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I joined an alfa forum once. Got two generic answers. Ring the dealer amd buy a factory part. Or get a bank loan then ring the dealer for the factory part. I got banned for showing how i glued a light lens back on. I find it funny how some of the "key knowledge base guys" as good as they are get pissy when people dont take their advice to the letter. When much of their experiance was gained by going against advice and trying new things to find better solutions. Im sure many of those guys were taught by guys who scoffed at efi now they are tuning shift points on smg modules. Mistakes breed ingenuity so dont knock it. That being said the lowest point i think is members new or old who steal from other members. Hellafunktional and that cut springs douchebag pop to mind.

Seems thete is some kind of reverse snobbery going on here.Just cos I am older with a bit of cash and dont do any of my own work I am not good enough for bimmersport.An interest and passion for BMW is not enough?

I don't have the equipment, garage, tools to do all the work on my car, or I would. Being female - lots of people turn you down when you say you want to DIY and what advice is there. I also work full time and a single Momma doesn't help my 'free time' cause. I spent a long period learning about BMWs through Ray @ HellBM because he was the only one willing to explain things to me and let me have a go. I now send my cars there for everything, and maybe one day when I'm not working 40 hours a week, and have a nice garage, I'll do it all myself, not just the occasional service and basic things. I have managed to do all the non-engine components my self (interior overhaul, lights, parking sensors) but not yet confident dealing with the internal engine components. I love the Project threads on here - facebook lacks a lot of what forums bring.

sorry about the divorce

To be honest I put it down to a decline in people willing to work on their cars. The [insert ricer suburb near you] lot are all on facebook complaining about cops harassing them in their hondas, and the rest of the car inclined people get their mechanic to do it or do it themselves. Basically there's not many people left doing decent projects in the driveway, they're either good enough to do it themselves with little help or wanna be jap street racers (glad they're not here) of course it's made more extreme by the fact this is New Zealand and then add to that the small portion of BMW owners and from the BMW owners, those who actually want to do their own car work. That basically leaves us. Social media will never replace a forum, when I search "E32 IHKA" I get a bunch of forums serviced by highly knowledgeable groups of people, not one social media account. I have asked things on Facebook and got nothing but idiotic replies. Forums are easy to navigate records, and they keep good historical data. Ever tried to find an old post in facebook? It's a nightmare. Overall though there appears to be a global decline in willingness to work on your own car, even the big international forums are getting quiet with the "old timers" keeping the likes of me around by being able to instantly diagnose a poorly described rattle from the AC unit as a loose blower motor mount and linking me to a 5 year old forum post on how to fix it. That sort of glorious knowledge is why I love a good forum. Sadly it seems that people are scared to even look at an engine. For me, once you know the working principals you can fix it. Of course there are the finer points of how a specific system goes together and how to handle it but in general, if you research things you can do it yourself. I find the NZ forums to be very helpful, the Americans and Euro guys are pretty much "buy the part that fits" type people, whereas us kiwi's tend to reply with "well, the fitting costs $150 but with a bit of brass, a tap & die kit from repco and a few beersies you can make on for $12" - That sort of workaround, do it from anything is what I love about most NZ forums and that's not just cars - metalworking, fabrication, RC you name it, there's a Kiwi saying "bog it together" and an American saying "just buy a $50 part, spend $75 in shipping and wait for a week"

A grumpy old (?) fart you might well be, but you know what you're talking about - it's that depth of knowledge that helped get the forum to where it is now. Along with Glenn, Ray, Hotwire and every other bugger that either comes from xy years of workshop experience or have had to figure out the latest problem with their cars themselves. And then had the decency to share their experience with guys & girls like me. sh*t, look through some of the project threads on here. Then think about how many hours of sweat & swearing it took them to get to that point. Massive kudos to the lot of ya! Hey, not every idiot can swap a B30 for a B44 and drive away. Good work dude, you'll be in a very small group of people that own a manual V8 E34. Probably the only one with a 5-speed too I think there are still a bunch of folks doing cool stuff in their sheds. Just not many of them bother with posting their progress anymore. First four off the top of my head are Polley, Westy, Andy & Jon the Pom. Perhaps this is more a sign of the economic times than folks losing interest in working on their cars? Given the modern cars are designed to not be DIY friendly it's hardly surprising that the bulk of the advice given is "get it scanned & order the replacement part". There's not really much else you can do! One does wonder if the forum is turning towards actually meeting people and talking to them - the monthly Sunday meets at Qubes cafe seem to be becoming a regular event. Hardly a bad thing Maybe the start of a BMW NZ club that is less exclusive than the BMWCCANZ?

"Paint is mint" Holograms in photos.

This is the raised up. Nice height still drive able. I am one very happy chappy!!

Nice mate! Slow and steady wins the race

So after 3 long weeks of patiently waiting Speedfactor have finished my custom coilovers. They are built specifically for this car out of a collection of parts. Providing the ride,adjust-ability and height that i'm after. The car will sit higher in the front than in this picture but the back is pretty well bang on. The white dot on the tire is where an 18 inch rim will sit. New engine mounts next week and that'll be it for ages until I muster up some more cash for wheels (or my E30 sells!!!!!) Let the arguments begin.......

I've texted Alan to ask so hopefully can get back to you soon. UPDATE: Pit lane garages will be open if shelter is needed.

Ahh I knew you were a member here. I see you pretty much every morning turning into Trugood Drive

I guess the question is - do we try and rebuild the forum to it's original function of a local knowledge base / meeting ground for like minded individuals or just let the rot on social media take its place? The Fartbook page seems to be populated with cryptic for sale posts and occasional pleas for help with a usually simple problem. Definitely not my thing but useful for he odd bit of kit that comes up for sale. The original members like Apex, Hybrd, Bellicose, Jamez et al in the main have moved on. Glenn and Hotwire still surface from time to time but not as often as before. The only thing holding the forum back is the knowledge base that were around when it started aren't really here anymore. I personally don't expect folks to remain tied to the site forever, we all move on to different stuff eventually. It'd be great to see it return to the days of 60-70 posts a day instead of the current 15-20 but I've got no clue as to making that happen! Bring back the project threads!

We need some of the old boys club to get back into it. Priorities seem to have moved from Car's and Cruising to I have to do what I am told.

Yes all Certified, Rego and WOF although technically the suspension height is lower than whats on the cert plate now, but got a wheel alignment after it went to the height its at now, and last two WOFs its flown through at VTNZ, both times the guy just said look i know what your gunna do, and also took into account current wheel alignment so he just passed it. its only a half hour or so to wind all four corners up, i will have to do that and take it for another alignment before it goes to next owner, just so my concience is clear if anything happend