Leaderboard

https://www.bmw-m.com/en/topics/magazine-article-pool/the-first-bmw-m3-touring.html

Have to call you on that one. 5m masks released from central repository yesterday, all rest homes locked down and no staff movement between them, 16 new fixed and mobile testing stations in the last 24h fully staffed with trained teams, 9 effective roadblocks sealing a city. All of that is an improvement and in many cases they've hit the right standards. Perfect? No. Better? Yes.

This is Barry's @Autoglym “Mini-Me”. Why Mini-Me? It’s the little version of his fabulous Zinnoberrot e28 ///M535i! See the likeness? Mini-Me: Tuesday 11 August, 2020 e28 ///M535i - August 2017 (unmistakeable likeness) The short story is it’s done ~250k kms, originally from Wangvegas. It was found in a quiet garage, off the beaten track. A very tidy car, feels like the rear seat has barely been sat in. There are the minor dents and dings of a 30+ year old e30. It’s running a very slick M42 installation that's had new rings and bearings, and it idles beautifully and goes well. There's a carefully-built compact header setup that clears the steering and meets with the standard M40 exhaust. Mini-Me currently runs an auto, and has disc rear end from factory. Plans are to tidy it up, perhaps a manual conversion, windscreen, and get it certed. And then enjoy Mini-Me for fun and shows. e30 Mega Meet, here we come! First job: A good go over with Auto Glym and a little elbow grease… Rinse and Bodywork Shampoo to start, with a quick blow-off Auto Glym Clay bar kit, Auto Glym Bodywork Shampoo (briefly), Followed by Auto Glym Super Resin Polish, Auto Glym Clean Wheels, Auto Glym Bumper & Trim Gel, Auto Glym Bumper & Trim Detailer, ... and then finished off with Auto Glym Instant Tyre Shine. Beautiful! You might have guessed, Barry is Mr Auto Glym. Support your fellow Bimmersporter, you can find his products here: https://barrysgarage.co.nz/shop/autoglym-product-categories/ Plans are to tidy it up, perhaps a manual conversion, windscreen, and get it certed. And then enjoy Mini-Me for fun and shows. e30 Mega Meet, here we come! Some upholstery work is being scheduled, and other maintenance items are in the wind. Watch this space!

How many terrorists and gang members hold a FAL in NZ? How many firearms offences are committed by FAL holders yearly? How many firearms offences are committed by gang members yearly? Perhaps we can reflect on how licenced firearms owners must be one of the most law abiding segments of society. And how, just maybe, targeting them with more legislation and restrictions will change none of society's problems... Because they cause none of them.

Goddamnit, already had to cancel a trip to Italy scheduled during the previous lockdown and have booked a 10 day South Island Road trip first week of September... First world problems huh

yep, VANOS seals and stuff done by Auto 38 last year, restored responsiveness and smoothness below 3500rpm, absolutely stoked. Got better over a couple of weeks as the seals bedded in. I reckon the bizarre fuel adaptations idea makes sense, though we didn't look specificially. One of the O2 sensors threw a code, so figured better to replace all four and get it right. Bosch parts.

Took the wheels off the 135i for a deep clean (over a couple of lunchtimes admittedly!) Before and after. My weapons of choice are meguiars wheel brightener and a pot scrubbing pad....

Nissan EV owners will be understandably concerned. Demure car previously unable to pull the skin off a rice pudding now associated with skid marks.

First post on this site, Thanks for letting me join!! Pic is of my E46 M3

One of the great things about this car, is Jim the previous owner, fully reconditioned the M42 motor, made his own, very nice extractors, was his daily for years Its a very solid, honest example, no rust & a blast to drive,even my wife loves it!! She has a E46 330 Motorsport convertible!!

Nice! I really need to do something like this too. My car just has the base audio - no amp, no tweeters - and it is terrible! The install instructions for the factory Alpine upgrade kit can be found online and it is pretty informative about where all the wires go to splice that into the factory wiring, if you still need to refer to something. Looks like you've got it pretty under control though!

I know, I'm being a little glib there with the batch thing. Totally agree, we are in a very different position with COVID...but I don't have any doubt the outcome would have been the same as the US, UK or similar to what is now being seen in VIC and NSW if we had gone the same way. UK and US being severe examples, Brazil and India being totally extreme. Where NZ is very different is that the ICU capacity is alarmingly small...I work around the health sector here and the genuine sense of relief that ICUs were not swamped (and the extra deaths caused by lack of ICU spaces, heart attacks etc etc) was palpable. I do have sympathy for destroyed businesses and livelihoods....but there is some confidence that many thousands of lives have been saved. I for one am glad I'm not the person/people who have to put dollars on one side of the scale and human lives on the other.

Ah well done! I knew this wouldn't last long when I saw it come up. Glad it's landed on its feet!

Little baby class D amp sits in there pretty good, tracing all the factory wiring to subs is a bit of a headscratcher... had to remove car to do it.

The first time I took my my 330i out after I did the vanos seals (fun little job and a good opportunity to replace the brittle valve cover gasket which literally snapped apart), I could not believe the change it made. The instant response from the first twitch of the foot blew me away. I understand that the seals fail as soon as 35k in many vehicles, so many owners probably never experienced the way they were suppose to drive. I only ever needed to replace the pre-cat O2 sensors on my M54 as I had a failure on one. The post cats are used only for emissions related ULEV (or whatever) stuff and are not directly used to adjust the fuelling so cannot result in any drive issues etc (but will cause codes to be logged if the cats are not working or something)... The O2 sensors outputs won't be considered on cold starts at all as the ECU will be in open loop...so depending on the start temperature and a couple of other factors you may still get that increased initial revs (as there is some cat warmup stuff , cold start enrichment etc etc) going on.

Here we are a week later. I am stunned at how much smoother my M54B25 is running after the O2 sensor replacement. It starts straight into idle, rather than an initial rev (the ECU, not me)... super-smooth idle.... and smoother through the lower rev-range (I've not been hooning it). Clocked over 195k kms this week. It's a joy to drive.

I've given this some thought and the issue is that for rich people to get richer, they don't want to sell produce at low prices to a local market, they want to export in insane quantities that we would never consume if they only had to serve NZ. Hence why NZ Avocados are 60 cents each in the UK (all year round) but $7 dollars here and never less than $3...when we can get them. Agreed, it's certainly a government issue, but it's the first challenge of exactly this type in the post WWII time frame...certainly in the 21st century. Our modern globalized society has no 'runbook' for dealing with this kind of thing. I was/am hoping it will be a catalyst for a new, fairer and more equal distribution of wealth, via something like a Universal Basic Income (so all people can have some basic financial security even in the face of issues like COVID), although it's looking less and less likely that will become a reality :(. Additionally, it's clear to me that the long term reliance on agricultural exports is not a safe position, as ultimately apart from relying on the 'NZ Quality' and 'Clean/healthy' selling points, pretty much any other country with the right conditions can produce meat and veg. China is always trying to establish illegal versions of Kiwi owned variets etc etc. The question for NZ is what is the future on the global stage? I feel like we seem to want to have it both ways, be a 'global player' but be a local little insular country at the edge of the world at the same time. I'm not certain both of those positions are compatible.

Date: 1 Aug 2020 Distance: 261421kms 1. Rear Brake Refresh This plan had been underway for about a year. Nick sourced the ideal rear trailing arms for a pre-prepped rebuild, and I collected these at e30 Mega Meet last year. What a guy! I ran short on time, and Jon at Auto38 stripped them down for me. They were media blasted, etched, and powder-coated, though this got caught up with Covid-19 lockdown. Shaun at Plateau Sand & Soda Blasting in Upper Hutt is excellent to deal with - recommended. I re-shaped (damage sustained in my boot on the way back), prepped, and painted the disc backing plates with good old Rustoleum (satin this time, to match the powder coating). I stripped and painted the calipers and carrier brackets as with the fronts last year, with VHT Caliper Paint. I plugged the holes/threads with polystyrene packaging noodles as I couldn't find the foam ear plugs! Brake parts painted with VHT Caliper paint, baking above an oil column heater. (paint run evident - the price I paid for rushing the job). Some parts, a few weeks back. New FAG wheel bearings, and new genuine BMW retainers, clips, bolts etc were used. Corteco outer brake hoses (OE), ATE parking brake hardware, Febi parking brake shoes, ATE caliper slider pins. Not Pictured: new slider boots, new caliper pistons, outer brake hoses. With all the parts in stock, Jon built up the new trailing arms during downtime. The project was planned to have the car on the hoist for the least amount of time. The danger in a workshop is for cars to be stuck on a hoist, awaiting parts though preventing other work from moving through! Lemforder rear trailing arm bushes were pressed in. (Photo Credit - Jon Begley) BMW spring pads/bump stops - replacing the thirty year-old items I'd overlooked last time. Eventually the trailing arm assemblies were ready to go, the job was booked into the workshop schedule. Ready to go (photo credit: Jon Begley) I arrived yesterday morning to find Doctor Jon had prepped the surgery ready and was ready to proceed. Surgeons tools organised ready for the operation (photo credit: meeee!) Just think about it. No time wasted on the job, working out which tools are needed. The surgeon knows the procedure, knows exactly what to expect, and which tool is to be used for each step, and prepares ahead of the operation. This is efficiency and professionalism. Jon rebuilt the callipers with new seal kits and pistons. Installation went pretty smoothly, in part due to the pre-build, and that the arms had only been out just over a year ago (for the new bushes). Brake Parts ready for assembly (photo credit: meeee) And when the patient was out of anaesthesia, rear brakes refreshed! Rotors match the front - Zimmermann Z-cote sport rotors, with Hawk Performance HPS pads. We've stuck with the existing axles. Patient in recovery (photo credit: Jon Begley) Verdict? I've only had a short drive home, so far. The pedal is much firmer. It's more like a (relatively) modern hot-hatch, than a thirty year-old tired car. It's better than my old VW A2 GTi 16v. The feel is improved tenfold over how it drove in. I'm looking forward to a longer drive to give the full rotor burn-in, and to get to know it better. I noted the rear suspension seemed a little quieter; I guess this is driving on supple spring pads rather than 30 year old hardened frisbees! Overall, this is another large step forward on my plan to iS replica/tribute. At home, subtlety personified (photo credit: meeee!) As ever, the best independent in the Wellington region for your BMW is Auto38 in Newtown. Big thanks to Nick, Barry, Shaun at Plateau, and Jon at Auto38 for helping realise this part of the dream! Next Steps: Get M42 onto Engine Stand Cluster - tacho Centre console - clock Driver's window - fix in regulator to address wind whistle wheel alignment (last done 259342kms) - it's over a year, and I think it's settled a little. 15" Basketweaves and tyres

So i notice comments allluding to him having a Youtube channel. With a little digging, i found it... He only finished the bodykit a few weeks ago, and is now selling it... odd choice. He would have had an easier time selling it beforehand.

Well, I am gonna get the ball rolling and take the piss in the Q&A.

Congrats? I guess.

If you’re going to criticize Firearms Legislation, or NZP, you should first understand the environment, existing laws and practice. Without this understanding, your opinions are little more than baseless rhetoric recycled from alarmist media.

There is no appeasing the anti gun lobby. Their misrepresentations, rhetoric and political stirring make it clear the end game is no guns. I think you have it backwards Dave- if the public is scared, then the public needs educating. One firearms owner was paid out $1,041,000 in the confiscation, how does that make anybody safer. What licensed firearms owner has ever committed a crime with one of those scary black guns? Tarrant, who by police's own criteria ought to have been denied, and that's it. Isn't it odd, an AR15 type rifle is used to kill a policeman, it has a serial number that means it belongs to NZDF, and nobody- not the police, not any politician keen to keep us "safe", not the media, nobody- wants to say a damn thing. It tells me there is an agenda.

The laws weren't perfect and were due for some loop hole corrections but they offered a fair balance for decades, the police failed to enforce them in this instance. People who are genuinely scared over firearm aesthetics aren't people who i consider rational or possess the knowledge to know anything on the subject besides what the media tells them, the same type people who equate what they see in the US and apply it to NZ. Id wager most owners have legitimate uses for a firearm, just because someone purpose doesn't align with their thinking doesn't mean it should be written off. Firearms related stats are a drop in a ocean but it's a easy group to target for a "win" when all the real issues are just too politically\financially difficult.

Actually that truth never came out either, the person that made all the claims about the gunman at the range in Dunedin fabricated everything......nothing he claimed actually happened except the gunman was a member of the club and had used the range. That person actually ended up on the wrong side of the law and ended up having his firearms license revoked from what I understand. If you look at history, Aramoana happened because the Police failed in their duty. The police diverted funding away from policing firearms policing and didn't remove David Greys firearms from him after he had threatened to kill a shop keeper. And Christchurch happened because the police had again diverted funding away from firearms policing and didn't follow due process before issuing the gunman his license. Yet the Police get off scott free in both cases and the firearms owners end up being persecuted with unnecessary law changes, and after the Christchurch massacre firearms owners were vilified by the politicians, the police, the media and the none firearms owning public due to the narrative from the media.

Actually that system was abandoned for lifetime licenses because they system had that many errors that it actually didn't work. The records kept were found to be something like 40% inaccurate before it was abandoned. Even with MSSA firearms being registered (prior to being made illegal and the buyback) the records were inaccurate, I know numerous people who had legally sold or purchased MSSA firearms that when the police came around to inspect them the police records were incorrect, luckily the owners had the paperwork to show that the police records were incorrect. This didn't only happen once I know of three people who had the same problem year after year, even after having corrected the police records the first year. Knowing that and that there were only about 20,000 registered firearms up until the Christchurch massacre, I don't know how they think they can get a database with not only 150,000+ firearms but also another 200,000+ firearms parts error free. Or how they think they can achieve that for under $100,000,000 when Canada couldn't achieve it for under 1 billion.

Rescued by Hellbm and given the 3 day makeover. Manual conversion Rear Dif mount Engine and gearbox mounts Front Shocks Steering wheel replacement Tighten various loose and missing bolts, clips etc Aftermarket tinted side markers replaced with OEM ones. Wheels replaced with Style 405 / Michelin Pilot Sport To do: Paint refresh Front bumper Clubsport Splitters.

On Saturday, I washed our e46 Touring. Shiny Shiny. After Auto Glym suds, and a do-off with Rapid Dry Towel. I also replaced the washer pump. Only it wasn't the pump, it was the filter that was completely snotted-up. There's more snot in the tank to deal with; I didn't have the tools to clean it. I rinsed it out, put the old pump back in and got it all going. Note to self: Using BMW Screen Wash exclusively since the pump was changed about 4 years ago was not the path to happiness I was assured of. Old pump out - temporarily, as it turns out. Same VDO/Continental part replaced. Just a 10mm socket and a couple of electrical connectors and a hose, easy removal. De-snotted pump inlet filter/grommet detail shot e46's strike the pose Today the e46 received it's rear O2 sensors, at Auto38 in Wellington. The fronts had been replaced approx six weeks ago; the rears deferred until manifold to front pipe gaskets, bolts, and nuts were available. It was a shitty job, exhaust off, and Jon had the oxy-acetylene set on the bolts to remove them. End result, car runs even smoother, at almost 195k kms. Still loving this car after 8 years and 3 months.

1st off im glad to say ive finally completed cic retrofit. Ive followed cic retrofit instructions from online,but came accross a few issues that wernt mentioned in retrofit diys. Since i had original ccc jap nav,i had to get a male/female gps extn cable from old gps arial cable in the boot all the way up to front of car to cic,also i didnt have money for fibreoptic loop isolator cause spent all on cic,so i had to trial and error on the fibre optic loop under rear cnr seat(a torch against old ccc fibre optic cable works a treat,showed which cable to disconnect from loop)after everything was connected,i had a lot of trouble programing fsc certs etc to enable nav after patching,i gave up after weeks trying to get nav to work,id basically tried everything,so i bought a emulator,but the emulator wont work because i had already patched the cic and virginized it,so i was back to square 1 again,i kept playing around with fstool2.exe and it connected to car,and because fstool2 connected i assumed programe was working correctly,but couldnt write fscs etc,so i thought it might be because cic/car vin conflicts,but after alot of trial error i found the issue was bad fstool2 car server i found carserver online and i could finally write fsc and sigs also i set vin with fstool2 didnt even need to use tool32 to change vin.ive attached a pdf i found online i hope the owner doesnt mind,helped me alot with fstool error dramas,it also has links to new carserver etc. hopefully some of this info helps for whoevers doing cic retrofits. BMW CIC PATCHER v2.pdf

Ended up getting an error (sorry forgot to take screenshot) “Module is unresponsive. Application will revert back” BUT! Fortunately I have a friend who kindly offered his DME, CAS and Key for me to test! After swapping my DME and CAS, car fired right up! I know this is taking a cheeky shortcut, but the opportunity came up. So it’s either the CAS or DME? Everything else in the car is the same. is there a chance it could be the CAS? Or is the fact the original key, unlocks ect... that it could be my original DME? obviously need to give back these items to my mate. Could the original DME be repaired locally in NZ or is it worth finding a used DME, CAS and key? cheers for your help! I’ll definitely be using INSTA D from now!

Yeah that sounds like PIN 8 Brent I'm going to go through all the fuses tonight to check I haven't popped the DME fuse or something dumb like that. Currently has no exhaust (headers only) so starting should be nice and neighbour friendly

Installed my GPS tracker yesterday and finishing it off later today, and currently modifying an M52 trim cover to fit over the custom fuel rail kerry made... not that its not a work of art or anything mate

22 deaths....the numbers speak for themselves. It's almost universally accepted that we have handled COVID-19 as well as humanly possible given the unknowns. Sure there have been issues, but when you set a high bar you are certain to have failures like this. When you don't really even try (like the US and the UK) you can effectively do no wrong. I'm pretty cheesed off my grandmother in the UK had to die at 72 (not a bad run admittedly) from COVID because the country is run by total fu*kwits these days...but hey ho I suppose some folks here in NZ couldn't go to their batches when they wanted to so were "put out"...

Yep money issues covid hasnt done me well ive worked through with my hours cut back by 30% so need to free up some money to get me through