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Herbmiester last won the day on September 2 2021
Herbmiester had the most liked content!
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907 ExcellentAbout Herbmiester
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Rank
5th Gear
Previous Fields
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Name
John Herbert
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Location
Upper Hutt
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Car
E87 130i
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Car 2
E34 540is Techno Violet
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Car 3
F800GS
Profile Information
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Gender
Male
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Interests
BMW's shooting, hunting and fishing.
Recent Profile Visitors
44258 profile views
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Pads are easy, FCP Euro, Amazon or another online shop. Rotors can be tricky but sometimes Repco can be ok.
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Who is everyone using for servicing in Wellington?
Herbmiester replied to Herbmiester's topic in General Discussion
I have had a number of average dealings with Gazeley, my wife likes Skodas. It's just a lack of interest as they just change the oil and dont even check for any other faults. The Superb is dues a timing belt and has a faulty reverse sensor. It has a sticker on the window that says it had a DSG service a few months back. All they say when I get it back is. It needs a transmission service. Complete and utter muppets. In the past I have tried. Vogel Motors, apparently they have a Euro specialist. Only in there for Tyre fitting ex Hper Drive, but excellent service and the front person couldn't be more helpful. Hutt City European, pretty good used them a few years back, seemed to care about their work, more VAG oriented than BMW from what I could gather. Mendoza Mechanical, super helpful and really honest in what they were doing. Pricing was really fair. I dont think their Euro guy is that experienced on BMW. Star Moto, charged me $200 more than I was quoted for a DSG service. Jon at Auto 38, the best. Brendon Foot for my Mitsi ute. $700 for new brake pads, rotors were fine. Powehaus, did a precheck on a 911 for me. Glad I took it into them. Again not BMW experts. Mike Page in Kapiti. Really good but just a bit too far way. -
Who are the chosen independent garages in Wellington worth using?
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Does anyone have recommendations', for one of the head units that replace the I Drive in an e87? I need Android Auto capability. If anyone has one they want to sell or know of a good deal I am all ears. FYI my 130i already has an Xtrons system that sort of works, but I cannot find the proprietary USB cables to use android Auto. If anyone can help me with cables that may be a solution. I am aware that many of the units are similar but are just sold with different brand names.
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The bump stops are well and truly dead, The front end, when bounced up and down settles very quickly, so there appears to be quite a bit of damping still there. But yes I should just replace them for piece of mind.
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Ok time to checks a few things with the Bimmersport experts. 👨💻 My car is fitted with a set of style 18s, 7.5 x 17 and 8.5 x 17. They are fitted with 235 45 17 tyres all round. Now I know the square vs staggered argument, and I am not keen to dredge it up here, however because I have rubbing on the front guards I am curious to know if going back to 225s up front and the installation of new bump stops might fix the rubbing. While I will probably replace the struts as well, I am curious if this might fix the rubbing issue? If you look at the image you can see the edge is where the contact is taking place.
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A couple of weeks ago I bought a 1999 Z3 of FB Marketplace for a ridiculously cheap price. FB Marketplace is in my mind, the Wild West of Car buying and in this case I was first to contact him, first to get to him and paid on the spot after a quick carjam. The spec is not too bad, 2l M52, Auto GM 4 speed , but it is an LCI with the fat bum, has an LSD and a reasonably nice interior with Heated 2 tone seats. Body wise its pretty tidy with a few scratches here and there. It has 179k on it and has clearly been looked after, for part of its life. I will admit I have always loved the Z3 look, and convincing Mrs Herbmiester, was actually easier than I thought. She did state of course that 6 cars may be overkill. Pfffft. She didn't mention the 7 motorbikes, so all good I guess. As mentioned the car did not run, well technically it did but would not rev past 2500 rpm-ish. So I figured it was the throttle body, and as such I took a punt and paid the princely sum of $2300 for it. After trailering it home, I looked in the box of spares and found a spare throttle body. After taking the old one off I could see that it had corrosion holding the blade shut, very firmly shut in fact. For those in the know this TB was used for a few years and uses a cable but also has a servo motor that is what actually opens the blade. The throttle body rubber manifold was split, but a quick visit to Pick a Part sorted that. With the new bits installed it fired right up. Just like on TV. Haha. Next are the issues that need to be addressed. While I dont want to skimp on important fixes, this will be a budget restoration with money spent where it . and I will state for the record I am not into M539 levels of fixing things. The ABS light is on, with the dreaded F0 code. Once I get the unit out from under the dash, Pramod says he can reprogram the unit. There is an intermittent transmission warning light, so a trans service is probably required. There is a rocker cover leak. No surprises there. Drivers door card is loose (Fixed) Radio is a crappy old Sony with no BT (Fixed). New front marker lights. Cut and Polish. The suspension is tired, shocks are not leaking but bump-stops are gone. Front lollipops feel worn. The suspension rubs on the inner guards especially at the front. New bump stops and a thicker spring perch should sort this. At the rear I will raise it 10-15mm with some thicker spring pads. I will pull the shocks before I commit to replacing them, but they look pretty old so if anyone has some Z3 shocks I am all ears.
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Just to be clear the Laufen tyres still had between 3 and 4mm of tread when they were removed. As mentioned earlier, they were ok in the dry, but not so in the wet. I also believe that because of it being a FWD with high torque, this probably influenced the behaviour. The Skoda is no performance car. And yes a UHP will out perform an all season tyre, but in the wet I would have thought the advantage would have swung back to the Laufen, but the Laufen in the wet, was so poor it bordered on unbelievable. Also I have a 130i on KW coil-overs and it runs some cheap Crosswinds on the front. Surprisingly they seem ok, a bit vague, but ok in the wet. I suspect the excellent chassis helps here.
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It looks fantastic!
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Thanks Murray. it looks like I am 10 to 13 mm lower at the rear than the M Roadster suspension, and my gas tank is empty. I will look at spring options or maybe spring pads/spacers. I will pull the wheels off this weekend and have a look at what's under there.
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I am a sucker for a bargain, so I bought a very cheap Z3 that wouldn't run. Its a 2L M52TU and the previous owner stated the issue was the throttle body. I pulled the TB out and it was corroded shut. In the boot of the Z3 was another one, so I swapped it out, and now it runs nicely. These are a few more issues to fix: It sits very low in the rear and could do with being raised a bit. Not sure if it has factory springs, will have a look. The airbag light is on and I get the code, 1A MRS Seat Occupancy Recognition 1 (SBE1). I am assuming this is the seat occupancy sensor. Was thinking of using an Emulator. I also get F0 MRS, internal control unit fault. From what I have read this is not a good code to get as it locks the module. It can be reprogrammed, might be a call to Pramod. I get the code: A2 EGS: Brake Signal. From what I can see this is a faulty brake pedal switch. The central locking isn't working and I get: OD Central locking drive, open circuit. Yet to research. I also get 01: Fuse interior lighting. Load consumer deactivation. again yet to research this. Oh and its missing the front marker lights. The bonus is that the car has a warrant and rego, had nice two tone heated leather seats and is an LCI with and LSD and M sport suspension. My daughter likes it, and feels this will be hers. Her twin sister has a 130i. If anyone has any thoughts on the codes or fixes please feel free to comment.
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IS the BMW Vin decoder not working?
Herbmiester replied to Herbmiester's topic in General Discussion
I have tried quite few lately but yes they were all 90's or early 2000's vehicles. My e36/46 addiction wont go away. -
IS the BMW Vin decoder not working?
Herbmiester replied to Herbmiester's topic in General Discussion
I just tried it again this morning, same issue. I wonder if it is blocking me for some reason. -
Nearly my perfect spec 135i. Hmmm what can I sell.
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Every time I put a number into the various Vin checker websites, it comes back, vehicle not found. Has anyone else been having this problem?