Leaderboard

G'day, Took the old girl today for a ride to the city and to watch the sunset. I have owned her for three months, and it's an absolute pleasure driving her. She does get a little extra attention, unfortunately.

Well I did it. Purchased another car in a hope to replace the Carbon Black M3 which sadly was put to rest earlier this year. I had a huge list, and it seemed that no M3 on the market could potentially tick off the boxes, so I've held on since June hoping one would. But nothing eventuated. So as you do when you're in the market, every new listing of an E46 M3 was sure to be sent to my inbox as it was listed - in the hope something would pop up. And something sort of did around September, but it was 'poverty' pack in my eyes so I didn't think twice. Something made me go back, maybe the wild random dreams about this particular coloured car kept popping into my mind, I'm not sure. But I decided to do a little stalk, run it's built sheet, and would you believe it was DAMN TOPAZ THE WHOLE TIME! Maybe it was the light, the angle, the reflections that made me move past it the first time, but a buildsheet never lies. And so I went on a mission to find out all I could about this little blue topaz M3 situated some few hours away from Auckland. Full Service History. Every little nook and cranny completed, was documented. Nz New. SMG, and in Topaz (Schnitzer colour, personal fav). Went on to dig some more, and found the first two owners of the car, personally knowing one of them. For 11 years it was between two people who only did open road, long distance driving and cared for it better than you might your own child! The first owner took it up to a nice 136kms, and the second to 165km. The lovely guy I purchased it off had driven a mere 3,000kms in the time he had it over 18 months. This car, is just a dime. The paint condition so good it's hard to believe. No dings, dents, scuffs or marks. A few minor stone chips which is to be expected. The interior, not a single lift of the trim, no cracking, wrinkling or anything to fault! This car is hands down in 10x better condition than the old one, the KM's just don't add up to the condition. The next morning (Wed) it was in at Jeff Gray for a PPI (thanks to Greg Hook!) and Fresh WOF. Breezed through it's PPI with not a single thing wrong, every single box ticked. How damn lucky. It was sold. And I picked it up today. Such love. It's perfect. It's better than I could of asked for in regards to condition. I was scared about getting a 'high' milaged M3, but this car just puts my 120km M3 to shame. It's just fantastic. So there you have it folks, I bought another E46 M3 New Post for 'To-do' and 'Done' below.

Or people could stop moaning and get on with it... Seriously, All it takes is a bit of willing intent to mod a car. The biggest problem I see (and I have done it many times before myself) is peoples eyes are bigger than their stomach so to speak. Bite off only what you can chew, be very happy with what you have, even if its not the fastest, best looking vehicle around.. who cares ? just enjoy getting into it. When I joined bimmersport I was pretty much the biggest noob when it came to modding cars, but I learnt by doing things and making mistakes. Most of my success in modding came from careful research into what I wanted to do. Am I some guru, no ... just a dude who likes to approach things practically. This weekend, Westy decided that hes gonna try and give it a crack at the wiring thing for his e30 / v8. He got the whole thing started, despite some pretty interesting hurdles to get over. A bit of determination is all that was needed and some research. One thing cars have taught me is how to understand engineering and problem solving from a pratical point of view. Instead of problem solving in a computer. This is why I love it.

Ok, after much deliberation on what to replace an E38 with. I've gone with the S8 Audi. Keeping the Silver E38, can't part with that. I looked at a few E65s and after throwing up in my mouth consistently, I decided I needed to look elsewhere. E60 550, been there. Options on large sedans with autos and pace with style are quite limited and this baby ticks all the boxes. It's a NZ New, 1 owner with full Audi service history, 140ks. love the look and the options boxes are well ticked. V10 5.2l 450hp, B&O upgrade audio, keyless entry. All the full A8 options. Drove back from Auckland, got 11.6l/100ks which was better then I thought. Included some spirited Action from the V10, sounds quiet glorious through the hills. will keep a running record of maintenance and ownership here

Well here you have it folks: Write up on ECC for those who want to read it all! Huge thanks to Ray, Daniel Kim, Work Wheels (Harvey) Precision Autowerk, ECC Crew, United Car Care. List goes on. Was almost in tears seeing it roll out after two months of work. Went with P Zeros.. and love them. All Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.473028526229437.1073741836.433587906840166&type=3&hc_location=ufi Some here:

Hi guys, Unfortunately the for sale section is going to the dogs again as far as adherence to the basic rules. As of today onwards the moderators will be removing any thread that doesn't have the basic requirements for a for sale thread without warning. This applies to everyone including us mods/admins. If you find your thread gone in the for sale section, this will be why. I have updated the rules in the For Sale section here http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/20961-please-read-before-posting-an-item-for-sale/

Taking my labouring missus to the maternity hospital in an E30 and bringing home my shiny new baby boy in the E39. Winning!

Just home from dinner at a friends where a couple of modern hippies where taking everyone to task over the cars we choose to drive. Had a small smile on my face when they asked what type of car I drove there. "A BMW V12" was my response and the hippes where none to happy about that and began grilling me about my excessive use of fossil fuel. I placated them by explaining that my other car has a smaller engine and I dont actually drive the V12 that much. "So whats your other car" they asked. And I proudly announced it was a BMW V8 with a huge smile on my face.. ha ha I got the feeling they thought I was taking the piss out of them. Kinda was. lol I did like the look on their faces when the V8 came out.. Bloody do gooders.

Decided to give the interior a bit of a spruce up and make it a better place to be. The driver seat has some typical bolster wear and the leather was looking a little shiny in areas. Using a 10:1 mix of meguiars all purpose cleaner, a bore hair brush and half a dozen microfibre towels, the seats and leather surfaces are much cleaner. Not a fan of leather conditioner so I only applied it to areas exposed to UV rays and wear and tear i.e inner door handles and seat bolsters. Drivers seat before : Cleaning process : After a few hours of vacuming leather cleaning and further detailing : Finished of with a thorough cleaning of the steering wheel. Amazing how much grime accumulates. Used the same cleaning process as for the leather in the rest of the interior :

Fresh out of paint shop to clean up stone chips and minor dings

@Ron,

Yeah but V12

Come off the forum for a couple of days, mention the forum has turned a new leaf while staying with and seeing some ex-members, and this garbage to back it up.

You should write an open letter to them, seems to be the flavour of the month.

Remember the good old days, when a 320 was a 3-series with a 2.0 engine? A 540 was a 5-series with a 4.0 engine? And so on...? The six-cylinder 335i is now the 340i. The four-cylinder 328i is now the 330i. The 320i designation makes sense and stays. Power increases by 1 HP to 181 HP, but torque is up to 214 lb-ft. The 328i with it's 2.0 4-cylinder engine also gains power, up to 249 HP, but torque remains the same at 258 lb-ft. This means the 328i will be now called the 330i (except in the US where it remains the 328. The 335i is renamed the 340i, and also gets more power, up to 326 HP and 332 lb-ft of torque. It’s still a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six (albeit a new engine, the B58). Diesels don't escape either. For example, the 2.0 180 HP, four-cylinder 3-series is the 328d. There's more, but my head hurts. Oh well... It's just numbers.

Dont think I've ever posted it here so here she is.

Took the 540 for a bit of a blast yesterday, forgot how much fun a 20 year old can be! Thought I'd get a pick of the pair of 5's.

Have done so Ripped a diff bushing Sick.

Taking shape!! csi front on and managed to repurpose the standard license plate base... Rear diffuser will be be fitted by the end of the day, then I've got to start work adapting the E36 M3 mirrors I have while I'm still waiting on the new radiator Will take proper pics soon.

Oh f**k up, If you have nothing f**king useful to add, don't bother posting.

A little update a year later, Welcome to the family the 100% rust free geneuine 325i coupe. That in the past year every nut & bolt has been gone over. Running brand new bilstiens all around, all new engine mounts, belts, water pump, air intake all new genuine radiator piping and all new bushings in the gear box. Its a dream come true. All I need to do now is fix and install the rest of the body kit with all the new clips that I ordered from bmw.. enjoy once this car is done you can expect a lot more photos haha

bought a 2006 525i wagon a couple of weeks ago and i have been so glad that i did! its such a nice drive!

Owned for two years. During ownership it has been painted. A 90 mile engine gearbox package installed and all seals gaskets abs water pump done. New fluids. Interior leathers re coloured. Looks and preforming really well. If serious call or text me 0275432078 $10k

Anyone want to buy a 2002 E46 320d wagon? Meticulously maintained.

Decided to try them on the touring.. I think they will stay on there..

What an awesome first weekend out. The car is now safely home and in one piece, not even a scratch on what is one of the few cars that drove to and from the track, running flawlessly the whole time. The entire weekend people kept coming up to me and cracking jokes about my little hatchback, name likes "shopping wagon", "little girls car" and "hairdresser's car" were thrown around, but after people had a look at in on the track the names changed to "it's pretty f**king quick", "What the hell is it" and "that's not a 316ti". Race 3 was a good race with me setting my best lap time of the weekend, but also managing to gain .3 of a second on sector 1 by adding 2psi to the front tyres which made it a lot more stable in high speed corner entry. My best lap ended up being a 1:13.301 but going off best sectors for race 3 the car is capable of a 1:13.081, then if you take the best sectors from all 3 races, the car is capable of a 1:13.037, but with 2psi extra the car was loosing a few hundredths in the slower corners. Still stoked I was able to get pretty close to my goal of a 1:13.0 by weekends end. Here is a video of my best lap, a bit of drizzle in this Now its time to cut out 100kg+ of weight, get a swirl pot so I don't have to run a full tank to avoid surge(-40kg), get a tune to add some HP (+30rwhp) and add a rear wing so I can keep the rear end under control. New goal will be 1:11.0 around Hampton Downs.

I'm so proud to be her Dad. Kerrins first aerobatic solo. She only got her PPL about six months ago, has 2 seater and 4 seater ratings and now she's into the extreme stuff. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2J1mZnCQj2GRlFZMmlyN3gyVHM/view?usp=sharing_eid&ts=569b3d23&pref=2&pli=1

Finally got the car back after the shop having it for another week. MUCH better. Three main issues sorted. They even gave the car a decent valet. I can sleep at night now. All I need to do is a bit of minor adjusting and fit the lower trim panel off the old guard.

At least give some photos of the burnt remains, assuming there's actually a car behind this story. Your mate isn't gonna get sympathy here. Should've had insurance, sh*t happens

Plus, how much more badass would you look on a Sunday scything your grass in the burbs.

Funny my old e36 m3 has done 450k kms and we had it on the dyno with another 3.0 m3 with 130k km and there was only 0.5kw difference between them

Set some bombs off last night, Facebook goes crazy asking what the explosions were in Hamilton last night lol... Seems they were heard across town.

speed dependant steering + power steering issue = requirement to check operating at speed. I'd bet the owner of the car would lose his sh*t if the tech had driven the 3KM or so just to get to a 100KPH zone, the southern motorway, plus he would then have to get to the nearest offramp, and then the return trip. Getting that car from 50kph to 90kph and back would be a matter of seconds. I dont have a problem with what the tech did, looks like a standard road test to me. I have more of a problem with the customer getting his apology, free groom, and then still dragging the company through the mud.

I've used rain-x for years. Great stuff. Started using it in the visor of my helmet. It stopped fogging on the inside and the rain just peeled off the outside. Started using it on my cars and like Graham said, you barely have to use the wipers. Used it to daw a <==B on my work mates windscreen at work so he'd come out every morning and there would be condensation all over the car except for right in the drivers view where there was a huge penis and balls. He thought someone was drawing it on every morning till he started night shifts and there it was in the work car park as well. It lasted for months.. Even frost wouldn't settle on it. Really funny thing was he recently traded that car in so I confessed to him that it was me. His wife thought it was hilarious cause he had ranted and raved at home about the as-hole who was drawing it on every morning.. THen we had a good chuckle about the poor car yard owner who'd be greeted at work every morning by the sight of a huge penis on the windscreen of one of the car in his lot..

Ive never been able to work out what everyone is so anal about when a car gets written off and recomplied etc. Especially a car with such minimal looking damage. Would rather this one in a rebuilt state than some shitter that some muppet has owned for 2 years and wanks on about it having a JC sticker and a service history that stopped in 1999.

or buy my V12 E34 Touring for not much more. All front suspension less than 5000km old, most of it 2000km tops. just some bushes in the back still to do but havent bothered with that, plenty of life there still. Shameless plug!

If its doing it all the time, there is maybe some people here that can help: http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/drugs-and-alcohol/drugs-and-alcohol-getting-help

How much would it cost for a video of you smashing those taillights?

So I finally took the fiancee's daily driver into see Christian & team at OCD this week, given it's about to be used for a wedding car. I can't recommend them highly enough - top operators who know exactly what they're doing. If you're like me and have been thinking about using them for some time, see the images below to encourage you to book in! Christian (CSET) made it an incredibly easy task. Check them out at ocdetailing.co.nz Thanks guys.

I usually steer clear of these sorts of threads as you're always going to get people on both sides of the argument (it's like the Manual/SMG discussion, you can't win) but I do feel I should weigh in here. I used JC when I owned my E46 318i and again now with my E46 M3. With both cars I felt well taken care of - although you do get made to feel extra special with an M car ;-) I am well aware that I'm paying a premium by going to a dealer for service, however having run the numbers it's not as much of a premium as you might think. I've had excellent service. The service manager has always gone the extra mile for me, and I've had alternatives presented to me when repairs have been needed. Yes I could have probably had things done cheaper elsewhere, but in the 10 odd years I've been going to JC I haven't once wished I opted for the cheaper alternative. That's just my opinion/preference. Not everyone will feel the same way. But for me the overall value has always been there. It does come down to what your approach is, maintaining service history, etc. which is why the perceived value will never be the same for everyone. Just wanted to give my perspective though, as dealers can often have a rough time on the forums :-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

She's back on the road. Had a few small issues today while getting it going. The rear calipers that I put on from the e34 were actually seized so I had to swap the e28 ones back on. While not a big deal, it's something I want to get sorted so will look for other e34 ones later. Might be luck to get some vented ones. Other than that, everything was pretty straight forward. I had to make a temporary bracket for the accelerator cable as the e34 sleeve is not quite right so didn't reach with the factory mount. So I will try to find a cable that does work. Next jobs will be tidying up the wiring and finishing that off and wiring the fan in. Also need to install my new cluster. Also going to order a new heater core and redo flaps as I currently get no hot air. Does anyone know if they are RHD and LHD specific? Can't find any information on this. Overall I am very happy with it, goes so much better then the eta ever dreamed of. It has a slight miss and a bit of a bog on take off, I think this motor needs a proper service such as new plugs etc. But even with this it goes very well. And does mean as burnouts. And that concludes this weeks episode: How to do an M30 swap in 2 weeks (and a day if you want to be picky). Up next: Conclusion is an illusion; nothing's ever 100% finished. Also might have a special live appearance from Highway Patrol. They grow up so fast.

Hello, Here is my 1UZ-FE swapped E30 with air ride sitting on fifteen52 wheels. Couple small changes to come including M Tech 1 rear wing, smilies, smoked indicators, smoked side markers and possibly refinishing the wheels.

So when we bought the E91 the PO had removed the 325i badge and left horrible scratch marks everywhere. I had no choice but to get the guys @ OCD to sort it out. Photos speak for themselves of the wonderful results!

Sold Thankfully to MattA to join his E34 540 and his E61. Glad it's going to a great home, cheers

perfect "dont open ya f**kin door on my car" parking

A very nice fellow(Xboss) in the US who has been watching my thread on Bimmerforums sent me these a while ago. They where prototypes and had no clips on the back and no holes in the homelink panel. He gave them to me to see if I could do something with them. So I spent the day very very carefully attaching some metal clips I made and cutting holes in the homelink panel for the mic and sunroof switch. Have to say the result was stunning. Heres the old panel for comparison. lol And heres the panel I was sent sitting in place. And there's usually a leather covered panel under the center console armrest. Here's the one he gave me. His workmanship is incredible. He's now doing piano black finishes with chromeline edging as well as the wood finished panels which now come with clips already attached. Heres a link to his thread if anyone's interested. http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2085016-Wood-home-link-panel-prototype-is-finally-done

Is the S62 one of the all time best engines? When it`s sitting in a M3 - Yes

Ordered a new suspension link and it'll arive in the morning so in the mean time I've been cleaning. The interior has come up real nice. Then it was into those bits that most people forget to clean when they wash their car. And this car was definitely forgotten. Next was the engine bay. I dont know if it'll show in the pics but it's a whole lot cleaner than it was. Also found a few more things that need attention while I was cleaning. The fan shrouds broken and needs a replacement and the oil filter top mounts are broken. Before After.