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Last week's maintenance update: 2002 E46 325i Touring. 192080kms. New front tyres. Same as last time, Bridgestone Potenza RE003 in 225/45R17. On special this month, buy a pair, 25% off. Under $400, result. Headlight lens treatment, @Autoglym does the business. Last time I did this I used one of those kits, masking, wet sanding with progressive grades of grit, then polishing with a drill, and some UV sealant afterwards. If you've got crusty old faded lenses, get Barry to sort them out for you quickly and efficiently. New WoF. Yes, f#%k VTNZ, no more money for them. As promised, after my last VTNZ experience, three of my vehicles have already gone to an independent. A Barry's Garage wash and vac, and under bonnet detail. Sparkly sparkle! Bloody luxury for me, I can tell you ?. e46 Touring LCI headlight detail (photo credit @Autoglym) e46 Touring LCI headlight detail (photo credit @Autoglym) e46 Touring LCI - sparkly M54B25 (photo credit @Autoglym) e46 Touring LCI with added shine. Yes, she's carrying some battle scars. 7.5 years of tree sap, stone chips from touring, supermarket carparks, freindly neighbours, and family wagon duties will do that. We've had this car 7.5 years now, and still enjoying it. Yes we've spent plenty on it, though money we spend each year keeps it in good reliable and safe operation, and we avoid a $20k-plus spend on a replacement X3 or similar. This year it's had the VANOS done along with oil filter housing gasket, valve cover gasket and seals, and the handbrake replaced. It's the second time for the valve cover seals and oil filter housing gasket, they were last done 7 years ago. The VANOS seals (Beisan Systems) has improved drivability and smoothness, lower-RPM responsiveness/willingness is restored. Today the e46 will be pulling duty as workhorse, lugging end of life IT kit (printer, iMac, 3 laptops) to the recycling centre, and part of our kitchen to the tip. Yesterday's fun was demoing a couple of cupboards to make room for a new fridge and freezer. It's fun to drive, and still utilitarian being a wagon; versatile transport. I've ordered a pair of wiper blades (around 12 months per set, I find) and a couple of new grilles, as the current ones have been hanging in there by the skin of their teeth for some time. I still really dig this car. e46 lyf. wagon lyf. Two for the price of one!

Completed a Bluetooth install on all three BMW's today. Bought a later Business CD radio for both the e46 and e39 530 (doing away with the cassette) and three Bluetooth adaptors off ebay. No steering wheel controls but that's OK for meantime, sound is great. Had to scratch around for a switched 12v supply handy on the M5 and used the torch supply in the glovebox. If anyone wants the old cassette radios for both e46 and e39 then free to any home...

Hey team So managed to get some more work done over the weekend. Got the front timing covers on, valve covers finally cleaned and painted, dropped my flywheel and clutch set up along with a mates to MP auto hopefully Greg and his team can make a custom setup to handle the supercharger and my mates drifting abuse. Also toyed around with the idea of flipping the supercharger upside down. Austin mentioned that the AMG guys have trouble with heat soak due to intercooler sitting in the valley pan area. It actually could work, now top mount intercooler, cut off AMG intakes and fab up a custom intake plenums to connect straight from the intercooler outlets which would solve the adapter plate issue which wasn't going to be cheap to machine up and the R&D to figure dimensions was going to be hard too.

Excepting the meetings when they want to push through something controversial in a hurry... Those ones are closed.

Finished cleaning up the headliner, it didn't take long but it was a pretty boring job none-the-less - clockwise order. Now just need to drop it off for my trim guy to do. Also compression tested the M54, and all 6 cylinders are 145-155 psi - note that the compression tester may be questionable - the results being in the same range is what's important here. As a result, I started ordering parts to catch up on some maintenance (read: OIL LEAKS and cooling system) before it is moved into the E36.

Agreed on grounding kit. Causing no harm leaving it in there as long as you stop it melting. Also probably causing no benefit leaving it in there too though. Very common on jap import stuff.

exception? Hastings they didn't want the mayors proposed new 30 odd million water museum to get out in the public before election and when it was leaked 10 days before the election they are now hiring investigators again using public money to try and find the leaker. Public reaction has been complete shock at the waste of money for a, the museum and b, the investigation. They always seem to have illusions of grandeur and try to build suspect cost effective things as some sort of personal monument instead of sticking to their knitting of running the place efficiently. thank god for whistleblowers, the council are a law unto themselves and disregard public with impunity. look at the mess wellington is in, theres no way they are acting in the publics interests regarding the gridlocked roads

Looks like a home made earthing kit, supposed to eliminate any poor earths in the factory wiring, pretty much pointless on an E39 assuming the original wiring is ok. I would be pulling it all out.

I should have looked closer lol. Too busy multitasking with Bathurst.

exactly, I don't know about other council's but Auckland has a lot of "closed door meetings" .

Been using them for 4 or 5 years now ?

Stickers stuck, clearcoated, and some new hardware on the 6 pot bananas.

Yeah got one on the way, removed the inner trim on Thursday night to confirm it was the carrier. Doesn't look too hard to do thankfully so will get that sorted. I've got 2018 version of INPA, probably should scan it and see if it comes up with anything, just been too busy lately to spend time sorting it lol. Yes was thinking that's what it is, a few times I've unlocked it and wiggled the bonnet sensor and it's behaved itself afterwards so will unplug it for now and see it that stops the alarm. Other than that, oil, air and fuel filters have been ordered, oil purchased, new wiper blades and headlight bulbs sorted, so just about ready to rock when I get a day to spend on it.

Hey Team so finally got some time to get on to this wagons dry sump motor. Gave the short block and heads a good final clean and quite chuffed on how it turned out. Also managed to get the heads torqued down with new gasket and head bolts thanks to @francoisv hope to have the rest of it done by next weekend.