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G'dday, new member here who's taken the E60 M5 plunge just recently. The car is a 2008 BMW M5 and my focus will be bringing the car back to a factory look removing all of the BLACKKK stuff the previous owner/s have done.

It's a bit of a worry when another itch pops up and you haven't quite dealt with the present one... Things going for it - it's one of my favorite colours and it's NZ new... that's it...

215XXXkms Car was feeling a bit sluggish and had a bit of a rough idle that didn’t feel very BMW (esp with new engine mounts) and it had a delayed throttle response. All liveable but had a feeling something wasn’t quite right. Scanned it and it came up with - Current at 2 or more cylinders and all these DME cylinder activation codes + a misfire code on cylinder 3. did some googling and found a thread about the same codes on E46 fanatics. Seemed 1 person swapped new coils which fixed it, others mentioned an issue where the older M54 head with the newer style valve cover can have the coils ground to the head giving the ground wire resistor in the loom a weird reading in turn pinging a code. ( I have older style block/head with my original engines intake mani/valve cover/ignition system) long story short they recommended running coils from the newer engines as they are insulated all the way to the bottom. old and new: I found these on FB market place out of an N54 and the guy reckoned they were running fine so as a bit of cheap test I went for it. Long story long, they work great. No codes. Throttle feels more responsive and the idle is smooth and the engine feels freer. This might all be placebo but posting this up incase anyone else has got the same codes after an engine swap. in other news I also swapped the grilles back to chrome as those double slotted ones interfered with the bonnet leaver meaning the grill would kinda pop out when you opened the hood which felt abit ghetto when filling up the washer system at the petrol station.

I have been thinking about an Electric car as a commuter. I can charge it at work for free. New House will have a large Solar array. Then I started looking at what's around. Affordable Aesthetically Pleasing Not a Nissan Leaf Pick one.

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Hi all Helping a fellow BMW Car Club member sell their beautiful Z3M Roadster... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3133883715 ~146KMs on it, asking price is $40K. Very rare, and very fun! If you're interested, contact Raewyn on 0272750656.

Loving the commitment / attention to detail! 💪

Based on news from shows and Toyota themselves, I suggest name-calling over a comment re Toyota EV utes is - at best - unfair. https://www.driven.co.nz/news/it-s-happening-toyota-is-serious-about-building-an-electric-ute/ and https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/toyota/35083987.html Worth clarifying what Jacinda Ardern said: "The second point I'd make is that within the next - we're hoping the next 12 to 24 months - the likes of Toyota are talking about bringing in EV utes." Given previous announcements - by Toyota - was it Toyota who said they weren't doing this, or was it reported that Toyota said they weren't doing this?

Apparently they can be bought new still from BMW Auckland. $3k and 10 weeks lead time.

This is... madness.

Went to replace the front LCAs on the venerable E46 318i. Nut on top of the outer balljoint? No problem. Two bolts holding hte lollipop in place? Easy as. Nut on top of the inner balljoint...? Where the actual %Y$@ is it? Can't see it, can't feel it. Finally locate and find I can fit a recessed ring spanner on to it. 1/24th of a turn and... Can't get the spanner out as it is hard up against the underside of the something. Find an open-ended spanner - fiddle around until it gets on to the nut, get perhaps 1/24th of a turn on it before the spanner fouls on something - the aircon pump, the sway bar, sway bar bushing... Take the spanner off, turn it over, and... Nope won't go back on. Get another spanner with a slightly different head angle and yes! that'll do it. Move the nut another 1/24th of a turn, that is. Back to the first spanner, wrong way round, take it out again, turn it over, it fits, get another 1/24th of a turn, back to the second spanner, it's started raining... Stuff that. Lying on my back in a puddle isn't my idea of fun. It'll wait. For now.

+1 love these clean up restos.

The ratio is not part of the calculation, it’s sole intention is to deter buyers away from the high emitters of CO2, so the figures are set up front - hence why they are quoting figures for HiLux, etc in the article. Final figures for the ratio won’t be known until after the event, but charges have to be stated up front to buyers. Even the worst V8 charge won’t be as high as the full EV rebate though. In the first few years there will probably be a surfeit of money overall, but that will soon switch the other way.

I think a Honda Elite scooter from the 1980's has been missing since a collision with this car. [Image linked from Wikipedia under CC SA 3.0] That front bumper - at least in its current state on that car, at this time, is dugly.

We have heard the people, and we have listened ... behold !!! The next eagerly anticipated update Worked up a prototype MDF dry sump mount after shooting some beams again to work out the relative hole positions. While waiting for some laser cutting (header flanges and dry sump oil scraper) I got in and cleaned the front wheel wells and got a coat of black 2k paint on them. Also cleaned and coated the guard liners with trim black. Got the Sikky Manufacturing slim steering linkage in place which should make life easier when it comes time to make the headers. Got the laser cut oil scraper installed and checked for interference before making up the viton o-ring seal, much easier than I thought it would be ... the o-ring cord stayed put without any vasoline or other goo. I lost the use of my borrowed torque wrench so had to cast the mind back to my physics classes and improvise with a fish scale and 3/8" power bar I think its more accurate to be fair !! After my careful calibration check of the scales of course. Received the Holden Astra electric power steering pump finally so will give it a clean at some point soon and put it aside for a few months. Milestone event !!! Oil pan installed for good with my ghetto torque wrench to boot. Now to shorten the ATI drive mandrel for the dry sump pulley, managed to chop off all of the 3/8" threaded hole also so I could convert to M10. The drop saw got the job done pretty well ... in hind sight i should have done it differently to make things a little less sketchy process wise. Good result with the mandrel chopped down to the right length and tapped. That brings us up to current with the pump fitted using the mk1 pump mount ... could probably be used for first start but I'll make up something better shortly. Great that the belt length works out, total stroke of luck !! Might still look to install a tensioner. Also got some cooling system gaskets so have reinstalled the rear water outlet casting and will be blanking off a few bits shortly, nothing too sexy to report there. Hopefully tomorrow will get the flywheel, clutch and trans on so we're ready to go back into the car for hopefully the final time !! Just waiting on the heater box right angle fittings.

Is a struggle to decide what to run, so good to have options. Buying tyres is killing me though! Be cheaper buying a tyre machine I think

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I guess it will come down to what makes the most money, plus you're always going to have competing technologies and companies behind them saying their version of something is better. Let the consumer decide. Likely we will see a diverse market as like with most consumable goods, there is never just a one size fits all solution. I saw an article the other day from Toyota CEO, he made some interesting points I agreed with https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyotas-chief-says-electric-vehicles-are-overhyped-11608196665 Interesting thoughts from Mr Akio Toyoda!

You’re giving the MPs too much credit, it’s the figures in the background that tell them what to say and think. Not sure what they are called in NZ, in the UK they are “civil servants”. There is a lot of research going on in this area, but whether it comes to a workable, scalable solution is not known - unfortunately, the scramble to EVs will probably see it miss out.

Well this weekends idiocy saw me careful dismantle the gauge cluster again, even using the melt and drill method instead of removing needles that would just not budge, carefully clean the contacts, install a new LCD screen, reassembled again and tested to find the same dull screen on the right side... experience is hard fought and of course the problem was two blown backlighting bulbs... A rookie mistake and I feel an absolute twat... anyhow, it all ended well and the dash is now all good, except for one pesky column of pixels that is hardly noticeable... one can say I'm a bit more savy with clusters now... I also installed a replacement heater valve and all good, splicing in another connector as mine had broken. A bit of cleaning in behind the oil filter housing is bring the engine bay up pretty good now... A bit of a drive in the arvo, followed up by sanding down a spare rear bumper I acquired today, to replace the one on the car. My spare parcel tray is in getting retrimmed and I fitted another motor to my spare blind, ready for the changeover. This week I hope to get my painted up 66's back and get them fitted up. Pleased to say the 540 is now at "operational" status now

Been keeping busy on the last remaining tasks before wof and cert in the coming weeks. I’m refurbishing the m3 wheels this week and fitting the 16” pusher fan. In the meantime here’s some pics. Pretty happy with how it’s turned out

Spoiler alert. IT RUNS! Very happy and glad I made the choice to take it to P&S' workshop as there were a myriad of electrical gremlins resolved (including replacing the E39 engine loom). While there it also received Wheel alignment - now within E30 spec for cert General check over Exhaust fitment Shifter re-fit (I hadn't had time to finish properly). But again, big shout out to Peter and the team at P&S in East Tamaki. Hoping it comes home this week so I can finish the panel work, replace tyres and get on with the cert.

I would say so. I have read nothing of them being produced in RHD. And it's highly unlikely Ford would bother with NZ/Aus as you said. NZ is going to become incredibly expensive in the next 10 years. Even more so than it already is.

Final update on the car - I’ll leave this thread up to assist others. After much frustration with wiring, expensive bills that seemed never ending, it actually passed a VTNZ wof (which it then needed to fail for the cert...) and had cert booked. However it wasn’t running well and struggling when VANOS kicked in. What I hadn’t realised was that this was due to the oil pickup gradually getting stuffed full of metal filings. Queue 2 big end bearings shot, one brand new oil pickup toast, non running engine and more bills to diagnose said engine I was over it. I sold it from the workshop, never even got it back home. Learnings? Rust is balls, and M52B28 engine would have been easier.