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Dealer confirms fault in OEM glass replacement. They are getting it back in a week or two to do the replacement in house and apparently there is an EGR cooler recall at the same time, two birds one stone. Hopefully that's the end of it!

Took this for a good drive, em very tasty. Definitely considering ordering

That's a Ford Mustang, why's it on a BMW forum 😁

HP2

Seats in, kind of. Need new bolts for the rear of rails, getting a torx bit in there just aint happening. Dont appear to have power on the passenger seat, will break out multimeter, must have got wrong pin as everything else is working (heater, cooler, power adjustments). Seats have WAY more adjustment range than stock, and at lowest position are about 1.5" lower than stock, much less "sitting on the car" feeling. Coding out the airbags takes 5 seconds, occupancy sensors, seat belt sensors, and pretensioners all still exist. Stock Msport electrics 27.7+27.7 = 55kg Recaros 20.4+24.6 = 45kg 10kg saved, with more bells.

Don't know about premium, they were cheaper than Re003 last time I bought them and performed better overall.

You’re welcome to come and try it out

Have RE003s as well. Was recommended Hankooks or Laufenns last time I asked about tyres, will be trying Laufenn LK03 when I replace my fronts

Plus 1 for RE003 Had them on my previous standard 130i manual and current N54 130i. Excellent in wet and dry and provide plenty of grip when the power goes down 😁

Definitely 18s, 17s are too small. RE003s are great bang for buck, places like Tonys tyres do good prices on them.

Have stripped down a M50B25 donor engine ready to become a M50B32 rebuild. The M50 crank, rods and pistons are available to anyone who wants them - just pay freight. Also have a M54B30 block left over as the donor for the M54 crank and rods for my new stroker build - again, just pay freight. The M54B30 head and rocker cover re already gone. If there's no interest then they'll be off to the metal recyclers.

debating between 17's or 18's. I need new rear tires so if I go up to 18's its a good time to do it. Also planning to switch from run flats to normal tires either way. What's a good value tire? Seems like people just default to the Michelin PS4's.

Im sure Engine Masters did it at one point and ended up with SFA difference. I'd hit that.

Pretty sure they're different to 2.8L (at least different stroke, possibly different rods and piston deck height). Actually came from a M50B25TU so inlet manifold is also the small type.

Ill have sit in it sometime to see what its like compared to all the used seats.

Had to dent my e55 headers for RHD. Made SFA difference to the headers.

I'll guarantee that was somebody's absolute pride and joy as it left the showroom floor. Even 20years later it looks terrific. Wonder why nobody bothered to save it?

With the drivers seat refreshed it’s super comfy the only issue being now I’m sitting on fresh foam I feel like I’m sitting higher in the car but I’m sure that will bed down. it’s great to have the support on both sides of the seat from the back and from the seat bottom. The reassembly process went without a hitch and I managed to not break any of the old trims which was really good.

f**k me, not again. Been covered more than enough times in threads on thousands of different topics. Closed.

Update For the cert I had to send the brake booster assembly to Wellington to the lvvta technical advisory committee to be assessed They said they would approve the design with some changes The pivot arm has to be made from 8mm steel (mine was 6mm same as factory) then I have to reduce the end thickness to fit the factory clevis 6mm The tube has to be fully tig welded on both sides (factory method was a mig stitch weld) Send it for non destructive testing (crack test,x ray?) So getting that underway now Its good to know these guys are making sure everything is as safe as it can be, While that was away for a month I decided to get the heater working,I put a new o ring in the heater tap because 1st leak,I re rounded the alloy heater pipe ends because leak 2,I removed heater core and took the end tanks off because leak 3. I really should have done all that before I put the carpet back in Im not sure if they’re worth trying to repair? Or are they all going to be close to being past there best before date? If I can even find one……

Acquired a 2001 530i a week ago that has been sitting for 7 years due to an abs fault that had never got round to being fixed. I thought old mate would of started the car every once in a while but no. Tried once about a year ago but to no avail. So have started down the rabbit hole into getting it going this weekend. First was to replace oil and filter. Was about half a litre of water came out first, and because the failed start a year ago, was water all through the oiling system and filter housing. I cleaned out all the gunk I could and put some oil into the filter housing to flush out what I could. After going through a few bits I tried to start it with no luck. After some digging found the fuel pump had seized. So have a new one on order and a fuel filter from fcp since it was cheap enough, and that should be here next week to give it another crack. I really only got it for the m54 if the rest wasn’t salvageable, and to put it in either the compact or the e30, but seems a waste to scrap the car with only 110k on it, and is a pretty tidy car, and my first 5 series, so would be nice to have one for a bit. But we’ll shall see what the abs issue is going to be

Waterpumps are weird beasts, some die at 30,000km, some at 300,000km. Its entirely possible to pull out a working 300,000km golden version waterpump, and bolt in a hand grenade. Normally imminent failure has warning signs first (like intermittent can communication faults). Best bet, rather than fix something that isnt broken, I think is to keep a waterpump and thermostat in the garage shelf, so if the warnings start popping up it can be changed quickly.

Continued tidying up the daily by making the interior somewhat habitable. Stripped out the seats and gave the carpets and floor mats a good clean with some drill brushes and a Bissell spot cleaner. Some real nasty spills and stains on both but cleaned up rather well. Also gave the leather seats a wee refresh with a deep clean and some moisturiser cream to bring them back to life a bit, as well as ripping out the remnants of some dodgy old aftermarket alarm system that wasn't working anyway. Will get onto destroying my fingertips through stripping the rubberised finish off all the scratched up centre console plastic bits next.

Oh, also got a letter for my drivers side airbag recall ... can't wait to take it in to BMW for that 😅 Need to setup some hidden cameras !!

Just got done with the wrenching marathon that was changing the oil pan gasket and some other bits on the daily. What an absolute PITA of a job! Kicked it off Sunday morning, finished 1am that day, continued Monday after work until finally having her back on her wheels at 3am... Even with the subframe dropped down, so little space with all the power steering and trans cooler lines in the way. Quite a few hiccups along the way. The most annoying one being getting the dipstick back in. Cleaned up the oil pan, got the new gasket on, RTV'd the joins on the underside, struggled wiggling the pan in place, started it on a few bolts and then spent half an hour trying to get the right angle for the dipstick to slide into the oil pan with no luck, just too much crap in the way on top. Ended up giving up and dropping the sump back down, cleaning everything up and starting over with the dipstick in place. Bloody frustrating game of tetris. Also changed out the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, engine mounts and alternator. Probably spent half the time cleaning up all the oil that had caked everything up. Not a perfect job but near impossible to get to everything without taking off the intake, which would have gone well beyond the scope of this mission. After a good 4 hours sleep, set off for work in the morning. Car started up fine but got the ABS and brake lights go off on the dash, as they sometimes do with the wheels off the ground for a while. Drove out onto the street, parked up and tried turning the car off and on only for it not to start again... Flat battery. Ran back home to grab the spare, got her running but from the voltage saw that the alternator wasn't kicking in. Figured the new one must have been faulty. Dammit. Pulled into the driveway and started pulling the intake back apart to put the old noisy one back in, only to discover I'd forgotten to plug the alternator cable back in... Classic 3am brain fog. Hopelessly late, finally set off for work only to hear a clunking noise coming from the front. It then hit me I'd also forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts after I'd dropped the car down from the jack stands... Bloody hell After catching up on lost sleep, tidied up some of the loose ends today so hopefully that's the end of my oil leak dramas for a wee while at least. Thank f**k that's over and done with.

Switching to my driver's seat renewal project, to renew my punished 22-year-old driver's seat with as fresh as possible foam. I scored a passenger sport seat back a while ago for the material, and have decided to use the foam and material for the refresh on the driver seat. As well as a new back frame from @hqstu The reason being is the Trimshop believes the outer bolster slackening the current seat has, is due to the seat chassis being bent, rather than just foam deterioration, the shape is defneatly off so doing both makes sense. The bottom is also ruined, with the chassis rail digging into my legs. Rather than muck around trying to find a good condition seat bottom, I've bought a new one from FCP because they are available (for now) and new is best, something the seat back is not readily available as. I will be reusing my material as it was repaired 2 years ago, So, the new seat cushion is a week away, and the back is more or less ready to swap out, so by the end of the month, I should have a decently refreshed driver's throne

Its more than the shield, Its about 10mm of the lip around edge of the bolt hole. 😕