Allanw

Yeah, I get that... but $16K for a rough one?

A 530i is going to be a better long term proposition from a repair point of view. Probably a sportier drive too, less luxo-barge. A 530i with manual conversion would be a good move! Our manual 525i goes stupidly well for a baby E39 (especially after the vanos seals were done). Super flexible, pulls really well at anything above 1500 rpm. If I ever cook the engine, I'd seriously look at a 3.0 conversion..... Maybe I shouldn't maintain the cooling system!

You'd think when trying to get top dollar for a car, people would put on more than 2 half-arsed blurry photos. There's a 63 VW Beetle someone wants 15K for and all the pics are blurry. They are also taken at night. Outside, in the rain. I guess being a factory manual helps... but maybe not that much. I'd have paid that for it if it was at 120kms and a tidy facelift... but that's still over $9K more than our manual 525i was.

HAHA! Awesome post! Not so good for you though. It was pretty cold today. Had to wear a sweater while riding miniature trains with the boy I noticed my thermostat housing is dribbling

Mmmmmmmm Sparkly! Looks nice - Way better with the lip on the outside too!

My mate painted his Montreal Blue to match the car, except the gear lever surround, which is Black I think. Looks quite nice and ties the inside and outside together. If you wanted to paint it silver, Hammerite smooth spray cans are a nice silver colour, but leave t to dry for a week or two to harden properly.

D'Oh! Spose you already fixed the zorst too?

I think it's already got it's own thread!

Like if a coil isn't firing and the rich mixture/unburnt fuel upsets the O2 sensor and puts it "out of range". Lots and Lots of codes aren't the item the code is for... pain in the buttocks!

Hmmm... I wonder if one of the other items was causing an issue, and it's blown the head gasket, and is now over heating because of that - Sounds like a good possiblity to me. Sorry! Get a mechanic to do a TK test on it (sniffs out exhaust gasses in the coolant).

Is it losing water? or just over heating?

Lots of the wreckers probably do, but there's quite a few types of wood available - you might have to check it matches first.

D'oh! Quite impressive though! Looks like it's new tyres time too

I saw somewhere else about checking tyre pressures and tread - rolling circumfrerence of the tyres can trick the car into doing silly things, as it reads different speeds from different wheels.

It's quite awesome the difference the Vanos seals makes. I did it with under half that milage, the they were absolutely poked. There was even side-to side movement of the piston in the bores! I just did the OFH gasket too - easier than the Vanos, although I didn't order new fan belts and iders etc - I should probably do them one day. Good work!

Fitted a new oil filter housing gasket and water pump, discovered I should have probably got belt tensioners - didn't know it had idlers etc on . They don't seem too poked though. Changed coolant. Cleaned the alternator ducting - was FULL of leaves! About 3 cup fulls!

Yep... best not put a set of tyres on it either. Bypass them.Rego and insurance as a percentage of purchase price are pretty up there too. Although, a set of Mags and a nice exhaust seem to make better sense. To be realistic, buying a 3 to 6K BMW is NOT a wise financial move. If you don't have any money, why buy a car which have so many gizmos in it to start with. If you're tight, buy a corolla. They're sh*t, but there's hardly anything in them to go wrong. The sensor should NOT be bypassed, but some people will. There are a LOT of eBay traders selling the sensor, which does NOT work. A guy in the UK brought multiple ones and tested them - most cleared the light and told the SRS system there was no occupant, so the airbag would not deploy in an accident where it should. Upon disassembling them, they were a diode and resistor, twisted together onto the wires and poked in a plastic box. They were dangerous, and will possibly cause ECU problems as the connections degrade and arc microscopically. Then the light comes back on. This is why I suggested the original poster have in checked that it shows the seat as occupied - which he seems to think it is, even though the lights not been cleared.

Does the carsoft stuff do it? I have a spare Carsoft 6.5 (chinese ahcked rip-off version, like they all are) that you could have for $50, posted. It "should" do it - I only used it once on my laptop (via serial port) and connected to my E39. Seemed OK. Then put in back in the box. you will need a serial port to use it anyway.

If you get the light reset, ask them to check that it is showing the seat as occupied, then the airbag will go off in the correct circumstances (and even if the seat is empty, which is the safest way to bypass it). Just an FYI: SOME occupancy bypasses tell the car that the sensor is fine, but there is no-one in the seat. If you brought it from eBay or similar, there is a good chance it is like this, and is made from a few simple components that are just twisted together, not even soldered. If you have an accident, and some one dies because the airbag doesn't go off, you could be charged with manslaughter, as you have tampered with a safety device on the vehicle which may have saved their life. If you sell the car with it in place, things can get worse, too - you've then knowingly sold a vehicle which has had it's safety features tampered with, to someone who assumes the safety features are working.

Used is always a gamble, and those boxes aren't known as the most reliable thing in the world. If it was rebuilt or recond, I'd certainly expect more... but then there are rebuilds and rebuilds too. Fully reconditioned should last pretty much as well as original. Used... Russian roulette - it's the chance you take. A mate just spent $7K on his 4.4 V8, because he KNOWS it'll be good, whereas a used one could pop it's clogs again anytime. Bummer dude!

I think it's a good idea when selling a Focus... "Look at these pictures of all the crap that hasn't broken off yet" Clearly it's a good one, because most of the stuff on a Ford that age will have broken off or stopped working

$60 is OK. For not much more, you can buy software to do it. Either carsoft type stuff, or an OBDII cable and adapter to the big round socket (if you need it) from eBay - search for cable-shack - he did mine, I think it was about $75 shipped??? You'd need a latop with about 30Gigs free, and several hours to set it up. Not too tricky if you're puter savvy. Cable and software

Yeah, I thought that! It's the US though - it's BIZARRE what people sue for! The guy probably fitted it himself anyway There was a woman who sued a shop over there, because a toddler ran in front of her in the shop and she fell over and broke a hip or something. She won the case. It was her child..... They should sue him for expenses, because he hasn't had to pay for Viagra, and they've provided the same service to him

Lucky bugger - everything I try to paint looks arse afterwards... although I once painted a Suzuki Super Carry that looked pretty good after. I have to Pint my VW van soon, but I'll prolly do it white - easy!

But if the sensor bypass unit is telling the car that the sensor is there, but no passenger is there (like some of the eBay ones do) then it won't go off - Dodgy.