Leaderboard

It's old news really, as I've had this car 9.5 years. I figured it should be time I made a project thread for it! Purchased 28 Mar 2012 from Auckland with 112k kms on it. I'm the first NZ owner. It's Orientblau Metalic, hence the name. 2002 model. I've done plenty of work on it. Brake rotors (Stoptech) and Pads (Akebono Euro), and parking brake kit. Suspension: Sachs OEM shocks, Meyle HD & Lemforder; thicker ARBs Wheels: Style 194 with RE003 225/45R17, 245/40R17 Tons of maintenance: PCV, Cooling, Coils, all o2 sensors, VANOS seals (Beisan), engine and trans mounts, oil pan gasket, the usual valve cover gaskets, fully rebuilt trans, fuel pump, replaced broken rear spring a couple of times (first time wrong springs supplied), window regulators. A few minor changes: MD deck to CD deck (factory). Next up maintenance: high pressure fuel line, VANOS oil line Possibly the springs (OE Msport?) Fix the stereo speakers Fit new sunroof seal (preventative maintenance) Next up changes: Msport steering wheel (I have the wheel, need a post-recall airbag), and multifunction integration Programming for all doors unlock, eliminate reversing 'bong'. Maybe a manual conversion in the distant future? She's part of the family, can't seem to part with her. Enjoy driving her too much. Here she is when we first bought her, stock as a stock thing. The wheels are long gone, there's a bit less paint from 9.5 years outside. Character! She still looks good with a wax job.

Even relatively modest amounts of horsepower can benefit from a mechanical LSD in everyday applications. Pulling out of a side road at moderate speeds the 265-odd hp 130i will spin up a wheel without an LSD, and that's with a noodle-sized sway bar. It's also important to understand than any electronic trickery, whether that be limited slip or traction control, reduces slip by bleeding power whereas with a mechanical LSD you lose no power, it just gets redistributed. A well tuned right foot can achieve the same thing as an e-diff whereas with a mechanical LSD you can just lean into it, it's a totally different, and far more satisfying, driving experience.

Carbon wraps are getting pretty good. Next up new bumper, front splitter and side skirts, some spacers and I'll run the CSL wheels for a bit.

very interested to see how this goes, mate. I also have been captivated by the charms of the N57B30.

Oh, and she flew through a WoF last week. I fixed the windscreen washers, and replaced two parking bulbs. And popped on a new rear wiper blade. The windscreen washer jets had clogged again, something growing in the washer fluid tank snots up the pre-pump filter. Looks like frog spawn. I use only BMW fluid (have done for about 6 years). I think it's plastic breaking down? Anyway, I decided to replace the reservoir, pre-filter, pump - so they're all fresh and new. I'll get to the washer jets soon. Ewww. Snot, last week. flash new reservoir new park light bulbs - easy! NB - you want the 5W items. new tailgate wiper blade 200670kms nozzles will go in soon.

Same. I even know the seller saw my messages, just didn't respond.

1983 PFL 323i Manual 2 door - Interesting colour - Opalgrun. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3354913013?bof=ahesLbra Realistic asking price too?

^ This, its night and day even when mildly driving hard. I spent nearly half what I paid for the Birds B1 package on the 130, including the quaife. Was it worth it? Financially no it makes no sense, but would I do it again - Yes. One could make the same argument about any performance leaning car though. If you want to make wise financial decisions, buy a leaf.

BMW made an LSD for these cars as well branded as an "M-performance LSD". Probably overpriced compared to aftermarket options as per usual but should be high quality. Speedfactor in Tauranga import the MFactory LSDs, I'd imagine they make one to fit a 235i. Worthwhile? I dunno, only if you actually push the car hard enough to get the back end out on the regular. Helpful on track, but on streets, even when pushing hard on back-roads, not so much. The e-LSD still does a good job emulating a real LSD most of the time. A real LSD does help with drifts though, holding the slides is much easier

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/3353717177?bof=wv9CbNEb One of the new mtexture jap imports. I'm guessing he doesn't have the original drivers seat. "It has the CSL competition partial leather and cloth option" lol

Big week-end and week nights and the end is in sight with the convertible. List of jobs ticked off: Rear shocks and springs replaced with Koni / Kings from race car (old springs not captive on last WoF, after 14 years of being ok) Front tie rod ends done both sides Front struts stripped and re-freshed springs swapped for race series Kings Exhaust secondaries replaced with non-holey set and re-installed with new nuts bolts gaskets and brackets Muffler patched up and painted ready to go back on. New plugs, dizzy cap and rotor fitted. Lots of old oil & dirt cleaned off the bottom of the gearbox and engine to see where oil is leaking from. Left to do: Refit back-end of exhaust with new nuts bolts and brackets. In for WoF check Wheel alignment Then if all good will crack on with a few more cosmetic clean-up / touch up type jobs. Hoping to get some good summer cruising in this year!

Update time! What has happened since the last update. My exams are all finished, interviews completed and now we wait. At the same time, my order from Schmiedmann finally arrived (Of note, FedEx is very slow in NZ) and I got the wheels done. The beginning Giving them a first clean and scrub after buying them Stripping them down with wire wheels and paint stripper (Took a long time) Etch Primer. I actually quite liked this colour, and the centre covers have the etch primer with 2k clear over them on the back face and it looks really nice, so it was food for thought. High build primer to fill in my careless mistakes when I got trigger happy with the wire wheel Honda Satin Silver Metallic (NH623M) was suggested as a close match for the BBS factory colour and I think I agree. The colour is superb. Covered it with a 2K aerosol clear. While I was on a roll, I decided to tidy up the engine bay and install some new gaskets that I got. Valve cover and upper intake sandblasted and cleaned New upper instake gaskets Installed freshly painted parts, I am glad I did it, because it makes the whole thing look a lot better than it did. Should tide me over while I figure out what I need to do for an M42 swap. On the to do list - New intake boot from MAF to throttle body, mines cracked. Maybe someone has a non-cracked spare? - Install new bonnet foam - strip front calipers, spray them silver and rebuild with all new parts - Tail light seals - Repaint entire car - Radio aerial to be found and fitted - K8 Foglight relay to be found and purchased. Im having trouble with this one, does anyone know where I could get the correct relay in NZ? BMW weren't able to tell me what relay I needed, and the part numbers I found online didn't come up with their parts catalogue.

Yeah, would be my thinking, although $$$ anyway you do it (sport sets sourced and retrimmed). Just not sure It makes sense to pay top dollar for an original low kms car to modify it (albeit tastefully)...

While the wait for the cert plate was between 4-8 weeks, i would be cutting it fine to reach my goal of the mega meet. This wouldn’t stop me from revealing it for the first time. Taking out most modified at the 2019 New Zealand E30 Mega Meet. Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Massive thanks to those that have been involved or helped out in one way or another to get the car to this point. Couple of small things to sort then i can finally enjoy it!

Alongside Alex`s M3.