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@madda_joe

Just got a repaint and some SE additions (front lip and side skirts). Next step is refurbishing the set of 15” RS001s in the garage to replace the 14” weaves.

Pulled the tardme pin on these, look to have recaro mounting brackets etc from what I could see, dont look too out of place in an E87, plus air lumbar, heating, and ass cooling fans. Oddball JDM recaros, look to be aftermarket only - SP-JC. Cert to install them doesnt look too tricky, removing airbags being the main hurdle. Rest looks fairly legit. The car they are installed in is a bog standard poverty pack prelci 120 wreck.

Competing tonight for the most trivial of complaints… bought a pack of digestive biscuits. Seeming unassailed pack, but the individual biscuits, which appear whole when you look at them, disintegrate as soon as you touch them. The entire pack is like this. end result still the same, just messier getting there.

Dismantled my E30 drivers seat and ‘fixed’ a few wobbles with washers and cable ties (lol) before I can get a broken tab welded - also bent bolsters back in shape - feels like a different seat even though it’s still clapped out (not for much longer). Adjusted my handbrake and identified a Leaky hose as culprit for my power steering leak. Installed a carplay unit in the F31 Then Spent $700 or so at FCP Euro on bits and bobs 😂

For sale. My 335i, that has had the following: VRSF Inlet Pipe VRSF Down Pipe 5 inch intercooler Alloy Charge Pipe Hybrid Turbo charger Custom tuned by Twisted Tuning for NPD100+ Fuel (BP 98 is also ok). Coils and 1 Step Colder plugs Valve Cover and Gasket High Pressure Fuel Pump 2 years ago. Transmission and Diff serviced. Has run 11.988 1/4 Mile at 119mph (At a Drag Strip with Timeslip) Video of it running 11.988 1/4 mile. https://youtu.be/5_1FZIZZT8k?t=139 I have owned this car for almost 3 years and have had no serious issues, servicing is up to date. Its been a very good vehicle over the 3 years I have owned it. I have no use for this car anymore as I have moved into a 135i with N54 engine which I have made stupid fast, this car is pretty fast though, but I got an F20 116i as a economical alternative for a daily driver. That said this car can easily average 7.4L/100k on a road trip.

We just purchased a large covfefe machine for work. Unfortunately the poorly trained barista making my coffees is useless. I will get better I hope.

Transport mode. All cars have a way of shutting down everything except the bare essentials to enable the vehicle to start and run.

And for just a few grand extra you could get this immaculately presented example https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-3600457430.htm

surprisingly not bad. ride is hard like a countryman, but otherwise not a bad place to be in.

As a bit of a distraction from my engine woes, did a bit of exploring around the underside of the new 330, which was good fun. Oil ahoi! Needed a decent cleanup, which I'm hoping will help pinpoint where all the oil is coming from, but by the looks of it, the answer is... EVERYWHERE. No wonder she's been marking her territory everywhere she went. At the very least, the culprits look to be the valve cover, OFHG (easy enough to do) and the oil pan (a bit more involved). Have all those gaskets spare so will see if I can occupy my mate's hoist some weekend to make the task of dropping the subframe a bit easier. Also chucked some new tyres on the rear. One side had a slow puncture that I thought I'd just get fixed but upon closer inspection I found it had collected not one but FOUR nails all sticking out from different places so didn't bother. Just went with some Laufenn's from Hyper Drive that were on the cheaper side as this is just a neat daily. Actually seem decent enough for the price. On the parts scavenger hunt, received the new piston rings for the engine rebuild as recommended by @dirtydoogle in the other thread. Went with a set with the M52TU-style 3-piece oil control rings. Should do me nicely. Compiling the shopping list is still a work in progress, for anyone that might care. Have a few parts already ticked off and a bunch of bits in there are optional that I'm still weighing up. Probably a bigger research effort than necessary, comparing FCP Euro, Rock Auto, ECS Tuning, Spareto and Schmeidmann. I'll likely waste more time compiling it all than the savings warrant but wanted to scratch my curiosity itch anyway. Might be of some use to someone on here as well...

Hi Team Long time no post, just been a bit slack with the updates but still trucking along with the projects. So bit of a big change in plans with the oil pump. When i bolted the X5 pump for a test fit the pick up was going to be way to low and clearance was going to be a massive issue. So back to plan A which is to use the n62 pump which im pretty much 80% through. Lucky for me the headers just needed one runner slightly hammered in. The sump itself had to be machined 3-4mm Bolt hole had to be slotted 5mm inwards to line up the hole. Found that 4 connecting rod bolts were fouling on the oil pump. got the angle grinder out and took off about 2mm of material. Exhaust painted Rolled the guards to fit the 18x8.5 square set hamann wheels Really can wait to get this car going. Thanks Team

Not quite a 991, only a 997.2 Carrera S. Is a 6 speed manual and the last generation with hydraulic steering though and it is also unfortunately not mine It's my mother's former daily driver, now a weekend toy as she daily drives a Smart Fortwo! The neighbour's roll their eyes with the plethora of unique and strange vehicles that frequent the house 🤣

Sold.

A bike rack, maybe

Got a new WOF after fixing a few things - PS leak / floppy seat / floppy door hinge / floppy tie rods. Do have a new thing to add to the to-do list - large amount of vertical play in my steering couple guibo causing a clunk over every speed bump... I have a rubber one here but might go for a softer grade grade poly so I feel like I've upgraded / ruined something at the same time.

haha great minds...

Down to the final prototype for the transmission mount ... its been an on again off again piece of work but will be great to have it finalised !! Printing the remaining parts tonight as the printer is not big enough to do it in one shot. I'll be trying to get everything sorted for a single order at the laser cutters so that will involve two pieces for the trans mount in steel, cover for the exposed flywheel on the trans in aluminium and some plywood templates for the new garage entry profile which the concrete lads will use. <-- This could well be another thread in itself 🤣 Went on a bit of an archaeological dig to see how thick my garage slab is ... about 130mm it turns out. Looks like they put the mesh under the concrete which is hopefully the case across the entire thing as it will make life a lot easier for the demo !! Basic story here is that my garage entrance is too steep for the E46 or my Odyssey to get in / out so I'm going to cut away about 1.8m inside and outside of the garage doors then contour it in a nice smooth radius which will be car friendly ... insane right

Actually got to do some work on the race car today, for the first time in ages! Have cleared a number of other jobs off the to-do list, so the race car is back to the (near) top. First jobs were to move the pile of bits off the top of it, so I could actually get to work on it, and then too vacuum all the dust and sh*t off - it’s amazing how much crap gets under the bonnet, even with it down!

Oh nice, you're going proper period correct E30 fabric. Love it!

I've recently done the valve stem seals on my E61 and must have looked at this thread at least ten times over the last year or so while deciding whether to send it somewhere or do it myself. There was a lot of umming and ahhing over the outlay of tools vs the cost for a garage to do the work. In the end I went DIY so I thought I'd just put it out there for anyone else that's thinking about it, I got the job done for somewhere around the $1700 mark plus a week of my time, which is a big discount assuming you have the time to spare of course. Parts were around $650, shipping and exchange rate dependent of course. I got my parts for this project from FCP. On top of the valve stem seals that also included all the gaskets & o-rings etc for the valve covers, upper timing covers, spark plug tubes (I used Febi as they were much cheaper but I think I'd use BMW original next time), and spark plugs because it's so much easier to do them with the spark plug tubes out that I think every time you have the valve cover off you should change them. Tools ~$1k I had a tool up a little. Its a bit of an outlay but relative to the spend to get someone else to do it I thought it was worth it. I already had an air compressor and decided to go the air method (vs rope method). I ended up getting A N62 valve spring compression tool kit from Aus (not the AGA one) A really long (650mm I think) 1/2" drive ratchet to turn the engine over with - long enough it poked out the top of the engine bay. A cheap leak down tester to hold the air pressure in the cylinders. And I splashed out on some AGA Valve Stem Seal plyers It's worth noting that Tony's AGA Tool Rental Service delivers worldwide now, but I don't know what the cost would be for rental + return shipping but may be worth a look into too. In terms of difficulty, I agree with other peoples opinions I've seen that if you can do the valve covers you can do the valve stem seals. And I guess the final test is - would I do it again if I had to? Yes I would, especially now I have the tools.

Exciting morning for me yesterday - new wheels and tyres went on finally. Maxilite Alpina wheels in 16x7 ET28 and 16x8 ET28 with Yokohama AD08R's in 205/50 and 225/45. Absolutely stoked - wheels look fantastic and fitment is great, probably pushing it about as far as practical without rubbing / rolling. I am probably going to raise it 5-10mm all-round over Easter - it looks great but is a wee bit impractical at this height. The tyres look super aggressive as well and the car is feeling significantly more planted and turns much sharper without an obvious NVH impact (the 205/55/15's were old RE002's). Car has not been aligned but tracks much straighter, will be aligning once new control arms, CAB's and tie-rods go in soon - should be handling far better than I could ever exploit by then. Obligatory photoshoot.

Top shopping for classy seats, well done. I'm sure installation and compliance will be more of a PITA than you've imagined but the end result will be mega and well worth it. Ace. 👍

Coffee: The Sunbeam Barista Max EM5300 is legit. I bought one after trying it at my brothers. My inlaws then bought one, my sister in law bought one, her parents bought one, etc. It comes with built in adjustable grinder so you can tune to the batch of beans. Couple it with decent fresh beans and you get coffee that beats 9/10 coffee places. I don't remember the last time I purchased a coffee that tastes better than what this machine can make. There's also some very important, basic, rules to get a decent cup. Fresh beans. Old beans will make flat black coffee with little flavour. Fresh will get you golden and delicious. Right grind. Too coarse and you get weaker, sour coffee. Shop around to find a good bean that suits you. I currently go to Raglan roast as it's local. Allpress ART blend is a good one to try. $488, can be had a tiny bit cheaper if Harvey Norman or someone puts it on super special. https://www.heathcotes.co.nz/products/em5300s-sunbeam-barista-max-espresso-machine-em5300

Interesting. Maybe the casual fitment of these (the control arms are standard non-M3) is in line with the replica ACS rear window spoiler and fake Alpina grille badge which were on it when I purchased... Just fluff that the owner bought online perhaps. *EDIT*: Apparently the B3 3.2 came with offset bushes Anyway, Upon closer inspection the toe was way out. bringing that back to zero has eliminated rubbing and given around 10+mm clearance full lock(8" front rim width). Now to convince my WOF guys that no witchcraft has been performed... Unfortunately his opinion is that you would need a huge adjustment in the rack to achieve this- despite the opposite being true.

The principle of parsimony (Occam's razor) suggests you check that the arch liner itself is properly positioned and secured before getting too deep into the mechanical side of things.

Haven’t heard anything from insurance company, who probably has got anyway with the police on it. Not sure Police will be interested now that the car has been located. Hope there’s someone who’s got time to look through the footage to find who gone and done it. Should help Wilson Carpark too to improve there security.

So, was it the Police that located it or someone else? Was it just abandoned in a street somewhere? Glad to hear you're getting it back.

and in typical capitalist fashion basically no punishment all those companies.

Glad you got it back, hope it’s ok.

Will definitely ride better and be more grippy. Could get new wheels, with a square set up, to reduce under steer if you're on the stock staggered wheels. Selling the old tyres and wheels could help subsidise that. Changing to normal tyres won't fix any body roll issues you're having, thicker sway bars will do that.

No, still for sale. I think it’s worth $55k though, basically a new car.

So I will be modifying our drive way and garage floor to create enough clearance to get non-SUV vehicles (namely the E46 project car) in and out, just like regular people do. To model this correctly, and ultimately make plywood forms for the concrete folks I need to know in the real world what sort of clearance I need to generate ... no can do with mine as its still on stands and will be for a while yet. Does anybody have an E46 which has been lowered to a 'good looking' but practical level say who could check the minimum ground clearance for me ? Even stock height is a good starting point (I simply minus 40mm say) ... my current model is working with 100mm but the bimmers do tend to sit fairly low so am keen to get some real world numbers. Getting this work done and then finding it still scrapes would be super sub optimal

These are dropping like a stone, and they can't drop much further... such amazing value for what you get. I still miss mine. You (almost definitely) won't be disappointed.

Aww thanks Kees @Kees… do you a deal!

*smg

That’s the one! Loving it - wouldn’t want to go much more shorter either, it’s great IMo

Looks fantastic! Got to love when you end up with two 😂

I believe it is in-fact in km. Here is what has happened I reckon: If we look at the carjam, it is recorded in miles. However, the car has an un-natural jump of 70,000 miles (over 110,000km) from 2019 to 2021. Clearly this is a mistake. In 2019 it was at 115,601 miles or 186,041km. It then had its next WOF 18 months later in July 2021, indicating the car probably was not used, hence the WOF lapsed. In July 2021, it was recorded to have done 186,932 miles, but as we saw the screen is in kilometers, so was most likely switched to km prior to the WOF and then wrongly recorded. 186,932km is 116,154 miles which matches the timeline. July 2021: 116,154 miles October 2019: 115,601 miles Therefore I think it is most likely at 187,000km, the WOF inspector just didn't do the conversion after the screen metric was changed. Good looking car too, and decently priced especially with the detachable hardtop being included. Good on the dealer for being cautious though!

I would be wary Last UK MOT milage record and milage records here all signal it is in miles, even though odometer says km 🙄

Needing a bunch of parts for my second gen (e28 chassis) sixer bumpers/boot lid among other anything out there?

Thank you for the kind words gents Hopefully once things are complete it will look pretty OEM in terms of fit and finish, that's the goal at least. Not much in the way of photographic progress to report of late bit I am achieving some pretty satisfying pieces, really cool to start seeing the engine and car go from two separate things to being somewhat integrated now !! Wired up transmission so now have functional reverse lights and neutral switch Wired up ignition on so can use the key to power up engine electrics Run all cables inside the cabin that need to go there from the back side of the 'secondary' Deutsch 31 pin connector Planned where the OBD2 connector and Arduino will be mounted Located wires for oil pressure and alternator lights to the dash Next up will be finalisation of the wiring inside the car ... fuel pump relay trigger, brake switch, power supply for Arduino, CAN connections, dashboard bits etc etc

This is the key for the 30d/35d engines. They aren't amazingly frugal if you compare to something like the 1.4TSI in the VW Golf, but you can cane them in big cars and still see single figure L/100k figures, if you did that to a V8 you might be looking at double the consumption

January '22 223,XXX km To take a break from the demolition job, I got onto installing the trunk trim bits I'd scavenged earlier. Not that it made an astronomical difference, but pretty satisfying none the less. Also helped get rid of a couple pesky squeaks & rattles as well as properly securing the side bit that the cargo cover latches onto, where the bolt hole had been ripped out. Afraid to put anything in the trunk now... The donor also came with some decent leather door cards, so those got a good clean and went straight onto the wagon. They looked tidier than the current ones, where the cloth part had gone all saggy, plus the numerous scuffs had been a real eye sore, most notably on the passenger door. The new door cards came with the added bonus of additional smaller speakers that I'll need to figure out how to wire in further down the line. No clue how that will work, but I'm sure future me will figure it out. The trim inserts will need a little going over with some fine sandpaper and a coat or two of paint to finish the look off. The wagon also got the front indicators off the donor that don't seem to be prone to moisture infiltration. Another little annoyance ticked off the list. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the donor car was becoming an increasingly sorry sight. More and more bits were coming off and getting sold or put away in storage, all engine cables getting tagged, all nuts and bolts going into separate sandwich bags and being labelled. Out came the subframe, and with the help of a mate, the engine soon followed. Love that green coolant, yum yum yum. Stripped the very last parts off the shell. Tried not to let anything go to waste, so kept everything from the windshield washer motor down to the brake booster and anything else I could lay my eyes on. Now all that was left was to figure out how to get the body out of the garage without any wheels on it... Ended up lifting the rear with an engine crane and rested the front rails onto a pole poked through a couple of spare wheels, creating a magnificent wee Batmobile. In the final couple of days, the last bunch of salvageable body panels went off to new homes, leaving the formerly glorious machine cutting a rather sad figure. Never nice seeing one of these get taken off the road, but at least the heart will live on in a new shell. R.I.P. 2002-2021 So, finally caught up, this is where things currently stand. The rear subframe is sitting on the floor, ready to be torn apart and put back together. The engine is up on the stand, awaiting the same treatment. The manual parts are in England, being loaded onto a pallet and going in for freight in the next couple of days. Can't wait. As for Barbara herself, she's still happily chugging along. Despite being a bit capricious at times, she's never left me fully stranded, to her great credit (knock on wood). With every bit of work going into it, she's feeling more and more my own and will be a whole different beast of a car by the end of year at the latest. Hopefully much sooner though. This has grown into a bigger project than anything I've ever undertaken before, by several orders of magnitude, and I'd be very keen to hear any sort of advice and guidance all you more knowledgeable folk might care to share. If you notice me going something dodgy or spouting some utter nonsense, by all means pull me up on it. I'm humble enough to admit I'm barely informed at best of times, and desperately clueless at others, so am very open to learning from people that have been there and done it before. I'm doing my best to research every step of the process before embarking on it, but if you do see me asking silly questions that have been addressed numerous times before, point me in the right direction and I'll eagerly do the due diligence. The goal with this process is to do as much as possible with my own two hands, and hopefully by the end of it, be left with a solid and reliable car to enjoy for years to come. Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement! Will do my best to keep it entertaining.

Worth a watch ...

@SRacin @KwS @Twistee Seeing as Mike and I both have E34 540s, we would often talk so I know the reason for Mike's departure from Bimmersport, and he does not plan to return, so it is most likely the end of this thread for good. Thought I would outline what happened just to clear any theories, confusion, speculation etc as to his departure from the forum. This is how Mike explained what happened to me: Mike found his once thought of friend Martin aka "breakmywindow" for ~10 years was stealth deleting Mike's personal opinion posts he didn't like on the forum, after this realisation Mike decided it was time to finally stop posting on bimmersport after being tired of the "soft" direction he felt it was going. He called Martin out on his pretty abuse of admin privileges to which Martin responded with personal insults and then proceeded to tell Mike to "go f**k himself". Martin then blocked Mike on Facebook before he could even reply. So that's Mike's reasoning for leaving Bimmersport.