Leaderboard

Today we decided to unwrap the X5. The wrap was applied to the car when new and is starting to come away. Paint underneath looks showroom new ? Paint is Mineral Silver Metallic A14

Picked up a pair of OEM style 193 for the e91 wagon. Been waiting for ages for them to pop up! They have 255s all round which fits nice but a bit too wide for my liking, going 225/40 all round since I have a spare set of potenza re050a run flats Will be going gunmetal after I deal to some light kurbage.

If you want a supercharged V8 from that Era you want an E55 AMG. Also half the price or less than the Alpina and keeping the "pros" of a supercharger, V8 and slushbox. More Availability of parts and massive potential for more power if you wish. Now old Alpinas like the E34 B10 Turbo. Yes please.

Fairly productive evening tonight. Got the oil and filter changed as well as plugs, air filter, cabin filters and windscreen seal. Plugs didn't look too bad but just idling in the garage I noticed a significant change in throttle response off idle. Enough that I'm convinced there is no placebo effect anyway! I filled it up with 100 plus from NPD prior as well. Not sure if I'll see any gains but I hadn't put any petrol in it since I got it so I have no idea what was in it. Hoping to get fuel filter done tomorrow, in hindsight I should have done that while I had the fuel light on ?‍♂️ Cylinders 3 and 4 had a bit of oil around them so looks like I'll be in for a new gasket in the not too distant future. Bit weird cos they were very recently replaced so maybe something got pinched. The history with the car only had 1 coil replacement recorded but looks like 5 have been replaced. While I was changing oil I pulled the undertray and had a good look around for sources of my leaks. There was more fluid than I hoped to see but the main source appears to be power steering. I trimmed the hoses down at the resovoir as there was an obvious leak there which was running down the hoses but I think the banjo seals are buggered so I'll probably add a line kit to my shopping list. It doesn't look like that will be much fun to replace... There is an oil leak on the front somewhere. I can see some out of the cam sensor on bank 2 but I don't think it's bad enough to explain the build up on the undertray. I've cleaned the undertray with degreaser so will pull it again in a month or so and see how bad it really is. I think rear main is also leaking but I have no intention of tackling that. Oil's cheap enough haha. The windscreen seal went in ok. Wasn't the easiest job but soapy water helped. Found it was a lot easier to position the glass side of the seal first then push it in. I'm also happy that the new seal covers the shitty masking line from the roof respray. Forgot to take a before photo but the rubber was probably 50% missing. Also fitted the center console box thing. The colour isn't a perfect match which was a bit of a disappointment but looks tidier than what I had. Also full transparency...my fix for the quarter window sunshade didn't hold up to my 3 year old daughter who was "supervising" from the back seat ? It at least has enough tension left in it that it will stay clipped in place so I can live with it for a while. And she now knows that Daddy's car is fragile.

Genuine bmw part. ABS plastic All damage has been repaired with epoxy resin. Bumper is strong, straight and would just need prep n painting. Comes with lower grid (have msport style also i’ll throw in), fog lights and trims. One of the fog lights lenses tends to fog up (funny that) but are both genuine bmw items and not the cruddy AliExpress ones. Looking for $300 pickup west Akl.

That’s a keeper.....

I had the wrap and having done the exploration on Blacklines I thought I'd have a go... they look awesome... ...from a distance! ? The first wrap I've ever done and it's a shocking job. The angles and creases in the lights are not suitable for a beginner to attempt. I had enough wrap for three lights so I had three goes, they got progressively better but at the rate of improvement I'd need to do another 20 to get it right. I realise you're not meant to wrap lights but these still work fine and they're no darker than the official Blacklines. These won't pass a warrant because the bubbles and creases in the tint are obvious but hey, I have two sets of lights. This is enough to convince me I need official Blacklines.

Update: Thank you all for your advice - really appreciate all the feedback! I'm going to order some ST-XA coilovers - while I probably don't really need damping adjustment, for another $300, might as well throw it in. KW made, twin tube dampers and more friendly spring rates sold me here (as compared to the Taiwanese offerings). I'm looking to be around 330mm hub to arch in the front and 320mm rear which is well within the tested TUV range. While I do love the idea of having KWs, talking to their support, the ST-XA product is the otherwise the same as KW V2 and paying $500+ for stainless front strut housings isn't worthwhile in Auckland IMO. @leichtbau Looks like I do have several options for spring rates - either a 50 n/mm front linear spring with a 20n/mm tender or a 60 n/mm front linear spring with a 20 n/mm tender. Rears are same progressive at around 84 n/mm (must be an approximation, being progressive). The non damping adjustable ST-X also offer a progressive front spring, utilising the factory upper perch. My current AP springs are 27n/mm front and 49 n/mm rear, so the 50n/mm should be noticeably stiffer without being overkill (BC and XYZ are both 8-10kg!). Attached photoshop-lowered pic of my car haha

count the turns , i have had green/yellow tag same as a purple tag

Aa is useful because it doesn't cover the car, it covers the driver. I have three cars, plus drive other cars from time to time, and it's good to know no matter what I'm driving I can be recovered without having to pay for it per car, or worry if the car I'm in that day has it.

If you can't afford to pay, you can't afford to play. In reality, the E60 Alpina on trademe is 2x the price of my old E60 M5 and my car was well sorted and had less mileage. There's no rational reason for it to be priced at 40 grand. The V10, and to a degree the gearbox is a game changer in the E60. There's very little like it out there. The V8 is just a boring old V8.

There is a guy on Facebook selling a Daytona Violet 1996 with 157km - Cloth M Rain interior. NZ New, service history - looks tidy and stock on DS1's / Style 22.

NZ has no appreciation for Alpina, would be an expensive indulgence, I have no doubt the drive would be damn good against the stand X3 though

Waterpumps will start throwing codes when they are on their way out so not usually a surprise moment. Lifters just need 3 mins at 3000rpm to bleed. Valvetronic motors and the seal need doing at some stage (cheap and easy) Rocket cover gaskets weep Coil packs will die (cheap and easy) But yeah get the 3ltr if you have the option. Purely because the 2.5 saves you nothing bar maybe some cash up front. I also feel you need to be pedantic with servicing. But that should be a BMW ownership thing anway.

The very early N52 engines had an issue with a cam ledge seal, which chewed up the cam carrier, and required a replacement head, many got fixed under warranty. Not really "rings and oiling" thing, it shows as goofy vanos behaviour due to the high oil flow and clever pump design that supplys oil based on load. Waterpumps do fail, they fail between 20,000 and 250,000km Its just one of those things, replacing them at xx km isnt really a thing, you might be replacing at 250,000km "rated" waterpump with a 20,000km one. Using genuine coolant is key to keeping them alive and happy, the pump is a brushless motor, the rotor is cooled/lubed/suspended in the coolant. Biggest difference between all the N52s is blacktop/silver tops. Blacktops are later engines, have a plastic rocker cover with built in CCV, silver tops are earlier and have magnesium rocker cover and external CCV. The magnesium ones corrode, the plastic ones crack . There is an old wives tail about silver tops having more power, they dont, the standards changed on BHP measurement and resulted in different numbers for the same thing. They all dont like idling around, and tappet noise is common with engines stuck to auto boxes that idle around in traffic. Lifters collapse and require bleeding - AKA as an italian tune up. All will develop oil leaks. Rocker covers and sumps are common, they just all do it. All in all, really reliable and clever engines.

kia ora bro ended up paying $3500 I've spent about an additional $2500 on rear suspension, hoses and engine (coils and spark plugs etc) plus tints and lowering springs, probably spent about $7500 all up

Great idea @HalfJobHarry

don't know how you do it, put so much effort and love into a project which some idiot could sideswipe on the first lap, watching races you kind of think these things are just expendable playtoys and for some I guess they are but after all that work I'd be too scared of bending it

I think you're obviously pretty good with a camera Sam but your car continues to impress me, it just looks timeless BMW, it's perfect.

Yes, but I have the baked in non-sub app so it costs me nothing more. I've coded heaps of stuff, hasn't blown up my FRM (yet!). It's obscenely overpriced on subscription, avoid. But if you're passing through Aucks I can plug in for you.

And the warranty even covers it. BMW dealer assured me non competitive track use is allowed for M cars. Scanned the fine print and didn't see anything that contradicts this ? Being able to track this without worrying about blowing another engine will be great! Think I do need to swap the pads though, apparently the standard pads are still a bit useless for the track. The manual mentions this too. This one has the steel brakes. I'm not rich enough for carbon ceramics, won't touch a car with them! Just shy of 30 000km, 2 year BMW warranty. Some good options including: Harmon Kardon sound system Heads up display Adaptive suspension LED headlights with High beam assist - got to test this last night in the Canterbury countryside, it's awesome being able to leave your high beams on and see the car blank out sections of the beam when other cars come into view. Sakhir Orange. But it does tend to look more red than orange. Will be keeping this one stock... I was struggling to find places where I could actually hold my foot down, and most of the time when I did I could see the traction control light flashing even up to 3rd gear in some places. I'm not getting why some people rush to tune these?! Have yet to try the MDM mode, don't want to light up tyres until I'm a little more used to it. Perfectly comfy on the crappy roads of Christchurch, you'd think it wasn't a sports car if you just drove it gently. And extremely sharp and stable when going at higher speeds on the back roads. Incredible suspension.