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Did some maintenance, and went for another drive where the misfire developed again, but this time it stayed. Drove 20km home on 5 cylinders. Investigating the misfire, I read the errors from the ECU, and found that cylinder 6 was reporting a short to ground. Pulled the coils and found white corrosion in some of the spark plug wells, but cyl 6 was worst by far. Water must have collected in there. I cleaned them out as best I could, and got back to all 6 cylinders firing again. I played around with my tune a little more to make the decel timing less aggressive. Flashed the tune, and went for a test drive. Much improved for street driving, with a smoother transition on and off throttle. Happy with the results, but will probably play with it some more. Some photos from my test drive. And my favourite photo, a winter sunset in banks peninsula Looking forward to summer to go for some more decent drives.

So after being away for a transmission rebuild and to address the driveline shudder at the same time, today she is back ! It’s been forever for various reasons but now she’s back. Albeit my wallet is significantly lighter. Fantastic difference having the trans and drive line back up to spec, that’s mounts, driveline, trans and all suspension and bushings replaced now. Finally next job is paint tidy up. Headliner and rear shelf, I have a few parts to get in on the next free weekend as well. Probably need wheels refurbished as well …..

@zero ?

G'day, I thought I'd start a project journal on here. Picked up a 1986 BMW 320i. In a bit of a state, but WoF and Rego. A good starting point for the price. Priority is the original M20B20: Cylinder 1 - 160psi Cyinder 2 - 150psi Cylinder 3 - 95psi Cylinder 4 - 70psi Cylinder 5 - 120psi Cylinder - 6 160psi So not ideal, but I'd like to rebuild it if I can. Hoping it's just a head gasket and not the head, we'll see. This is the first time I've pulled a head off so any advice is appreciated. Enjoyed working on stuff with my grandad when he was alive, but wasn't my old man's thing. I've got a son due in October and would love to know what I'm doing by the time he's ready to pick up a wrench, so I bought this to teach myself, and get back to doing something I love. Chur, Josh

Hi, I'm looking for some new tyres for my E46 daily. Hoping to get a set of wheels with near new tyres that I can just slap them on. Not too fussed about the style - just needs to have near new tyres on them. Let me know what you've got!

Wanting to do the electric fan mod on my E46 so am on the lookout for one please. Saw one on TradeMe for $175, but was hoping for something a little less steep 😅 Welly based. Cheers and thank you.

Hells teeth, that looks like they told bangle he could make anything he wanted.

Well that's different... https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/125916211/buy-this-offroad-bmw-z4-m-before-we-do https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-bmw-z4-m-coupe-76/

I've got a brand new pump sitting in the shed if you interested. Also in chch

@Cammsport The exhaust sounds amazing in the mid to high rpm. I'll have to try record a video clip. To be honest, it's fairly obnoxiously loud when you want to "move with haste", and let the engine breath...but I love it. Every hard pull puts a smile on my face. It does make a bit of drone at low loads, but cruises quietly at 50khp and 100kph, so is quite civil for most driving. The power steering is all E36, except for the E46 Purple tag rack. I replaced the p/s pump a couple of years ago with a working used pump. It got things working, but maybe was worn, or aeration from high rpm did some damage. Either way, it's currently very whiny. Will have to order a new pump. Still thinking about whether or not it would be worth plumbing in a proper cooler.

OK works done and I can get back to the trip story. After getting settled at the overnight accommodation I emptied out the wagon and spent the next few hours cleaning the interior making sure that my daughter had not left any surprises behind. Knowing that we would be spending a couple of hours from 5am sitting in the line waiting for the ferry I made sure that the DVD's we had hunted down would play in the CIC unit - you would not believe how hard it was to find a place on the way that sold DVD's. As a BMW newb I found it both frustrating and ultimately rewarding in a "I beat your crazy German logic" once I managed to get the DVD's playing - I had forgotten just how long it took for most DVD units from that era to load / boot. But the relief of not having to deal with the "how much longer?" line from our daughter was almost worth the cost of the M5 (man math is great). Finally we got onboard and parked behind a sheep truck, something that totally bit me when I forgot that the moonroof was cracked and let the delightful smell invade the interior. Other than the brutal smell (and we have sheep so it's not some city boy complaining) we had bigger problems as the ride leveling system threw a code when we arrived in Wellington. So first major mechanical failure, compressor looks to be on the way out - or at least sounds it. After getting off the ferry and hunting through the online resources I concluded that we could proceed without issue as I could get air into the bags and the error was very intermittent. After spending a few hours in lovely Johnsonville at the mall carpark so I could take a meeting we spent what seemed like forever just getting out of Wellington. By now I was worried about getting home at a reasonable hour, which was great when I missed the turn towards Taupo and ended up miles off course, so well after sunset and on a road that I knew quite well between Whanganui and National Park I really started to push it. A few things immediately became apparent, the turn in for something of this size is fantastic, 6 - 8,000 rpm is like having a turbo come on boost and the sound of the rotors whistling makes it sound like a blower in action. The pad knockoff is pretty intense once things are up to temp, the Dunlops on the rear of the wagon are a 275/40/19 which makes for a tall sidewall which probably helped iron out a few of the bumps. I have never run Dunlops on anything, but these are pretty sticky in the wet which was great given the horrid conditions we were progressing through. At first glance it would appear that the S85 becomes more efficient when you are on it, the engine was certainly much happier and smoother after having been flexed on the way to National Park. On the final stretch out of the gorge I got stuck behind a couple of delightful individuals who I had earlier seen at a gas station, they looked like stand up (fall down) pot smokers who were slowly driving off with a trail of smoke and bumpers barely hanging on. After answering the age old question of why does anyone need 500hp to pass a Honda Civic, we stopped off at National Park and had in my opinion a well deserved steak. Then it was off for a final push to Auckland, as my wife had flown down we had to go all the way to airport to pick up her SUV and then back south again. That turned out to be great as the motorway was closed in both directions so we were diverted for what seemed like forever. I think I turned her off around 2am at home. So final thoughts, on this purchase: - Initially it felt very much like this was someone elses car that I was babysitting, but after some hard miles on it and building the confidence to use it I feel much more like it's mine. - I didn't buy this on impulse, I had been hunting for a few years for an E60 and had spent just as long researching how this was going to financially cripple me, that said I have built a career that allows me to have some toys in my life and I have chosen this path. I could have gone for a 911 Turbo, but that is a very selfish car when you have a family. - I am a firm believer in the "buy once cry once" mentality - and I have the T shirt to prove it many times over. So I paid a premium over an E60 - but then this is an E61 with all the boxes ticked. - There are lots of things that I could have bought instead, but as others have put it "they are not an E61 M5". - The car has been well maintained by its previous owners from the limited documentation that I have, although I do have the service records - but a stamp and signature in a book doesn't always tell the whole story. - I think that cars like this are a rare breed, and people who can afford to buy and maintain them should. These cars are dinosaurs, they are the last of an era of big displacement high rpm powerplants with unique drivelines. While many will argue that the E60 / E61 is not a classic or future classic I would like to have that conversation in 10 years when there are even less of them and we are all daily driving hydrogen bombs. I'm not anti the future of fuel efficient ecomentalist cars but I guarantee that I plant more trees on my property in an average summer than all of the current policy makers combined, so if I want to put some CO2 back in the form of V10 noise and a happy smile then I will. - I love the SMG, I think it makes for a unique drive where I have to think about what I'm doing with the throttle. Anyone that drives these and thinks that the SMG is the worst thing ever is totally entitled to that opinion. I was worried for all of 10 minutes that the SMG was going to be a pig, as dumb as it sounds I learned very quickly to drive it based on experiences with a horrid Ford gearbox that they put into the later gen Fiesta Zetec. While they are worlds apart in power, they can both be very stupid boxes until you work the throttle timing, and I know this is nothing new for most but this is my experience. - Last thing is that it works as an amazing family therapy tool, wife complains - press M, daughter moans - press M, need to get away from inlaws house fast - press M. As a family cruiser that you can do a holiday in the E61 has already proven itself, I didn't expect to make it home with a car that has been in hibernation for some time without some issues and they will get sorted out in the coming weeks. Cheers.

Crickey, page 2, better start pulling finger and get some action happening! Powersteering lines are on and hooked up, thanks to @Cammsport sending me a video showing the routes it was pretty simple, slight tweak. Managed to also have some success last night. Again thanks to @euroriffic this time, few checks here and there and it fired up realitively easy! Excuse the wiring, wanted to check it would work before I slim the loom much further. Snapchat-884953232.mp4 Got my driveshaft back, new unis and balanced. Need to sort out radiator set up. Carpet be coming out to sort driveshaft hoops and run battery cable.