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Took my new to me X5 back to the dealer to investigate source of the engine light. Scan says catalytic converters. Was amused by the confused look on the mechanics face and then the rapid googling haha. They didn't look too happy. Its going back next week for further investigation...

Fancy!

Cool E34 Touring M car . http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/buying-maintenance/news/a33122/bmw-m5-touring-e34-elekta/

interesting, deifies logic, but looking at the LVV chart they use you are absolutely correct. lucky my wheels are 8.0 and i checked that sheet before investing. http://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2009_V3_Tyre_Size_to_Wheel_Size_Compatibility_Guide.pdf your car is looking great mate ! hopefully have a bit of a battle at some stage.

Hi All, Wheels for sale! Suit E30 Will deliver north of New Plymouth this weekend. $850 for Bimmersport members - txt for faster response 0274279337 http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1306785886&ed=true

Fixed the door mechanism and central locking on the E36. It now locks and unlocks on the remote. Never did that before.

productive long weekend, pulled my custom headers off the e36 and re-routed the pipe for cylinder 2 so it doesnt tap the steering shaft in left hand corners anymore, fitted the purple tag rack and new power steering hose and tie rods, fitted the leather rear side interior trims that have been lying around for a year or so, went to pick a part and got a complete wiring harness to move the battery to the boot, as well as some trims that need replacing, and re-attached the front number plate that fell off !!

E34 was the high mark for the analogue systems imo, had the benefit of better quality late 80s components as opposed to the 70s tech in earlier cars, very very few failures. So far I'm super happy with the e46 as a digital car, still owner maintainable. You just don't hear a lot about module failures, maybe there is one module that is troublesome per car, e38 lkm, e46 gm5, etc but usually the Internet will find a solution or upgrade path to eliminate the weak link.

pulled out the left hand side repeater... cleaned the contacts, indicator sorted. To celebrate, took it to VTNZ for a WoF. Passed first time with flying colours. Not that there was any doubt! ANZAC day arvo, interior detail, photos, then she's ready to sell.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1289010122.htm the vendor's gone mad with the tilt-shift editing... appears honest. 2006, 195kms, ex japan, silver with dakota leather, sunroof asking $6k9, be a $6k car.

Now at 197,000km, hasnt missed a beat since I purchase. Best car ive ever owned hands down. 200k and Ill think ill book it in for an OCD birthday.

Job's a good 'un

Depends on: Model Age Environmental exposure, Mileage Generally I find BMW Electrics rather good, newer stuff tends to have module failures so that is a debatable issue. Older stuff (pre 2000) is typically the most logical and simplistic type, using separate wires for each function linked to relays and sensors. It's easier to modify and change around IMO. Newer stuff, early 2000s on, went to a CAN bus (or similar) system that uses single wires between modules to communicate, basically like a Ethernet system within your car. If you have the means to use BMW diagnostic software it's pretty awesome at solving problems and getting live telemetry from the cars sensors so you could argue it's better than the older pre OBD2 CAN systems. However the complexity does go up with that. I personally like the older style as it's all fairly straight forward, if maintained properly, would last for decades. E30 / E34 era etc.

Thank god, cars awesome BTW.

So I've filled it with BP '98, and made a list of things to tidy up the beast for sale. I've owned this since November 2006. Been building a stack of paperwork covering all the work I've done on it... there's stuff I'd forgotten about! Watch this space, it'll be ready for sale before the end of next week. here's an old image... hosted on flickr. all rights reserved.