Leaderboard

Orange 3.0 CSL in the city on my way back from the art gallery. An absolute credit to its owner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey all, A good friend of mine down in Christchurch has (along with a few other session musicians) been involved in putting out on a new song which is a tribute to the yachtsman Sir Peter Blake called The Great Man of the Sea. They were saying that there seems to be a generation of New Zealanders now who haven't really heard of him, nor his amazing contribution to our country. That, and this year it is 25 years since he won the Whitbread round the world yacht race and 20 years since he lead Team NZ to win our first America's Cup event. Anyhow some footage from the recording sessions is here & song is on iTunes etc. https://www.facebook.com/BrotherHoodMusicNZ I've always thought that he was a pretty inspirational kinda guy & happy to do my bit to help spread the word!

I would call Kayne Barrie if you really want to know if the diff will work for you.

Solider on right? All solenoids re-soldered and reinforced... couldn't be happier with the result, better than factory because I've eliminated the copper (circuit board) connection. Workstation... Result: Did both solenoids on both sides, very happy with the result! Now just waiting for the new o-rings then Mark can have his unit back!

Have a look at my 328ci if you like the color combinations. It is 1999 though but I bet much better condition inside out than any newer ones I have seen. I might go for a Benz oldtimer so the e46 will go at some stage. Cheers

And at the opposite end of the scale...

Haha yeah mate. My 6pot is still chugging away at 290kms

Thats how we roll bruv. Come we kick blud haha

Lol@prone to longevity

theirs*

uh oh. better stay away from this thread now..

Bossy as eff brah ^

From a mechanical perspective the 4 cylinder e90s are prone to oil leaks. The 6 cylinders are prone to longevity except waterpump failure and rocker cover gasket leaks on the odd occasion which should be a maintenance item. I suggest you go for a 6 cylinder in the e46 and e90 variants. 2.5 or more

Don't even consider one of these pieces of sh*t. They recycle oil and water all over our high ways , your garage, your drive way and my workshop for our grandchildren to acknowledge that BMW was into recycling. Maybe BMW think all this sh*t going into our drains and storm water canals is one of the appropriate ways to do this Go for a E46 or E90 6 cylinder version

Had an awesome drive this weekend at the Coromandel peninsula, but had some Murphy's law moments prior to my trip start on Friday. The only hose I didn't replace on my cooling system decided to leak the day before (Thursday). I only found it by chance as my coolant level dropped a little bit overnight. It was the water hose that connects radiator to expansion tank, goes above the shroud. The hose clamp for some reason cut into the hose, causing it to leak. Luckily BM workshop was still open at the time so I managed to source a new replacement and fix that. Friday morning, CD changer decides to die. I had no intention of driving to Coromandel in silence so picked up a used one from Brent (BM World), an hour before heading out. I'm going to get a Dension Gateway 300 installed in the near future so I can use my ipod, usb etc. Anyway, this was the route I took for the trip: https://goo.gl/maps/5lyyb Awesome drive, I'd definitely recommend it. Also, the S001's handled awesome the entire time. Managed to test it on dry, wet and even gravel roads and they feel great. Grips very well during corners, quiet on the highways and behaved fine on gravel. I stayed at Matarangi but went out to discover some nice roads and beaches while there. Here's one route I took on Black Jack Rd (to Opito Bay) that was really nice: https://goo.gl/maps/LLFKE Note that a lot of that route is gravel, steep, narrow and high up on the cliff side. Here's a photo of Otama beach, which you drive past on that Black Jack rd route:

Awesome dude. I know the previous owner of this car. Pretty tidy car.

I had read on the interwebnet that the Vanos seals on the M54 are practically guaranteed to be poked if they haven't been replaced with the correct type (Beisan Vanos Seal Kits). This is where I got my seal kit from. I thought because our car has only 117K on it, thay ours wouldn't be too bad. Wrong. We had issues with the engine (M54B25) nearly stalling when riding the clutch to reverse, or trying to manouvre in carparks etc. It also would bunny hop on our drive if you touched the gas pedal at low speed when cold - you either had to go fast or let it idle. The cold idle hunted just a touch, and there was a slight hesitation when tapping the throttle. I'm not sure how different the symptoms would appear on an auto. The Vanos works by using oil pressure to alter the cam timing. The M54 has Vanos on both cams, and it's infintely variable (between two points).The cams are connected to the cam sprockets by a piston with a set of helical gears and a spline. The piston in the Vanos pushes on the cam piston which alters the position of the sprocket on the camshaft through a range of about 40 crankshaft degrees for the intake, and 25 degrees for the exhaust. The engine measures the cam angle and adjusts a pulse width modulation signal to the Vanos solenoids to push the Vanos pistons in or out. The Vanos pistons have two grooves, which have an O ring installed, covered by a teflon sealing ring. The O ring BMW uses is not suitable for the environment it's in - They get a flat spot on them, and go hard. Very hard! I removed mine this morning, expecting them to be not too bad considereing the car has only 117kms on it. I was quite surprised by how rooted they were! The first clue as to how poked they were, was that the intake piston moved of it own accord when I tilted the Vanos unit (The exhaust piston is spring loaded). Once I removed the covers that hold the pistons in, the pistons fell out without any force! Totally poked! With the covers off, I could move the pistons laterally and SEE the movement, as well as hear them tapping each side. When the old seals and O rings were removed, the O ring (behind the teflon seal) was so flat, it was about half as thick as it was wide - it would have started off round! They were also hard enough that I could fold them over and break the O ring rubber, and they no longer stretch. The outer teflon seal seems to show no signs of wear etc - just the O ring behind no longer provided the pressure and support required to keep a good seal. The same pistons with the new seals installed were actually VERY difficult to move by pushing them, once the new seals were on and resized in the bores. I spent about 4 hours doing it, but had to borrow a couple of tools during the procedure. The whole thing is quite easy, following the instructions from the Beisan website (I think he is a bit OCD too!). If you have an M54 (or probably anything with Vanos!) you probably need to do the seals. On other forums, people speak of Vanos seal failures at anything from about 30,000 kms up to whatever! After doing them, I've only driven about 10 kms. I'll take it for more driving over the weekend. Already, it's clearly smoother at idle, the bogging is almost disappeared and the hesitation when tapping the throttle is gone. I replaced nothing else during the procedure, so can't put it down to anything else. The paperwork with the seals suggests 300kms+ are required for the seals to bed in. I took a few pictures while doing it, but the Beisan website has super detailed procedures with all the pictures you need!