all you had to do was clean and polish it. The saga started with a delayed flight to Auckland where I picked the car up from Brad. It was interesting to reacquaint myself with a manual car after years of driving an auto. The car went well but I noticed it never warmed up (queue new thermostat job for later). Also the handling was a little off as the front tramlined over bumps and felt a little vague and disconcerting (queue lower ball joint job for later). I also noted the carpets were damp, not a biggie I thought… Nevertheless, the car never skipped a beat and got me to Napier with no real dramas, score! It needed a service, and my brother is a mechanic in Napier so he serviced it the next day, oil/filter, gearbox oil, plugs, air filter, checked the diff oil and pronounced it a car that had been mechanically well looked after. After all, it even had the wee tool for pulling the plug caps still there. Checked the rust in the tail and dismissed it as not a biggie. He thought the water in the drivers footwell might have come from the windscreen. One weird thing happened, overnight there was a frost, so when I opened the car the door wouldn’t close??? Once it warmed up it was fine??? So drove the car to Dunnos, via stops in Wellie and Chch, and got there with no real drama, it burned no oil, and it purred along, I could see that once we sorted the handling it would be awesome as the few cars that passed me on the straight were easily caught in the twisties. The only pseudo drama being on the ferry, and getting a call over the loudspeaker for the owner of the teal BMW to come to the pursers office... gulp... Turns out the alarm had gone off even tho I only locked it on the key (new car who knew?). So started with the water leak, I ran a dehumidifier in the car for about a week to get rid of most of the water, at its worst on my steep driveway, it was like a wee swimming pool in the RH passenger foot well. However, I couldn’t figure out where it was leaking. Though I can say the foam holds water like you wouldn’t believe, even when the carpets above appear dry (must be a good vapour barrier). A visit to my friendly local garage sorted out the central locking fault Brad had told me about in the passenger door, and the electric window fault as it kept popping out of its rail even after it was fixed. They did the thermostat, lower control arm, the coolant flange, new brake fluid, and obviously new coolant. They also remarked that it looked pretty clean, and was remarkedly oil leak free for a BMW... Driving around in the wet showed up the deficiencies of the Supercat tires, so I replaced them and got a matching set on Goodyear Assurance tires (not required, but I thought why not, and they had improved the grip in my Honda Accord). Driving around also showed up some chips in the windscreen which couldn’t be fixed. This necessitated a replacement which unfortunately uncovered rust around the sills, but $250 later that was fixed, so all good, and a possible source of the water leak eliminated (not quite as it turns out). I went to a local panel guy to get the rust cut out, and $500 later it looked factory again. The painter touched up the areas affected by peeling clear coat on the roof and the boot and the spoiler, but in the process of removing the spoiler the painter stripped two screws which remained in the spoiler, queue another trip to my friendly mechanic. Removing rear spoiler for painting also broke the rear spoiler stop lamp (broken wire was fixed when the rear spoiler was reattached). Whilst we are on stop lights, I replaced the left rear as it had broken and got the wiring redone after it fell apart in my hands and I didn’t know how to rewire it (another friendly garage job). Also in taking off the plastic cover on the bonnet which was all cracked it removed the paint… sigh, so that got painted as well, so now most of the car has been resprayed. The latest problem to manifest itself in the leak saga was I found water under the left rear seat squab, which may have come from the rear screen. And when working on the passenger door somehow I managed to get another problem to come up which was the airbag light, however it turned out to be a seatbelt pretensioner connection, and not the sensor in the seat. Other jobs I have done along the way are replaced the missing foam insulation in the drivers door (also a possible source for water leak), located missing plastic inner door handle surrounds (its amazing how many people own and are wrecking e36’s and I am getting to know most of them in Dunedin). I then ordered new trim clips for door cards and re-glued clip mounts to same door cards so they work. Some of the side skirt clips broke when I accidentally clipped the skirt with my foot getting out, so ordered new ones and refitted. I fixed the hole in the leather on the drivers seat with some black cotton (easy fix), and used my new friend Q-Bond (where were you when I was busting motorcycle fairings when I was younger?) to fix the broken RH front inner guard so it now mounts solidly. I also used Qbond to fix one of the vent pieces that closes the vent from behind on the passenger side which was cracked and broken, and to repair the hole I drilled to try and fix the droopy glovebox (don’t believe what you see on line lesson learned). I also got a new gear knob (keeping the old one), fixed the backlight on the clock, fitted a new centre console to replace the one with the cool (but utterly useless) tape holders (tho I kept it for the next owner). I also got some better mats for free out of one of the aforementioned wrecked Dunedin cars, replaced the rubber strip that runs the length of the roof as the front door was catching it and snagging it, reconnected the boot light (disconnected it again when the car got painted). So that left a couple of things to do, like still tracking down the front driver floor well water leak (was not looking forward to pulling the carpets). After a day of investigation with my mechanic brother, it turned out to be coming in through what, looks like a sensor at the top front of the drivers door, and was then tracking into the car. The screen didn't leak at all, not sure why it did the one other time I checked after the screen replacement (even took a photo as proof), but after blasting water at it for ages, no leak. However this did necessitate another visit to my friendly mechanic to get the airbag light reset (had to pull the seat), and got a power steering hose leak fixed at the same time, so that’s pretty much job done for the moment. It certainly is eye catching in Fiji Green, and does engender a lot of comments (mostly positive but it would be fair to say the colour is polarising), and people coming up to talk about it. Most importantly it puts a smile on my dial every time I drive it and has introduced me to a whole new bunch of people with a similar interest. Have I ever had buyer’s remorse after the purchase, NO. Has it caused me a little angst along the way, YES. Have my friend laughed at me when I regaled them with the tales of what I did last night, what I fixed, and what broke after that, you better believe it! Would I change a thing about the story so far... NAH!

Not a bad result Soaked in kero for a few hours - loosened up big bits with screw driver / pick - brake cleaner and scotch brite to get the final bits off Found a new use for my paint gun spraying in there to blow out the liquid, i look like i've been stuck in a chimney for weeks now

thing about this engine is, you'll do the valve stem seals, and then you'll do the CCV stuff. and all will be well... for about five mins and you'll find oil leaks, and then the plastic timing guides will crack, the tensioner will go, the chain will jump a tooth... and it won't die as such, it'll just piss you off and not run quite right, until you relent and decide to get that fixed, and then you'll find the ++$$$ as it's valvetronic timing and all the gaskets have turned to hard plastic... and you'll wonder why you were so optimistic and should have bought the reliable safe-bet 6 cylinder equivalent when you had the chance. Sorry mate, these are epicly sh*t motors, pure and simple. Or you're blessed, and should buy lotto.