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Another perfect Saturday, another early morning drive. This time went over the Awhitu Peninsula - through Waiuku to Karioitahi beach, then up and accross to Grahams Beach / Big Bay and Glenbrook. Stunning area, especially with the morning low fog today. Roads not as good as last weekend (from City to Waiuku is pretty boring) but once there its beautiful. To do list: Need to replace my drivers window seal - 51321904782 (bloody expensive) and sort my drivers seatbelt reciever before the next WOF. Also have a rattle from the exhaust that I'm hoping is just a hanger / mounting issue.

Thought I’d update this, car is pretty much how I want it now so no real need to change much, especially with having picked up an e30 as a new project (there’s a thread for it on here too if you’re interested). car drives great, works perfectly, couldn’t be happier with it, feels special to drive. Took it out for a summers evening drive and got some photos.

Stumbled across this today.. NZ new too..

That was a good send off for the old girl; 1600km and 4 nights living out of her from Auckland to New Plymouth, Wanganui, Wellington, Coromandel and back to Auckland. After ten years in NZ, I fly out to the UK today, been a pleasure Bimmersporters!

Come on guys. back in the mid-80's when an Alpine Cassette head unit was king, they were running around NZD750 before you added a graphic and an amp or two. A Nakamichi was more like a grand or $1200 - and god did they sound good. Here's a 7273 from 1985 - if you had this, some amps and decent speakers you were - worried every time you parked your car! (stolen without permission - tried to link. Thanks to http://magnitola.org/attachments/golovnye-ustroistva/1272233d1553761180-Magnitola-Avtozvuk-img_0086.jpg ... And in '89/90 and a good CD deck was a grand - yes A Thousand Dollars with an amp, installed... and it skipped on bumps on the way to the mountain, needed an external amp just like yer Nak tape deck did. The TD1200 - OMG. $900 for a Blaupunkt in today's dollars? Not a lot, really. The phone in your pocket is probably worth more than two grand. Then there's the KMM-BT408. The Kenwood mechless decks actually sounds good if you feed em WAV files. Cost buttons, really, to boot. Just a thought @deedub - those guys doing bluetooth conversions on old gear probably charge more than you're expecting because they need to make sure it works for you for a good while.

They arent commonly sold but ive seen them for sale as low as 12-13k before covid\2019-2020. Hard to say exactly what its worth with no information about the car. 20k may not be a bad buy if its got proper service history and a pre-purchase check comes out decent. Its certainly not a bargain given the very low demand for these, very hard to sell. Cars like these only makes sense if you financially comfortable enough that you can pay someone to handle the repair and maintenance costs, or that you are skilled and knowledgeable enough to buy parts and perform required work yourself.

what a great solution, and looks very tidy. I reckon these electric swinging towballs are an epic feature.

p.s yes the sensor from number 6 spark plug lead that has a plug on it will not be applicable to your pre-facelift car. Only the facelifts use this as part of motronic 1.3 engine loom

Car is now sold 😭 Was claimed within a couple days of listing it and buyer picked it up today. Went to a good home. I'll still hang around, even though my new car is not a BMW 🙃 I've got a bunch of 130i and associated platforms new in box parts to sell, will start listing below, feel free to pm if interested OE Full sump gasket replacement kit, Manual car. not just the gasket, but bolts and other things you may break while doing it like oil pick up and steering shaft bolt $200 OE Engine mounts and bolts $300 Steering wheel insert OEM BMW $150 😅 Used original interior parts - handbrake and gear shifter handless and gaiters plus knob - $100? Used Original air intake tube $20 Can work out shipping and happy to bundle stuff.

Jeebus.

I bought almost everything from FCP Euro. They were a mix of Lemforder, Febi, all sorts. Plenty of info on my build thread.

New neighbour has some toys

Isn’t the exhaust listed just a standard one?

Yeah it looks like Sachs have done the aftermarket special and merged all the versions at some point. Have fun compressing the spring.

M2 looks great with the M decals.Welcome to s55 ownership! Neither thought you’d replace the e36!

That is the correct part number I think, installed exactly the same on my e39. The strut is the same for Msport and non MSport but maybe not for all the 530 model years ? https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-strut-assembly-front-e39-w-m-technic-suspension-556-834#fitment

Looks mint mate, I’ve also been keeping an eye on the market for quite some time now. When this popped up I knew it wouldn’t last. Congrats on the purchase

Same as my car. Love the color. Boston aka Terracotta.

Fuel pressure regular checked swapped no fault, AFM tuned no change really. Vacuum leaks meticulously checked(not smoke tested but well checked and sealed). All new leads resistance checked, and crank reference and speed tested ok. TPS good. I think it has a lightened flywheel and hefty clutch, with a yuck rattle/chatter off throttle/coasting. Perhaps the lack of inertia could contribute to lumpy idle? Or maybe the timing belt is a tooth off?

She's a beaut of an old girl! She's looking good mate! hope you're well bud!

Can be found in E36 diesels, E34's E32's and 4cyl E30's. PM me if you have one.

yes these are common too! 3 bar pressure regulator BTW

Think NZ couriers are sh*t. Ordered 3 things: One from wellington, one from CHCH and one from Highland park Auckland. I'm in Browns Bay. Wellington was next day. CHCH took 3 days. Highland park was just over a week... Pass the parcel.

Well, in its own market it would be the preferred engine.. though not sure why anyone would want a convertible with a diesel soundtack. "This car was imported new from the UK "

That's stunning.

Test drove a couple of these before settling for my Swift Sport. The GTI felt real nice and torquey, real fun to drive being a manual and would no doubt blow the Swift out the water performance wise. I absolutely loved the GTI Recaros too, incredibly comfortable but the rest of the interior was what did it for me. Whilst the Polos were seemingly the nicer places to be in, both examples I viewed were really ragged on the inside despite being otherwise quite well looked after - sagging headliners, scratched up and cracked bits of dash, buttons worn and peeling, sagging door card fabrics... All seemed like typical faults, the interiors just didn't appear to hold up to wear & tear all that well, which I felt like would have been too annoying to live with long term. Whilst the Swift was all bare bones & hard plastic on the inside, you could barely find any wear at all, apart from a worn seat bolster. Funnily enough, my Swift Sport also came with factory Recaros so at least it's even on the seat front.

Had 2 of these common in recently for rear main seal failure/vacuum leak, not a cheap fix. I'd be changing the pcv if it hasn't been done.

Marty boy ain't fluffing around! good sh*t man!! Love seeing stuff like this! I need to sort my e91 touring and sell it lol it also has the dreaded ticking but it has been sitting for a year now!

Doesn't stop them breaking into them, and vandalising the interior when they can't drive off with it. Happens a lot with NZ New cars that have immobilisers, they tear the ignition to bits, find they can't hotwire it, and start smashing headunits, gauges, cutting seats and headlinings, dumb stuff thats a real pain to replace. Little shits need a damn good smack.

Yeah the cost of all those gearbox detent parts jumped up significantly not long after I did them on my compact. Worth doing imo, the ZF in my compact has probably the best feeling gear change of any car I've owned. I also have a set of the detent punches if you need them. Based in Beachlands.

Oh what did I miss?

if you ever do sell though hit me up buddy

Hell. Yes.

No - I am really happy with the rims on our Touring, but you are welcome to call over in yours if you want to experiment.. I've a buzz gun and jack etc here.

Gold wheels are definitely polarising, nice interior though. I wonder if the manual conversion has been certed. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/530i/listing/5220384911

Getting rare to see a set like this. Tempted to grab them just to have another set of style 67s in stock

I've not been fancy enough to have Alcantara, thanks for the pointers👍. Leather's hard to beat for durability! When your kids are young, leather's the best for cleaning out dropped sweets, ice cream, vomit, nappies. When they're older, pie crust (grrrr!)... so much harder to clean out of fabric.

My 4.4i is a great drive but has indeed been a money pit. 😐

I was going to keep quiet, but I can't. I love alcantara too, much better than leather. Also love green and caramel (my M5 🙂 ) but I like the tan too. Though, it is a bit on the light side on this car.

lol, i love the sport alcantara interior on the E39. If i got another it would have to either have it already, or i'd swap it in. So much nicer than leather.

Nice to see the old girl looking good again with some paint and polish. I don't miss it, always had issues.

Chipping away at re-assembly while waiting for parts. An old coil must’ve been arc’ing on cyl 6 as the Mg has blown out turned in to dust. Had to clean alot of crap out of the spark plug well. Cleaned up the corrosion out of all 6 holes then brushed 2 coats of epoxy enamel to give it a seal. Giving some high heat jb-weld a jam on the blown out damage.. Vanos oil strainers had no sludge but a couple of small bits of swarf on them. Gave everything in the engine bay a good clean to help with future traces of oil and coolant leaks. 😄

So, he spent $50k on a $10k car. That's a bad investment unless you keep it and really enjoy it. Also, (rant coming) it's a classic car. Don't put adjustable suspension on, it's not a race car! Stock springs(airbags) and B6 shocks, there's nothing better for NZ roads. Big stereo, ok, but you can't get the money back. $7k for seats! You can't get that back. 19" wheels, I don't get it. 17" nice, 18"- a stretch.... really, there's no need for 19" (but that's just me) ok, I'm done. I'd love to have it but not anywhere near the asking price. I think I'll buy that M5 for $26k on FB and spend $5k on it, which I will get back (eventually)

The major engine work is now done. 4 lifters were squishy so replaced all 12. This was a thunder c&nt to remove (blind plug for locking the flywheel at tdc. The end you pull on snapped off so I spent about 4 hours stabbing and hitting it with a punch and bfh until it slid most of the way in to the flywheel. Then use the locking mandrel with a prybar to lever it all the way through. It got stuck to the flywheel so was able to remove it via the starter motor hole. The exhaust cam bearing and ledge journals had seen better days. Got the cam polished and lightly sanded the scoring on the caps. The state they were in: After a polish and sanding followed by a quick clean up: Engine timed up and now waiting for a few little gaskets and bits to arrive for the intake manifold. The large Disa is cooked so taking a gamble with a new one from aliexpress.

The peak is the Stone Island sticker on the door, well known as the Football Hooligans uniform, tops even the fake brakes!

Have you driven one? There’s no way it’s passing anything on the straight unless it’s a bicycle.

Fear of flying??

One of these is not like the other... 🎶

I’m extremely saddened to say a dear friend of mine and great contributor to bimmersport suddenly passed last week. To me he was Sanjay but you will know him as ssbmw. He had a wealth of knowledge on bmw stats in nz. He would eat, drink and sleep the brand and love to talk with anyone who shared the passion. Bimmersport was a great outlet for him to share his knowledge for which he was regular contributor. A huge loss to all.