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Do they have to tell you anything about what happened to the occupants in this type of scenario? There’s no way I would ever buy a car which someone had died in, or been critically injured in for that matter. That would be some seriously bad juju, even if it was just to salvage some parts.

Time for a bit of an update... The OxfordG 525 turned out very nice and has now been sold to a lucky recipient, excluding my labour I even turned a very rare $299 profit lol... If it weren't for the fact that the X3 is the ideal daily for my work/play at the moment it would not have gone anywhere... Being rather time poor I farmed out the painting of the Topaz 540 to a mate of a mate who did come well regarded... the result was OK, but there is a bit of orange peel correction to be done at some point. It has been assembled, a replacement windscreen fitted, WOF'd and the a/c regassed. Lots of other stuff has been done when assembling such as rear parcel tray re-dye and interior clean, rear windscreen trim, side trims, M5 mirrors. Things to do include repairing an assembly scratch on the rear bumper I just can't unsee, perhaps alloy wheel refresh and new tyres maybe. I can't make up my mind which 540 msport to sell so I just may advertise both and see which one goes first... As a refresher this 2002 topaz one has had a fair bit done, just review this thread... timing chain guides and all stuff in there is the main feature (as is with the Biarritz too), and now the paint and interior. If anyone is interested now in either the 99 Biarittz Individual 540 or the 02 Topaz 540 then please message me. Prices negotiable and will depend on how much more I throw at these cars.... and I can fully expand on the extensive work done... The dark M5 style 65 wheels on Biarittz will not be sold, which ever car sells will come with style 66's as pictured. Oh yeah.. in other news, a 2000 e38 740i Msport has found its way here... much to be done in the e39/8 rescue centre... although my business model /community service of "buy cheap / spend heaps / sell for a massive loss" I realise is unsustainable... just ask the missus... 😂

Well, looks like we're onto a winner. Blue Loctite 243 seems to have done the job. Thoroughly cleaned the threads and sat it in just a mm in from flush. At the same time did the same on the old engine as a test. Took it out the next morning to check and it looks to have set pretty well. Compare that to the Permatex 59235 that got completely washed out and didn't set at all. Anyway, ran the engine for a couple of minutes last night and so far so good. Haven't put it under any real load yet but previously the oil began dripping down within seconds. Removed the flywheel and didn't find any other signs of leaks, everything is bone dry. Happy days. Video Started putting everything back together now and hoping to finally go for a longer drive over the weekend. Jumped on and reset the self-adjusting pressure plate. Looking at the before and afters, it doesn't look to have made much of a difference so it hadn't gone out of whack by much, but good to make sure anyway. Did it by bolting it down onto a piece of ply laid over a pallet instead of using jaw pullers, similar to this video. Before During After Also made up a couple of tidy plugs for the O2 sensor wiring out of old sensors. These will properly clip into the brackets and keep the wires from rattling around under the beauty covers. Might later remove the redundant wiring altogether. Will just have the ABS light trifecta to clear away from the cluster after everything is back together. I suspect it's just a matter of going through the steering angle sensor calibration procedure as I did play around with it a bit. Will see how she goes.

Less is more, just need to lower your standards. Just ask all the flippers on trademe.

Thought I would post this up in case it helps anyone else out there. I bought a Dash cam and wanted to hardwire it into my '09 E91 and found a lot of conflicting information out there. I was looking at the Fuse layout behind the glove box. Easy enough to access once you remove the 2 screws either side on the plastic covering plate. One YouTube video encouraged me to remove some plastic pin to drop the glovebox lid/door down a little. Don't do this. I wasted 5 minutes trying to reinsert the little plastic pin to the pneumatics that drop the lid/door and did not gain any additional access when I had it out. I think there are 2-3 different types of Fuse layout for these cars, I think the first 1-2(?) types of layout are mostly found on the earlier models and mine was a Type 2, post-2008. I used this page - https://fusesdiagram.com/bmw/fuse-box-diagram-bmw-3-e90.html as a reference but some of the info in there seemed a bit off. The Type 2 diagram half way down appears to match my layout and fuses pretty closely. I was looking for a 5Amp feed when ignition was off for the Dash cam. A lot of posts out there claim that Fuse 81 and 83 are good candidates for always-on power but no comment as to how many Amps they are. I thought this information a bit suspect as Fuse 81 and 83 on my board appear to be pretty high Amps 30-40Amp sockets. Also a lot of people complaining that the "always-on" fuses that they located will function for 1-2 hours then power down afterwards. This post - https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125203 and specifically this post - https://www.e90post.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11060092&postcount=21 was the key. (TL:DR) Fuse 2 turned out to be the one!! Dash cam all wired up to this bad boy and worked like a charm on motion sensor mode all night long. The only problem now seems to be that the cam looks like it melted sitting in there all day in the summer sun... (See pic)

I hope everyone and their E30s are safe in Auckland.

Check this link out too https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/2nd-gen-faqs/325329-n18-engine-important-maintenance-items-and-common-issues.html As Kelvin suggests get an N18 if you can, they pop up for around $10k, just gotta make a quicjk decision as they tend to not hang around too long and my own list I built up when looking at R53 Cooper S and then latterly R56 Do all electrics work (switches, gauges)? Check Oil level – water in oil? Check Water, oil in water? Does it use any water? Squeaking suspension Rattle on start (timing chain) Look for oil between bell housing and engine (rear seal) Look for oil between crank pulley and timing cover (Front seal) Rocker cover oil leak, around back by exhaust manifold Rust – lift boot seals and door seals, signs of corrosion + underneath Check carpets are not damp Clutch pedal heavy, sign of worn out Also check hill start or clutch slip when applying brake pedal while accelerating Worn flywheel – rattle around bell housing Clutch depressed and rumble or whine is Clutch release bearing 6 speed Getrag from build date July 2004 has a BKE drivers side sticker on transmission or cast onto the end plate (earlier BKA ones had different ratios) R56 - Timing chain, Fuel Pump,Coking up

John, always a pleasure mate and it's been too long! yes there's something about them, and this one's going well, and I still love the suspension setup you mentored me into - it works well with this car. We bought the X3 for my better half, with the idea of me taking over the e46 as I just want a runaround with distance capability and load-carrying, the e46 is a habit for her and it's a fun drive to boot, even with just a 2.5. I think an M54 2.5 touring with manual would be superb - even with the obvious disadvantage of it not being an M54B30! Thinking more logically I think you should just buy my e60! 😁 PS: I think your e46 coupe was perfect.

Distance travelled has more effect on the wear than age, and 90k travelled is well in the range of use. Having seen how most people seem to drive on NZ roads, especially the Akl motorways, right up people’s arse on and off the brakes constantly it’s surprising they last more than five minutes. If this 4GC has the sports brakes (2NH blue callipers) then they do wear a bit quicker from the increased bite. Might also explain the higher than expected replacement costs.

I believe Turners doesnt deal in serious injury or fatal cars. Most of them go straight to the big shredder, although some of the stories my mate that used to work at a wreckers has told me about the bad ones.... ugh

From my research when I was looking at them, the general consensus was to avoid the N14 and go straight to the facelift N18, unless you have receipts covering all the common issues the N14 has (Mainly timing chain, carbon build up, turbo oil line and valve stem seals). Main thing is that it doesnt rattle, and doesnt smoke, as they're the two most "obvious" issues.

I have enjoyed reading this and to be fair, I think its time for another BMW and an E46 is on the cards. To be fair my old E46 was a very sharp handling car, sharper than my e92 or E36 (All 5 of them). Plus my daughter who will be of driving age in a year or so and usually never talks about cars said, "Dad I don't want a boring car, and I want a manual, can I drive your Purple BMW (E34540is)?" I said no you cant. "She said what about your old Blue BMW could I get one of those?". Maybe......

The carpet looks great 👍

Put 99% of interior back together (just need to replace front component speakers, speaker panel & carpet trim) Went for WOF....failed 4 tyres due to 10 yr old rotted tyres - easy fix! New tyres next week & car will legally be back on the road. WOF inspectors spent more time looking at engine bay than the rest of the car. Thanks to Aliexpress & Bunnings for having most of the tools, clips & other little loose bits to fix everything 🤣 Rod from @euroitalian has been awesome for parts!

New carpets after loom & floor pan tidy up. Fitment wasn't perfect but decent all things considered (easy to cut & trim). The underlay is pretty thick felt; hopefully better than OEM sound insulation (degraded 35 year old foam).

finished with 99% of rust-oration & just need to tidy up some areas with prime & top coat. patched up the cracked dash & went for matte black finish (will be two tone interior with navy door cards & centre ); will see how the dash ages/lasts over time (just don't look at is closely & without dash mat 🤣) got new carpets & mats to go before interior goes back in.

Wrapping up most of the rust repairs this month after putting in a lot of time over the Xmas break. Starting to re-assemble including DIY resprayed guard, bumper & lip ECU & tune next after going for a WOF....

Took me a few weekends to get this done; removed the previous lap weld rust repairs & redid the repair. Tried my best to protect the wiring from heat & the grinder so I don’t have to bust out the soldering iron 😂 Will tidy up all the flash & surface rust before KBS rust seal top coat.

....and painted the rank looking parcel tray with some Duplicolour Vinyl & Fabric paint (very easy to use)

For a while now I've been periodically flicking through damaged car auctions on the lookout for cheapish parts cars and potential projects, and once in a while you come across some cars that make you seriously quiver and leave you wondering how something like that even happens. There's been a few impressive ones out there so figured I'd start a bit of a collection of the best (worst?) ones as a bit of fun. To start off, this little beauty that looks like it did a backflip into a concrete pole, repeatedly. The extent of damage is almost impressive, actually. Not even the worst one I've seen, but do hope no-one was in it when whatever it is that happened, happened.