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We had a value guide for the silver coupe two weeks ago - $41,100 😂

Probably showing my age but I've never even heard or seen one of these before. What an absolute ugly duckling! Can't be many/any of these on NZ roads ey? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3689239009?tm=email&et=45&mt=53E77B08-ED47-4D1F-BC56-B57F12F5D728&bof=w48vhFAH

20 years new IMG_4408.MOV

Akebono Ceramic: very little dust and they last FOREVER. Literally. Mine have been on about 9 years, ~90k kms, same rotors, still tons of meat on the pads, and the slotted rotors are wearing very sparingly. Downside is they have no initial bite like OE Textar/ATE etc, and they need to be warm. Would not buy again, would not recommend. Choose stopping over cleanliness! Just buy the Hawk HPS and be done with it. Reasonsable dust (nothing like OE), great braking performance. In fact - next time, assuming my car retains M54B25, I'd just put Hawk HPS pads on with braided lines and wouldn't bother with the 330 brake upgrade, it's unwarranted. In your case though, going with B30 I think the 330 brake setup is a wise precaution. The HPS are great for street use, I hve them on my e60 and e30. Steering Coupling: Go genuine. It'll last another 15-18 years, and you'll have no issues with increased NVH. Why wouldn't ya? Sensors: VNE are excellent. ISTR it was VNE came off my e60 when exhaust cam sensors were replaced. O2 Sensors: I replaced all four, it purrs like a kitten now. Bosch. Discussed this with a BMW Master Tech (after I'd done it) and recounted what a difference it made to the running, responsiveness, and fuel economy;, he concurred and wondered why more people didn't do this. Again, why wouldn't ya? They're not expensive, and they're part of the DME control. Power Steering Pump LF20: Your car was spec'd with it, why wouldn't you continue with it? Overthinking - quite possibly. New or a good used unit (most have the same issues). @Autoglym you've some e46 Power Steering experience, what do you recommend? Was it the LF30 you found painful? HTH

You could just throw your gearbox in and see what its like?. My old E39 ZF box had 310,000km on the original detents so its not like they all have issues. Mine current one has a slight lean\stick coming out of 5th when dead cold but ive never experienced any shifting problems. I don't think dropping the box is much of an issue if its going to save me a un-needed expense but certainly a subjective thing. If you can pickup a good used LF-20 and use the good hoses its probably going to save you a fair bit of money. If i had to rank them id say cam\ crank are probably the most common failures, followed by the MAF either hard or soft failure, most O2's have soft failed and are slow compared to new. Maybe the oil level sensors sometimes go but not really important. Never seen\heard any of the others fail and if they do its probably very rare and easy enough to ID or diagnose. Just do the pre cat O2's, no point in post cat ones (flash with EU2 DME firmware to delete them and SAP if you have them) I did VNE cam sensors and intake air temp, VDO MAF and crank sensor and Bosch O2's, basically the performance related ones. All same as originals and wouldn't use anything else myself for critical engine sensors, piece of mind they reading as intended and should have good lifespan. Running Akebono's. Don't have quite the initial bite like the OE semi metallics do but yeah much much cleaner. Havent really pushed them under hard driving though. I just used the OE coupler as OE car and set and forget. Probably get you one trade price, think it was low mid $300. Didnt find any much cheaper overseas by the time shipping etc was added.

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

Finally got power to my new hoist. Excitedly I chucked each car on it to have a look. I think I was better off not knowing. The old Daihatsu 4WD needs every bush. Every single one. The AMG's rear tyres are through to the wires. Woops. And the sump is leaking. The 130 has an Exhaust leak. And a new oil leak. The S13 has many S13 issues. I'm too scared to put the E34 on there. It may never leave. Oh and the low profile lift jack.... yeah not even close. Going to modify that for sure.

No and its tacky AF. 28K, "no known bodywork damage" and this is the front alignment. I also hate the painted rear black moulding since it doesnt match the rest \ Its a nice car, but im seeing a few things that would concern me, and a few things that indicate to me that the previous owner wasnt too fastidious about its condition.

Ugh... the M3 logos on the seats are gaudy. That's not factory, is it?

PS: You realise your Touring has not just a song, but an entire theme album? https://open.spotify.com/album/1QYq1fGyMvbGtvEla84FtC?si=S1ZvsXLrS3anxWUo986lmQ

Took my car for an alignment at a place in Hamilton yesterday because it's wandering all over the place at higher speed and is super quick to turn in, so I suspect the front is toed out a bit much. It has been happening since I got my new rear tyres and an alignment (for which I wasn't provided the spec sheet for). The owner came out and had one look at my car and said the problem is my brand new Atturo tyres and that whoever put these on should be shot. Without saying much more -or asking me- he went inside and got on the phone for 5 minutes to price up some replacement Pirellis for $3000(not a great deal but not too bad either I guess). He then proceeded to lecture me like am some sort of ignorant pleb about how there's a manufacturers spec tyre for these cars that they spend millions of dollars in R&D on and that he would never dream of putting anything other than Pirelli Corsa's on his McLaren. We "agreed" that it would be wasting my money to get the car aligned and that I would think about replacing my tyres for the ones that are meant for my car and they would throw in an alignment for free. f**king wanker. I'm not saying it's not the cheap tyres causing the issue, but the car needs to be aligned first to check that the basics are correct before replacing parts willy nilly. Called up another place and had a chat and they said bring it in Tuesday and they will check out what's going on and provide some advice from there.