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Did some cosmetic work to the car today, first step was debadging it. Took all of 2 mins to do. Can't see it in the OP photos as it was added later, but had a 116d badge on it presumably "for the lols". Looks much cleaner without it. It also had these hideous eyebrows on it, they took much longer to remove and then the glue residue was worse ? Came out alright in the end, looks way better? Will need a headlight polish and UV coat reapplied now. Car is booked in for exhaust back box swap this week, it's all coming together nicely.

Started this job Friday and an easy pace over the weekend plus I’ll need another weekend to finish (won’t be this weekend as the BMW Festival is on at Hampton).. Anyway the dreaded the E60 leaky alternator bracket seal saga plus much much more! The oil drips on the ground were bugging me so when I had to have a wof and airbag sensor replaced I had the dealer look at the cause. Dealer quoted 30 hours and about $4.5k to replace the alternator bracket seal, plus replace a weeping timing cover gasket, plus do vanos seals and valve cover gaskets while there. Checking in with the Alpina B5 forum and researching the solutions on-line I’ll do it myself thanks. Of particular note every where I read was take your time and not rush. Sourced all the necessary parts through the dealer and with my BMW club discount was much in it with os prices. On the surface things look so pretty and clean.. The major differences with getting to the alternator and top-end with the B5 vs say the 545i is the supercharger and oil cooler. I started at the top removing covers and extracting the supercharger. And as seems to be the case with me I like to check and clean as I go.. Oil passing the seal in the supercharger can be a problem for (Alpina anyway) superchargers. Some oil is normal as the CCV feeds into the charger after the vane. A good check is at the bottom of the intercooler and how much oil has collected. Thankfully there was nothing out of the ordinary. Another cause can be that the CCV diaphragms perish over time. The breather hose was pretty wet so I replaced both diaphragms. The sc bracket also has to come out to get to the alternator and the LH timing chain cover. An oil feed to the sc passes through the bracket. Moving to the bottom of the engine and having removed covers first thing is to move power steering pump and swing out of the way. This does require emptying the reservoir and releasing the supply hose. From there you have access to the alternator. Make sure you remove battery terminal before attempting to detach the electrical connector and power cable to the alternator ?. Getting the alternator out is a bit of a juggle given it’s weight and clearing oil pipes and suspension bushes and sway bar but turning it to different positions got it out. Then to the toughest part.. the alternator bracket which just happens to have engine mount arm sitting on it and bolts passing through! I should have removed oil cooler first and swung it out of the way which would have made getting to the front 2 torx bolts much easier. To get to the rear bolts you need to go through the wheel well. All bolts need a combination of swivels and extensions to get them off. Seal had definitely hardened and obviously leaking. Next steps will be to put the bottom end back together then replace valve and timing cover gaskets plus vanos seals and sc bracket seals. Plus replace spark plugs while I’m there. Anything else I should do?

Introducing my newly acquired E82 135I ? Very happy to be back in a BMW, my last E46 was written off by a drunk driver a couple of years ago ? I straight-swapped for my manual MK5 GTI. My plans include an intake/inter-cooler upgrade, 3' cat-less exhaust, stage 2 tune etc. Here's a couple of pictures ?

In the end I bought Aaron's Montreal Blue e36 328i. Really well looked after car and lovely to drive, a credit to the previous owners.

Selling on behalf of my sister who has owned for the last 2 years. This is her 1998 328i coupe in Montreal Blue. Full factory M-Sport package with partial leather seats. Currently at 142Km. This car has only had enthusiasts as owners, shown by the massive folder full of service history and it's overall condition. Door cards and headliner recovered in the last 2 years. The only non factory extras include an alarm with immobiliser, a bluetooth headunit and tinted windows. Even has factory PDC! Plate will be included in the sale, current WOF and Registration. 5,500.00 ono PM me if you are interested.

Sparks should be easy enough to reach. Did them in my M5 just removing the covers as you mentioned.

Condensed view not working for me either. Has been like this for a week or so since I noticed.

Wow, that actually seems worse than working on my mates late model Cayenne Turbo and that's a bitch! Pop your engine brace in here: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/50444-official-tools-for-hire-thread/ Nice work BTW!

You're welcome x2 (recommendation to check it out and previous owner) ?

Yup 2.0 FSI. Making a catch can to hopefully reduce the intake garbage. The inside of the plenum is pretty wet with oily residue. Turned a paint can with some JB weld and old BMW quick connectors into a chur bro catch can mod The top one ain't going to be a breather but sealed with a dip stick in it haha Going to have a tyre valve on the bottom as a drain valve. Using an old BMW filter in it to help stop the oil

2000+ km of road trips stuck on the old girl over the christmas break, didnt miss a beat, went up and down old taupo road a few times, even got a clean run over the saddle road in manawatu... so much fun. We are on track to knock off 300,000km on the odo this year, and it'll finally be broken in.

I went with the sedan because I couldn’t find a touring that a) was reasonably priced for diesel and b) came without X-Drive which I didn’t want. Although on a recent trip to Bunnings I did miss the extra cargo space and thought I should have not been so cheap.

Great work and pictures - very satisfying job I'd expect, as you say, just take your time...

Very nice review thanks @TermiPeteNZ. I agree with a lot of your points. I've turned stop/start off in mine, the torque is just awesome (mine's a diesel) and I honestly don't think I'd need more performance. I'd have loved a 340i touring (mainly for the sound and quicker to warm up) but it wasn't worth an extra 20k!

Tempted!

Saw yours on the sales forum, was a beaut and priced well too. Got excited until I saw it was sold and driving away.

What does your valve cover gasket look like? That looks like the o-ring for spark plug holes on the valve cover gasket.

Just got my first BMW. So glad to see there's an active community in NZ. I know nothing about them so will be asking for help at some point. Cheers. Bill

There are a few options out there ranging in price. If money is not an object I would get the flaming river one. I made my own using parts from the e46 and the Holden Barina. More info at this link; https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/Corsa_Steering_Linkage

Good day, Hope all of you are having a great day so far! My name is Marco and as the title states am I a new member and new to BMW. Took delivery of my BMW 130i yesterday. Always loved these cars especially the deep purring sound, to be honest the main reason I bought it . Would like to expand my knowledge on these cars and BMW in general as I come from a Mazdaspeed (MPS) background. Hope to meet some of you soon. Will add some pics soon, car was too dirty to do photo's any justice. Here is a sneak peak! As promised a few pics of the new family member! And after a few days of ownership realised it had a leak, looks like it might be the windscreen washer pump/tank from a bit of research on the net. Really enjoying this little pocket rocket.

Dom Thanks for that, I was pretty settled on stage 3 but couldn't find enough info on the daily driving experience in D. I like the throttle blipping for dons shifts form a purely boyish perspective. The no upshift in manual is also excellent and it seems funny but my old BF XR6 with a ZF transmission had that stock and it was very useful for press on driving. I might however have to retrofit paddles.