Leaderboard

added all USB , sata, audio and power cabling Mounted raspberry pi. Used standard PCB header connectors from Jaycar electronics so everything can unplug from pibus board. Bluray player had small m2 screws. Drilled holes in old 3.5 drive bay bracket and mounted player. Re assembly Back Added Molex connector which has input from reverse light and output trigger for BMW video module. Basically the piboard tricks the video module into thinking a reverse cam has been trigger. It will either output camera or media centre to BMW board monitor. Last bit was adding a USB Async sabre audio DAC. Its not normally needed but my aftermarket DSP has a digital input. This means I can go digital audio straight to the processor from music content stored on the Raspberry. It will avoid the audio from going through another three sets of analogue audio stages before hitting the amps. It should in theory provide very low distortion through to the audio amps. http://hifimediy.com/U2-DAC.

5+ owners.....

Re-used factory connection sockets for changer audio output and power / ibus . System will require about 3 amps at 12 volts when running. Existing cd charger power wire ok at this level. Old alpine pcb Replaced with audio and raspberry pi and USB powered hub power. Pi bus daughter board for raspberry pi. Clever design. Has microcontroller that listens for ibus signals such as infosystem on , boardmointor controls , steering wheel audio buttons etc. It controls start up and shutdown of Raspberry, audiophile grade audio which is feed back into factory stereo replacing cd changer. Also does video switching when selected. Either reverse camera or raspberry pi running openekec OS and xbmc media centre. More detail at http://pibus.info/ Added an old CPU fan to the case. Just in case ......get it ....... Also a couple of RCA sockets for reverse camera input and system video output. EDIT , fan didn't work out , CPU fan far too noisy. Could hear it inside car. Has been disconnected but unit temp ok on PI without it.

Welcome to the E60 club. Get rid of those runflats as soon as you can . Also if you look closely at the sidewalls of the tyre as all tyres carry a manufacture date if the tyres are more than 5 yrs old they should be renewed as they tend to harden and as a consequence grip is not what it should be . As far as handling goes once you get used to it you can fairly fling them around and they step out quite nicely with the DSC off.

With an ad like that I'd walk in the opposite direction. Seems like the seller just wants rid of it and that just doesn't appeal to me unless it's a fire sale.

depends on condition etc $12-16k for one of those , probably the odd cheaper one comes up but will need much work

Yeah don't get me wrong... manuals are a lot more fun just not in rubbish traffic. If you don't do that every day then I guess no excuse for manual. I disagree with the dumbed down comment. I have just bought a brand new one of those dumbed down cars and when you actually live with it day bin day out the small driving aides make lots of sense. This is from someone who is all about driving experience. I guess after having pretty much every type of vehicle over the years it's like how I use computers. A different one for each purpose. Music Studio computer is just that ... making music. Main stay computer does all the graphics stuff etc. Garage pc has all of my car hacking stuff on it. And a Inet laptop for carrying around the house browsing the internets and not much else.

Very much so. I guess you could call it snobbery, but I too believe it's more of an understanding/appreciation of the engineering and quality. At the end of the day a Chinese watch will tell you the time, but is it a Rolex? i don't see any problems with 4cyl BMW's/Mercedes etc, generally the package comes down to the region it was marketed for and the options ticked. Obviously your'e not getting the full experience that you would in the 6+ cyl car, but you still get the brands quality that most of the time cannot be found in Japanese 4cyls.

The e39 I owned had what was called comfort seats these had electric operated lumbar supports along with all the other adjustments very nice on a long drive. Upon researching I found a standard and sport seat were also available but not with adjustable lumbar support. Depends on what box's were ticked when first ordered no doubt Their might be a D.I.Y that could be done to fit them if required.

Wrapped (mostly, ran out!) Painted again, baked and installed, car is quieter now due to 3 less leaks in the exhaust, but on hard left hand corners there is a very slight vibration in the steering, number 3 primary is just touching the steering shaft briefly as the motor moves. I will fix it properly one day, in the mean time I will only turn right

My Ford Ranger only shuts off when its in neutral at the lights. I got used to it after a week. Cars have come a long way, a modern manual is so easy to drive in traffic, the last couple I have had as drivers had all sort of tech to make it easy, hill start assist, anti stall etc. Driving my old 205 on the other hard, well, thats not fun in traffic at all.

Absolutely. I'd rather a manual over an auto any day. I plan to have a 6 speed E38 sometime in the near future.

Hi Lloyd, I'm a fan of the E60 and live in Kerikeri too, perhaps we could compare sometime. Pm me if you're a starter. Dave

bought 2 new bmws in less than 24 hours. great weekend.

Almost done ..... 400 lossless digital albums all controlled via factory nav and sound via digital audio straight into aftermarket DSP.

probably a lucky escape, Hans!