gjm

Pulled the cluster out of the E30, removed the odo head, removed one gear, removed two gears in tiny little bits, remove d what was left of the drive gear. This leaves a knurled bush on the driveshaft which has to be removed. It should slide off. If not, squeeze it with a pair of needle nose pliers, rotate 90 degrees, repeat, and it should slide off. Not if some F&^%^* %&^*&* has superglued the bl**dy thing to the shaft, it won't...

Salzburgring, ETCC, 1977.

ETCC, Zolder, 1978.

Wow.

WoF'd the E30.

Only issue might be finding an iS in decent condition, in NZ ?

I prefer it on the Style 5s, which the seller advises it will come on.

OK - more E30. We'd 'received' a stone through the driver side (off side) main beam glass. Couldn't find one anywhere so fitted a near side lens rotated through 90 degrees. Pattern is wrong (but actually worked really well on the road!) and actually passed several WoFs. For this WoF - changed the light unit. (Having finally found one that suits. Only 300 different fittings, wirings, etc to work through. (Very slight exaggeration ). The nearside headlight unit then threw an issue that needed to be sorted. The vacuum adjuster had finally decided to call it a day (not at all uncommon, and not rebuildable). Sorted that. Then the offside headlight unit (never, ever touched this!) showed a beam pattern rotated through about 10 degrees, and there's not enough adjustment to correct it. So let's pull that apart and sort it, too. Three front light units. All showing issues, but only one which I'd actually ever touched! In three days!

Tried - tried - to replace the odo gears in the Baur. Checked, double-checked, checked again. yes - it's a VDO unit. KM/H. Which is great until you get everything apart and find someone has Frankenstein'd it and fitted a Motometer head to a VDO board, in a VDO cluster. I've got 3 sets of VDO gears, MPH and KM/H. And no Motometer gears. Fortunately a Very Nice Man is going to send me both sets - A & B - for the Motometer and I'll return the ones I don't need. Moving on... Let's sort the driver side door lock. Got a new kit from Schmiedmann (fast delivery). I've done these before - it's a fiddle and needs care, but take your time, and it's fine. However... the kit doesn't include the one particular part that it turns out we need - there's a broken bit. So the door is in pieces and I don't have the part I need to put it back together properly. E30 life. LOL.

Don't forget 'perfect condition for year'. Perfect is an absolute. It either is, or it isn't. There is no qualifier! (I've no issue with people asking questions - I absolutely appreciate a desire to know as much as possible, especially if viewing isn't practical for whatever reason.)

Ad says: "One owner for 27 years..." Question - "Any service history from before you bought it?"

Then there's the 'organised' flip side - the questions from non-buyers which start with "Looks like a great car!" and go on to either praise the seller, praise the car, or offer opportunities to compare to lesser examples.

BMW will expand its offering of paid-for on-demand services and functions with future models – but sales boss Pieter Nota has said they are not considering charging customers to activate hardware-based functions in the future. As with many car firms, BMW is using the increasing connectivity of cars to offer over-the-air updates, which can include the ability to add new functions. Last year they controversially offered a monthly subscription to activate heated seats in some models. Asked how BMW will ensure customers don’t feel they’re being made to pay extra for functions they would previously have expected as standard, Pieter Nota said: “We have some experience with that, and testing how the customer responds is part of that process. “We actually are now focusing with those ‘functions on demand’ on software and service-related products, like driving assistance and parking assistance, which you can add later after purchasing the car, or for certain functions that require data transmission that customers are used to paying for in other areas. “What we don’t do any more – and that is a very well-known example – is offer seat heating by this way. It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it. “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high. People feel that they paid double – which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.” When asked which services BMW could charge for, Nota said: “What we find is software-based services, like downloading a parking assist product, is very well accepted. People know it’s a certain piece of software they can download that costs money. It’s the same as downloading a film or an extra feature on an app. That is accepted and we do that increasingly successfully.”

Rego ow on hold. I think it failed the WoF but I don't have details. Edit: Failed on a headlight out of adjustment and a 'small power steering fluid leak'. Both issues are booked to be addressed on Monday of next week.

Electric? No. (And I do think hydrogen presents a better future.) H2R - 6.0-litre V12 zero carbon emissions.mp4

Alternator died. Got house. Lost job 1 week later. Water pump died.

Pressed the owner/seller for the rego to be sorted. He is taking it for a WoF tomorrow - if it passes, then rego will be renewed. If not, rego will be put on hold.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/4305264355