Leaderboard

Hi there, New member here, Christchurch based, first ever BMW and a realization of a dream of sorts. Been on the lookout for a good honest straight-6 3-series for a while and ended up snapping up this tidy 2003 (2002/05 produced) 325ci, full leather M Sport. Have been in love with it since, but definitely needs a decent amount of love to get up to standard. Came with comprehensive service history up to about 4 years ago, but didn't get any records from the previous owner, who'd had it for 3-4 years and having now spent some time under the hood, I see that a lot of preventative maintenance is long overdue, which I will be trying to address in the coming weeks and months. This is the first car that I've owned that I'm in the position to keep long term, and being an unapologetic perfectionist that I am, I really want to take as good a care of it as possible, with close to no expenses spared. I haven't done any major mechanical work on cars up to this point, but am generally good with tools and with the increasing amount of resources widely available on places such as this board and YouTube, I reckon the E46 is a perfect platform to learn, and I'm really keen to start going deeper down the rabbit hole. So far I've replaced the valve cover gasket and both front headlights and indicators, with the old ones being absolutely molested in order to facilitate some cheap sh*t LED "angel eyes", which is a whole catastrophic story for another day. I yesterday received my 3 big packages from FCP Euro with close to $2k worth of maintenance parts and am also waiting on a VANOS rebuild kit to arrive in order to get properly stuck in. The immediate plan: Cooling system refresh (expansion tank, auto trans thermostat, all radiator hoses) Oil filter housing gasket Replace auxiliary and clutch fan with electric fan (as seen on the manual models) Replace all belts, pulleys, tensioners and water pump Rebuild VANOS with new seals, bearing washers, gaskets and give it a good clean (was a bit shocked by the state of it whilst changing the valve cover gasket, but didn't want to take it apart without having the necessary parts on hand) Further down the line: Replace CCV/PCV system DISA valve Whatever other issues will inevitably crop up in the process Lower priority objectives: Get some kind of AUX solution sorted (current CD player is not AUX compatible but don't quite feel like abandoning the original look yet, waiting on a compatible head unit to become available, although patience is wearing thin with the current FM transmitter approach) Re-glue the A, C and possibly B pillars Doing up the paintwork - see how far a decent cut & polish would get me Other aesthetic stuff like getting the banged up front bumper resprayed, black out grilles and replace faded hood emblem Get a set of 18" wheels on to fill the fenders a little better, not a huge fan of the current style 68's That's about it for now. Wasn't sure whether to post it here or in the Projects section, but seeing as I'm mostly going to be addressing maintenance items and not any serious mods or rebuilds, I thought I'd just say hello and have the thread moved later on if need be. But anyway, happy to be part of the Bimmer fam, looking forward to getting stuck in and learning from folks on here! Will try not to repeat problems addressed in older topics, but would definitely welcome all tips, advice, warnings, cautions and criticisms Cheers

One sold in the UK a while back for more than £60K. Only had around 15K miles on the clock though. But it is silly for what is just an E30 with some nice clothes. Glad I had fun in the E30's while the prices allowed you to have fun in them. If your E30 sits in the garage you're doing it wrong. (Unless it doesn't go. Jon.)

There is a statutory declaration form which you need to get signed off by a JOP then the plates will be entitled to your name. You need to send this to licensys. Not vtnz, nzta, or kiwiplates. You can do this if you own the car the plates are on and it has been over 30 days. after that you can just go to a VTNZ and go fill out a form for replacement plates to standard govt issue in order to sell your car. $25~ then you do another of the same form when you want to replace the plates on your new car with the personalised plates. $5~ you don’t need to do the stat declaration and still move the plates around your cars but you can’t get it remade unless it’s in your name.

form attached. you normally get it by emailing the staff at licensys. Statutory declaration.pdf

Here you go Andrew: https://kiwiplates.nz/more-info/important-forms/

Today I worked on a couple of smaller items: 1. Steel Wheels water-blasted my old steel wheels, if only to make them cleaner for handling. 2. Alloy Wheels no's 5 & 6 Washed, Scrubbed, and water-blasted the two additional alloys. They'll need dressing, as they are corroded inside the barrels. I figured I'd need more paint, so I went to the paint shop to buy etch primer, more primer surfacer, and more colour. They suggested I visit the sand blasters, and pay to have them stripped. One of them needs welding, so they'll go to the wheel repairers next week. I don't expect to complete in time for E30 Mega Meet Additional basket weaves getting the green snotty kiwi wheel cleaner treatment before water blasting. "Here we go again". "Will the circle be unbroken". Detail shot showing gash on the inner rim, and some of the lighter corrosion. Rim Repair specialists next week, after sand blasting. 3. Rocker Cover Breather Hose My christmas present arrived from Germany. p/n 11151727851 So I fitted it. 1/4" drive set a boon, here. The old one was completely baked, 30 years of temperature cycling. 'ere's the new one fitted. Nice supple rubber; the old one was essentially thermosetting plastic. Viewed from above (from left side of motor, front of car to left) - Breather clip is closest to bottom of frame. It's a bit bloody tight in there. You get the idea. I may have over-tightened it.

I saw you driving this today. Looked good! GLWS

Well for $250 you can get it repaired professionally and that's less than the retail cost. Unfortunately you're going to need to chalk this one up to experience, as AJ says you can't reverse into the van, regardless of its speed. It would be a different story if the van hit you but in this case you hit it and are at fault. Since you're at fault and they're offering a 50% discount I'd take option 2 and run. But before doing so get explicit confirmation that the van driver has actually denied liability and it's not just a matter of the insurance company or your broker trying to be expedient. After the claim is settled move insurance companies to one that will NEVER touch your premiums if you have a no-fault claim, that's BS.

Great looking car! Thanks for the pics on the underbonnet and fuel gasket - both on my list too

It was quite an experience. And there is still one of my plates out there somewhere.

Date: 21 Nov 2019 Distance: 260672kms More items off of the list today. Less than 2 weeks to e30 Mega Meet. 1. Pinch Bolt for Power Steering Reservoir This had been missing since before I bought her. My sincere thanks to Jon at Auto38 for letting me scrounge through his spare fasteners (from dismantled/parted out vehicles). I found the appropriate 10mm bolt and secured the PS Reservoir. No more Cry Freedom for you, Mr Reservoir! 2. 14" Basket Weaves installation They weren't as straight as expected. We opted to move the tyres across, and see how they'd balance up. In some cases it was the old 'chasing 5g around the world' game. They look terrific, really giving the car a boost. Here's some 'leg shots'. Something's up here... (Steelies to be cast out) Left front brake detail (Zimmermann Sport z-coat rotor) Right front brake detail (Zimmermann Sport z-coat rotor) Even the paint shop guys were impressed. I also installed the security bolts I sourced last year, to (hopefully) ensure the wheels stay on the car. 3. Dash mat Keren at Auto38 was right. My dashboard was letting the side down. It was an easy decision to say "yes please" to one of their smart black dashboard mats, and reasonably priced too it was. Smartens things up. 4. Stereo Installation I went to Streetsoundz, I was short on time yet high on expectations of quality. Krishna and his team certainly delivered. As supporters of the BMW Car Club NZ, I was keen to experience their quality and service. It was also unknown territory, as I'm a former technician and would normally have done this myself. I was not disappointed, and very impressed with the care taken. I've got more setting up to do. There are so many options on this deck it's mind-blowing. Also need to get that faceplate colour 'just right'. The proper hands-free is exceptional, as is the bluetooth integration with 'hey Siri' etc. Kenwood's KMM-BT305 Head Unit (playing one of my Spotify playlists) This was Audio Stage 1: simple replacement with a mechless head unit. I now have cool (modern) sh!t like bluetooth handsfree and Spotify. Tomorrow I'll try it with .wav files from my NAS. The amps and sub, and power distribution to go with it, will wait for now. And a decision on whether to revert to Cassettes with mods (eg pre-outs and line in). 5. Oil Change with Filter This time a Hengst filter (Hengst E88H D24); the last was a Mahle (OX91). 4 litres of Penrite HPR5, with 75mls of MBL8. Trusty drain pan, Orsome Orange gloves, MBL8, old filter Mahle filter detail (old, though just 1200kms) Hengst filter detail (new) 6. More Wheels Two more basket-weaves to refurbish, as I should have more-thoroughly checked the state of mine before I stripped and painted them. I should have had them straightened first. Oh well, live and learn. I went to Union Hardware and had more of my Wheel Silver made up, and picked up more primer-surfacer, U-pol Clear Coat, and two grades of Scotch-Brite. Tomorrow: Stripping down two more wheels and painting them Reset service indicator Sound deadening under rear parcel shelf Parcel shelf & rear speakers Clean HT lead connections Investigate remote mirrors not working Next week: clutch master cylinder replacement MBL8 in gearbox More 80's than a Razor Cut, Winkle-Picker Boots, and a copy of Power Corruption and Lies.

330 km for a nearly 30 yr old car is only 11000 ks a year .A well looked after car will be exactly like this one.The mileage becomes almost irelevant as everything that wears is replaced

congrats on the WoF and Rego, mate!

was up for $40k around 6 months ago, I thought at the time massively overpriced (although its near enough a perfect example by the look of the pics), at $35k looks to be a good buy now based on what I've seen 325iMs go for recently , just don't have 35k spare unfortunately

Brilliant choice of BMW to get into the brand, and a lovely example too! Keep the updates coming. You should replace that nasty (probably faded) m badge on the back with a nice 325ci badge too.

Date: 20 Nov 2019 Distance: 260610kms More items off of the list today. Less than 2 weeks to e30 Mega Meet. 1. Driver's door wind roar Oooh, this has been somewhat annoying. My sincere thanks to @Autoglym for working his magic with the errr rubber, and fixing the wind-roar. I've not had it above 90 yet (peak traffic motorway etc), though noticed even at 60 it's much quieter. Thank f#%k for that! 4 hours of it was a scary prospect. 2. Underbonnet foams At last. A couple of old bedsheets/duvet covers, gloves, plastic chisels, rags, IPA, and citrus degreaser. A sharp knife, and of course your replacement foams. And a good mate to while away the time, trying not to laugh to much with the fumes from IPA releasing old glue! Thanks @Autoglym ?! 1. Starting position. Thirty year old foams looking rather dead. 2. Duvet drop sheet catching crusty old foam. This is the easy part. 3. What a mess 4. We changed drop cloths, soaked the residue with the citrus degreaser, and scraped and wiped. Then followed up with the IPA. Removed the now very flammable drop cloth. 5. Washed, water blasted, and dried with the air-blower. 6. Happy Ending. 6a. A selection of bulk commercial cleaning products. Other things I've painted the new parcel shelf (vinyl dye). I brushed it (per the instructions). It clumped. Oh well, re-upholster in future. I've painted the rear speakers (vinyl dye). Tomorrow: wheels parcel shelf & rear speakers possibly stereo Next week: clutch master cylinder oil and filter, and more MBL8 MBL8 in gearbox POSTSCRIPT: These are the plastic chisels that @Autoglym has for this job. They're well worthwhile.

Awesome work!

Gotta love new members that take great pics! Props and welcome good sir.

This was on Discovery Turbo last weekend, worth a watch - it'll probably pop up again on the same channel some time soon. Still prefer Ed though.

Great Success! Certifier was really happy with car and has passed it. Only had a couple of comments, one being that the ride is terrible. I couldn't agree with him more, the springs that were supplied have a spring rate 11kg/mm... That's a stupid amount and would ideally be ~7-8kg/mm. I went with a particular supplier of XYZ suspension after seeing reviews of how good this company was with setting up the spring rates for the E30. After the drama with this supplier of having the perches and springs rub and write off the tyres, waiting literally 7 months to receive a valid NDT report and now this, I might try to find another party that could supply me with the springs that are suitable. Secondly, the MAF support bracket. I had gashed up a bracket in the shed just to get through the cert process. I managed to convince him of my elaborate plans of boring out an E34 (similar to below) or E36 airbox to make a discrete cold air box. This way I'll retain the OE look of the engine compartment, which as this project has progressed, has become quite important. Massive relief as most of you on here know. Cert can be pretty stressful as the huge anomaly is the certifier themselves and the way certain things are interpreted. I've heard of people having to weld in the aluminium spacers on the power steering rack conversions, having to have engineers reports for suspension geometry, having to install 2x driveshaft hoops vs 1 etc so I feel I got off pretty lightly. My best advice (@Kobra) would be to have a talk to your chosen certifier and make sure you're on the same page and that you know exactly what he wants to see. An awesome site is the LVVTA Forum. The professionals there were answering my pesty questions within 24 hrs. So where to from here? Approached Wife on selling to fund my dream. Swift negative. Means I get to enjoy the work I've done now that its road legal I guess. I'll keep posting random updates for sure. But mainly... Replace leaky heater core Find suitable front springs with the correct spring rate Skid plate to prevent the sump from accumulating more scrapes I'd love to find some sport seats in terrible condition and reupholster Colour match basketweaves to centre caps Paint? Not very motivated after the work involved on Dad's ute ? Wife mentioned retrofitting aircon. Not happening. Radiator research, basically see whats the biggest OE radiator that fits Figure a way to use the OE oil cooler I've found. Preferably S52 oil filter housing Intake ✌️

yeah sorry guys I provided a link through youtube though it seems you need a geo-unblocker to view. ExpressVPN is pretty good... YMMV. Wheeler Dealers still fun, though you can see why Edd left... and you can see why Mike's production company needed changes. it's a bit dumbed-down, and though the recipe is the same, it's a different couple of ingredients and it's baked in a different oven, so the cake's turned out a little different too.

Just saw 'MHW' tail lights advertised at $2400 AU. WTF? Many E30s aren't worth that!

You can have one of mine for $200, I was going to do both cars but can't be arsed with the e30. Much easier on the E36

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.

Wrong colour for me mate, I always lusted after a Dolphin Grey 325i Sport as a young man. Would settle for black as well though. The DP at BMW Hamilton has a gorgeous red one as well, low kms and immaculate. @C-130 Hercules how about you get this white one, and I buy your Meister? ??

I'm not allowed this time sorry.