Leaderboard

I crank the engine, and she fires right up. Awesome, no power steering whing. Now I press the clutch in...grind noises... oh no... clutch in again... still grinding noises start around 70% throw, and I can feel them through the pedal...not good. Some research later, and I work out that the flywheel demands I use a taller throw-out bearing from an E21 323i. Well sh*t...gearbox out again. Jumping ahead, wear marks are visible on the end of the clutch fork, and where it made contact with the clutch pressure plate body. Sourced the correct throw-out bearing, here is the E21 323i one (right) compared to the standard E30 M20 one (left). It's quite a bit taller, which should space the fork further away. Jumping ahead again, car is back together. Starting it, pressing in the clutch, no more grinding sounds. Fantastic, time to drive. Clutch was fairly grabby at first, and took some getting used to. After several weeks, it has bedded in nicely. The flywheel feels not too light, but allows the engine rev eagerly. With the new shifter, this thing is such a blast to drive!

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.

The way of the E30. Every E30 I have owned was just me reversing all the f ups the previous owners made after f'ing it up even more and having to redo or rebuild. The pains of a cheap sports car.... Oh wait.

I have been in pursuit of a nice tight and notchy shifter. I want as little slop as possible. A bolt action type experience. After replacing all of the bushings, I'm still not satisfied. Lucky for me, a local BMW enthusiast makes and sells beautiful floor mounted adjustable shifters. Very reasonably priced too, I had to pick one up, along with a fancy red shift rod bushing. Mocked up. The gearbox was also showing signs of worn detents, and I know they're a common maintenance item on the ZF 5 speed boxes. So I decided to take care of that while the gearbox is out. Refreshed detents, and shifter connected with Gargastic DSSR. Almost, ready to go back in. I was in a hurry at the time, so didn't get any pictures of the engine and gearbox going back in, but...installation was reverse of removal. Here you can see how the shifter mounts to the tunnel. Very happy with this setup. I was able to adjust the height to get exactly the throw I wanted. The extra height brings the shift knob up closer to the steering wheel. It feels as good as it looks. Thanks Arron! Bonus clip, some hot notchy shifter action: But the power steering needs to be sorted before I can drive.

I will say that that the 130 vs 135 argument goes out the window when you drive them back to back. That turbo torque is just addictive.

Good excuse to die and tap set if you haven't got one.

Not too much of an update for a while but things are ticking along. The main news being the Titan Silver 540 is now seriously for sale after a bit more work on it, paint being the main focus. $7,500. Please message me for further information.

Partially threaded one of my seat bolt holes, getting too complacent using the impact. I do love how I tend to learn the hard way every single time 😑

Picked up and installed the new backline taillights today, made a huge difference I think! left is new, right is old both done hoping to order LSD tomorrow, then onto getting wheels painted...

I'm looking for some e36 headlights any thing around? Unfortunately Ti headlights have different plugs. Cheers.

It's been a while, but progress has been made, so it's time for another update. I've had an RHD Engineering lightweight flywheel sitting aside for years, but I finally just got around to sorting out an M20 clutch to go with it. Along with the clutch, I want to replace the selector detents in the transmission, and upgrade the shifter situation. So the engine needs to come out once again. The power steering is still an issue, so I disconnected and drain the system. Some nasty metallic bits came out from right next to the pump. This basically confirms the pump is dying. Pressing on, engine out. Clutch, and flywheel removed. Lightweight flywheel installed. Clutch bolted up. More to come.

Probably goes out the window when you compare repair bills too. Personally i don't see one being better than the other as they both meet different requirements.

Oops, haven't updated in a while, and missed this. Except for the piping on the drivers seat coming apart, the seats are great. I will have to get a photo of it later, but the top layer of the piping has torn right at edge of the side bolsters. The leather underneath and stitching is all fine, so I'm considering trying to carefully cut away and remove all of the visible piping. I don't really want to restitch anything.

Nice. First BMW ive seen in NZ running style 72's (besides mine)

Must be the best value 540i ive ever seen for sale. Someone will get a good deal and wont have to spend 1000's down the line for once.

What a workhorse you have there 😉 I imagine the 3L would be lovely on those Central Otago roads. Have been really tempted by the AVIN 4. Did you get it direct from AVIN?

Had my cracked wheel welded... unfortunately it has cracked again already. If anyone has one for sale please let me know!!

What's next!?

8177861 and 8177862 (left/right) comes up as e36 skirts. In Europe they sell between €30-80. Would try around. NZ100?

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.

Same way they prove a driveshaft has been modified professionally. Show a recent receipt for the part/work. I guess that receipt should also not come from pick a part.

@Kobra Checking how those LSeat covers are going 6 months later? Picked up an M325i with ripped up anthracite cloth sport seats and considering going black leather DIY vs paying moon beams for OEM cloth reupholstery...

Did some maintenance, and went for another drive where the misfire developed again, but this time it stayed. Drove 20km home on 5 cylinders. Investigating the misfire, I read the errors from the ECU, and found that cylinder 6 was reporting a short to ground. Pulled the coils and found white corrosion in some of the spark plug wells, but cyl 6 was worst by far. Water must have collected in there. I cleaned them out as best I could, and got back to all 6 cylinders firing again. I played around with my tune a little more to make the decel timing less aggressive. Flashed the tune, and went for a test drive. Much improved for street driving, with a smoother transition on and off throttle. Happy with the results, but will probably play with it some more. Some photos from my test drive. And my favourite photo, a winter sunset in banks peninsula Looking forward to summer to go for some more decent drives.

Because Touring. Or, to put it another way: Because. Touring. Love. ❤️ ?