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It kept pissing in the corner....

The rollover bar which deployed during a crash with the softtop or roof down was pretty cool at the time.

I'm fordguy17, I couldn't help myself

Hi Guys, I have been a BMW fan for years, so thought I should join this site and see what it's all about. Current cars are an Imported (Japan) 335i E91 wagon, and NZ New E46 M3 SMG. Have owned an NZ New 328i M Manual coupé previous to these cars, brought it at 170km and took it to 344km over 6 years, was easily the best car I've ever owned over a long period of time. The E91 is for sale, turns out I can live with the M3 as a daily driver just fine..... Cheers, Dan

E35s are rare as Hen's teeth.

Whether or not it has more or less technology doesn't define a car's "soul". How does one measure soul? The soul of a car is purely opinion, based on everybody's individual experiences and preferences. Having driven both, I'd pick the "soulless" (by your definition being newer) 458 over the E46 M3

We did the best we could, Australia deserved to win this game. Happy it's over!

Yeah I had a bad experience with auto trans as well .. They just wanted to walk away from the job despite spending north of 7k with them at the time. Long ass story but was less than impressed with the outcome. In the end I work through my problem at the time myself ... and learnt a lot in the process. Turns out they stuffed the valve body putting it back in which cause mine to thump. (on my e46 330) As for 540i trans .. the source of all evil is cooling issues. The EGS will hold gears when the system is running over 138 degrees. Live data will show this. Unfortunately a lot of generic trans shops dont have the proper software to read the data stream in an EGS. Blockages are a problem in the 540 trans. its not a great design ... works great when its working .. but not when its not. Also, what helps sometimes is if your EGS apaptions are reset .. in warm or cold weather periodically this can help calm things down a bit on a older trans.

Thanks Kiwis. Hell of a ride.

Do I think differently of Clarkson after this ruckus? Meh, it just got him over the threshold, it was the straw that broke the camels back. he has done a load of daft things in the past...they caught up with him. He is a buffoon, a self proclaimed one at that. We all know this. Two and a half men. Similar problem in my mind. The main actor was also the heart of the show, with everyone else playing superfluous roles. The mucky stuff hit the fan, and the shows producers made the executive call. They fixed it by bringing in a big name douche, to replace the big name douche. Whether it worked or not is anyone's guess. Viewing times play into that as well. For me it changed the way I thought about the show. I didn't watch one episode with the new douche in there, because it would be too different, it might have be better even? I don't care even if it was better, but what's better anyway, I didn't give it a chance, some will some wont. For me with Clarkson going, I may continue to watch it, because of my love of cars...but to be fair it will be cringe worthy, on top of it already being cringe worthy in parts. Everyone is replaceable. But whether people will continue to tune in, that's another thing. He has been doing this sort of thing, car reviewing that is for decades, and it had to stop at some stage. I will miss the idiot, like many will. He is not just the heart of the Top Gear show, for many he was also the sole representative of the BBC. It's the only program I watch from them. Top Gear Australia, is like X-factor Australia and Who wants to be a Millionaire Australia, the same format, but it's the characters and their symbiotic relationships that really make the show, and those shows are just...urgh. The originals are hard to imitate well, good luck finding a replacement for Clarkson, if indeed that's what they are thinking. I cannot help thinking the other car shows are rubbing their hands with glee, having been relegated to minor positions for as long as anyone can remember. Top Gear elevated itself above a car show some time ago. I know families and non-car enthusiasts who watch the show regularly, it really is something else. Rant over.

OK its been a while and progress has been a little slow, ive been away for work for the last 6 odd months and relocated to Rotorua, BUT we have progress! I am defiantly going the resto route, since the last post i have finished a few things off; -Roof lining A pillars Cpillars and parcel shelf all recovered! massive improvement over the roof sail i had before! -Sunroof cassette removed, broken clips and bits replaced, it doesn't leave the shuttle in the roof and jam now, it also tilts and slides like it should! -Drivers door handel replaced, it stopped working, its really not cool looking like your breaking into your own car in westfeild carpark... -Door Handel surrounds replaced -Drivers window reg, missing bushings replaced, window clips replced <-- these, you can just push the reg into the clip with the split pin installed, saved me hours once i figured this out! -Drivers door, front guards replaced, front bumper plastic welded -Front inner guard liners installed (missing) -Front belly pan installed(missing) -misc panel work, rust cut out of tail light by battery, few other bits tidied up. -And the big one for now, Front cross member replaced. cracked and pulled through engine mounts! Up next; door cards, Guibo, brake pads + rotors + bleed, G'box flush, Diff flush (possible center re-build to 3 or 4 clutch setup, i've already done a 4 clutch 1 of these to go into my 328i, feel free to shoot any questions regarding this) and more bits of perished trim. ill endevour to keep this up to date as i go photos included. As the car is in auckland ill upload some general photos and some photos of the work i've done next time i make it back to the big smoke! Cheers and Take it easy Glen PS any members in the Rotorua/Taupo/BOP area ? PPS Thanks goes out to dave (M3AN), Jayden and Reid for helping out with the front cross member issue!

F2 contact adhesive Lithium grease or spray for lube works well

Love 1990's Mercedes. I had a W140 at one time. Always like the R129 great looking car when paired with some AMG mono-blocks.

I feel a punishment should fit the crime, not the person committing it.

ados f2 contact adhesive any hardware store,very solvent heavy might not be the best for foam...

we gotta tee up a meeting of the E30 old boys one of these days, the bimmersport e30 class of 2009

Subtitles.

I have met people who deserved exactly that. Under our PC rules the arseholes think they can get away with anything because the PC brigade will save them. I am not saying the producer deserved anything but with the media I am most distrusting of what gets said and printed. The truth is often a long way from what we are fed.

Gave her a good clean today

That's why it became so popular internationally because you didn't actually have to listen to anything...

i was being a bit sarcastic, forgot to press sarcastic font button. last season and the one before it hit the perfect balance. this season however, i am 5 episodes in and not a single decent car review except for a brief one on the BMW i8 which i did enjoy, but only because it was from the brand i like. would love to pedal an i8 some day. (do you pedal it, or turn some potentiometers to make it go???)

i guess when we all talk about cars we keep it all strictly factual and boring too.

I can take or leave top gear .I used to watch it at any opportunity.Its not top gear its the jeremy clarkson show.Its sorta about cars but its mostly clarkson poking fun at the short guy,the slow guy,the germans,waxing lyrical about Mercedes,(mostly) harping on about BMW buses,trains and vauxhalls.

The show won't survive without those hosts. Top Gear Australia bombed because it didn't need replication in Australia, USA yes, because it was harder for them to relate to the original. Top Gear will always be one of my favourite shows, but I stopped watching it about 3 years ago when it became clearly scripted, less about actual car-reviews and the outside controversy which always seemed to involve Clarkson. It seemed as the show went down in content value (for me) it went up in popularity internationally. It was a great format, but ultimately the person who brought it to the BBC in the first place ruined it enough for everyone else. New format with the same hosts on a different network would probably work. New hosts / same format is doomed.

That accent ... dunno if you could take the show seriously with that accent, The english might get it but the rest of the world doesnt. Also car show with a bike guy. The beebs has lost it.

Omg hahaha, just what I needed to read at 12:30am. I love the "I'll take you for a ride and youll feel it for yaself", Yeah.. to most ex-Integra folks, it would probably feel like 450hp. Didn't you guys know, a pod filter is worth an extra 50-300hp on its own? Especially if it's mounted right above the headers for that cold air induction like most typical NZ'ers do. Are any of you members of "Dirty South Car Club" on Facebook? This is the sort of mentality that goes on there daily. I had to stop browsing so often as the ignorance, naivety and general arrogance masquerading as knowledge of cars was almost giving me an aneurysm.

I am crossing my fingers that this person is not a Bimmersport member. The answers to questions given are childish. That's not the problem of course, but if this is blatant deception, then people need to know.

Just thought I'd update. Finally got the car back yesterday after 5 weeks of frustration. Anybody suffering from this problem, check or replace the gearbox oil cooler first!!! They mis-diagnosed (or didn't diagnose in this case) and went straight for the gearbox rebuild without doing any thorough testing, as it did have a small section missing from the A drum, which again according to ZF usually happened within the first 60K of the gearbox life, hence why they changed the design in the later models. 4.8K later, much to my disappointment the car came back with the exact same problem. Basically another month on from that, I now have the car back in my possession and working correctly. They replaced the radiator, and drove it with an air lock in the system causing it to piss coolant all over the engine bay (assures me it didn't over heat), and its still a mess of dried coolant under there. Ended up playing around with the gearbox oil cooler for a week or so, before finally replacing it, which fixed the problem completely. Tried to hand me an invoice for a further 1.2K including for petrol and tow which of course was argued and dismissed bar the radiator. Doing the research, it seems to be common in these 540's and the range rovers, causing them to get hot and lose the 2 top gears as a safety mode, or get really harsh on downshift in traffic, mine of which suffered from both symptoms. There is a lot of info and DIY pages online that are are pretty helpful regarding cleaning out the cooler. Very disappointed with this "highly recommended", MTA assured workshop considering the fact they have possibly over heated the engine as well. Otherwise I'm very happy to get my car back, and running fine

Awesome position you're in dude! Good luck with the decision. I've lived with both cars since their various stages of introduction and bought a M3 CS 2 and a bit years ago. If you've got space as a concern and want a refined, fast, slightly reasonable economy wise car, I'd say a LCI E91 335i, highly optioned possibly a panoramic roof optioned one. Massively tune-able, tons of torque, hp and daily appeal while also being track capable. Also bits are cheaper than M cars and arguably if money is spent correctly outshines both M3's. or if you're really keen, a neat diesel E90 (15-20k) for a daily which will give you amazing fuel economy and an earlier 01-02 E46 M3 (being quite cheap market wise 20-25k) for track duties! However if you really really want a E9x M3, could I please implore you to test drive a 2010 IS-F and C63 AMG Performance Pack Plus version. I've spent extensive time in all these cars, all are neat, hence my non-biased opinion. Goodluck you're a winner any way dude!

The stig could punch the Queen and he wouldn't be de-helmeted.

Fix it. Low KM original 3.0s are becoming rarer by the day. Reshelling it removes all originality and a lot of value. Do you have any pictures?