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My Clubsport is up for sale. I am the 3rd owner, the first being BMW for 10,000km, then a regular long distance commuter for 290,000km, car currently sitting at almost 310,000km Much work has been completed on this very rare car to lift it back up... The SMG is all good following a slave cylinder refurb, and spares include a complete gearbox with all hydraulic equipment and computer (unknown condition but at least all the parts are there for refurb as required). Many trim items have been changed / renewed including seats, doorcards, steering wheel, gear shift. A later radio/CD with a Bluetooth dongle wired into AUX input. A new road wheel is on due to an unrepairable crack in old one. Tyres / brakes / suspension - good. Plenty of engine work of maintenance items and oil gaskets. The OFHG was leaking badly upon purchase... Alternator voltage regulator / brushes replaced, brushes finally gave up after 305km... Cooling system has new water pump, thermostat, expansion tank (the original tank was still going strong...), hoses. CCV system has some new hoses / pipes. DISA valve is new G.A.S. New engine / transmission mounts. New oils / fluids / filters from radiator to diff. AC all good. Headlights / taillights / indicators refurbed or replaced. The paint is OK, with stone chips on front and a few little indiscretions here and there. Best to contact me directly 027 278 2940 for further discussion. $12,000 firm.

https://bidaclassic.com/product/bmw-e9-30-csi-1973?lat=51.2359657&lon=7.6863666

Hi team, I have been lurking on this website for awhile without having an account. However, I’ve been getting serious about buying a BMW. Admittedly I am no mechanic, but merely an enthusiast of German auto engineering brilliance we know as BMW. I’ve been doing a ton of research on E91 320i’s and 325i’s, as a wagon is perfect for my lifestyle. Is there any advice for a potential purchase? I’ve seen info warning to stay away from N46 engines, and other advice on here explaining that N46/N43 4 pots are gutless and not worth the hassle. Is it worth looking at a 6 cylinder N43 over a N43 4 pot? No other station wagon in my price bracket comes close to BMW for looks and ride, however as a first time buyer I don’t want to get in over my head. Cheers Edit* - Not too sure if I should be asking purchase/advice questions on a different topic - happy to move it if needed 🙂

If they're claiming that coupe has an "average interior" with mismatched seats, trashed driver seat, trashed mismatched center console, mismatched door cards and dash, faded rear seat and faded parcel tray, I reckon they would be pretty easy to please Could probably fold their hand around a dog turd and convince them it's a taco What a mess.

I wouldn’t go for anything which has had aftermarket screens added but that’s just me. They can be added properly but a lot of the time they are not and don’t integrate with the car. Additionally, a lot of the stuff out of Japan will be all in Japanese and impossible to use.

You are running out of shades of blue paint to rescue.

Welcome @MaiaB! Good choice, E91 with a 6 cylinder is very much the sweet spot. Don't bother with a 4cyl, engines are nothing but trouble and not even much more economical than the 6. The pre-facelift ones (2005-2008) have the N52B25 which is a bit more robust than the N53 in the facelifted ones (which have trouble with coils / injectors / NOX sensor). Worth checking if waterpump / thermostat have been done on the N52.

Hey Team So finally cracked into the X5 4.6is parts car, stripped the motor out and refurbed in the past month. Swapped the oil pump to the front sump type and replaced timing chain guides and various gaskets. Pretty much got the motor 90% ready to go back in, just need to make a custom bracket for the oil filter housing. Also arrived was my wiring harness from Condor speed which im hopping will make my job easier. But most excitingly finally got to mock up my custom exhaust headers that i had made i think a year ago, I cant wait to get this thing in the car and running. Drilled out the passger side starter hole. Fiited some 18mm frost plugs into the secondary air pump holes. Getting closer team.

Spent the evening avoiding the world and used the Mothers CMX on the wagon. No before shots - it was shiny but not as deep as the final result. I started with the CMX polish - useless. It went on like toothpaste and getting it off even on a small area took a stupid amount of time. I decided to go straight to the CMX ceramic coating as the current paintwork is in good condition. I put on a Collecting Cars podcast and spent about an hour applying and buffing off the coating with a microfibre cloth, probably the easiest coating I have ever used. So in my opinion it was money well spent.

Added a 175 amp DC connector in the boot, mainly to connect an inverter but also whatever else i need! 200 amp circuit breaker just in case...

I am after one 19" LA double spoke 313 rear rim as I have 4 cracks in mine. Have tried all the usual sources, any help or suggestions would be welcome. The repairers wont touch it

.No just a mix of time, sugar soap, elbow grease, and the odd stronger "solvent" as required... Thanks,

Put a long tailpipe on (or a stack, even better!) and then the exhaust can go OUT of the environment.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/325i/listing/3278720378 looks reasonable too - on a full set of Bridgestones (albeit the RE050s are not great, but at least implies the owner hasn't skimped on maintenance) and has a BMW workshop plate surround. Look for blue (OEM) coolant rather than green. Probably 1 yr / 15k km is the sweet spot. One without any idrive is probably fine too, fit a Grom / Dension unit for Bluetooth.

Great info! Thanks

Welcome! My opinion would probably be save to spend a little more, get an early facelifted model with relatively low k’s benefiting from modern day usability (i.e CIC iDrive as they’ve aged better than the CCC) also if you’re worried about maintenance costs you could most likely strike a great deal with a dealership (seeing as COVID still lurks) & negotiate a price that includes a mechanical warranty and even a NZ radio/gps conversion if it’s an import. That way you have some piece of mind.

Thanks mate. We meet again. Looking at the same cars. it’s worse than what they have listed. The owner got a quote to do the transfer case. Was around 8k. and the valve stem seals are definitely gone. That’s about 5k. Shocks not working. it’s not worth the repair cost to fix it, as it’s in bad general condition anyway, unless it’s major DIY. And even then it needs so much done it’s not worth the time unless you got it for next to nothing. I imagine it will eventually get sold to a wrecker, as some of the parts will be worth good money. the owner of u-sell doesn’t seem to mind it sitting there racking up fees. Thats their business model. I’m sure the owner isn’t trying to make money but I can’t see how it went form being 17k car 2 years ago to what it is now. It’s been really neglected and I think he bought a dud in the first place which is unfortunate, but he needs to cut his losses otherwise he’ll end up owing u-sell more than he will get for the car.

I've found out the following from other Alpina forums if anyone's interested 'Only the V8s had the bespoke casting made by bmw for alpina, so thats not a regular block, there are differences as you can't just over bore these blocks.' 'Alpina to work their magic with new crankshaft, more aggressive camshafts, hand-fettled ports, lighter higher-compression Mahle pistons and reprogrammed the Motronic system.' This chap knows his Alpinas! 'Jon - id say it's a bit more complicated than it might first appear. Your car will be an F4 engine which you can confirm from digits 12-14 of your ALPINA VIN (F40) There have been five variants of 4.6 V8 produced by ALPINA. - F2/0 (M60B40): for the E34 B10 4.6, this had a custom block, crankshaft & airbox - F2/1 (M60B40): which was a modified version of the F2 specifically for the E36 B8 4.8. Changes included: modified air intake, engine mounts, oilpan and exhaust manifold which restricted power from 340PS/480Nm to 333PS/470Nm - F3/0 (M62B44): launched in the E39 B10 V8, the modifications included: custom block, crankshaft, pistons, camshaft and air intake. - F4/0 (M62B44TU): launched mid-way through the production of the E39 B10 V8 following BMW's technical update which added single VANOS to both intake camshafts and fly-by-wire throttle. - F4/1 (M62B44TU): the basis of the E39 B10 V8/1 which was introduced with the E39 LCI. This was an updated version of the F4 engine focussing on improved fuel efficiency and emissions. Other M60/M62 based engine variants: - F5/0 (M62B44TU): this is the 4.8 engine used in the E39 B10 V8S and E52 Roadster V8. The main changes over the F4/1 were an increased stroke (85mm to 89mm) and revised crankshaft, intake camshafts and oilpan. - M62B46: this is BMW's productionised version of the F4 engine which was installed in the X5 4.6iS & Morgan Aero 8. It is similar to the ALPINA engine it is based upon, but not all parts are interchangeable.'

FACT. Yeah you’re right about that as well. The fun bit is working on it, although have had a few head scratching moments already 😂. Probably will keep rising as supply vs demand but I wonder if it’ll be a bit more relaxed as borders open.

E91 325i wagons are great value, msport is much nicer than the normal spec and preferably one with some service history is good post up some trademe links if you want opinions

swap your manual box and everything else into it? haha NZ NEW - no xenon headlights

Lag will have nothing to do with the hardware, that will be software, maybe they have differnt launchers but they all run on Android software. Look at all the models they all look the same, there's no way each of these companies will be getting a custom design headunit done. There are like 5 companies doing the same units. I guess lag is subjective, my xtrons unit is as snappy as my iPhone and works great, a friend has an avin and it feels exacly the same. I would be happy with either brand. Like I said, I think it will come to price point, return policy, customer service and brand loyalty. And of course people tend to be defensive of their purchase. You'll be able to find many people saying one is better than the other for all the brands. One guy might have bought an Avin and it was faulty, so suddenly Avin is crap and vise versa. Xtrons is the one I just happend to buy, but would be happy with a Avin too.

Hey Team So have done a few more things to the project in the last few weeks. Installed the motor with new mounts to test postion, i had to slot the mounts slightly to get the engine to go back by 5mm. Shaved some of the material off the aircon bracket. Measured up front half of the drive shaft and needs to be shorten by 40mm. Fitted some 18mm frost plugs to the secondary air pump ports in the block. Sourced an e87 steering shaft and the piece that goes to the rack fits perfectly but the piece that connects to the steering column will need changing to the e46 one and Finally arrived my wiring harness from Condor speed, hope this makes the wiring up job alot easier. Getting closer team

My understanding is the blocks were made by BMW to Alpinas specifications. Its basically a m62 block design with a bigger bore and a different crank to increase stroke. Same engine used in the e53 4.6is, although the story goes that BMW liked the modifications Alpina made so much that they bought the rights to put them in the e53. The heads are a different casting too - so you cant swap the much better b46 cams into the b44. There is lots of conflicting info out there, but Alpina ported and polished the b46 heads by hand for their cars, whereas BMW didnt do this step with the b46 they put in the x5. Alpina did lots of cool subtle things in their design too, like fewer oil rings, lighter pistons, underdriven crank pulley etc.

... and another - the price I could not refuse - and shod with M5 wheels - Individual Biarritz blue with extended leather / Premium DSP / rear blind / rear PDC / glass roof / heated seats etc. Needs a lot of love but will look to on sell in medium term once I've gone over it to some degree. Already sorted heaps of stuff, but with guide fragments in the oil pickup - timing chain guides will need doing...

got the style 66s back from being dip stripped last week, now to start the laborious task of welding, ginding and filing the curb rash! It was less obvious when they were Matt black but they are going to be silver again so needs to be sorted, these wheels will consume several more weekends of my life before they are ready to wear tyres again!!

I actually could, 1700w pure sine wave inverter, I would just have to run the e39 for 8 hours or so, think of the environments!

I learned similar peculiarities about the E4 engine in my B3. 1998, single vanos iron block 3.2 sharing very little with the M50 and nothing intake or exhaust with the Mxx engines. God help me if I need a head gasket.

Now you can charge the Leaf remotely!

Well done

Yeah, I saw that comment - sad to see what people say on a public forum, makes you wonder how they are behind closed doors. I'm not really seeing too many people buying these average and overpriced cars TBH? Keep seeing the same sedans on FB pop up time and time again for more money than they failed to sell for previously...I've been watching pretty closely to get a gauge on how poor a financial mistake I'm going to make 🤣 Assuming you're not having too many issues with yours, its certainly looking like a deal given coupe / M52 / Manual in a good colour. Im factoring just about any E30 I buy is going to to need $10k plus on it to get up to standard.

I bet the North Koreans are driving one of these...

Because you still had them from when you sold your Commodore??

So its just not the old ones 😁

Replaced the rear tyres on Miss M's 116i, rotating so the new tyres are on the front. Maintained the set of Bridgestone ER300 runflats. Learned how to reset the TPMS, an essential step following tyre replacement. One of those easy-when-you-know-how things, but nigh-on impossible if you've not done it before and don't know where to look!

I came to the BMW brand BECAUSE of the e82 135i, looked hard at that and got seduced by an e46. But I still have an unexplicable yearning for the e82, and every time I see a 1M I almost explode. Other people just don't get it, but it's personal and frankly unexplainable. As with most purchases for us 'car guys'.

Just drained the fluid, removed the pan, swapped the filter, refitted the pan with new gasket and bolts, refilled using an electric oil pump. Front of car on axle stands and rear on a trolley jack so I could get it level and used an infra red thermometer to make sure temp was correct when refilling. I have a large measuring jug to drain the old fluid into so I can see how much to put back in, but still fill to the level of the hole. I know it doesn't get all the old fuid out which is why I did it twice with a few kms between changes.