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Date: 12 June 2019 Distance: 259342kms 1. Engine New engine mounts, oil filter housing gasket, sump cleaned inside and out (found bolts reinstalled), and new gasket. Oil filter and fresh oil. [edit:] 5W30 synthetic. The lifters in M40 respond well to the modern blend. Also replaced the two drive belts. 2. Suspension Front: Installed freshly painted 20mm front ARB, with new bushes. Assembled and installed 51mm strut housings with all new hardware (upper spring perches, and strut collars excepted), H&R Sport Springs, Koni Sport 8641-1210 strut inserts, new bellows kit and iS bump stops. [Edit: also new wheel bearings and associated hardware]. Rear: Installed freshly painted 14.5mm rear ARB with new bushes. Installed H&R sport springs, Koni Sport 80-8522 shocks with new top mounts. 3. Front Brakes Installed Vented rotors (Zimmermann Sport X-drilled Z coat rotors, rebuilt Girling calipers, Hawk Performance HPS pads, ATE hoses. Bled brake system rear to front. 4. Steering Wheel. Sport (also called SE) steering wheel installed. I just hadn't got there. 5. Aligned. It was aligned again, iS/m-technic specs. Jon & Auto38 did the hard work, with customary efficiency and precision, and updates. Report: Initial impressions: I collected it on Thursday at the end of the work day. All the slop in the steering is gone. It feels a bit lower (30mm for the H&R's). Jon cautioned me the the M40's sump is now closer to the road surface. I think a sump guard may be a wise precaution for touring. The setup is firm, yet comfortable. It's like a go-kart, compared with how it was previously. Big grins. Noted I may need to reduce tyre pressures; I was previously running higher to counteract the baggy suspension. I was initially worried that the tyres weren't up for it. This was proved to be wrong. Saturday morning I was out on the road at 0600, bedding in the rotors and pads. Zimmermann call for braking from 100 to 50 km/h over 3 seconds, cool for 3 mins; repeat 15 times. Then do heavier stops of 100-25 kmh over 3 seconds, cool three minutes, repeat 15 times. A saturday morning is a reasonable time with less traffic, slow lane on motorway, check mirrors, hazards on, brake. Rinse and repeat. After 90 mins of driving (to Te Marua, then Ngauranga, then Paremata, Johnsonville, back to town), a Nada Bakery pie was needed to settle my now-queasy stomach. The Brakes were feeling better. The Z-coat takes a while to wear in. I figured I hadn't finished the pad bed-in, but that would happen later on the Rimutaka Hill road. I sorted myself out, packed the car, and headed out to Melling BP and brimmed the tank with 98. A bloke in a people mover asked me if it was for sale. Told me had 3 other BMWs; I said "search for BMW Club NZ, we're off on a run. Join us!". I met up with the crew for the Wairarapa & Castlepoint run. The run over the Rimutakas was a joy. My first distance drive since buying Grey Thunder and bringing her home from Paraparaumu. Not a lot of power for hill-climbing, the momentum style is required. I did manage a couple of passes, notably a 4th gear pass toward the top of the Akatarawas. On the Rimutakas, I tucked in behind a D-Max whose driver knew the road well, we had a great run down, with a few motorists kindly making use of the stopping bays to let us pass. This is where the new suspension setup started to show the new character & capability. Loads more grip, turn-in is vastly improved, You can precisely place the car in the lane. Weight-shift is now a ballet, and the car is far more planted. I stopped at the bottom on nearer Featherston, and did my customary photos of the group passing at a bridge. When I re-joined the group at Martinborough, I couldn't stop smiling. This thing is a buzz. It's so much fun to drive. Later I headed out to find another vantage point, and drove more roads trying to re-join the group after they passed. I drove, dry, drizzle, rain, and fog. I drove unfamiliar country roads, and some more familiar, on a variety of seals. 200kms from the start point to Castlepoint, and I enjoyed every one of them. I can trust the car's handling, even if my entry line is wrong. It's going to take me a little longer to make the weight shift super-consistent, but I'm loving it. It's less a scalpel, more a sharp chef's knife, and it's forgiving. Oh, and it's comfortable. Firm, not jarring. I hit the bump stops on the fronts once on the way home, just off the brakes at the end of a descending bridge (to turn right) and found a pot hole right in the line. My fillings are intact, it was fairly gracefull. There will be some experimentation to do with the Koni's adjustable rebound damping. Tyres. These Hankook Optimo K415's are pretty good for what they are. Shame we don't get high-performance tyres in 195/65R14 down here. Reviews on the Falken Ziex 912 indicate it's no better; there are a hoarde of low-cost el-cheapo tyres to choose from, but little else (mostly touring tyres). I think it's nearly ready to receive it's iS badge. Should I wait till it has rear disc brakes? An LSD? An M42B18? I'm going to buy a strut brace. ? Workshop Photo Credits Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: Sump gleaming, new gasket installed. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: H&R Sport Springs, Koni Yellows, 14.5mm Anti-roll bar. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: New front brakes. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker Rebuilt caliper with new piston and seals, nipple. Ready to install.. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker A more comfortable helm. Moody garage shot showing Sports wheel. Out in the country, photography pack-horse.

seek some advice from some place like diesel and turbo you may be able to add some additive re the diesel bug to prevent growth.Is it a conventional garage or ??? Regular running of a heat pump on "dry" or dehumidifier may be a good idea .May be worth trying to get the tyres right of the ground.As long as you can keep the car really dry and even temps i dont think starting it is worth it unless it gets a really good run.evrything(motor,brakes,gearbox and exhaust) needs to get up to temp for a good while other wise i beleive you are doing more harm than good.(my opinion pnly)

Finally finished fitting all new suspension arms to the front of the M5, took it on the motorway for a test run, had a mild panic attack, went home, tightened the wheel bolts properly, went for another test run, all good!

Hardly on the way out. Variable compression, cam shaft less, multi turbos, opposed piston engines, there is a bright future for new advance ICE engines. Combustible fuels are still extremely effective and economically viable so will continue to evolve like they have done for 100 years. Electric battery cars are a relatively new technology to run in parallel on the market, more options the merrier. People can buy what they please, if you prefer to pay electric car road costs and increase your power bill verses buying fuel an electric car is a perfect A-B city daily driver. Once batteries can be the size of a regular fuel tank and take minutes to recharge they will gain popularity, but battery technology isn't anywhere close to that, just look at the size of a Tesla battery or how many heavy batteries these electric car conversions require. Not to mention what happens when they get damaged, massive lithium fires! Hydrogen fuel cells will likely take over where batteries fail, but time will tell. Some critics say they are too dangerous due to hydrogens explosive nature but the current hydrogen cars have very small tanks built into the strongest part of the chassis with various kevlar and carbon fiber materials, arguably safer than lithium batteries that are easy to puncture and expose to oxygen. In the meantime some people will buy petrol and diesel cars while others buy electric ones while new combinations continue to come onto the market like hybrids. A little known fact is the rare earth metals required to make electric car motors and key components are mostly mined in China, this means they can regulate the global market making it difficult for supplies, not good for big business interests. It will be fascinating to see how that pans out.

Hi everyone, I have a set of Apex-Arc8 wheels for sale suiting E46 M3 / E90 M3 / 1M fitment. Specs: Fronts: 18 x 9.5 et22 Rears: 18 x 10 et25 There is some minor kerbing on two wheels. Price: $1850

The solution to that particular problem...

Think it will fit alright but i would hate to drive it on 19s. Car is stiff as it is and 35 profile is just asking for rims to crack or bend on our shocking roads

Yep that would have been me, in Remuera. Loading up fast with 2 antsy borderline meltdown kids in the car ??

I hope more people go to electric crap so I can experience more affordable classics. ?

Not as long ago as you're probably thinking lol

Transportation mode.

I believe the M340d will start production the same time as the M340i (which is not from launch as this article claims, for RHD anyways). Diesel is only "too far gone" for those manufacturers that decided to cheat rather than develop better engines.

Apparently that wasn't an option! <Mutter mutter mutter mutter...>

I kind like the project aspect of it, a lot of technical work that is require to make it work properly. The lack of engine noise giving the car soul and drowning out the 1980s BMW rattles would get annoying quickly though. I understand the appeal of such a conversion but after a while it would get quite dull compared to a conversion many have done, S52, S54 or a V8 swap, they have the sound and soul that gets the senses tingling,. Im not talking about performance either, intake, and exhaust notes have a musical quality that makes driving pleasurable, eg a 325i isnt fast but can sound superb, giving off quintessential BMW sounds. A Tesla running gear E30 would move quickly Im sure but without some six cylinder pops and crackles, ehhh -

Life's been busy lately, and I haven't had much occasion to post here, or even read much. Alas, fate intervened about a week and a half ago, on the day there was massive massive rain up here. Was driving off of Dairy Flat Highway, and during a minute period the rain got so thick I couldn't see. Thought something was in front of the car, swerved to not hit something, hit something else instead. There was a high curb and wall next to it. The wall the car might have survived, but the curb killed it... Damaged everything between the wheel and the engine, and from that oil leak, even the bottom end of the engine got it too. EDIT: That could be the transmission pan that got it, unclear. I didn't climb under to look.