Leaderboard

Had a great little E30 meet in Drury yesterday - some wicked cars on display, especially the V8 Beast @WYZEUP Watching Magnus Walker rip on his vintage Porsches on Youtube motivated me to take her out for a spanking this morning and test out the new shocks and springs. Great fun blasting around the rural roads around Coatsville / Waimauku and Helensville - this old M20 just keeps pulling hard to the redline and loves it - has really been singing since @BMTHUG adjusted the valve clearances. New suspension is good too - firm enough for fun but not too crashy - its never going to ride as well as my E46, but no issues at all. Couldn't resist a little photo shoot of course.

Maybe he knew sunroofs are more hassle than they are worth and decided to save some $

I second this. From my experience with Turners they have a habit of changing critical auction information just before an auction.... Currently its stated as registered but you would need to double check during the auction to ensure they haven't just magically decided to de-register the car.

After about 18 months of failing to get an E30 out of my head, I managed to secure my affordable dream car. A 1989 (Built Sep 1988) M325i in Lachssilber. This is the exact colour and spec car that became etched in my brain 20 plus years ago when a well-off school friend's father had one in the mid-late 90s. Before I owned my E46 I had always assumed old BMWs were prohibitively expensive to maintain. Car popped up on Facebook, I got lucky and called the seller within 5 minutes of the post (was the 2nd caller) , built a bit of rapport and did the deal a few hours later. The previous owner is a great guy who has owned and loved it 20 years, although in the last 5 or so it's seen limited use so is in need of a bit of a birthday. I have to say however, for 33 years and 389km it is in good shape. In addition to all the standard M325i goodies it has a spicy Remus exhaust, Dobi / Koni suspension, 22mm and 16mm whiteline swaybars and a short shifter - things I would have done anyway. I still need to get under it and have a proper nosey, but have pulled together a to do list for the next 6 months: Maintenance Cambelt / Waterpump / Tensioner / Coolant / Drive belts Valve adjustment / Spark Plugs / Valve cover gasket Oil and filter / Gearbox and Diff Fluid / Fuel Filter / Air filter Rust treating for few small surface areas / clear sunroof drains / replace elephant drain Sort intermittent ABS light before my next WOF Fuel Lines / Vacuum Lines New tyres - 15" RE003 or 16" PS4 depending on wheel choice Steering coupler / Control Arms (with Powerflex offset M3 CABs) / Tierods Shocks / Springs / mounts - Will likely get a matched ST Suspension set - 50mm / 40mm with thicker rear spring pads for saggy butt Strut brace - I'm guessing a car this old and used could benefit? Engine mounts and transmission mounts Exterior DIY repaint mirror + rear window trims in meantime Full paint correction and detail Replace all faded / blacked out badges / decals with new OEM Exterior Trim refresh - front grills and kidneys / door handles / B pillar trims Euro plate Refurbish Basket weaves (or more likely get 16" Alpina / 16" Weaves reproduction wheels - undecided) Finish detailing engine bay and restore a few parts cosmetically Tackle rust gremlins - sunroof tray and few small bubbles in roof skin / boot and boot seal Respray roof / boot / drivers door and rear right quarter after rust work - other panels are excellent Interior Refurbish Mtech 1 380mm wheel inc new badges New plush floor mats Condor 'Shorty' Gear knob and Stitchboots shift and brake boots in Anthracite Uberkaro Bluetooth stereo in 'period correct' style - BMW Radios Reverse RDS customised with text / bluetooth / mic / pre-outs Refinish interior plastics and parcel tray / carpet Re-upholster full interior including door cards - Anthracite Uberkaro Re-foam and rebuild drivers seat with new shocks etc Needs odometer gears so will tart up the cluster while I'm in there Mtech 2 370mm wheel and restore that 2023 and Beyond RTABs / Diff carrier / Subframe bushes Shifter rebuild Beat on the M20 until it needs a rebuild and stroker 🤣 Looking forward to driving and improving this beauty!

Some photos on our first 2 weeks with the E60 M5 while we where traveling about 2,500+ kms on both South Island and North Island. Oddly enough it was reliable, clutch was getting sketchy when it was doing its bridal car duty for my friends, possibly due to 30c heat and I did downshift it a bit. We also encountered 1 red cog error after going down slowly on a 200 meter driveway, I think the computer panicked or got confused... it was a really stop and go moment for the tranny. Turn off and on the car seems to have sorted it. I then did it again a few more times but just set to neutral and coasted it down. Overall it is a great touring car on the country side (V10 sound is really different), just avoid the city and it is a very fun car. Hopefully with proper maintenance and luck we get to a keeper and we could use every now and then going around NZ. Our R34 has now retired of its road trip duties, now it's only used for cruising on nearby places until it gets upgraded. We saw a few BMWs along the way, not sure if they are here on this forums including a 650i F06. Thread that started this adventure: New here, seriously thinking about E60 M5 - New Member Introductions - bimmersport.co.nz

The 96 Byzanz Evo Sedan is back on TM. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3499675862 I nearly bought this car (from a private owner) for $23k two and a half years ago but, perhaps foolishly, felt that 200k km was too high for an investment car, little did I know... Anyway, this dealer bought it and put it up for sale for. $28k (IIRC) at that time. It has had some work done and some repainting, as it had some clear coat issues previously. A bit of an aside, this is 1 of 2 NZ New Evo sedans on TM without sunroofs. I don't understand why anyone would order a special car like this without a sunroof. I come from the northern hemisphere where I have never seen a single E36 M3 without a sunroof.

As the title suggests I am looking for replacement front door trims for my E90. I need trim that has the tweeter grills as I am replacing my base audio system with a totally new one. The parts I am after are shown in the picture below. Ideally no logo but beggars can't be choosers. If anyone has any suggestions on where in NZ I could source something like that I am all ears.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/BMW-parts/128i/Automatic-Transmission/?year=2008&m=20&e=2053&t=5&b=9&d=829 I went with the BMW fluid. And chucked in some Dr Tranny's shudder fix which solved my slight vibration at low RPM. This French built GM gearbox is in many vehicles.

ZF OE kit from FCP etc and Penrite ATF BMV (based on Ford Falcon's ive done with the same box). Probably other brands of fluid that meet the spec but Penrite is easy and cheap to get locally.

There's no right or wrong answer Jun, you'll do what's best for whatever the circumstances you and your family are in. Timing is a crystal ball exercise... I sold my m135i early in the year and it seems there aren't a whole heap of buyers in the market with cash and ready to go. I've got a mate who is selling a (very good) E63 who's finding the same. If getting top dollar is important there's little evidence I've seen that it's out there at the moment - unless talking collectibles which are a different market again... but it only takes one person - and you need to be in the market when they are. Having seen your car, and how well it's been looked after - if I knew of anyone wanting a good e60 M5; I know the direction in which I'd be pointing them. Whichever way you go, all the best.

Thanks @Sammo, will need to catch up for a beer and take her for a spin. You never got to see her in the flesh.

Sold for $16.5k with confirmed B20

Speaking of which... project anyone? https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/m5/21987750

These are super tempting. I've thought about just grabbing one and immediately doing the bearings diy. It's not that expensive and not that complex of a job. There's no other car you can get with a 5L V10 for that money.

it's been a weird week. Went about trouble shooting the cold idle, back tracked what I had done and started again. Everything checked out. Ran like a champ warm but was like it had lost it's cold start functionality. Since motronic 1.3 has no manual adjustment for idle speed and all the inputs seemed to be working i swapped out an ECU for another one I got off Bimmersport a while back. Last time I used this ECU i had this bucking/lurching in every gear around 2500 rpm (which lead me to rebuild the driveshaft..which was good to do regardless). This ECU has a fuel map tuned for "Marks Rally Car" which i understand had a nice set of headers on it, my car has no 02 sensor and no cats so i guess is reasonably unrestricted. Swapped ECU's and its fired up perfectly. Hot run out to the hut has yielded the best fuel economy yet of 10.1L/100km (according to the OBC anyway) car feels strong, and I think that lean condition/stumble was probably because I was running 91 octane last time this chip was in the car, now I'm on 95 it's purring. After idling for a while it does have a little 50rpm stumble but it's very minor and seems to correct itself. It's still got the old VCG on it but once I'm happy with the valve adjustment I'll put on the Victor Reinz one i got off Gavin @euroitalian. Great service and prices as always from Gavin. I got the power steering reservoir o ring for the E46 off him too. Cert tomorrow for the gearbox swap.

Ordered some wheels - been looking at these for a while but shipping / tax made me hesitate. https://www.classiceuroparts.com/product/16-wheel-set-for-bmw-1502-1602-2002-tii-e21-e30-alpina-4x100-staggered-7j-8j/ Maxilite Alpina Replicas - yes, I know... but these a quality, TUV certified wheel and half the price of Alpina 30-35 year old cast wheels which may or may not need repainting. Also means I can afford to keep my 15" weaves and change up the look as I like. I found their Australian distributor who was a fair bit cheaper, and will split the consignment so I am saving on the shipping (vs US / Europe) and the duty - still not cheap, but much more palatable. I went for a staggered setup - purely for looks of course - more lip and filling out the rear guards - 16x7 and 16x8. Now I need to decide what rubber to put on the rear - 225/45/16 is the correct size but options here are very slim indeed. I may run 205/50/16 all-round as there are plenty of quality options in that size.