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Bought an E36 318Ti earlier this week. Miss M has pretty much lost interest in driving stick, and it'll be good for her to get behind the wheel of something. She has enjoyed it so far, and has said that she'll probably look at a manual license later. The seller is a forum member... Anything I list here as needing doing is not a slight towards him, but acknowledgement of buying a 20-year old car cheaply. More on that in a maintenance thread.

The compatibility of the components are most likely wrong, causing high temperatures and warping the discs. I suggest starting again using the right parts. This is why we only use ATE German components that won't give you problems. BTW: The loose caliper had the potential to kill someone. Blue thread lock should have also been used.

I rode 650's, 750's, Rd 350's and Vincent 1000's back in the day... in jandals and no helmets at times, it wasn't compulsory back then... no learners in those days... I'm still here

Si 'manuel'!

E39 M5! Parked directly outside work yesterday. A very rare sight in Welly! It looked dirty and driven - as they should be!

Saving the discount is just shifting the time at which you make the saving...

As per title, need one hid ballast for an e39 540i please.

I got a replacement key for my e39 from Schmiedmann for $140 euro + shipping (no VAT or GST). All coded ready to go - just had to re-synch.with the alarm

I'd pay less for a vert over a coupe personally. Just seems like a catch 22 having an E36 with all the goodies, then no roof so it's floppy and you can't drive in the same way you can a coupe.

It's been a while since my last update, but I haven't stopped working on the project. I had to start tidying up the engine bay. The wiring was a mess, and I really needed to sort something out for the intake. I found some rust under the fuse box. :/ I was quite surprised as this is the only rust I've found on the car. I finally had time to look at the wiring. The plan is to do a rear battery conversion using an E36 power block. Not perfect, but I'm happy with the result for now. While pulling the carpet out, I decided to cut around the heater core instead of the removing the dash. Everything was going well until I realised I had accidentally cut through the body loom in two places. Damnit. 2 hours later, I had it sorted.

So I ended up buying the parts I needed from Pelican, their special dealer parts service is awesome. While waiting on those to arrive I noticed they wouldn't fit my shifter I have here which is an early type with reverse to the right. Also internals are slightly different, so I'd been trawling eBay for a few days ready to buy a W124 shifter for about 90 euro delivered but then last night just before bed I had another quick look and a 124 shifter had just been listed for 60 euro delivered and this one also came with the shifter frame, boot and knob which I also needed. Don't ya just love right time, right place purchases. Now I've got all the parts needed to make a complete shifter that works. Just need to track down some Delrin bushes..... EDIT: Just received an email from them, one part is only available from the main MB warehouse in Germany and has no ETA for fulfilment. It's never simple is it...

Hey guys, Huge part of my wishlist came true at the weekend, got my hands on a 717.404 (Getrag 275Z) dog-leg box. This is the box used in the 2.3-16 Cosworth W201's. I wanted this box for it's dog-leg config. and also it's power rating. I'm putting this into my '95 E320T, kit isn't complete however I'll be grabbing bits and pieces for the conversion as funds allow. Parts list at the moment is custom flywheel from Rennsport, custom driveshaft, new master/slave cylinders and a clutch. Brass bushings for linkages and shifter unit will also be ordered to replace the worn out MB bushings that weren't that great to begin with anyway. The shifter I got with it was meant to be the dog-leg version however it wasn't, so I'm now faced with the near impossible task of finding a shifter unit for it. Luckily I stumbled upon a thread on another forum where a guy has converted his standard shifter to dog-leg spec using new levers and a shift gate plate etc. Found the parts on this website however I don't know if I should trust it lol mbwholesalepartsonline.com, looks relatively legit and has an address but who knows. Thought this may be of interest to some, and I'll post up some photos as I go along.

After watching those... your Mr Muppet would have a hard time driving a Land Rover Defender off road! Where is the :facepalm: emoji?

pay rise

I had a look at (and updated my maintenance spreadsheet) and for me and my 2001 X5 has been a thoroughly enjoyable vehicle but in nearly a year and a half I've spent as much on maintenance as I did buying the vehicle - even with a MBI as I have had 8 claims. On top of this also dropped a bunch of $ on a cosmetic tidy up (roof rails, paint, multiple carpet cleans and stain removal, trim fixing, newer tail lights) which a much tidier example simply would not have needed. In retrospect I did not buy smart and I've paid for this - ending up catching a lot of the (overdue/expected) stuff. Lucky I'm not skint!!! repair ABS unit fix ABS pump bracket and pressure sensor (this was all due to the 'brake light trifecta') replace thermostat fix instrument cluster (dead pixels) replace radiator and hoses replace 2 x window regulators replace both rocker cover gaskets replace trans main oil seal replace both front lower brake reaction rod arms new key (they use a capacitor not batteries - and die eventually) plus regular servicing stuff including 2 large tyres! So I'm hoping that I've got it pretty well sorted. It has 222KMs on it and my 4yr MBI has another 2.5 years to run so *I must keep the vehicle* and keep enjoying it to make sense of the expenditure If I sold my X5 now then the next owner would be going 'sweet' and have a much better experience. It's always better if you can be that person - which is why typically buying a vehicle from a forum member is a good proposition as we all(?) look after our vehicles. Diesel comments aside @3pedals advice is sound and reflects how you have to think about this sort of vehicle. When I bought my X5 I thought 'man what a cheap score!!!' - and this has turned out to not be true. If you have lots of time and are mechanically minded then the maint cost could well be lower - but I have more $ than time (I think).

Passed my motorcycle full licence this morning. Does this mean I go buy a litre bike now?

e39 keys can be had for a lot less than that. I can, and others on the forum can too, code them for you. You can end up with a diamond key for ~$80, most of which is the cost of getting the key cut.

Brent, ill pass on the exhaust, its not loud enough for mine lol

saw this beauty on the way into town today:

Spent a large amount of the weekend cleaning and putting on the winter coat of wax. Went with chrisfix's 'superclean' method, dishwashing liquid foam cannon to remove old wax and any accumulated oils etc, then clay bar, spot fix the clearcoat (I skipped this bit though), and apply the wax. I'm happy with how it turned out, having trouble getting rid of the headlight condensation on the RHS though.