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Hi Bimmersport community, I'm trying to track down as much information about my beautiful 1972 BMW 2002 as I can. I've got the details of the previous owner (as I just purchased it from him) and the person before that, but very keen to speak to anyone who owned or is aware of this car. Trying to paint a bit of a picture of its history - By my count, there should be about 9 owners since NZ new that I haven't spoken to. Previous plates are: NCK968 - 02-Dec-2020 OCTO - 17-Aug-2020 FRP952 - 23-Dec-2010 GW7562 - 29-Mar-1974 The VIN is 2521401 I'm working through the final stages of a restoration (it was largely done, but some final bits to tidy up then building out the car's history remaining).

Hey Guys, I'm new here, I drive and daily a 12' E91 335i LCI sitting on some BBS LM's, Coilovers and a nice little supersprint exhaust setup other than those few mods everything else is stock standard. Looking forward to sharing my experience with the N55. Cheers! Jamie

Finally got the welding done. Certainly not a job i ever want to do on axle stands again but i think it looks decent for an amateur? Penetration appears good so certainly don't anticipate any future problems. Paint will have to wait due to weather.

Most affordable e30 on the market right now. Drivetrain might need some work but otherwise seems nice and tidy with some tasteful mods. https://www.trademe.co.nz/3456420351

3 Generations E46 M3, E90 M3 and F80.

My car is most likely used for a different purpose, but when I found the front end to feel darty or all over the place, even at 100kph I was constantly correcting it, that toe in was the problem. A bit of toe out made it a lot more settled and easier to drive. Will be interesting to see what you find... and what corrects it.

Here's a run down in order. Handling has always been a bit busy but nothing overly concerning and the car could be pushed pretty hard confidently. Rear PS4S tyres were shredded through to the belts. Replaced them with Atturo AZ850s based on some positive reviews from USA Charger drivers and being cheap as hell, alignment done at the same time/place as the tyres were fitted but no spec sheet provided after the job. Handling now totally off the wall scary at speed, drive in one direction, suddenly feels like it's going in another direction, way too scary to do any spirited driving. Not going back there since I wouldn't trust them to align liquid down a funnel now. Replaced front upper control arms since I knew the bushes were completely shredded and things seem better but still could use improvement. Called up this other place based on a recommendation from a friend, spoke to the owner, and briefly explained what's happening and booked an alignment. Turned up for the booking and as luck would have it the owner is the free person at reception so hand over the key. Guy walks out with me to look at the car and literally 10 seconds after laying eyes on it starts laying into whoever (newsflash moron, I fitted them and you have managed to insult me minutes after arriving at your business) fitted these cheap Chinese (they're US brand, Taiwanese made) tyres and that they are obviously the problem, cue diatribe on manufacturers spec tyres and unprompted pricing of 4x Pirelli replacements. Heck the front PS4S still have a solid 10k on them. I was pretty f**king annoyed as I ended up writing off a whole days work and likely a half day tomorrow. I just want an alignment done as I have no idea whatsoever what camber and toe the car is running. If the alignment is dialed in and I still have issues then I can look at loading up the parts cannon. That's about it really. The way he should have handled it is by looking at the car, asking some questions and then suggesting that maybe the new rear tyres could be the problem and they he could put it in the machine to check out and adjust the alignment to make sure it's all good but that perhaps that might not be the end of my problems. I would have been on board, 10 4 amigo. Unfortunately he chose to be a douchebag. My general MO is that if I get sub par or even poor service from a place is that I just won't return, nothing more. This guy really shat in my morning coffee. Quick rant eh? On a positive story. I had adjustable suspension fitted and aligned in my Subaru Legacy 3.0 at P&S automotive many years ago and that thing had sublime handling. My M5 didn't even match the level of confidence that thing had.

Right, so I phoned around a few machine shops on Friday to get a gauge on an approximate budget for machine work. For the head, I've currently settled on a hardness & pressure test + getting it surfaced; for the block I'm getting a hardness test and a cylinder deglaze/hone, and have both the block and the head acid dipped & cleaned. With some variations in scope between different shops, I'm looking at around $600-1000, which I guess is fine. Also asked about timeserting/helicoiling the head bolt threads in the block and was strongly recommended to not take it on as a purely preventative measure as it's likely to be a waste of money for potentially a poorer outcome. The recommendation was that a hardness test would give a good indication whether the original threads are likely to strip out or not, and if the test indicated that the block has gone soft, then there are bigger problems to worry about. That seemed to make sense and, having read through a few more engine build threads on e46 fanatics where the standard head bolts have re-torqued just fine, I decided to box on. Quite a bit of gunk stuck all over the cam tray studs. Lifters were also quite gunked up. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the car had been blessed with regular servicing. The exhaust cam bearings looked mostly fine, but two of the exhaust ones had a wee bit of a munch at some point. Does look pretty bad but hopefully nothing a bit of fine sand paper can't fix. The oil pickup tube spit out a whole bunch of RTV worms as well as tiny plastic particles, likely chunks off the cam cover. The pistons had quite a bit of carbon buildup. Those will take some scrubbing. The cylinders looked in pretty good shape. Bit of varnish but the factory hone marks are still clearly visible so I'm hoping to get away with just a minor hone/deglaze. Only visible defect was a mark on cylinder 6 which I'm not sure what to make of. Hoping the hone will sort it out. The rod bearings looked worse than I'd hoped for. Did read that they'd supposed to be pretty solid on the M54 but these looked well shot. Another item added to the shopping list. At this point, all that's left on the block is the crankshaft. Made the mistake of checking how much replacement cap bolts cost and got cold feet. Yikes! Read a few threads of people using just regular M10x90mm 10.9 bolts (instead of 92mm factory) from a hardware store for years without issues. Also of people reusing the old bolts similarly trouble-free. So... one to think about. Anyway, long weekend well spent. Will get onto a further teardown and cleaning duties next.

@m325i These have the 6 Speed ZF Auto box. A tad bit slow on the shifts but I have driven a xHp tuned trans and makes a world of difference so may look into getting this done.

Yup! Sure is...

Solid use of a 320i

Me too. Of course BMW never made an e46 M3 sedan (this one is registered as a 330i), but just looking at this sedan, maybe BMW should have pre-empted the e90 and done this from the factory.

Selling my 2006 Audi S8 so thought I should list it here before formally putting it on trademe next week just in case anyone is interested. 2006 Audi S8 NZ New Full Audi Dealer History Since New! Only 119,000km Dealer fitted Pirelli Pzeros all round with very good tread. Built in GPS Passport Radar Detector One of New Zealand’s most meticulously maintained D3 generation S8s in full transporter spec. Car is absolutely stunning and is in great condition for its age. This S8 represents superb value for money! A proper Lamborghini limousine. Has had a DURASEAL paint protection treatment in the past which has kept the paint in really nice condition. New front pads and rotors installed within the last 1000km at a cost of $1.5K. Further Features: - Bose Audio - Sunroof - Rear sunblind - Reversing Camera - Carbon Fibre Interior - Detachable Tow Bar - Heated and Memory Seats - 4-Way Climate Control - Leather Seats. - Air Suspension - Quattro AWD - Double Glazed Windows - Cruise Control - Two sets of floor mats (regular ones and all season rubber ones) Has vacuum operated valves in the exhaust which open up at about 2500rpm, letting the 5.2L Lamborghini derived V10 sing and making it sound like a Lamborghini Gallardo! Incredibly quick car and extremely comfortable. Has a dent on the front left wing as well as a few scrapes on the rear bumper. Couple little scratches here and there as well as curb rash on all the wheels but overall still in good condition. NZ New S8s are quite hard to find, especially with low ks and full dealer history. Far superior to Japan or Singapore import ones with little to know prior overseas service history. Car does have an interesting past that I will disclose to prospective buyers, so if you are interested, please get in touch. (A bit too complicated to explain in the listing). Personalised plate not included. $21.5K ONO

Wow, more than two years since my last post… *trigger warning - children/babies & medical stuff* A few weeks after my last post my son fell extremely ill. After several long hospital stays he was diagnosed with post transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, in his case caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. At his sickest there were 16 million copies of the virus per millilitre of his blood. He thankfully completed a course of Rituximab (kinda like a chemo drug that wipes out all the T cells in your immune system). By August he was home, and after a couple of blips he has been largely okay since. If things stay good for another few years his doctors will declare victory over the PTLD. In September of 2020 we found out my wife was pregnant with #2! Our second son was born in April 2021 at 32 weeks, following a rough pregnancy. He spent 5 weeks in NICU before joining us at home. 4 days later he was rushed to Starship with respiratory issues. He got a tracheostomy about a week later (which has been amazing) and then spent 47 long days in PICU battling infections and myriad issues that couldn’t all be tied back together. He finally made it up to the ward, and then a few days later started having seizures. Over the course of a few days we watched our little man lose all ability to move, turn his head, hear, and interact with us. Since then it’s been a long slow journey of improvement for him. After a couple of weeks he started looking at things, and us, again, another few weeks later he started responding to sound again, by the time we got him home at the end of September he could turn, but not support, his head. Another 8 weeks later and he could fairly well hold his head up, and today I took a photo of him sitting, propped up, in his hospital cot (he’s been in this week fighting a nasty virus) playing with a toy. The teams at Starship have been incredible. The head consultants from a bunch of different teams have been heavily involved in my son’s care, and their skill and the wonders of modern medicine have been life-saving for both of my children. I’m forever indebted to them, our public healthcare system, and, by extension, taxpayers of New Zealand. Wow. That was cathartic to write out. Not very on-topic, but cathartic. Thus concludes the explanation of why it’s been two years since my last post… I only drove the M3 a couple of times in 2021. For most of the year I wasn’t even sure if I was going to keep it (hard to make plans or think about what’s fun when you’re constantly in crisis mode). But the last few months as things have trended towards our “new normality” I’ve been enjoying driving the car on occasion and making some more plans for it. A couple of days ago I ordered a new OE steering wheel. The current wheel is quite badly cracked along the top, and the paddles and trim are in very poor condition. I looked at options like getting my current wheel rewrapped and buying new trim, etc. but for what that was going to cost it made more sense to order a brand new wheel. I found one for a good price, and, importantly, cheap shipping and pulled the trigger. It’s coming snail mail (hence the cheapness) so, given the current state of global logistics it should arrive sometime between the beginning of April and the end of time. I have a bunch of other items I want to get as well, but they’re all significantly cheaper, so I figured it was best to buy the expensive thing first, so I don’t keep putting it off! I also have a couple of little projects in mind to keep me busy as well so will hopefully be posting those up here soon! Matt

Capital Tyres in Hamilton sorted me out. Good bunch of guys, happy to hear me out, and dialed the car in to as close to the specs I provided as possible. Excellent customer service. It was toed out both front and rear, now toed in slightly on the front and stock in the rear. Car is much more confident at high speed now and seems to have decent turn in without being hyperactive. I'm not going to call it perfect, but i'm happy with it for now and I don't feel like I am going to die at high speed. Have a look at the sheet.

I'll do that then.

I am, yes. I normally call them up and ask when a good time will be for them and then bugger off to Sylvia Park, or wander around tool shops on Carbine Road, for a couple of hours. Although red/masks/covid make that a slightly less appealing proposition at the moment.

Yep they've all gotten bigger, look at the dimensions the G20 is about the same dimensions as an E39 and the F10/G30 is about the same size as an E38. The E60 was bigger than the E39 but weighed slightly less, about the only successor to have a slight weight reduction..........could be wrong on that. That E46 looks sweeet though, I actually prefer the E46 sedan over the coupe.

It's a nice idea but I'm sure the energy required to do this at scale requires heavy dairy intensification in an area without a huge dairy prescence and under a regulatory framework that is hostile to dairy conversion. Possibly need more people producing more rubbish too.

I was in a 2022 RS5 a week or so back and commented that the info screen looked like it had been stuck on. Didn’t look integrated at all.

Nice car! What gearbox do these have?

Does hydrogen make sense yet, in terms of energy in during manufacture vs energy out available in whichever vehicle's fuel tank?

@bmwclassic what a beauty

"SOLD" (I gave it away. And sorry, with moving house out of Wellington region, and struggling to get my internet connected at the new property, I only got around now to update that this is now no longer available.)

I was thinking the same. Toyota is already on their second generation Mirai, and Hyundai has the Nexo... so what is BMW leading? Its also ridiculous to be so scared of hydrogen exploding when anyone with an EV is literally sitting on a volatile explosive. At least with Hydrogen you can vent a fire/explosion "safely", lithium just vents wherever and whenever it wants. Hydrogen (either ICE or FCEV) is the future, the money was just put in the wrong basket first. Imagine is Musk had invested in Hydrogen, how far ahead Hydrogen would be, and batteries would just be something we laugh about.

Very nice! E91 LCI is my favourite BMW wagon. In the right colour on LMs with an N55 and a Supersprint- great work!

Most practical and rust free E30 for sale in years.

An unremarkable e46 Sedan in CHCH with annoying (to me) rego plate placement.

Cheers! Have owned the plate for nearly 12 years now, ran it on my old 4 door also.

Toyota have been making it work very safely thank you for about a decade, with the Mirai on sale since 2014. Many manufacturers were researching (to the prototype stage) hydorgen fuel cells in the 1990's/early 00's. Great to see them heading back that way, far more sensible than bloody lithium batteries! If I could buy and run a Mirai in NZ tomorrow, I would.

Hence the investigation into storage systems. Cloth bags and aluminium foil were never really suitable!

Spotted this at Paper Plus... Looks awesome, great pictures. Lots of BMWs.

Im sure it is but for an imported, manual converted and engine swapped car the pricing seems optimistic

So many places believe they are the last word in knowledge, and that none of the customers have an understanding of what they do. Obviously it pays well, though. McLaren, eh? Should narrow down who you went to see!

Aye cool! Would be keen to hear more about your experience, how deep you went into it, what you'd do differently if you were to do it again etc. Cheers Yeah will check it out. I've kinda started having second thoughts about lifting the head now, not for the first time. Had a chat with a few more people and they're all telling me it's real likely the bolts would strip the threads out of the block the second time round and you'd need timeserts. Really not keen on having to do that. Will do some more digging around..

Underside and floor mostly prep'd for welding next week. Wheel arches and trailing arm pockets will be stiched reinforced also along with redoing some of the spot welds that were a bit iffy. The poor factory MIG welds for the front threaded receiver under the rear seats will be redone too. Finally the trunk floor reinforcement plates that connect the floor to the side of chassis legs. Underside plate are also plug welded from the trunk floor cavity for an even stronger connection.

No, since moved on (a few years back), not sure where he went or what he's doing now.

To be fair he's probably done a few alignments in his time. Did you fit the tryes before or after the wheel alignment and did he do it originally? Sounds like more to this story

Insurance agrees, $2.5K annually because I'm under 25 🤣 Awesome car though, it moves like nothing else I've ever driven. So much torque.

I used to run staggered tyres on the 130, tyre guy in manukau was adamant the wide ones went on the front as they will wear fastest. Seriously, wtf.. had to argue to get him to pull the wheels off switch them round. I even explained it was RWD and he looked at me like I was from the moon. Stay in school kids.