Hazzy

I've got my insurance on the my Prado with Cove and haven't had any issues with them yet. Although I haven't had to make any claims so hard to know up until that point. I think I have claimed some stone chips in the glass with them which was pretty easy. They have some annoying exclusions though like any business use negates your cover and a few others. They're quite finnicky on named drivers as well, e.g anyone using the car once a month is considered regular use . They are pretty open about these but best to look through and make sure you're all good with them. MAS has been good as well, I didn't have any increase on my premium on my last renewal and they have been easy to deal with in the past. But again haven't made any major claims with them so hard to know. I'll likely move the prado over the MAS if the premium is the similar to cove, my first year with Cove gave me one month free which made it more competitive.

Yeah can't really put a price on the stupid amount of hours spent on it.

I basically just set it to the max amount they were willing to insure it for without going to any extra effort which was close enough. So for mine it isn’t super far off the actual value since it's an auto, the main problem I would have is that I wouldn’t be able to find a replacement for the car at all since the tourings aren’t very common.

My car insurance with MAS actually went down this year and the agreed value stayed the same which was a nice surprise. The agreed value on mine is $7500 which probably isn't enough to replace it like for like since 330i wagons are pretty rare but is as good as I am going to get for an E46.

Definitely because of weight in the rear, had my tools right in the back so I could get to them which wouldn't be helping, then a bunch of other stuff weighing it down. Usually it's ride height is a bit more sensible than that. I did grab a set of touring specific M-Sport springs from the parts car so might put them in at some point to see if they're any different to the convertible ones I am currently using.

Made it back to Queenstown without any real issues a couple weeks back. Car is working mint after the steering pump replacement feels a lot better than it did previously. I didn't really notice a difference in steering weight between the LF-20 and LF-30 surprisingly. Fuel economy was a bit average due to my bike being on the roof but is what it is. Made full use of the touring by cramming a bunch into it. G21 Wagon in the carpark, nice colour.

Got 50% of the glossy trim on, great for showing people what a difference it makes lol. Getting the trim off the parts car was actually pretty easy, even that last panel that is known to be a pain. On my car however that part that Sreten in his E46 series struggled with had me struggling as well. I Got it off but the trim piece was a mangled mess at the end of it, I'm glad the glossy ones came off easily. I'll do the rest when I am back in Queenstown. Pretty big improvement though even people who haven't noticed any of the other things I did seem to think the glossy looks a lot better. Anyway got it all packed up and drove to Wellington yesterday, then ferry back to the south today. Wagon utility coming into it's own here.

New power steering pump is in as of last night. Has made a massive difference, the perpetual groaning it was making has vanished and the whole thing feels a lot better. Makes the car far more civilised. I also replaced the ignition coils for some reason. No idea if it made a difference or not probably a waste of money but meh. PrEveNtaTivE mAiNteNanCe. Pretty obvious where the new door is. It honestly is a lot less noticeable in person than photos for some reason. Still, better than the creaky door with the dent. Can always get it repainted if I really wanted. Hopefully someone drives into this door at some point so I can get another respray lol. Still have those glossy window trim things to go on but I can finish that off later if need be. Not the most mint E46 wagon out there but still looking pretty good I reckon.

Touring part out continues, @Vass were any of these the parts you were after? A slight side project of replacing the shocks in my mum's passat caused a bit of a delay but hopefully should get everything done before I head south again. Learnt about the existence of XZN/True square spline fasteners at 10:30pm, thanks VAG... Got to use my $50 spring compressor again, only reason I even offered to do it. Also got the bench grinder out to make a homemade strut spreader which reduced the amount swearing needed to get the things back in again. Anyway, cars looking a lot better with the M-Sport bits. Unfortunately the black shadowline trim from partscar is in a pretty bad condition so I will just stick with the chrome for now until I get a chance to repaint it or whatever. I'm thinking that I will still put the glossy window trim on that matches the power folding mirrors though since thats all in pretty good shape. I've also replaced the passenger side door which had a nasty dent in it, that also happened to fix the god awful noise that door was making whenever I opened it. I've also swapped the power steering pump from the LF-20 to the LF-30, hopefully that fixes the loud noises it's been making. I will possibly swap the rack over to the purple tag at a later date once I've got a new PS reservoir. 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒛𝒆 I can definitely see a slight difference in the shade of silver between the partscar bits and the OG car but in person it's pretty hard to tell and realistically it'll probably only be me who notices (and everyone on this forum). At least it's less noticeable than the gnarly dent.

I did consider that as an option but the condition of the bonnet and fenders is worse than mine so just gunna keep it as is. Plus I don't mind the pre facelift look kind of gotten used to it. I think I prefer to the prefacelift lights but prefer to the post facelift hood if that makes sense. My ideal choice would to be to swap the front end of a coupe to give it the M3 look, maybe chuck an S54 in it at the same time... Yeah have heard that the LF30's are a bit lighter. Unfortunately I think my LF20 has one foot in the grave so won't be able to test the difference unfortunately. My current rack has the yellow tag rack I think not sure how that compares to purple. Some threads seem to reckon yellow > purple then others purple > yellow so who knows. I could swap just the pump over first then see how that compares, then potentially do the purple later. Not sure if my rack is in the best condition either though and it looks like the purple tag in the parts car was swapped over at some point. One thing to note is that I have the CMP solid coupling in at the moment which helped quite a lot with my steering looseness, although it can be a bit harsh on longer drives I've found, (e.g Queenstown to Auckland...). That could also be because my power steering pump being a bit dodgy though. Parts car has finally been removed from the garage, just need to take that shadowline trim off, front passenger door and some other bits then I can try get rid of it. Also robbed it of the rear touring M-Sport springs so it's got some blocks of wood in there instead. EDIT Trimmed the numberplate as @Vass suggested, definitely looks way cleaner. Currently the numberplate is attached with a bunch of VHB tape but I will replace that some screws when I get back to Queenstown since there's a bunch of screws at work.

Unfortunately the parts car is a facelift model so won't be able to steal any lights from it. Also the corner light is flooded on one side so not so keen on that. I don't think the euro plinth from my current car would fit on the M-Sport properly having had a look at it next to the M-Sport ones I've got. Having seen what Vass did with his seems like the cleanest way to go since I don't want to give the thieves at Kiwiplates $300 for a euro plate. In other news steering system has been repossessed from the parts car, semi tempted to put this into mine whilst I'm up here since I haven't got anywhere to work on the car in Queenstown at the moment. This topic is definitely turning more into project than showroom haha. Photo of it not on jackstands lol.

As boring as silver is it definitely has it's upsides when it comes to finding parts. I found the parts car on marketplace up north and got my dad to trailer it back to his, cost me $1000 which isn't too bad considering how much all these parts would cost on their own and how hard they are to find. Gotta get to work getting all the black interior bits since I need to redo my headliner at some point. Scope creep keeps expanding... Sounds like I should take that Lf-30 since I've got it sitting in there anyway and mine really doesn't seem super healthy. Might have to take you up on that offer for those O-rings, was looking at this kit. Let me know if you need any touring bits since I'm taking it apart anyway.

Yep haha, I've had an M-Sport parts car sitting in my dad's garage for a while so needed to get it done at some point, plus family is up here so was going to be here for Christmas anyway, then I've got some stuff to bring back so in my head totally worth it... Was quite happy to see that the vents were in good condition. A parts car is probably the way to go for this stuff can't imagine what it would cost getting everything individually. Hopefully I can sell some of the parts from the parts car (e.g Wheels, towbar, etc) to make it a bit more cost neutral. Next stage of the job is swapping over the gloss black window trim things and sorting out the rear bumper. I am tempted to take the power steering pump as well since my current one might be on the way out. Although part of me is thinking that I should just fork out for a new one rather than taking a higher milage unit from the parts car. My car has the LF-20 and pretty sure the parts car has the LF-30 which might be an upgrade.

Drove up to Auckland from Queenstown to put on some new bumpers/sideskirts/vents etc. The parts aren't all mint but neither was my current bumper so bit of a lateral move really. Still, looks a lot better than the stock ones mine has. Even got the M-Sport vents so everything fits nice and flush.

Hey guys, anyone got one one of these they would be able to sell? https://protuning.com/en/64125-genuine-m-sport-rear-bumper-diffuser-for-bmw-e46-m-sport