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So since I had today off work, decided to look into converting the rear windows to electric. As it seems like most of the poverty spec tourings had electric fronts, and manual rear windows. Didn't manage to find anything definitive about the process online (as most people either wanted to go to manual windows because racecar, or because they had all manual windows to start with, and no loom) So before you get too excited, first take out your center console and peel back the carpet to see if you have provisions for all 4 windows on the rear. (I got pretty excited at this point) Then you need to source electric motors, and also the rear door loom. This runs from the B pillar through to the door. You'll also need 4 window switches, and also the small switch that controls power to the rear of the loom. (All from a 4 door) To make your life easy, you can also grab a centre console from a sedan also, so that you have the holes all ready to go. So pull out your B pillar cover, and you'll see this connector hiding away Just unplug it and pull it out. I found it easier to pull it all out via the door. Then you'll need to remove the old regulator If it's all working, just wind the window down until you can see these 2 bolts, and undo those Electric verses Manual Install of the electric windows is basically reverse of removal. Only difference is that you need 3 nuts instead of 2 bolts. Just to note, that the rear windows will only work if you have switches installed at both the center console, and in the door. As I think it runs a 12V circuit between them. You will also need to have the smaller switch in the loop. This basically just allows the 12V to run through the rear window circuit also. Now you can enjoy your electric rear windows Edited due to the attachment editor throwing a wobbly.

Cops sitting hidden up a slip road aren't watching traffic, or drivers that don't drive. They're typically watching a 200yd stretch of straight road. I woke someone up who nearly drove into me yesterday. Black VW Passat, driver with a shirt and tie, had been weaving fairly well between Meremere and Hampton Downs - two wheels over the line to the left, or the centre line. As I passed him he started to drift towards us but a hand held on the horn saw his head snap up, and him nearly drive off the left side of the road. I saw in my mirror that he'd stopped. Policeman? There'd been one on the southbound HD slip road. Camera van? Would have made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Crossing the center line is what it's all about. I see lazy drivers doing it quite often, through blind corners too. Just terrifying. There needs to be massive penalties in place for such, evidence like in car cameras for insurance purposes should stand as a way to prosecute these pricks - given the vehicle following has such fitted. Cops are too few and far between to do anything about it.

Fresh rebuild, no receipts

^Local reality TV?

But how do you make a successful media campaign about stupid people for stupid people?

Preaching to the choir there, I ride a lot and often do around 120; I almost think it's safer going that little bit quicker as it keeps the attention up, and all the passing means you don't get stuck in innatentive lemming mode. So while the bigger part of me thinks its a crock of sh*t, the silver lining is I'm possibly less likely to cop a ticket during such events.

The road rules for holiday seasons are ridiculous, as mentioned by you guys, the emphasis is in the wrong area. I am lead to think / believe that they are revenue gaining...not actually focusing on the source of the problem. Really need to make defensive driving courses compulsory, and "teach" new / and seasoned drivers about basic physics of motor vehicles etc. i could only imagine how %% many accidents are not caused soley by speed...but stupid people making stupid decisions? Can lower speed tolerance and force the general public to obey this and that....but none of this will "REMOVE THE IDIOT OUT OF THE IDIOT DRIVER"...haha.

Shot out for lunch today from Albany to Ponsonby. Pulled up behind a van that was doing 85kph in the center land past Wairau. Something wasn't right though. It was tailgating the car in front so bad I told my friend who was driving to back off and change lanes. That's when I realised the van was being towed. We quickly passed this rolling death trap. The tow rope of which had been broken and rejoined in the middle was about 2.5 meters long. Staring at this sh*t in amazement I was shown the middle finger from the driver. The van then decided it wanted to change lanes and started changing before the car was ready. Shifty as. It gets worse. Just ahead I see another POS van tailgating a crap old Ford Falcon. Thought sh*t no way. Yep. Being towed with an even shorter cheap rope that had been looped many times to give it enough strength. They happily struggled over the harbor bridge. Called *555 to report them but many had beaten me to it. I did mention the plates on the cars looked suspicious as they did not suite the years and on the two cars were only held on by one bolt each. This sh*t exists on our roads.

People who think putting thier hazards on automatically exempts them from all road rules and courteous driving/parking

Most drivers ride the brakes or backs off for bends, and varies their speed of around 85-100km regardless of a retarded tolerance. It is amusing in a way, after 7 deaths over the weekend the police are rather quiet regarding how this low speed tolerance will work wonders for the road toll. But it happens every long weekend. It was the second long weekend they brought it in (Easter 2011 or 2012?) that the toll for that weekend was 0 I think... But the weather was so crap no one went out of their house. The first weekend was Waitangi Day the same year, and it didn't reduce the road toll at all. And this whole thing highlights how piss poor journalism is in this country. Good luck getting any of them to grill the cops over this revenue raising BS. Just tow the line that they spin and fool the brainwashed brain dead public.

Highly doubt it... But does anyone have a zender front valance hidden away in the basement or something.. Damn they look good

Ah that would be great Dave :-) I don't mind PDF, ill just print it off at the office

I think I still have the Bentley E38 manual in PDF format if that helps? Can send it to you when I'm home from work.

Thanks John I wasn't sure and the owner didn't have a clue...... about anything

Problem is there a lot of drivers driving much slower than the speed limit because of stupid fear of a ticket. A trip to from say Wellington to Auckland can have an hour added to the trip and a whole pile of frustration from travelling in a long line of traffic doing an inconsistent speed. It adds to the danger level not reduces it. It also increases fatigue a major cause of inattention and accidents. Fuel use increases under inconsistent speeds. Even the cops should be able to figure this out but because of the additional revenue they extract they call it road safety. There is nothing positive about the 4kmh speed tolerance and it sure as hell doesn't save lives.

the best thing to do is be on high alert for idiot drivers and avoid them like the plague. keep a distance which you think is ridiculous - it may just save your life. there is not a HUGE difference in arrival time/journey time if you are going 95kmh for a few kms or doing 110kmh. better to be safe than risk being a part of some idiots mistake

Awesome! Am keen too get around to this once my project nears completion.

I've got a 5 speed ZF box out of an M3 ready to go in. Planning to get a metal clutch pivot pin which apparently can be adjusted by adding in a washer to help with clutch actuation.

Just stalked into here from the clutch thread. Looks good man! I'm in palmy too, have a code reader (ADS so suits 95 models inc JDM) so if you need to make use of that... and a 'high lift' spoiler if you want to classy up the rear end a bit. I looked into angel eyes, but thought they were a bit tacky, I've gone with 'french fogs' yellow tints for high beam and fog lights, which look fantastic imo, and more period accurate. Either way, getting into the light unit is pretty easy. PS, I've got a lathe so can probably just turn you up a clutch pivot pin if you can track down some material.

Saw this at Hampton Downs yesterday, never seen it before. Well kitted out 135i, with an add-on 1M kit for the bigger arches. Half cage inside, with terra-trip and intercom gear, etc. so possibly set up as a Targa car? Looked bloody awesome in the sun!

super high km, but id still give it a hoon for that money.

Mate who had a 550i just got a ticket for 56kph in Johnsonville, the cop said you were in a school zone, my mate said it's 9 o'clock on a Saturday night, who's at school?

doing about 400km over the last 48hours what I noticed was with my cruise control set at 100kph, verified as accurate with GPS I was passing almost every car as they were all between varing 80 - 95kph. with some of the massive brake checks I saw for no reason on a straight bit of road clearly the were all driving with their eyes squarly set on the dashboard.

The cops actually increase the danger by hiding at the end of passing lanes as people will try and pass those drivers doing 85 kmh in other areas.

Pulled the M52B28 and ZF 5 speed out of my 328i Motorsport coupe donor car Deleted the aircon but otherwise leaving engine as is. will leave the clutch and fly wheel upgrades for later down the track. Deleted all the 4 cylinder brackets in the engine bay of the compact, pulled off the front of it to let the M52 through the towers. Deleted the bonnet release on the nose and also on the bonnet it self while i was at it, will be running old school style pins. Put the M52 in the hole, bolted it down, connected power steering lines so they didnt leak any more. had to use the 6 cylinder type lines from the donor car, compact steering rack is unknown condition but will find out soon enough. Put nose back on, and put a M3/318iS type bumper on (not just regular M sport) i had lying around. Still to connect everything up, run battery cable to mount the battery in the cabin some where, swap fuel pumps etc. May put the dash from the coupe into it as well i havent decided yet. At this stage will be keeping it 100% M52 untill the car is running etc just to keep the vairables down, later on will take the manifold off and put an M50 one on i have here, delete the ASC, reroute oil seperator etc. Its a track toy so hence the M50 manifold swap, its a waste of time on a road car. will take some pictures at some stage, but there are some on Euro Car Club page for those that want to look now!

Autosure good. Mainstream are ok, Janssens are not good. Only dealt with these three, judged by my experiences as a tech. When it comes to your 135 it would make sense to get breakdown insurance. A friend spent over 3k in his first year of ownership on replacing; cracked rocker cover, blown charge pipe, failed electric water pump and thermostat, bluetooth repair, the list goes on.... 15k or annual service intervals are not excessive and all that you require. Use any reputable garage you like. I would say it would be well worth it if you get Autosure extreme. It covers pretty much everything with some exceptions, read the fine print on the policy wording. You also get AA road service included. You should be aware that most policies won't cover suspension components due to wear etc, essentially any rubbers or consumables like brakes, tyres, bushes, ball joints, really anything that is checked in a service and should be replaced as such. Good luck!

Some more photos <3 P.s Legit the skid was not me

- mechanical warranty cost $2-3000 for 3 years - servicing requirements $1000+- every 12 months or 15,000 kms - transmission fluid service $750+- - can only claim for one fault/issue at a time with an excess of roughly $250 basically, in my opinion, the costs of the above are usually more than enough to cover most minor faults that you will have with a car thats only done 60k's. For example, if you had a faulty sensor that cost $200, you wouldnt claim that because the excess is higher. Also, because you need all servicing to be signed off by a registered and authorised service centre, you basically cant do your own oil and filter changes. (Well, you can, but you will still need to fullfill the authorised service every 12 months/15,000kms requirement otherwise they wont accept your claim in the event of a problem) You can save a lot of money by buying parts from overseas and DIY for most maintenance things if you are so inclined/willing and if this is the case, then mechanical warranty is not really suitable/beneficial. If you have a lot of money and just want to pay someone to do the servicing, then buying mechanical warranty basically will save your ass if you engine/trans blows up. but even then, usually it only pays out upto $5000 (depending on which company you choose) and im pretty sure the 135i engine alone costs more than that even if its a rebuild in which case you still will have to fork out extra on top of the payout. In my personal experience, I paid just over $2000 for mechanical warranty and only ever used it once for a faulty fuel pump which cost me just the excess of $250, but the total bill was $1800 or so (repaired at the stealerships service centre). So in the end it wasnt TOO bad but to be honest, I could have easily done it myself and the part would have probably cost me like $600. My answer is NO to mechanical warranty!

Will have a few befores. Haven't done many afters as haven't had the time. Excuse the dirty car.. But she's looking good. I like the ride and height. Overall would recommend

Wheels will arrive late Feb. Distance makes the heart grow fonder right? Egh On another note, team at HellBM did a nice job chucking the Vogtland springs in/ looks good, rides well. Win win!

Lol^^ True story. I do know of one female enthusiast who has done the bling bling. It was depressing. Anyways. Nice evening shot. And Purchased some Vogtland springs which are being installed this week.

So I think I've settled.. And about to order. Matte Silver Center, Polished Dish. Bolts to match. 19x9 38F 19x10 23R 8-12 weeks expected time. They say good things take time!