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Hmmm, you wanted a sensible idea from me.............??? How bout this - keep the vehicles you've got, who-ever is going longest distance on a day takes the might diesel wagon, & umm, buy yourself a motorbike for using on the fine days - ya know ya wanna............ Like, a proper motorbike, not some sorta tractor like a Harley........... Edit - In terms of Freelanders, I personally wouldn't pi$$ on one to warm up its wheels.............however if you do get one, get one with sunroofs. Then when it dies, ya can full it up with horse-$hit & use it as a glass-house for growing tomatoes etc..........

This is coming back home next week... so someone please buy the E34 so I don't have to live on 2 minutes noodles for the next 6 months! Will consider serious offers from Bimmersporters.

This is E39 specific, but it MAY work for the E38 and E53 too - not sure, probably best to find out, before you try it. I made this from info collected off the net, and use it quite a bit, so thought I'd tidy it up and sort it out to hopefully make it of use to others. Because of the high number of problems with cooling systems, and the HUGELY buffered gauge on the E39, I thought I'd make a "How to" to read the KTMP (Coolant Temp) your E39. NEVER trust the gauge - there are a lot of E39's out there with faulty thermostats and are consuming copious amounts of fuel because of running too cold. Also, on those with "map-control" electronic controlled thermostats, they can run too hot if the thermostat heater is burnt out (It logs a fault code in the DME fault memory, but does NOT bring up any warning to the driver). The E39 temp gauge seems to read "normal" (12 o'clock) from about 75C up to at least 115C. High OBC is a text display under your instruments Low OBC is a picture of a car under your instruments Test 7 displays the KTMP figure, in degrees Celcius. This is the coolant temperature that the ECU is measuring in the engine. I've not confirmed it, but some people report change in the KTMP display depending on key position - Position 2 (with the engine running or not) appears to be the side of the coolant sensor used for the ECU temperture readings, and position 1 appears to be the temperature the gauge uses - The sensor is called a "Dual Temperature sender" because it has the two readings. If one side is faulty, this should show it up. To access the "High OBC Secret Menu" and KTMP (Coolant temp) add up last 5 numbers of your vin (mine are 59439, so 5+9+4+3+9 =30) turn ignition on 1 or higher (or start engine) Hold right side button until test appears( 5 seconds?), repeatedly press right button until test 19 is shown, then repeatedly press left button until it says Lock: 30 (or whatever your VIN added up to) press right button press right button until test 07 shows press left button and it will show KTMP - coolant temp. press left will cycle through KTMP, RPM and something else. It will stay there until you turn the car right off (key position 0). To access the "Low OBC Secret Menu" and KTMP (Coolant temp) The 'low' OBC, with your one button is a bit harder: There are three actions you can use with the button: short press, long press (1 second+ish) Wait turn ignition on 1 or higher (or start engine) Press and hold the button until "test 1" appears (5 seconds?) and immediately release the button. quickly start "short presses" on the button, with a short pause between keep up the short presses until you get to "test 19" (if you go past, you can keep going up to 21 and back to 0...) While "test 19" is displayed, "wait" - it will enter test 19 after a short wait (If you accidently drop into another test, Easiest way is to start again - key off and back on) Display should show "Lock ON/OFF", where on and off will alternate between one and the other. short press while it says "Lock OFF" and as soon as it display changes to "test 0", start the short presses again, until you get to "test 7" When "test 7" is displayed, "wait" to enter the test, and it will then display your KTMP. It will stay there until you turn the car right off (key position 0). Thermostat ratings: M52 = 92C, Mechanical thermostat M52TU and M54 = Map Control, Mechanical rating 97C (generally run at 92C - 98C at cruise, may drop down to high 80's briefly under load) M62 and M62TU = Map Control, Mechanical rating 108C (generally run at 92C? - 110C at cruise, may drop down to high 80's briefly under load) S62 = 79C, Mechanical thermostat Diesels = I think 88C, Mechanical Thermostat The Mechanical Thermostats should generally stay above the Thermostat rated temperature, unless going down long gradients using no throttle (lot's of airflow, but no fuel burned) - though that will usually only drop slightly and come backup quickly once fuel is burned in the engine. They may go higher, if the cooling capacity is exceeded - the viscous fan, or auxilliary fan should pull the temps down before "the China Syndrome" The Map Control ones will function like the mechanical thermostats above, except the ECU controls a small heater built into the thermostat. It can heat the thermostat up, forcing it to open more and pull engine temps down during heavy loads. The engine temp can vary a lot, but should never cool down much, for very long. Most of the time you should be in the ranges I stated above. Do be aware, with the Map Control ones: The small heater can burn out, and the ECU loses it's temperature control mechanism - it will them run at the High temperature that is the Thermostats mechanical rating, and should be replaced, ASAP. It will NOT bring up a warning of any kind, except when scanning the DME (ECU) for codes. Diesels may have an EGR thermostat too, which can cause warmup issues. If you have any cooling system issues - use the KTMP reading to see what's really happening - because of the bufferd gauge, it doesn't tell you what's going on, and if it does move to the red, it may already be too late! High OBC cars (only) will give a loss of coolant warning. Low do not. If the coolant suddenly escapes, you can cook the engine without the gauge even moving - the sensors only work properly when they're IN coolant.

We're looking at relocating a little way down SH1 to Te Kauwhata, a move which brings as many problems as it does benefits. Hopefully the new problems are smaller... At present, I have a daily round trip for work of around 230km. It's not a bad drive, but the first part of the journey includes an extended period travelling at 50km/h through Papakura and Drury, with attendent fast-asleep lorry drivers, traffic lights, poor lane discipline, and general dodginess. Not stuff which set you up for the day. And, of course, I get the same thing coming home, too. Moving to TK significantly reduces my journey time, from a current 1h20-1h30 down to about 40 minutes in each direction. Mrs GJM transports Miss GJM and an overseas student who stays with us to school. Current journey is about 18km and at least 20 minutes in each direction - they, too, have to run the Papakura gauntlet. (Actually, P'kura isn't so bad. It's just a bit slow going.) This journey is going to increase to a potential 100km round trip twice a day, although we're hoping she'll get work nearer the school. We'll be living in a fairly rural area, and may have some grazing beasties to look after until they are fit to stock our freezer. So, Mrs GJM's old VW Polo 1.6 is unlikely to be smiled upon for long. She will want something more suited to 40+ kms of SH1 driving. The obvious answer, to her at least, is for me to drive the Polo to Hamilton and back, and for her to drive my 320d. Reluctantly, I can see the sense in this, but I'm not about to admit it to her. My first thought was a Land Rover Freelander 2.0 TD4, as apart from anything else, it runs the same engine as the 320d. It's economical enough to be sensible, and practical enough to be useful. It could fit the bill, and either of us could drive it (I suppose). So, perhaps it is an option. Any alternatives in a similar theme? Or, perhaps I should just sell the Polo (let's say it's worth $2k), find a few bucks extra (and it would be a few!), and buy something cheap and <ahem> 'fun' for my trip to work? The only downside to this is that the Polo is/was set to become Miss GJM's wheels in a couple of years. Sadly an M5 is just out of budget... So please try to keep suggestions to moderately sensible ideas! (OK Phil - that probably won't include you... )

And don't park too close to the end of your garage - real awkward to get out Some later ones had reverse though - not so much the early ones

The guy I sold it to emailed me and said he was selling and could he please use my photos to advertise it. I said "yeah sure , but you won't need them cos I want to buy it back off you!" On a truck as we speak and hopefully should have it on Monday.

please do update us chris, these wee cars are so awesome i took this photo at jeff gray chch in july last year....it wasnt for sale

I'm getting adjusties in a month or two so that's the height issue sorted. I think silver RS's is just too common. I like the alpine white colour coded look, it's different. Cheers for the opinions though, guess it's not everyone's cup of tea

Good stuff Charles..when you get there, don`t jump out of the car in a hurry. There`s a Rottweiler sitting out the front on a mat. He`s got those sleepy eyes... I doubt they have much in the way of bad debtors. Just joking, they`re good value alright. Glad to help out.

Has the fluid/oil level ever been checked? "Sealed for life", says BMW. That's b*ll*cks, says anyone who knows anything about cars... If you can find one s/h, get it checked before fitting. I've never played with one that new, but whenever I've swapped diffs there has been a need for shimming to ensure correct meshing and minimal lash.

Is that like when Obelix is "polite" to the Romans?

It must have been a good one! By that milage it should have been in for a clutch and at least an injector - surely the dealer would have given it an oil change then?!?!?

Lots of common sense in here re maintance etc. Rumour has it that a new Hilux 4WD diesel, will do about 28,000kms with no maintance at all from the showroom floor, before it Chernobyl's it's motor, (even though it shows full on the dipstick.....) Apparently that's not covered by warranty for some reason...........

I soooooo miss the south island version of 'subtle'...............its great.......

Can imagine the drivers must look something like this

ill get crucified for dissing the RS's but.. i reckon they look too small. Maybe its the white centers. Preferred it on the previous (LM reps?) wheels.

Love the comment at the bottom of that when someone suggested it was lowered - "Cant imagine anyone doing something silly like that to a car like this." - but they painted it pink, with pink lips on the wheels. Hmmmn.

I don't like the guy at all - probably bearing a grudge since the Adelaide GP in '94. Still hope he pulls through.

Sorry about the rubbish cellphone pictures. The body is just resting on the chassis in these photos. Ill try dig out some pictures of how it looked when we got it.

Gimmie his number and ill go grab your sh*t this weekend

At least if Mrs GJM has the 320d, you won't get the milage up too high on it A lot of those "smaller SUV's" are like Ron says (actually, he was being PC... he meant CRAP! ) And like most SUV's, their assumed safety isn't actually a reality, because of the handling/dynamics (plus they're no "tougher" than a car, usually). They can also be less economical than you'd assume. A friend had a 1995 4.0 Falcon GLi. She drove nearly as far as you each day, and "upgraded" to a 2004 Toyota Rav4, 2.4. On average (mostly open road, bare in mind) it used 30% MORE gas than the Falcon! She's since gone to a Mondeo, which is slightly better than the Falcon was.

whats worse than earthquakes in tararua? A: tararua

I'd be doing curing the front off and turning it into this Be one Epic trailer

easy. they look out the windshield, think oh cr@p that's a power pole, continue to keep their eyes on it and they then steer towards it. moral of the story. Look where you want to go. Not where you don't.