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1am. Clear is on. They looking goooooood Blew the breaker to the garage for compressor some how part way through and ended up having to run 40m of extension cords from the other house to finish the job lol! Good times

Not a bmw but this very rare example of a Plymouth Prowler at the hot rod show in Porirua today. Never thought i would ever see one in the flesh. It is packing a 5.7l Hemi under the hood too. I like. I soooo like!

Painting the brake calipers we estoril blue on my e91 Thought I might Chuck a timeline up of it as I go The quantity of brake dust is outstanding, trying to capture as much of it as I can because there's at least 50g of it

Base coat on! Man these boys are Poppin!! ? Midnight ... And still cranking , getting it done Clear coat going to unleash the blue

Pow... Arm out... Removing bearing... Reckon I can reuse this... Ahh... And an extra thanks to Nathan (@zero) for coming around and doing the other side for me whilst I put this one back in!

Given that BMW won't make an M3 Touring (but seems happy to build a worse riding and less practical SUV version, and thinks that wagon buyers will cross shop to an SUV), I think my next (and likely last non-electric) car will be one of these - in Alpina blue. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/frankfurt-motor-show/alpinas-455bhp-b3-touring-m3-wagon-bmw-wont-make

Anyone having a cheap, free, cheap or free E28 parts car they want to get rid of? Im in need of a few things

@zero not for daily use. Calipers don't exceed 80deg unless your really giving it sh*t. That bc/cc handles up to 120 anyway before warping. ( They bake it in 70° ) that's autothane range though (that diamond Schwartz you have is the same) Not sure what other brands of base coat does, it should be similar. The hubs and rotors I got vht though. The rotors get a bit hotter. Heard people doing normal enamel on them though too. But yeah to be on the safe side.

Primering time Hope I have enough blue left lol My supply has done two rocker covers now hoping to do all calipers Not bad for only buying 200ml

Apparently M62's are known to leak from the electrically heated thermostat. Coolant then travels all the way up the loom to the back of the ECU. (Found this on Google so it must be true.) I'm not totally sure this is the cause of the problem pictured above or whether the green colour is just plain old copper oxide (which we used to call green death and shows up auto plugs all over the place) caused by moisture in the e-box from having been parked outside and not sealing properly. The water up the loom might be a myth coming from the green colour. Coolant is green so green colour must come from coolant. Anyone know for sure? Regardless of the cause, 3 pins are corroded / broken off. I swapped the pictured ECU / DME with one with the EWS deleted, and the car now runs (yay), and I can communicate with it using INPA. It is throwing up a EWS tampering code (no surprises), and the check engine light is on - though this may be because it is also has a leak detection pump code showing (next thing to try and fix). I also replaced the thermostat housing in case the leaking up the loom story is in fact true, and put vaseline over the rubber e-box seal. I have had a quote to fix the old ECU for $245+ which I will probably get done as it will be nice to have it running without the check engine light. (I'll try and clear the leak detection pump code first though) And then take it in for a WOF and go cruising. I've driven it up and down the country road I'm on a couple of times for a total of about 40km. By golly gosh it's fast and quiet and smooth and comfy and nice to drive. Should of bought one years ago.

Those are good compression results. Rocker cover leaks (amongst many other oil leaks) are common on this engine so replace and clean the engine and look for further leaks. Also valve stem seals WILL fail on this engine. Basically the tldr was; Engine overheated and the cooling system leaked into the transmission. Removed trans, disasembled, cleaned and reassembled and put back in car. Milkshake was still there and it turned out the headgasket had died at the same time the trans had milkshaked. Replaced head and all associated stuff like chain and guides and headbolts etc. Car ran perfect for 150kms then a valve spring snapped and lunched the engine.

Long time no update... some info in the 'Today' thread but... Failed a warrant (expected) because of RHS rear wheel bearing and cracked front fog light. Also got an advisory for leaking front shocks (hey, they were free!). Purchased and installed black blanking plates for the fogs, no more crack. Purchased 2 front and 2 rear OE M3 Sachs shocks. Purchased two OEM (Meyle HD) rear wheel bearings and put them in the freezer. First I had to free the axle stubs from the hubs and remove the rotors... not a recommended method because your rotors could explode (see YouTube), but the only way I had... and it nailed both. Keep the lug bolts in loosely so steel doesn't fly everywhere. Then I had all sorts of drama getting the rear hubs off until I purchased a slide hammer hub puller... then the job took 2 mins for both sides. $119, almost certainly won't last a lifetime but that doesn't concern me in the slightest. Then I couldn't remove the half shafts from the diff so took the RHS arm off. As it turns out you don't need to remove the whole arm, if you undo the upper and lower control arms you can pivot the spindle and free the axle without removing the whole arm. If you mark the position of the camber bolt then this method is WAY easier than either removing the arm or removing the axle. In fact I can't understand why you'd ever bother removing the axle now that I know this method (edit: perhaps if your RTAB is really stiff). Anyway, new bearings in! Now to reassemble the rear end and then onto the front shocks. And a special thanks to @zero for popping around to give me a hand and keep me company!

There is a difference between facelift and pre, compression and engine management from memory at least.

He Trumped it!

M325IS with a cage in orewa today

make that beerS (fixt)

Bump Price drop $9500 ono

Steering wheel restoration by Andrew from FibreNew. Very pleased with the result. If you'd like work done in the Wellington area you can contact Andrew on [email protected] or 0274 500 526. Before... And after...

Well the weather sucks so I'm not getting under the bonnet today. But now I'm suspecting the head gasket is fine, not burning any water. And medium oil loss from what looks like the exhaust side of the rocker cover. Given the heat and angle, it probably leaks a bit and is the cause of the smell. But it starts fine, runs fine, doesn't overheat, only warning light is overdue service, and has what I suspect is pretty standard around town fuel, averaging around 10L/100k. Gave it a dry wof run, only faults are delamination on a tyre, dodgy looking power steering hose and an indicator light. Quietly hopeful to have this girl on the road for a total cost of well under trademe prices. God damn I love the aggressive lines down the sides.

Front end suspension overhaul all done. Drives alot better and not too crashy with the lowering springs. I lowered the rear using inpa to tune the air bag heights. Started off reading around 615mm (measured from bottom of rim lip to wheel arch) and ended up at around 585mm. M sport rear suspension with 18” wheels is 589mm stock. Fitted the staggered M Pars and got a much needed wheel alignment. Before : After :

^ Yes, add beer.

Took the M5 for a drive this afternoon. Check engine light is on ?, but no error messages and the car is running great. In to see Jon at Auto38 on Tuesday.

Photo of the ECU / DME. 3 of the pins have corroded off. The old coolant up the loom all the way from the thermostat trick.