Leaderboard

Could someone please explain to me how the community reputation works?

I doubt anyone knows me, but I can bet many of you know this vehicle. This is the M70 swapped E34 Touring owned by Andy (_ethrty-Andy_) and built by Lance (mellowpuf). I came into the car through Euroless, who seems to have saved the car from a terrible fate. I then I got it shipped down from Auckland. It actually beat it's ETA because the transport driver was curious to see who owned it! The car itself is in a pretty poor state at the moment. It's clearly been through some unsavoury hands who had it 'for skidz'. I'm currently in the process of deep cleaning the whole car to find out just how far gone the it really is. Exterior has some serious wear and tear. Front quarter panels are both damaged. Paint is beyond saving in some areas. The front AC Schnitzer bumper clearly has a close relationship with the road, while the rear one has been poorly modified to make the exhaust and towbar fit. Left front rim is badly curbed.. Hood doesn't shut properly and is misaligned, even after some fettling with the adjustments. Rear window panel has been replaced at some point, so it doesn't open indepently like it should. One of the headlight lens are missing. The rear spoiler annoys me: as the car is a UK import it doesn't have a high stop light in it. A shoddy aftermarket one has been installed on the inside of the window instead, probably for compliance when the car entered NZ in 1996. The electrical system is going to take up a lot of my time by the looks of things. I immediately put a new DIN88 battery in it to eliminate any voltage issues. I've already cleared out some of the more interesting wiring. The subwoofer wiring was average at best, and it's gone now. Half the speakers don't seem to work and have been obnoxiously placed over factory trims. Pretty sure the double chassis looms under the rear seat is unnecessary, so that'll have to be rebuilt. It's probably also a fire hazard given that it's right next to the battery. The aftermarket fuse box under the steering column is pretty gross, can't wait to get rid of that. Coolant temp isn't wired up correctly, but surely that can't be hard to do right especially given there's a correctly working aftermarket coolant temp gauge right next to it. I swapped in the spare E32 M70 instrument cluster to see it resolved anything, but alas. The electric radiator fan and the associated wiring just seems silly. Extra wiring installed and spliced onto factory plugs for fog lights that don't even exist. Random sets of factory wiring coiled in the engine bay, not sure what for yet. Mechanically the engine is pretty close to operational. It's an early M70B50, recognisable by the oil filler cap location and the Motronic 1.2 DMEs. The mounting of the engine is actually top notch and the fitment of the ancillaries also shows great workmanship. The exhaust doesn't seem to sit on it's hanger properly though. I have no idea why someone painted the intake manifolds bright red, it looks absurd. The engine should be capable of 220kW and 450Nm, assuming it's factory. However it should not have been driven in it's current state, but clearly has been. I must admit even I'm guilty of this as I had to limp it home from work. It has a moving misfire and a knock. The right bank (1-6 cyl) distributor is arcing internally at random intervals. It requires new distributors and rotors, which are en route already. Gearbox works okay. Diff clearly works, pretty sure it's an LSD but I'm yet to confirm that. It'll get all fluids replaced and I'll carry out the Inspection I and Inspection II service items as well as check the operation and condition of every component I can get to. I won't be happy driving this car until I know it works perfectly from a mechanical standpoint. Just gotta say how disappointed I am by this: the air-con has been removed. What is the point of a big grand touring wagon if you can't be comfortable? The condenser has clearly been removed to make way for the electric fan, and the hoses to make space for some of the ancillaries. The AC compressor hasn't been sealed so it has seized and appears to also have a seized pulley despite still having a belt spinning around it. Suspension is a mess. It has full XYZ coilovers but nothing is setup correctly. None of the shocks are set to the same rebound. Preload on the front springs set randomly apparently; the right has some jounce while the left has none at all (as in it's stupidly stiff). Still need to check the rears. Will have to get it up in the air and remedy this nonsense. Right front wheel bearing is shot, despite the hub being replace a mere 2 years ago with a Repco unit. Quality parts en route to solve that. Tires are in good knick though, won't have to replace them anytime soon. Falken UHP 255 section tires on the rear and some Chinese Habilead 235s up front. Interior is "the second worst I've ever seen in an E34" says Autobahn. Headlining sagging. Door cards are an absolute mess. Front seats are filthy, "like someone has sh*t themselves and smeared it in," one of my co-workers said. Driver's interior door handle straight up just doesn't work. Glove box doesn't sit even close to straight. Everything behind the dash looks in a right mess. Boot space has look like it's never been cleaned despite heavy use. Original spare wheel and tire in there. The lower trunk lid trim is completely missing, though there is a spare piece in the wrong colour hanging around. Trims over the rear strut towers are misaligned and stop the rear seats securing the way they should. All the interior sill trims are missing. The one positive is that (surprisingly) someone hasn't run off with the Nardi steering wheel. Everything inside the car was also dirty. Very dirty. It's cleaner now though. I've removed all the older stickers, steam cleaned the carpet in the boot, cleaned the glass properly, and wiped down most of the interior surfaces. Came with many spares. Someone has clearly been down the wreckers to grab as much as they can. EMLs and DMEs and DKs and 5 wiper stalks for some reason. Couple spare sets of HT leads, which I will use. Should all prove useful, not least for troubleshooting. However I'll need to set up a donor car to replace the entire interior forward of the C-pillar, wiring, front quarter panels, air-con. It'll need a respray and some general body repairs at some point. I plan on retrofitting the pre-facelift E34 wing mirrors as I rather dislike the later E36 style ones the car has. (Fun fact: as the E34 was only available as a Touring following the facelift in 1992, so no Touring could have the old style wing mirrors or any other pre-facelift trim.) This car has some pretty amazing potential, but it's currently far less than the sum of it's parts. I feel like I've bought a $4k cert plate. Can't wait to have it running properly and get it truly nice and tidy. I'll keep you guys up to date as the situation develops.

Pretty crap, non stainless perforation. Looks like no expansion joints either. But hayyy its ACs, must be awesome

I run the reservoir return in to a container and have it sucking through clean fluid on the feed side until it runs clear, not too difficult to do but potentially very messy when you don't pay attention to the old fluid spilling on the floor

You might win the day.

Not sure if I've done this, here my 1st one when I was 17 (RIP) Red / Orange 1976 GLS is my Daily Driver (shares with the 540i) White one is the Fun car 90bHP at the wheels with Twin Dellorto's & cam, cage and stuff, visits Racetracks too Barely classes as Euro but I'm clinging to it & the worlds most Badge engineered car Joker

Picked this up to replace the 130i.. So far just put on some new wheels

After owing Audi and VW for a long time I'm back to BMW. Absolutely loving my 2007 130i m sport. She's all standard (rather keep it that way unless theres a must do recommendation?). Looking for maintenance tips as I'm planning on changing diff, transmission, engine oil myself. Will only add best/recommended oils so currently researching what to get. Also need to restore the headlights. Cheers

The tow bar is soooo handy, I actually love having it on there! Here are a few shots from recently! 4's and Rotors was over the weekend down in Timaru, so I decided to enter as I had never been before! Here are a few snaps from a shoot afterwards!

Nice. Kinda miss my E46, they do feel quite different to the E90s.

Go get it Paul, they are awesome.

dont talk it up pete!

Hi guys, Nathan here. I can see this is an older thread, but thought I should share for those interested. This is our E60 535d and it is a good one. Closing tonight at 9pm at $1 no reserve, currently only up to $11 and I am running out of fingernails! https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1464791721 Thanks

Oh man thanks guys hahaha

I can confirm it has an operational LSD.

Bmw dropted Nikasil in 96 btw. Sulphur in fuels eats out the nickel. The m52 b28 should be Alusil. Enjoy the 325 for what it is, do anl light flywheel and better diff ratio, make it stop and handle. Winning

Now you have 5!

It's a good idea to change the fuel filter periodically too - the one on my E39 sprang a leak and according to the stamp hadn't been changed for 10 years.

All it is is the total number times your post has been "liked" by other people. Notice your rep was on 3 then I just liked your post above and now you're on 4.

I was just having a look. I think i am going to have to hunt down a vacuum leak somewhere. Every now and then i get a code for bank 1 running too lean. It is the only code I get though. So I was going to go on an exploration and pull off anything that is attached to the intake. Which seems to be a number of things. Heading to Quebec for Xmas. Never had a white xmas. And to be honest it looks amazing there. Staying inside the old walled city. Winter tyres are compulsory up there.

last week the good folks at Winger BMW kindly fitted my new NZ-legal plates, in place of the (cool, stylin', though not legal) German plates that were on the car when I bought it. I went in looking for fasteners and brackets, to do the job myself... and came out with the job done, gratis! And Winger BMW plate frames too. A very nice touch, and they exceeded my expectations.

What did you do with all that dope hidden in the muffler ??

SOLD !

Luv the car without the wing Christian. Saw it, and heard it out at Villa Maria a couple of weeks ago

its pretty much impossible to pick which set up I like more..