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26 April 2019. 173xxxkms 1. Active Steering Rack: replaced.Jon at Auto38 had done the diagnosis and analysis. My old rack was clunking. Jon had pulled back the rack boots and found rusty grease, and significant wear in the rack teeth. Sadly wear is not covered by my Autosure MBA. So we were onto repair options. Sounds easy, right? Just get another good rack, and swap it in. The Active Steering Rack is a big-ticket item, with a bunch of sensors all over it. And it's a bit of a sh*t to fit, by all accounts. Being so large, subframe comes down a long way. A new one from BMW is not an option for me. That would ruin my Christmas. So good used options were sought on my behalf. Jon & Keren sourced a suitable rack, Jon pulled the old rack and swapped over all of my existing electronics to the new (used) rack, and installed/initialised/calibrated in the car. An alignment to top it off. [“nice rack!” Said nobody last week in a spectacular Newtown workshop. My well-worn rack, along with the ancillaries from the new (used) rack.] It's great to have the beast back, and it's steering nicely. Smoother than before. And after a couple of weeks away from the 545i (it was Easter and ANZAC, and I wasn't in a hurry), I'm reminded of why I like this car so much. It's very talented, and does it all. As ever, I'm very pleased with Auto38's service and professionalism. I'm sure you will be too, if you take your car there.

All of it. Please don't think 'I'm not breaking new ground here, it's been done before'... Your style is informative and entertaining; leave nothing out.

Hey mate, ended up buying this one here: https://gromaudio.com/store/bt3_adapters/bmw-mini-98-05-bluetooth-adapter-car-kit-behind-the-radio-connector.html This one is the version above the one I linked in the principal post. I decided I’d rather just have Bluetooth and not faff about with annoying cords. It’s Bluetooth, works with the factory head unit, is completely hidden away and retains the functionality of the steering wheel buttons etc. Absolutely perfect for me. Happy with the audio quality and my phone connects automatically every time I get in the car. I really like how it reads out the song title/album title/artist on the factory screen. Some people I’ve taken in the car have asked how an 18 year old car has Bluetooth! I keep telling people: this isn’t a Honda Accord, this is the real deal ?. It also comes with a handsfree mic, but I decided not to plug that in. I don’t drive and talk on the phone often, but mainly I find that those external mics look out of place. That’s just personal preference though. Only downside is you lose the functionality of the CD changer. I’m pretty sure this can be reverted back if you ever want to play your CDs, but don’t quote me on that. I don’t really miss mine at all. Installation isn’t too bad. If I can do it, most people can. Instructions are pretty helpful. I assume your car is the same as mine, in that it has no DSP or nav? In that case, this will work just fine with your car. The one I’ve linked doesn’t have a USB function, but I believe GROM offers one with USB. Slightly more expensive I think. Let me know if you have any issues ?

i fixed that for ya.Kudo to you mate your E39 looks AWESOME,and seems actually as sound as it looks

After a couple of years, I've decided i should try my hand at writing up a build thread. This will be part member intro, part way to capture images but also to try and give back to the forum since it has helped me with my project a lot! Some history about how I came to fall in love with BMWs. I had recently sold a MK4 Golf and didn't have a huge budget which made trying to find a respectable car pretty tough. I had only really dealt with Japanese cars before the Golf (Toyota Surf>Mitsi Mirage>Nissan Skyline 300GT>EG civic>Mk4 Golf) and was always told to stay away from euros for their price of parts and unreliability. My girlfriend however had an E46 and I couldn't believe how much car she got for so little money. I thought I'd risk it and venture out into the realm of old BMWs and see what $4k was able to get me on TradeMe. The 3 series was were I started to look as the 5s, 7s etc were out of my budget or if cheap enough would require a lot of work that my limited knowledge wouldn't cater for. I wasn't keen on E36s as i thought they were too "bogan" or "hori" due to the examples I had seen (completely different story now). E46s were ok, coupes were expensive, sedans were a bit boring but super comfy. I then decided to go older and came across the E30. Holy carp. Those quad headlights. That boxy '80s shape. I researched and researched. Compiled a list of common faults and went out and viewed a couple. My checklist (so I thought) was fairly basic. Coupe, no sunroof due to the potential rust, manual, 4 cyl due to them being cheaper, white, <200kms, but most importantly a straight rust free body. I searched for a couple of months and was starting to get desperate. I had only come across rusty bodies, fiddled wiring, or cars that were just generally pretty badly beaten up. I then saw a post on facebook and headed out that night to view at a mall carpark. The misses and i saw it roll into the carpark and we couldn't help but to grin at the wee car. A quick look over showed that it was in good knick apart from the noisy lifters, ripped seats and gross wheels. I took it for a drive and then decided I wanted this car (June 2016). Some history of the car. Built in June '90 and then sold in NZ by Team McMillan BMW in '91 as a NZ new 316i. Its a Bronzit Beige coupe that was about as poverty spec as it got. Manual, wind up windows, M40B16 engine, no sunroof, unpainted bumpers/mirrors etc, no spoiler, tan cloth interior. "Mr Black" the original owner, took good care of it by the looks with regular servicing carried out at the dealership. It was then sold through the family to his daughter where it most likely served as the boring daily driver. Somewhere along the line it had been purchased by the guy i was buying it off. The car became my daily and I was absolutely in love. It was completely stock but people still stared at it. Then this weird thing happened... strangers were waving to me who happened to be sporting the same old german car. I started looking up club pages and found all the perfect examples for sale I had been looking for! Oh well, I was stuck with my beige four banger and couldn't have been happier. The noisy lifters started to be a bit of pain in the neck and was starting to get so noisy that people were no longer turning to look at the car, but were turning to look for the ticking time bomb. I researched into replacing the lifters but that soon became too expensive for what it was. I saw a build with a M52 but that was going to be WAY too hard and out of my league. Meanwhile the old M40 is starting to get REALLY loud. No amount of oil changes/additives were fixing it. I then looked into doing a M20 swap which seemed like a good idea, so i started down that track. Finding a good example however became quite hard and parts availability was also a concern with the ageing motor. Back to the M52 swap it was and many a night was spent seeing how hard it actually was. Thanks to the help of the forums and facebook I slowly started to accumulate the parts needed for the 24 valve swap. Now I can start talking about the interesting stuff. Stage one was the donor car. I wanted a donor car as that would be the safest way to see the motor running plus i knew I'd be able to cannibalise parts off of it. I came across a cheap E36 328i that had went into limp mode. After some poking around I found that the cause for the limp mode was low transmission fluid due to a trans cooler leak that hadn't been looked at "after it stopped leaking" aka no more ATF. This would be the perfect car to pull apart and I didn't feel bad at all due to the poor interior/exterior condition (November 2016).

$6000 Due to a change in circumstances, loss of my mechanics help, lack of time and an unrequited love for my E81 130i(like an abusive stepfather lol) I'm selling my E87 4 door 130i. It owes me $6k so that's what I will put it up for. Showroom thread here It's a 2008 M-Sport w/ 214k kms on it. Specced with beige Leather Interior and Aluminium trim. Also has 18" M-Sport Alloys, seat warmers, electric seats, Idrive and auto climate control plus the previous owner put in a Parrot Bluetooth handsfree and 35% tints. Interior and Exterior are in excellent condition for their age. There is the odd scratch or mark on the exterior but after the detail it does present very well. Originally purchased as a parts car for my E81 130i it won me over by being too good to part out. It was a real estate agents car that did plenty of long distance kms in the Wairarapa, and was a company car for 80k kms before that. In my ownership I've done - New K/N Air Filter - New Cabin Air Filter - Leather clean and repair to front seats. Steering wheel repair. - Professional Detail and Cut and Polish Exterior, including headlights and Wax seal coating on body work, degrease and clean of undercarriage - New Vanos Solenoids Car comes with a mostly complete service history from BMW Winger since it was imported from Japan, highlights include: 2018/2019 - 186-210k - 4 New Tyres - Oil Cooler Gaskets - Rocker Cover Gasket - Transmission service including Trans flush - Front and rear Pads plus Sensors - 2x Oil Service last at 210k - Belt, Tensioner and Idler. Crank Pulley. - AC Regassed, new valves. 2017 -186k - Starter Motor - Inlet Manifold Gasket 2016 177k - Front Brake Hoses - Brake Fluid - Rear Brake Pads - Rear Brake Sensor - Wheel Repair - LHF Door Actuator - LH Door Lock 176K - Exhaust Bracket 175k - Washer Pump 172k - Cylinder #6 Ignition Coil - Washer jets flushed 2015 139k - LR Doorlock and Actuator 135k - Windscreen 118k - Front Brake Discs - Front Brake Sensor - Rear Brake Discs - Rear Brake Sensor - Eccentric Cam Seal Issues: I had the car pre-purchase inspected before I bought it and it showed the rear driveshaft guibo/coupling has a crack in it. I have the front and rear(accidentally ordered the front one lol) couplings and all the bolts etc needed to replace. Can sell to buyer at a discount, I can otherwise return them to fcpeuro. Just come up with a right front foglight error code, foglight works though :shrugs: Car drives and runs fine, has newish tyres front and rear and is a real pleasure to drive. I intended to keep this but I keep falling in love with my 2 door 130i. Pm me or reply here, will entertain offers but feel its pretty fairly priced. Great runabout and fun drive. You can see the 2 door E81 while you're viewing too ;D

Saw photos of your cars somewhere on Facebook before, very clean and interesting colours! I’m currently thinking of getting a facelift 3.0 or at least a 6 cylinder model to replace my daily....

Tried a Z4? Little bit more modern with some newer safety features - DSC and multiple airbags. 3.0si is a lot of fun.

I have 2 Z3's. A 2.0L daily drive and a 3.0L garage queen. The 2.8 and 3.0 L cars have the best performance for your money and they are not too expensive being ~ $8k for a 3.0 and ~$6k for a 2.8. If your are after a Z3M roadster, there are only 19 listed in the NZTA database, so they are a rare car and don't come onto the market very often. I keep away from the 1.9L Z3's. Low Performance and very old cooling systems being my reasons. Good luck with your search.

ET 25 collets

@hunter try these guys: http://www.lemansautofabrics.co.nz/fabric-bmw.html Hope that helps.

If you can't find any in Hamilton i know Pick a part in Takanini and Direct Auto Dismantlers in Rotorua have passenger seats that could probably be used,.

Many thanks. I’ll try Mr Google and see what I come up with. Cheers.

S5x...

I can help with that Kyu...

and im based in greenlane

217,500km CLUNK ELIMINATED turned out the engine mounts weren't torqued correctly....opps, my bad. The mounts were new.....guessing maybe they weren't fully loaded when i torqued them.....either way they are torqued now...they were out by about half a turn. The car is driving amazing..I am loving it. Gotta laugh at how much stuff I've replaced trying to solve the noise, not to mention the two shops i took it to who also didn't pick it up. Jon was on the right track though thinking it was an installation error as opposed to a failed part...expensive lesson in DIY'ing, don't think the car is worse off for it though. We celebrated with an oil and filter change ?

It's a great photo angle and I know it was on your list to do ;)

Holy wow, that's the most unsaggy glovebox lid i think i have ever seen ?

I bet if they had dialled the original back to 600 hp it would have lasted that long too! Honestly, it doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment for a company that started as an engine builder.

In the 80s they had a turbo 1.5 liter making 1400hp, so they haven't actually made any progress! Unless they are going to put this in a road car, in which case, cool!?

Somehow they've taken a handsome car and made it look like a riced out RX8.

So I replaced all the plugs this morning and engine is running sweet again.. phew. A friend of mine reckons he had a loose washer go through his intake and out the other side with no ill effects. Replaced glovebox as it was sagging and the internal plastic tray had cracked around the catch. Got a pick-a-part box in good working order but cover was coming off. So used the heat gun and scraper to take the old adhesive off. and applying new adhesive using a strong panel glue and glue gun. Viola! Also fitted replacement light as clip on original had broken. Oh and look what turned up

Collecting the E36 was the first drama in this project. We made the drive from West Auckland to Tauranga one Sunday morning to drive the car back. I figured if I could somehow get some fluid into the transmission, that it'd spring back to life and i'd be driving back to Auckland under its own steam, much to the horror of the people i bought it off. No cigar. Stuffed around for ages driving the car up onto a curb to get under and try and force feed it the ATF fluid. It wasn't going in. About 5 hours had gone by and my GF and our friend who had come along for a "quick" roadie was starting to get over it. Pressure was on. I still had 1st, 2nd & 3rd gear available in the blue E36. Traffic was light so i thought I'd try and limp it home. Again, no cigar in sight. Car was revving higher than i was happy with and i could see the temp gauge was more inclined to lean to the right. We made the decision to leave it at a random gas station and head home. The following day I drove to work, put in leave, picked up a ute and trailer and headed back down to Tauranga with the ever patient GF. All loaded up we headed back to Auckland. CIGAR. I quickly started to pull the E36 apart to see the condition of the cams as an indication of oil changes. The engine showed some varnishing and the coolant system seemed to have been topped up with a lot of hard water in its time. At this stage I still had an ear to the ground to see if a better motor would pop up but there wasn't really anything available. Being a running car, I was able to check the compression of all the cylinders. It was all even and within factory specs so I was happy. Work began on pulling it all apart, selling bits I didn't need to fund the project whilst still tinkering away on the E30 that was still my DD. My search for rust on the old girl had luckily been coming up empty apart from a little bit around the trunk seal. That only required a wire brush, some rust converter, paint and a new seal. I continued to remove the grime that had built up over the past 26ish years. Parts started to pour in from Pelican Parts and FCP Euro. I purchased any seal that was a worry on the M52 as I wasn't keen on pulling it out of the E30 in the future. Crank seals, oil filter housing seals, vanos hose, cooler thermostat from factory, metal impeller water pump, new radiator, electric fan, valve cover seals, filters etc. The E36s engine and ancillaries were all disconnected from the body and was ready to be pulled out. This was made much easier by the fact that the radiator support can be removed (a few bolts and two spot welds from memory). The engine lifter was able to slot in and take the weight of the motor with ease. Seals fitted and motor tidied up. Was starting to look like a tidy package suitable for the E30.