Leaderboard

Finally after all my years of waiting I`ve got myself a post `00 M5.(build date 05/01) Fresh Bilstein with a Tubi exhaust system. A few cosmetic items to sort out then it`s of to OCD for its makeover Le Mans Blau with all the facelift options available. Though there were no major mechanical alterations to the E39 M5 during its entire production run, there were a number of equipment alterations that appeared with the 2001 model-year M5 (from 9/00 production). These include:-Revised headlight design incorporating illuminated "Corona" rings -Revised tallight design-Park Distance Control sensors in the front bumper (previously in rear only)-Thicker three-spoke M steering wheel identical to the one fitted to the E46 M3-Grey instrument faces -Solar sensor for standard automatic climate control-Revised navigation/audio unit with larger (6.5-inch) monitor-Rear head protection airbags added-Second-generation M Mobility tire repair system in place of earlier version-Available M Audio System with special tweeters, Kevlar/carbon coaxial speakers and two subwoofers behind the rear console-Alcantara headliner included with Extended Leather interior (previously only included with Complete Leather)

I..... errrrr...... bloody kerbed a wheel. arghhhhh! Oh well, in to get repaired next week I reckon. Wet conditions, not used to pulling in to three empty parallel parks, in a rush... bam. Never in my life have I done that before - steels or alloys. And an RF lamp warning indicator came up. So I checked it out, got the RF side light working again... and the warning came back. Found my high beam plug disconnected, reconnected it, and all going sweet. Net cost: Nil. Nada. Zilch. Still recovering from grinding my lovely rim against the kerb. Wow.

As a complete piss take & to wind up a mate of mine with an HSV, I have this sticker on the back of my work van

When I worked at a BMW dealership, well before the internet & cheap copies were available, they wouldn't well M badges etc, unless you could prove you had a M car

We have done several of these now. Have 2 ti M Sports available that can be converted. Options include M54B30, 330 suspension & brakes, LSD P.O.A For Sale: Example of a conversion done in house @ Hellbm Motorsport: A 316ti to 325ti conversion:

Well guys I have passed on my e46 and moved onto a 2011 GTi golf. My e46 gave me 7 good years service but it was time to move on. I did a lot of looking around and test drives before settling on the GTi. Will still be floating around but would love to say thank you to all the fantastic people on here who have helped out over the years with tips and tricks.

My first BMW - an E21 323i manual in Turmalingrun metallic with gold BBS rims. Might send a text asking for more info...

I should put an M4 badge on my Mercedes Motor Home- Mercedes 4 cylinder

Cool - great to see you have another sacrificial lamb for ripping the heart out - haha. curious to hear that Tubi exhaust. I second the call for a M5 meet up. more photos and history for the tragics among us......

So today I transformed the look of my baby once again! Failed a WOF on Saturday on worn out rear tires.... semi slicks only lasted about 5 months! They are still perfectly fine for track use but no longer upto mr wof mans standards! So it forced my hand into having to buy new tires.... Decided to run My AC Schnitzer rims for once! So a full brand new set of rubber on all 4 rims and I think it looks amazing! (Maybe need more low in the front end)

Congrats Ray, another s62 powered gem to join the stable of M.

Hey everyone. Chris here, been a member for quite some time now, however haven't really been active. Have recently purchased a 2005 530i. Interested to find out what can really be done using I drive. And how to get Bluetooth and/or a bigger screen.

Patience is a(n annoying) virtue!

so have you finished the re-power, Allan? Did I miss the 'other Euros' project thread on this? I'd been waiting with much antici-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-ation.

i have one sitting in my shed as minty as the day it came off the production line, yours for 7 rutherfords

i have an m badge on my daily a ford transit custom, the only people that have ever told me off for it are probably "318i M3" owners. i kindly point out it has more power and torque than majority of cars with the badge, and applied to the wheels through a 6 speed manual gearbox. most people laugh because they know who i am and what my passion is.

Ohhhh Yeaaaaaaaaah!!!

Beautiful machine.

Well interestingly because every example I've seen of people epoxying the plates, they've used 8115. I did have a look through the 3M catalogue, but must have missed 7333. As you say it certainly seems to be a much better option for the reasons you point out. I think I'll be sending the 8115 back and be getting 7333 instead. Thanks very much for bringing this up - really appreciate it!!

Any reason for using the 8115? Wouldn't have been my choice as it's a panel bonding adhesive and not structural or impact resistant unlike the 7333 or 57333 used in a lot of dissimilar metal bonding application. I can't remember how heat resistant it is either ... might be something to consider given how close it is to the exhaust?

Update #8 So after a week of backwards and forwards to hospital with my wife, wife is now better and Dad, James and I spent yesterday making more progress. First up was finishing up the RACP reinforcement plates. We tack-welded the second rear plate, and then seam welded both of them up. The two front plates were just simple bends. We measured the fold lines and were able to manually fold the two front plates :thumbsup2: the folds ended up perfect, no gaps at all around the arc of the curve. With the plates welded / folded up, the next step was to drill the holes for the mounting bolts. Obviously it's important to get these in exactly the right place, so that the hole can be no larger than necessary for the bolt to fit through (i.e. enlarging the hole to allow for imperfect fitment, is then not supporting the mounting bolt as well as it could). A brief discussion around how best to do this led to Dad's excellent suggestion of using a laser sight to mark the centre of the hole. We rigged up the laser level like so: A piece of masking tape across the hole lets us align the laser dot correctly. We were then able to locate the plate, and mark the plate where the laser dot fell. With the holes drilled we have a set of 4 completed plates: Here's how they look sitting on the RACP. (Note: Only showing three, as the two rear ones are essentially a mirror image of each other.) The last items to manufacture are the two small plates for the diff cradle. They're pretty straightforward, small flat spacers with two holes drilled in them. Here's a token picture of their manufacture to prove that we made them. That pretty much brings to a close the manufacturing stage of the plates. They will of course get a final clean up prior to being epoxied on, but there's no point in doing that until directly before they're going to be affixed. I've got the 3M 8115 epoxy on order. Rather than paying for the special applicator gun, we'll just modify a standard caulk gun. Provided the epoxy arrives this week we'll look to attach the reinforcement plates next weekend. :thumbsup2: After finishing up the plates, we split up, Dad and James took on changing the diff seals, and removing the rear cover so that it can be glass bead blasted to clean up the aluminium fins. The diff looks to be in pretty good condition. With new seals and some new oil it should be good to go :parrot: While Dad and James did the diff, I armed myself with some degreaser, and scrubbing brush and a towel and got to work cleaning up the underbody. It's pretty tedious work but the upside is that it cleans up really nicely. I got through the two rear wheel wells with the degreaser, and did one well with kerosene to take the tar spots off. Unfortunately the photo below shows the wheel well that hasn't been kerosene'd (the lighting didn't allow for a decent pic of the other well, so just imagine the below, without the tar spots :lolhit:). I'll do more degreasing and cleaning up after work during the week, and then next weekend we'll hopefully be ready to epoxy the plates and commence reassembly of the rear axle. We're going to build it up and then lift the entire thing into place at the end. This is preferred for a couple reasons. 1: easier to work on, 2: allows us to work in parallel while the epoxy plates are curing. We'll also be starting on disassembly of the front suspension in the near future, as there will be some lead time on cleaning and painting parts etc. that we want to get a head start on. Starting to feel like it's all coming together! :parrot:

Waved goodbye to the white E30 rolling shell.

Hey fellow E60 owners and congrats on your purchases Chris - like the aftermarket alloys and understated body kit. I-Drive - if your car is a jap import and you want NZ Nav then typically you will need a conversion job done (with hardware changes) by someone like EuroSurgeon - it's not just a case of getting the local DVD. I got my radio localised by recoding (cheap) and had the Nav done and all up it cost $750 from memory. The Nav is Ok but won't be as up to date as your phone. Not long after I had mine done the whole computer died - it looks like the cooling unit on the back of it had not be refitted - either by EuroSurgeon or by the muppet (previous owner/car yard presumably) who tried to fit a band expander. Luckily I had AutoSure Extreme cover and the failure was covered - otherwise it would have been best part of $2K for replacement and fitting/recoding. So - just be careful and if you don't need the Nav then maybe don't worry about it. After getting the unit replaced by Autosure via Jeff Gray BMW I only had the radio re-code done and left the Nav as I didn't want anything more to go wrong. A replacement I-Drive will match the car original spec - Japanese!!! OEM Bluetooth kits work well but are ~$1K so I've never bothered with that - have a Bluetooth visor unit that I can switch between my 2 BMWs Much cheaper and works fine. If you don't have a service history showing coolant and oil seal stuff being sorted then be prepared for a bunch of stuff possibly. Don't know how different this is for a 530i. Usually no expensive parts involved but can be a lot of labour changing oil seals in difficult places. The cars might be solid but the plastic and rubber in them just doesn't last more than 10 years. Highly recommend having a Mechanical Breakdown Insurance policy on your vehicles - I have them on both and they have easily paid for themselves within the first year of ownership- which is good (and bad). You can buy policies for vehicles you already own from MTA Mount Victoria - [email protected] or 027 22 44 295. I do wish the V8 had a better exhaust note but sorting that properly with a performance exhaust would be an investment I don't want to make after what I've spent on the car. Sam - glad I've warned you off the muffler delete - I'm sure it could be done with better results using a dual pipe approach rather than the dumb basic single pipe PitStop did for me but overall it was just *horrible*. Overall I love my E60 - the lines, the cabin quality, stereo quality, space and the performance when you give it some welly. After driving @treone's M5 (wow!) I seriously intend to get an M5 but need to own my 545i for a while longer to make sense of what I've spent in getting it sorted. Anyway - enjoy your E60s! Pete

It's a strange place. Nearly ran over a squirrel that did the old left right left right dodge on me. Ended up locking the brakes across the front lawn of the naval observatory (where the VP lives). Later that night after a bit of a session at the embassy bar I walked into a deer (whilst txting) that was grazing on the lawn of the Brit embassy which is next door to ours. We both got a fright. And many times I get held up buy the VP's motorcade or his helicopter landing. But his chopper is actually Airforce 2 not Marine 1 sorry. Got chased off the track in the park behind the embassy by a big ass stag the other week too. It's illegal to hunt in DC. So the deer are everywhere.

Hmm my LCI 530i E60 just has the N52K so no direct injection, still has the same 200kw rating.. but fuel economy figures are not as good. Still, i'm probably better off without that direct injection.