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05-07 March 2022. 186794kms It had been sitting patiently since November while we took care of more renovation work at home, and resettled into our new kitchen. I had no time for the e60, though did run it up once a month to operating temperature and dry the condensation from the exhaust. Having a little more time together, it was time to get it sorted. Renewing the insurance last week was a reminder I'm nearly at 5 years ownership. 1. Polished Headlamp Lenses The headlamps were looking a little yellowed. Time for a spruce-up. On Saturday afternoon I set up and used the Turtle Wax kit, and was suitably impressed. This kit uses ‘clarifying paste’, a special lube (ooh err matron), and four grades of very very fine wet and dry. Once the wet and dry refinishing is completed, you apply more clarifying paste, and buff off after drying. Finally there's two wipes - a base coat, followed by a sealant coat. It then takes 24 hrs to cure, though the instructions say you can use the car. End result was very good in my opinion. I took my time, playing an 80's funk playlist on Spotify while I worked, and took about two hours all up. Pretty good finish! powered by Funk I left it till Monday morning to have plenty of time to cure. 2. WoF It flew through it's WoF today. Front tyres at 6mm, rears at 5mm. No advisories. Commentary "This is sooooo nice to drive! It's got the same pickup as my 550i, and doesn't have the loud exhaust. Don't let it go cheap, it's a really good one. Find it a good home". Front (Right I think) Front (left I think) Right Rear Left Rear 3. Registration 12 months rego bought and paid for, now current to 31/3/2023. 4. Next steps Give it a thorough valet, clean the interior and use colorlock leather finisher, do the steering wheel, photograph it, advertise it, find it a new home. It's been a brilliant five years, a superb car. I shall miss it.

Hi team My most recent buy, its a Japanese imported (first NZ owner) 2009 BMW 135i M-Sport with 95k on the clock. Completely stock. Not many plans for it, fix up the sh*t headlights, rear boot lip spoiler, maybe a Stage 1 MHD tune and an aluminium charge pipe. Wanting to keep it standard and reliable (lol).

All it’s done is push up the wholesale price of half dead Leafs (Leaves?) at the auctions in Japan. So the consumer gets zero benefit.. And dickheads get to ask if they can buy a $115k BMW EV for $80k so they can get the rebate…

Lowering the radiator. 30mm lower. 20-30 forward for 4 inch intake. Nephew beemer wanted to bw worked on.

OK, so Biarritz is all back on the road. Latest round of work included; Finishing timing chains, guides, tensioners, vanos seals. Intake manifold gaskets and all gaskets and O rings associated with getting into the engine... Then spark plugs, fuel filter, transmission mounts, and finally out the back for lower suspension ball joints and integral links. The engine is a bit cruddy internally so a few short interval oil changes coming up after some decent highway driving. Also the repaired and repainted front bumper (with new knockoff East European pork chops) has been fitted and it's quite an improvement on the old nose. M5 style grid. I'm pleased the colour match came up OK. My new spray gun worked great so gives me confidence to try more paint stuff... It's fair to say I'm liking this car - must be the colour...

Hi guys. . and girls..and...yea... Dony know if this is the right place or even if I can put this here. ... I recently started up my own Workshop called HIGHSPEK in Carr road Mt Roskill Auckland. Just to let everyone know that Im still in setting up stage but I can do servicing and maintenance work, some repairs and Diagnosing with a Launch Scan tool. And yes...that is how we spell "fulids" in SaKiwi standard😉

Groups are much better than marketplace even though exposure is limited. Supporting scummy trademe is last resort for me these days.

I bought the stock hifi ones, not the Logic 7 upgraded ones. I stumbled upon a clearance sale on fcpeuro so paid $55US for two. Also why I bought the H8 bulbs, they were too cheap.

Well-used (front bumper appears to have been used for target practice) manual E46 M3 in Kaiteriteri

All parts arrived from Schmiedmann undamaged thankfully, but it was an absolute mission to get them to ship the order to me due to parts out of stock, then me adding more parts to the order and probably a fair bit of lost in translation and assumptions. Next time I'll definitely order parts that are in stock lol. Bit of an update, cars been running fine with no issues. Currently have an absolute pile of parts in the garage and house to throw at the car, including the sump gasket/motor mounts which I've been trying to get done for more than a year now 😅 It's nearly happened a few times and I will again say that it'll get done, probably after covid now realistically. Other mechanical parts are the new rotors and brake pads plus brake sensors. Nothing really wrong with the current ones so they'll get done after covid too! I've been ordering cosmetic parts for the car for the last 6 months and finally most have arrived. It's well overdue, as the car was not as cosmetically tidy as I would have liked since buying it a couple years ago, but the unexpected mechanical issues and servicing have been the priority. I've fitted some over the new year, including this nice new idrive surround fresh from the dealer. The old one was pretty worn. Also gave the car interior a thorough detail, with my new cleaning supplies, and started exterior ceramic spray with a regular clean(yay snow foam) and its really been looking good over summer. Pic from Hardpark in January. Also replaced my Work Emotion centre caps with new ones as made the mistake of pressure washing the old ones a bit too closely 😅

Sold for $16.5k with confirmed B20

From my limited Mercedes experience they aren't the easiest cars to sell. The older ones certainly dont appear have the fan base numbers in this country like they do in US etc.

Given the recent maintenance this one might even be leak free and I reckon you could pick it up for close to $7k (2006, auto). https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3502766603 That's a couple of grand worth of maintenance you won't have to worry about for some time.

Choice brruh

Agree. Sold my E34 via the E34 group in less than an hour. Target the groups that love the cars. Engage with fellow enthusiasts. Marketplace and Trademe are tough going.

All good @NZ_InFerno and actually makes sense to keep with the car. Should've said in my post - awesome work too!

Nice work @NZ_InFerno! As a matter of interest, which tweeters did you get? Can you post a part number or FCP link? Everything I follow ends up in ambiguity.

@NZ_InFerno - what's your plan for the old gear knob? could be interested as a temporary one for the e31 until I can find a period correct m-logo gear knob...

Finally got around to putting the ‘vert in for a WoF check - and it passed, yay! That should make it piss down for the next three months..

Schmiedmann parts that arrived today: Msport Gearknob New oem Indicators New bmw fuel filler cap Alcantara Wheel insert BMWP 🤤 I've also had factory H8 bulbs and new factory tweeters from fcpeuro sitting here for a month, a new stock wheel insert(long story) and a new leather steering wheel cover from Mewant too. So once all this is done, it's going to be a very fresh interior. Still waiting on the new grills from Schmiedmann but otherwise everything's here to significantly improve the outside and inside cosmetically. Started fitting some bits today: Old gear knob vs New gear knob, I would highly, highly recommend this Msport knob if only for the incredible shift feel. Its such an improvement it literally feels like I've put a new gearbox in the car. I've changed gearbox oil, upgraded shifter bushings and the shift has felt better than when I purchased with each one but not brilliant. Now it's brilliant. And actually fits my hand unlike the BMWP knob which shifted nicely but way too smol. The 130i has smelt of fuel the last couple of months after longer drives, found that it was coming from the fuel cap. Which as you can see below, is not only missing the attaching plastic but the rubber seal is pretty deteriorated. Next job when the weather clears are these bad boys, they're very yellow even after being polished a couple times. New ones slot right in, hopefully 😂

Nice, little ducktail on the rear and LCI style LED tails would look great too.

This thread is equal parts inspiring and off-putting. Good on you for saving these beasts!

Hello, from the other side(of the world) ps I placed this order in September 😫

nice car, these are pretty reliable if you maintain them well, would probably recommend doing spark plugs and possibly ignition coils if they haven't been changed, before tuning it, very common for misfires to start occurring after tuning.

Nah, somehow stumbled upon the same set of wheels but in literally brand new condition 😄 Difference with these is marginal but thought since I'm getting all new rubber anyway, might as well let these go and someone might get some actual use out of the front tyres.

Ordered a new set of rubber all round in the end. Went with Dunlop Sp Sport Maxx 050+ off Hyper Drive, 225/40R18 front, 255/35R18 rears. I wanted the same tyres all round and these were one of the few options they had both the fronts and rears in the right sizes. Reviews seemed decent enough so will see how they go. In preparation, spent a good 6 hours on Saturday scrubbing the living daylight out of the wheels. Cleaned up really well with just a few minor black spots that I didn't want to go too hard on in fears of scratching up the top coat. With my wrists and back absolutely killing me, sat down for a minute scrolling through FB and... stumbled upon these. Typical. Haven't seen a set of these pop up locally forever and suddenly there's two sets in one week. When it rains it pours... Went to check them out and was blown away. Apparently had come off a new car having done all of 800km and have been sitting in boxes ever since. And they certainly looked it. A couple of tiny marks but absolutely no kerbing. The original set I bought looked really good as is so the difference is very marginal, but the difference is there. And since I'm getting all new rubber anyway, thought I'd pass the other set on and someone might get use out of the newish fronts instead of them going to waste. So if anyone's after a clean set of Style 193's... Funnily enough, just like the first set, bought these off a guy that got them to go onto his 130i only to discover the fronts stick out too much 😄 They look so good that I'm now looking to get them ceramic coated before going onto the car. Anyone have any product recommendations in that regard, and if it's even worth going the DIY route on? Might also just wait until I switch to the 330 brakes with new ceramic pads as the current ones produce more dust than a bloody steam train.

No worries then

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.

No need to presume, read the official info on the NZTA web-site if you don’t believe the info posted above. Details have just been changed again, with less than four weeks to implementation, gee thanks ministers. Apparently it’s not a tax it’s a “feebate” according to the legislation. But yeah, most people would call that a tax!

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

Digging this old girl out. Has not run since 2015. After living overseas, multiple delays acquiring a property and building a shed, I finally have somewhere to work on it. Goodbye container. Will get an entire new look I think. Though unlikely to race in the BMW series again. More for hill climbs and club events at Manfield.

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.

I would just like to add to the numerous rants pertaining to selling an item on Facebook Marketplace. So I recently listed for sale my 2006 Audi S8 V10 on Trademe (I actually sold it last weekend), and along with it I also listed my 2006 Audi S6 V10 on Facebook Marketplace. I had bought the S6 on a whim for three reasons; it was cheap, had thousands in receipts, and would be some temporary fun. The car has a suspected blown head-gasket. When I went and looked at it there was some oil in the coolant but it wasn't overheating and it was running fine, no bubbles in expansion tank and no milky residue in oil, so I bought it. Drove it over an hour home, bombed around in it for a few days, noticed it was using heaps of coolant and then saw milky residue was starting to form on the oil cap. No worries, the car was primarily bought because it has had a brand new intake manifold costing $4.7K just for the part and new injectors which were over $2K along with a stack of other work such as new high pressure fuel pump seals etc. Along with this its got all the S6 goodies like bucket seats, big brakes, carbon fibre interior trim, bose audio etc etc. If anything happened to the S8 my plan was to take whatever bits I wanted off the S6 and then part out the rest and probably make most of my money back, if not turn a profit. But since I was selling my S8 it made sense to get rid of the S6 which was sitting out on the road doing nothing and I couldn't be bothered parting it out, so onto Facebook Marketplace it went with a price of $4.4K (just wanted what I paid for it which was $4K). Bare in mind the car still runs and drives, has WOF and Rego and is 100% complete, so can either be fixed, at which point its probably worth around 13K or could be parted out for heaps of $$$ too. Well naturally because its cheap I got over 60 messages about it. At least half are the typical "Is this still available", to which I reply and then get left on seen. - I've had at least 5 people pledge to buy the car and then ghost me/not turn up. The most recent example offered to send me a deposit to secure the car, to which I stupidly replied saying "we can just sort this all in one go when you come to collect it", and fast forward 2 days and he does a no show, even though we had discussed loading the car onto his trailer etc etc. - I have one unlikeable individual who messages me daily offering 2.5K and asking when he can come collect it; like bro I can take 2 things off this car and sell them for more than you are offering, and anyway with an attitude like that, I would rather give away the car than sell it to you. - I've been offered countless trades. An E65 730D (which honestly looked quite nice)... until I was told it has an air suspension levelling fault, manual Suzuki Swift, NZ New E39 530i M Sport + 1K (was actually very tempted by that one), a tuned 1.8T Audi A3.... with no wof and reg, Mazda 6... but DIY painted orange and with a massive rear wing etc etc. - But what takes the cake for the best trade I have been offered was a straight swap for a de-registered Dodge Caliber needing a clutch master cylinder. Like yeah what a great deal, maybe if you throw in 5K my way I will consider... To add some salt to the wound the car decided to snap its bonnet latch the other day so I can't even run it for long because I can't put coolant in it, so my original plan of putting some headgasket stop leak in and seeing how many minutes/hours/days/weeks of added fun I can get can't be done. Spent 3 hours trying to sort it but you really need an inspection camera to sort it and I don't want to spend any money on this car lol. So at this point I'm so fed up with them all I almost have enough motivation to start parting the car out just to prove a point, especially when I have people requesting parts off it already... until I remember that I will have to deal with people like this when I'm selling parts for it. Heaps of money to be made though with the gearbox, intake manifold, injectors, ignition coils, cats, wheels, bucket seats, HID lights etc. Hell even the block would be worth some money for someone to make a coffee table out of! But can I be bothered? Thats the real question. But anyway, vent over.

Haha @balancerider that is my car, lent it to a friend over from Munich to take tot the ciry

Worked til 11 last night. Modifying exhaust to quiten and completing...again 6am till 8am to go for re inspection...

Oh man I'm glad there was a picture of an actual sword when I scrolled down a little further 😅

Over on Bluey, the reassembly of the engine can begin with the Vanos rebuild complete, the timing system goes back together with new rails, chains, tensioners, etc...