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I agree with Kyu. Wait till you are earning more and save to get something that is not limited to your immediate income level

buy a honda. seriously. $40 a week and you're sorted. My E46 325i fuel consumption is 10L/100km on average city driving which is already pretty good for what it is. If you want to get down to like 6-7L/100km you need to go for a 1.6L japanese like a civic, jazz, fit, toyota corolla, ist, suzuki swift, mazda 2, etc.

Hi team! My name's Jonny and I'm from Northern Ireland. I recently moved to NZ with my partner to the East Coast Bays, where she grew up. I've never owned anything close to a classic before but I've been given the opportunity here to have and work on a beautiful 1990 320i. I've never worked on cars before but i know that these older vehicles suit the tinkerer a lot more than modern computerized vehicles so I've decided that with this in mind, this E30 will be my project for the next few years. I've already done some minor fixes, repairs or maintenance tasks, many for the first time in my life and I must say, I'm hooked. The Mrs already rolls her eyes when I start talking about what I want to do in the future, so, I figure that I must be doing something right..? Anyways, that's my little intro, I hope to become an active and valued member but mainly, I'm here to leech knowledge from you bimmer wizards until I have something I can contribute to and know that I have inside out knowledge on. Thanks for having me!

It was on the road and driving for wee bit. I did bunch of maintenance items to get the car up and running, namely a wheel hub that was gone and some lights. Engine was my biggest problem as it had all sorts of developing issues that were a pain in the bum to resolve. The misfire and vacuum leaks being the first. I went through and replaced the entire ignition system - including the spark plugs which I replaced with ones that the M70 community recommends rather than the superseded OEM part - to remove the misfire. The vacuum leaks came from the damned intake to head rubber gaskets that had all cracked because the intake supports on the outside of the engine had completely failed and were straining the gaskets, so I replaced them with some custom solid mounts out of coupling nuts and sealed the rubber gaskets with a wee bit of Royal Blue. It got taken for a nice long road trip from Chch to Picton where it performed amazingly. So effortless on the open road. Exactly what I wanted. I even towed another E34 (parts car) up from down south with and it basically used no extra fuel despite the doubled weight. Actually awesome. But then I had strange over fueling issues (fuel avg. consumption would go from ~10-12l/100km straight up to 39.5l /100kms, which I'm pretty sure is just as high as the display goes rather than the true value), gearbox problems (massive lurch after shifting into reverse that shudders the whole car and other reluctant gear changes), and the odd bit of overheating. Then the smoke came. So I checked, cleaned and set the throttles, fixed exhaust leaks, traced oil leaks, found more developing vacuum leaks, replaced crankcase vent pieces, dropped and checked fuel tank/lines, tried some different oils, swapped ECUs, swapped part like FPRs and throttles from bank to bank. But nothing worked: the oil smoke under acceleration only got worse and overheating became more common. Current theory stands at minor head gasket failure that has developed into major failure on 7-12 cylinder bank. About 250hrs of work on my part only to be beaten again, though I can now take the intake manifolds off in my sleep. The straw that broke the camel's back through was the tandem pump - that supplies hydraulic power steering and power brakes - got a major leak and requires a rebuild. Car simply can't be driven without brakes or steering. To be honest it doesn't really surprise me, the more I looked through the car the more evidence I found of the car having been flogged for 'skidz' between the time you (Andy) owned it and I got it. It's clearly been through some unsavoury hands. Sigh. At this point the issues practically require an engine and gearbox replacement as parts (even just a set of head gaskets) far exceed the value of a 'new' engine and gearbox. Sadly I've yet to get to that point as I've had to return to my other ongoing project car (MR2 AW11 getting a built 7AGE) and it will have to sit until I return from Europe later this year. I'm sorry for the lack of updates guys, but it will return to the road. Hopefully better than ever.

Hey Team So finally got the goodies from FCP EURO delivered . two big boxes of goodies, I didn't bother taking the stuff out as you'll get to see it all been used once i start the swap. But purchased a fair bit of things. All gaskets and bolts needed for the M60b44 swap. 2 sets of valve cover gaskets. 2 sets of the FCP 16 piece control arm kit. Will be doing a full over haul of both cars suspension. Almost there and ready for the fun part of fitting all these parts.

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.

dont worry if you missus thinks your nuts, you have found the right support group. Put this into your diary for November. https://www.facebook.com/events/157004731770800/ welcome to bimmersport!

Hey guys, thought I would introduce myself being new to the page. (Thanks for taking me in) Recently got myself my very first non-jap car which is a 2009 BMW 335i E90! As far as I can see, it is bone stock but I am not 100% in the know of these cars. (Reason why I am trying to join as many groups as I can) First 'mod' is changing the paddle shift to have downshift 'pull' on the left hand side. Much better! 10 minute job. To do list (near future): Change out Rim/tyres. XHP gearbox flash Change angel eyes to white from yellow MHD Icarly for coding To do list (Future) Downpipes Chargepipe Exhaust Twin filters more to add Here are some photos to end off this long post! Looking forward to meeting people in Auckland!

If there are, they won't fit your convertible if that's what they are for.

http://www.bpmsport.com/featured/tune-bpm-e9x-m.html

Ahh, the Tor of Torbay - I grew up climbing that thing. Nice looking car and welcome!

Hi Brad, no price in mind yet. I only have the rear seats (coupe - yes it matters for the rear) which have been refinished with new motorsport material inserts and door cards to suit. To be honest I mentioned that a bit tongue in cheek - they're not going to match your front seats. It's practically impossible to "restore" the seats you have without getting them recovered which is expensive. However the do come up for sale reasonably frequently and that may be your best route.

Hey Jonny! Nice looking wee car, and great photo. More of that please!

If you have a spark plug socket that fits you can use a spanner on the external hex end of that and an allen key though the middle.

E9x test pipes ordered on Friday morning from Active Autowerke Florida arrived Monday early afternoon. Brilliant service FedEx. https://store.activeautowerke.com/collections/exhaust/products/active-autowerke-test-pipes-e9x-m3-2008-2013

The price is fair but i don't think white centers are a popular choice for BMW's, probably just not much interest.

Thoughts part 2. I have put on just over 3000kms on this now over 2 months. A lot of driving this weekend, went up to omaha, did the little sprint to stillwater and a night drive to piha beach and back. No doubt this is a fantastic little car. So much power, and super comfortable, the ride, seats, suspension, everything about it is comfortable and still sporty at the same time. It really is great. In my previous post I mentioned that the 8 speed gearbox is awesome. A little amendment to this. It is still bloody quick and awesome but I feel like there is a slight limitation with it which is that in the twisty mountain roads, often I find myself fiddling with the gear more than actually focusing on driving. Im not sure which gear to be in half the time. Also because the car is so torque-y even at low revs, I struggle to rev the car out and really hear the engine but I suppose thats what you get with the turbo set up over NA. I realised how much easier and simpler it was when I used to do this same drive back in the days in my old E46 328ci and 330i/ci in which Im usually in 3rd or 4th and sometimes 2nd and can really rev the car out and keep it in the 4000-6000rpm range most of the time. With the 135 I found it easier to just leave it in drive and control the throttle but didnt feel as good because I couldnt keep the car in the high rev range (some part of this was because the roads were slightly wet also and if I gave it too much throttle in 3rd or 4th gear in the 135 I would lose the tail end in an instant). Anyway, its still early days and I am figuring out the car. The car performed remarkably well on the soft bends around matakana on the long straights. It was a real pleasure to drive and less "busy" compared to driving in the mountains. Anyway will keep posting my thoughts on here as I go along. Also should be a little update in the looks department in the next week or so so stay tuned!

211,450km installed new lemforder control arms. Tension and thrust arms both sides. I hadn’t done this earlier due to @rusteee having already done them 30,000km earlier with Meyle HD ones (which still looked really good when I pulled them out?) But the big news is that it has cured the 100km shimmy i had. This was a lasting frustration I’ve had with this car since purchase, so I am so happy to finally have it silky smooth as it should be. I ordered the arms from FCP in two orders to avoid gst and they were on the limit @400 each side but they both came in under the radar. Since these seem to be a real consumable on the E39 I’m hoping to be able to use FCP’s lifetime warrenty should they fail in the future.

To be honest, just keep an eye out for a replacement set. You should be able to pick up nice ones for less than $100. Or keep an eye out for the motorsport ones I'm about to sell!

Thank you for your suggestions! I am a person who does not really like the de-badge look to be honest haha. Rims, have not really looked at different styles but the current ones are just not doing it for me. In regards to maintance! First thing I will be doing. Still a while away from the major stuff but I will be prepared. Currently 34000kms on the clock. I have paddles set up left paddle Pull - Downshift and Push for Upshift, right paddle has not changed Pull - Upshift and Push for Downshift. So from what qube is saying, I can still drive with one hand and change through the gears with the one paddle.

Drivers Review - 140i War Hammer Last week I pick up the phone at work to Ray on the other end for our once a month catch-up. He enthusiastically said 'waddya doing this weekend'. My reply, not tons planned but bout time for a visit. He said, good cause I have something for you to try out. The 140i is on the road. Not batting and eye lid I said good ill be there with bells on. Roll on Saturday and a 45min commute from green lane up to silver dale. We arrive and sitting in the driveway was a stout little 1 series. Only hint of what is going on is the quad exhaust sneaking through the rear valance. After some chit chat .. He handed me the keys, the missus and I jumped into the car and prepared the usual check mirrors / belts / anything loose that would end up on the floor etc. Fired the little thing into life, which soon made me realise with the s65 shoe horned under the hood and modified pipes that this aint no 1 series any more. I locked the DCT transmission into reverse and eased the car back onto the road. Checking all the normal stuff I popped it into first and moved away ... with a quick pop of the paddles I was in second and gave it a medium sqeeze on the throttle, immediately we were both pushed back into our seats and I realized we were over the speed limit with the car showing small hint it was tapping at the tranction control. Giving the car a bit of a warm up I took it easy up to the open road and drove it down to my favourite testing ground run .. the sprint to stillwater. I pulled over to let the car finish its warm up of the oil and water to operational temp. Looking down I pushed the 'Power' button and changed the DTC settings to '6'. Now lets stop here for a second to look at its spec. Here we have a 120i Motorsport shell with e92 m3 sub frame components, DTC 7 speed gear box, e92 M3 diff and suspension, Mperformance brakes, newly refreshed s65, free flow stainless exhaust, Tuned MSS60 ECU and m3 GTS software loaded onto the gearbox computer and Mdynamics DSC traction and stability control. Back to the drive, I stomped on the loud pedal and plucked 2nd, 3rd , 4th, 5th redlining all the way. The sound was ammmmmmazing. But what trumped that was the amount of time it took me to break the legal and beyond. I see our first corner coming up at a great rate of knots. Look down and see a 2 with a couple of zeros .. hit the picks and dive into the first corner. It just soaked up the corner and the bumps. Accelerating out of the corner I pop the paddles and within a blink of an eye im through some more gears. The GTS gearbox software has come a long was since the SMGII days. Dual clutch transmission are the playstation generation. You cant get it wrong and it just builds confidence as the car isn't un-settled between gear changes. Up comes the next corner which is the start of a set of s bends. Complete with Rodney Council's finest b road bumps can throw at me. The car didn't flinch. I hit the down change and in comes the rev matching and throttle blips. holy crap I say that sounds awesome. At this stage Im giggling like a little girl while punching it out of the corners ... traction control is letting me know that its keeping the rear end in check. We get down to Still Water and take pause to figure out what the combination is and how something so potent can be so solid on the road with this power to weight combination. I jump out and the missus jumps in. She gives it the potatoes on the way back and reminds me I dont make a good passenger. We get to the open highway, and I jump back in the seat. And do the airfield run. I get a real chance to open it up. Pulling a big over taking manoeuvre past a local tourist. Up pops the stop sign to local highway .. The speedo is well past what would be considered sane. In come some braking performance .. bang bang bang down through the gears .. it pulls up with a face ripping gforce to the local highway. I get a honk honk and thumbs up from the tourist haha .. We complete our cool down run and return to HellBM. I get out of the car and walk up to ray, Ray: 'Whaddya think" Josh "Well that wasn't sh*t" Its given me the big hurry up on my plans for my next car. I own a e30 s50b32. I take on a car that was to put great power into something that I though needed it, at the time it was ground breaking.' This 1 series hatch with the s65b40 and DTC just brings into perspective what the new level is in badassness. This hatch is king. I have driven a lot of builds, with power and handling. Including some amazing factory cars. This takes the cake on all of it. Its really that good. Well done HellBM, this is the future of modding and its bright.