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Having owned this wagon nearly eleven years (purchased 28 Mar 2012) and mentioned it several times over the years on this forum, "why not start a showroom thread" I wondered aloud yesterday - so here we are. A potted history I wanted another BMW, having sold my e30 325i Touring back in '01. Needed a replacement for our family car (A32 Maxima) and fancied an e39 Touring e39 eliminated as Mrs Olaf thought them ugly e46 fitted the bill, though in 2012 330i tourings were very rarely sold, and 325i's were generally ~$15-20k from dealers. e91 6 cyl were still over $20k and beyond my budget. This one had dropped from ~$16k to the $12k range. 112k kms, fresh import from Japan, good order, best colour - Orientblau metallic. Got it inspected, flew to Auckland and bought it. Drove it to Wellington, it broke down the next day (fuel gauge issue later sorted with replacement pump). Remedial maintenance sorted by BMW Specialist in Welly. Did an Easter Tour to Auckland and back laden with family and it performed flawlessly We've had lots of fun with it over the years and done a shedload of maintenance on it. Here it is about a fortnight after we bought it, after I'd spent time on full body detail. More later.

Up for sale is my 1996 BMW 540i I bought this for the BBS RKs it had and thought it would be a fun project to get legal and sell. It's got a bunch of AC Schnitzer stuff. It’s got the full kit: front and rear lip, side skirts, mirrors, spoiler, wheels, and it even has the ACS shifter, handbrake, and pedals on the inside. Performance wise it has the AC Schnitzer exhaust, an AC Schnitzer Strut Brace, ACS lowered suspension, and to finish it off it is running an Eibach sway bar at the front and some sway bar on the rear. I have also been told it has an AC Schnitzer tune, but I mean idk if that's actually true I haven't checked. In the time I have owned the car I have put a large amount of work into it to get it legal. The car has had a full service, I have replaced the oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and gearbox fluid and have replaced all associated filters along with the fuel filter and cabin filters as well. In addition to this routine maintenance, I have also replaced the front and rear rotors and pads, the alternator, the airbag clock spring, the centre tie rod, and almost all rear suspension arms and bushings, along with having the car aligned. The car is an absolute blast to drive, it outperforms and out-handles many lighter cars on the road. (Goes great on track too). It is also, owing to its ACS exhaust, the best sounding v8 I have personally heard in my life. The car still has a little bit of love required however. The car has a small amount of rust in the boot area that needs attending, there is a squeak coming from the front left suspension, and it seems like the power steering pump could be on its way out owing to a light whine while driving. Also the glove box is stuck closed and maybe the blower hedgehog is on the way out. In addition to this one its previous owners also decided to paint the engine cover and rocker covers blue. The front lip and wheels are unfortunately replica items, however all other ACS parts on the car are genuine. The car will also come with a genuine front lip for repair. Looking for somewhere around the 5k mark but am willing to negotiate. I've got more into the car than that but it is what it is and it's gotta go.

Went with the machinery house option as from experience with the basic riveting tool it can be tricky to apply force and have the rivet/nut stay properly seated.

Forum post quotes that include three pages of images 😆

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkxqv_IyI24

If you drive it like an M5 it will sit at the high end of that range, if you spend all your time trying to drive it frugally you have missed the point and should have got a nice 530i....

And those people who post a one line reply quoting the full three pages of images

Got the cover panel installed. Went to Mosen's here in Hamilton and Kerry let me cut it out. Wasn't easy getting a cutting it out with a clean cut, there are spot and mig welds along the edge and tools weren't the best for job. I also had to cut it in half and joint in when welding it in. I thought id try one of those air nibblers which are good as they don't distort the metal, not the most precise\neat things for trimming edges so i messed up cut too much off in some spots. When it's seam sealed and hidden it's not a big deal given its only a cosmetic panel. Sedan\touring have strenthening? indentations on the ends, coupe panels dont. If i had to do it all again i dont think id bother with the rear brace, im not convinced the benefit is worth the labour for this car. The front brace and the rear chassis legs are much less invasive to prep and install and fix the issue especially weaker fronts. You do see evidence of the front brace from the boot (trim raised due to spare) but if you have the liner then its basically hidden

Took up some arts and crafts for a change. Stripped down the scruffy looking driveshaft and bottom brace plates to bare metal and gave them 3 coats of low gloss paint. Came out quite nice. Left the U-joint part of the driveshaft untouched as I didn't want to get any of the actual pivoting bits caked in paint. Bolted and torqued the driveshaft up with a new center support bearing and that's the driveline sorted. Didn't feel like bolting on any rusty bits to went full stupid on the exhaust. Post fact realised that most of it was likely an absolute waste of time but happy to have some shiny exhaust tips at least. Onto less trivial stuff, busted out the laptop and tackled the coding/flashing part of things. All went without a hitch. Threw in the fully charged battery and got the latest 330i EU2 software installed, EGS coded out and adaptations cleared. Got rid of the gear cog from the cluster so must have worked alright. Haven't tried starting it yet but nearly at that point now. At the end of the night, went to roll the windows up by holding down the lock button on the key fob and was met with a pleasant WTF moment - along with the windows going up, the mirrors also folded in. The same mirrors that had refused to work all throughout my ownership. Absolutely no idea what the issue was and what fixed it but not complaining! Finishing touches now. Brakes and clutch fully bled through and feeling nice and firm. The old brake fluid had definitely seen some better days. Went through the underside and engine bay to double check that everything is bolted and connected up. Moment of truth tomorrow morning. Will see if she'll fire up, then hopefully go for a drive if all is looking well. Fingers crossed.

Not enough detail on "car was sold without knowledge". Likely car was not paid for, and sold to defray expenses... was it in fact 'stolen'?

Went to EWS coding and switched the transmission coding to manual which essentially gets rid of the need for the clutch switch to turn on. Happily started cranking away. Weird thing is, even before I did that I could have sworn I saw the clutch switch work looking at the live data, but now it does nothing. But that might have been the live data view in INPA instead. The real test will be whether it'll suffer from rev hang and fails to disable cruise control. Will see. If so then either the clutch switch has gone bad or I've messed up the wiring somehow. Anyway, cranked it for a good 10-15 seconds with the main relay and fuel pump fuse removed, then refitted them and... here we are. Didn't want to let it idle for long so shut it down after a steady 10 seconds or so. Plus the neighbours next door have barely a month old baby and this thing sounded like a bloody tractor with no exhaust on so didn't want to be a pest. Feels like the final mile of a long race. Didn't get as far as I hoped to today but touching distance now. Don't want to jinx it again so will just see how it goes. Also, don't know what people do with heat shields when manual converting but this really doesn't sit well with me. Did a quick post on FB asking what others have done and the recommended solution seems to be not to worry about it. Thinking I might pop by Pick-A-Part again, cut off a front section of a similar heat shield and tidily jam it in there somehow to fill the gap. Or, you know, might just hakuna matata.

Indeed, looks like the bumper needs to be adjusted up, which would hopefully fix the resting height of the bonnet. And FFS why don't people know how to hold a phone properly to take photos.

On the hunt currently. Most on Trade Me are early examples, looking for an LCI preferably, 2015 ish through 2017. What’s out there they people may be looking to part with? Drop me a DM. Cheers

Welcome. Looks to be a tidy catch, and the m40 motor while low on power was pretty reliable for me, was a nice engaging experience in a manual.

4k and negotiable, ripe for a manual swap? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3945277123 And 7k for a facelift auto from a dealer, drive away for $6.5k? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3944517817

That is basically my commute and I use the M5 once a week to keep everything working, it is more than enough to get everything up to temp and keep the battery topped up, but I can't justify the horrendous fuel bill for doing it every day! I also didn't want to get sick of the M5, and driving it to work everyday is a good way to make that happen with any car!

Mines a UK import and 99% rust free, I put it up on a hoist and checked it before handing over any money! The 1% is from stone chips incurred locally!

I also replaced the broken driver’s side rear quarter window with one of @M3AN’s spares. Now all of the window seals are looking fresh and watertight 👍. But it’s never plain sailing with these cars - when I was driving home to Whanganui for Christmas, the air duct / belly pan under the engine decided it didn’t like the E36 any more and fell off. Given these aren’t visible and are ~$200 new, does anyone have advice for where to find a nice used belly pan?

165,360 kms. Transformed the front end with two new Michelin PS5 tyres. The level of grip on these things is immense! Will upgrade the rears post suspension refresh. Replaced the faulty passenger door lock actuator. A frustrating but deeply satisfying upgrade! IMG_5944.MOV

Ditto, but not surprising as we're both in Wellington and serviced by the same useless depot

Bit of piss poor comms from BM Workshop, had no info for a week. Finally called today and found that they are waiting on two solenoids from overseas. I'm annoyed as I would have purchased another two out of my own pocket and just had them all replaced at the same time. I have enough real things life to get stressed about, a lack of comms and planning here shouldn't be one of them Anyway it's not their usual style so I'll just put it down to start of year- itis. I still might try and get another two solenoids.

Not sure if it is the same one. Don’t think the other black one had a sunroof? Also this one has been on 6 different plates since arrival and is now running a beautiful set of Goodrides to put down the 400kW. I love the idea but I think I’ll pass on this one EDIT: it’s definitely not the same one, I remember now that one had a hitch receiver towbar