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Been a while since I posted anything but thought I would post some of my rough old wagon. Bought it late 2019 and fixed it up somewhat over the first lockdown. Did a big road trip all over the south island with it in late 2020. Then in early 2021 I moved from Auckland to Queenstown and didn't have access to a garage anymore so it hasn't been getting as much attention as it did when I was trapped at home and had nothing else to do. It's Still running pretty well, has a couple of little things playing up but other than that it's been a good reliable daily. The ski season and access trails haven't been particularly kind to the suspension and a couple of possums have made my bumper a bit mangled (anyone got a silver m-sport one lying around...), and not to mention the various dents that came with it when I bought it. It's been a great car though has served me well over the last couple of years, three cities, and 30,000km. I have picked up a Prado 120 to start doing the ski runs up the remarks and for the trailhead to save my poor car from some more pain. Bonus of the prado is it makes my 330i's consumption feel like a prius... Highlight was having the Milford Road all to myself earlier this year. I Installed an Avin Avant 4, works great and it's good having carplay. My car didn't come with the OEM radio so this has been a huge upgrade for it. Not pictured is the absolute carnage the previous owner had left when they installed their radio. Loaded up with all my sh*t. Cleaned up after the big trip. Whispbars always good. Routeburn trailhead. Another unkind and brutal road. First snow of 2021. Coronet Peak, my preferred mountain since its mostly sealed... And stuck on coronet peak on the most mild of inclines. 🙃 No comment. Bought a set of mint winter tyres for $100. Night and day difference on snow and ice. Extra sidewall helps heaps as well. Big clean after the winter season. The 21 year old paint still has a decent bit of shine. Made a friend. Putting the winters back on for 2022. Can't understate what a difference the winter tyres make down here.

Can an admin round all these threads up and dump them in one place? They're spreading quicker than covid.

Had to visit Botany Town Centre today, found it hard to argue with the stereotypes come from somewhere line - new blacked out X7, illegally parked, which even with every driving aid short of a direct connection to the brain still managed to nearly back into me at some speed. FFS!!

The $4500 I paid for my one back in late 2019 was a pretty good deal in comparison. Just don't ask me how much I have spent on maintenance...

Quick wee update. Had no luck finding a spare head locally. A few places claimed to have one but either couldn't find it or just failed to get back to me, so those hopes fell through. Unfortunately also, the head on @wrs' engine turned out to be borderline unusable. Was super helpful though that he went through the effort of stripping it off and taking it in to his local machine shop to get tested before going through the trouble of shipping it down. Top man, greatly appreciated. My wagon had decided to spit the dummy and started misfiring in the meantime so it made it an easy decision to park it up and start tearing it apart. Rolled it into the garage and spent all of last week tearing into it. Finally got the head off on Sunday, stripped it and took it in to the machine shop yesterday. They did a quick hardness and straightness test on it and it looks all good to use! Much better than the first candidate I took in so well chuffed with that. Will have them clean, pressure test and seat the valves properly, as well as getting the injectors tested and cleaned. Should be a week or two before I get it back but happy to be making progress again. Happy days.

Blurb from the maker: The Meister M1 3P is a true three piece modular construction wheel. Each wheel is constructed with our advanced forming outer and inner rim barrel with bolt on center disk. The advantage of three piece wheels are, strength, rebuildable and wider rim width. Very popular with larger sport coupe that require wider rim width. I have them since October; had them on the 550i GT (F07) and now on my F02 760Li. Amazing looking wheels, but since I'm selling the car I might do better selling these hard to get wheels separately (and stick the original BMW Individual wheels back on the 760Li). Previous owner had them on a BMW M4 (with a spacer for clear front brakes). Offsets are 15 Front, 25 Rear and sizes are (approx, actually hard to decipher Work Meisters partnumbers) 8.5" front and 9.5" rear. I'm also supplying the genuine (which were $450 a set) Work Meister Center Caps, which are an optional extra usually. Currently fitted with new Michelin PS4's (245-45-19 and 275-40-19) which are not supplied but available to buy too. These are stock tyre sizes for larger BMW like the 7. Asking: $3500. Location: Wellington (though Pack and Send is approx $330 shipped throughout NZ)

The illicit lovechild of a 1930s 328, a 1969 Fiat Gamine Vignale, and a 2021 R18 ?

Hey, I bought them from a guy who replaced his as his tuner requested that as preventative maintenance before tuning his car, they worked perfectly fine. For new ones, definitely go FCP euro, 300NZD shipped for a pair, otherwise local wreckers will sell them out of crashed cars, try @HELLBM, or @BM WORLD

He may not be back but that's not really helpful advice. Be better.

Gets a "pops and bangs tune" and "straight pipe" wonders why car is sh*t. Replace that junk. Call it a life lesson

Was suppose to photograph the E30 for sale photos today 😓, but by the time i gave it a vac the sun had come out. Ended up washing the E46 as it's been pretty neglected lately, was quite satisfying to clean some of the gunked up drain areas in the engine bay, although note to self...do it BEFORE i clean the rest of the car next time. The steering wheel has worn in nicely now, it's not as slippery as it was at first and looks a bit more natural. Had a few mins before child pick up and the sun had ducked behind the clouds so snapped a few pics.

115,800km Tracked down some style 68's from Weitz. The front left could do with a refurb but it's the daily so not too concerned for now. Front tyres are nothing special but pretty new. Rears might scrape through the next WOF so looking to replace these soon.

I did similar about 18 months ago but M50B25 non-vanos instead. The M50 vs M52 is dimensionally the similar so what I learned should directly apply to what you want to know. Here's a link to the project: I wouldn't think you'd get much improvement with just the displacement increase - you'd need to do cams and intake work to get the best from it. The M52B28 comes with pink-top injectors so you should have enough fuel for anything NA you can do to this engine... I got reasonable results but still need to do a few more changes and re-tune to take full advantage.

Thanks - good points!! The pedal has 20mm of movement before it starts to load up. This photo shows the slave cylinder: It's a view looking up from under the car. The bleed valve points downwards off the bottom of the cylinder - how can trapped air bleed out of the cylinder with this configuration? I guess the slave cylinder has to be removed and bled with the valve pointing up?