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HPR 5 5w-40 5L $48.49 @ SCA https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/penrite-penrite-hpr-5-engine-oil---5w-40-5-litre/14911.html?cgid=SCN01070403

Awesome perfect timing for me. Repco has 30% off the same however they have more options for sizes. But are still more expensive per liter. 6L $77.70 = 12.95/l 20L $211.40 = 10.57/l Supercheap 5L $48.49 = 9.70/l

It's good to be back. I recently picked up this E36 M Sport: I had no intention of owning this, I saw it in a carpark and told the owner I liked their car. Next thing she's giving me the keys and said if you still like it at the end of the month, you can buy it. It definitely felt too good to be true, but here we are. The two owners in the last fifteen years are her and her company. 160,000km and New Zealand new, the '328 S' plate has been with the car since '95. It's an unfamiliar starting point for me since it works, and I don't want to break anything. Suspect rear main seal is leaking, so there is that, and then I'll work through the typical E36 things, but to be honest I just want to give this thing a detail and drive it. I can't say I ever progressed from a bucket and sponge, but I recently started watching: AMMO NYC - YouTube and I'm keen to learn. Sing out if you're local (North Shore, Auckland) and have some wisdom to share, or just want to go for a drive (when I've fixed the oil leak).

Oh... and not oil related, but in the Repco "clearance" section, I got a few parts for the Land Rover: a set of V8 "OEX" HT leads, 6 sets fo front "TRW" brake pads and 4 sets of "Silverline" cheaparse brake pads for NZ$33-10 plus $8.50 delivery 🤣 If you add a vehicle to you garage, "shop all parts" for it, then expand the search on the left side and select the "clearance" category, it shows all the cheap parts for you car. Mine was pretty flukey, but worth a try occasionally to see what crap you can buy 😁

Sounds good Elias. I'm going to the UK and maybe Sweden and Germany next month so not sure if I'll get to it before then but will flick you a message when I have!

Thanks Kees! I’d seen it around before buying it too, always caught my attention. Appreciate the offer, I will get a wool wash mitt and move on from the sponge! I’d be keen to show you the car and you can advise. Your 540i looks great, the paint on mine is reasonable so, as you say, it’d be good to protect that.

Nice buy! I’m based on the shore and have seen that car around a few times in various places. Definitely a well kept original example, plate is very distinctive. I have a big box of cleaning / polishing products + a Dewalt polisher you can borrow if you need to start your detailing journey on the car. If I were you I’d aim to polish the car (depending on how swirly / oxidised the paint is you may want to do a light cut too), then ceramic coat the car + do some protecting work to the soft top. Interior, if it’s leather I would recommend moisturising it. With the top down it would be way more exposed to UV so I’m guessing it could be dry/cracked in places. Also get a wool wash mit, sponges are for wheels only!! I did a detail on my 540i a couple years ago, it’s due a light buff and re-ceramic coat soon, but came out pretty well for original paint that had travelled ~370,000km… much easier to keep the car looking nice once the paint is properly protected.

I guess its been 10 years since I sold my M325i and like house prices, they have gone up 500% in asking price, regardless of condition or history. E30's were great as a cheap fun car but WTF are people smoking to pay this much money for them?? Kind of wish I kept mine in storage now, not because id sell it but because I could in no way conceivably justify spending the price people think they are worth now? Who is buying them? Wealthy hipster kids and boomers I expect?

Rego ow on hold. I think it failed the WoF but I don't have details. Edit: Failed on a headlight out of adjustment and a 'small power steering fluid leak'. Both issues are booked to be addressed on Monday of next week.

Receiving beer for fathers day enabling me to have a beer every night after work this week. Spring temperatures. No need for a jacket walking to work today. Sun up earlier meaning waking to light and birds. General vibe at this time of the year.

Back from overseas, dug straight into sorting a few issues before even waking the car up from its 3 month slumber. When replacing the diff, I noticed some oil dripping out from the bottom of the CCV valve, running down the return tube and onto the oil pan. Was making enough of a mess to be worth addressing. Hard to tell what the main failure point was as 2 of the 3 hose connections were covered in oil as well as it looking like the diaphragm housing had split at the seams and oil was weeping out from there as well. Due to it being the highest up saturated area, I suspect its the latter and the oil just ran down from there, although the bottom return hose also seemed to wobble around excessively so might have been multiple failure points. Not awfully happy about it, being a brand new part that failed after barely 2,000km but it is what it is. Had read a bit of negative feedback on that particular part from FCP Euro and it being a bit sketchy how they don't specify who their "OE SUPPLIER" is but figured I trusted them enough to give it a go. Guess the internets were right on that front. Went with a little "hack" I'd read about on E46 Fanatics - buy a genuine BMW Cold Climate Version of the CCV. The cold climate valve is just a regular one in a foam jacket around it, you can just remove it and end up with a genuine CCV with two additional genuine hoses for around half the price of just a regular valve alone. Not sure how the pricing makes sense on that but it has held up for a number of years now so a good tip for anyone looking to do a CCV refurb. Figured it wouldn't hurt keeping the jacket on for the occasional morning frost we still get around here, summers don't get that awfully hot here either so figured there's no real downsides to some extra insulation. A much tighter squeeze installing it with the added padding, definitely not a job I'd want to do with the intake still on the car. Will monitor how this one holds up, I do have a bit more faith in it being a genuine BMW part. Hopefully it was just a faulty batch and not an underlying issue with the engine producing excessive pressure or something like that. Another bit that annoyed my was the way the lower intake boot sat. No matter how I tried to align it, the smaller offshoot going to the ICV just didn't want to sit right and looked like it was caving in on itself. Decided to replace the Febi hose I had with another genuine part. The quality of the rubber feels better even just looking at it and it does seem to sit straighter. For now anyway. Did a slight mod changing the temperature buffer on the cluster to make it more accurate and informative of potential overheating situations. Basically, with default programming, the temperature arrow pointing straight up indicates quite a wide range of temperature and doesn't give you much warning of the temps going up before it being too late. With very simple coding you can change it to what it is below. Lastly, replaced the front indicators, both the headlight side markers and the fender ones. Of the front ones, one side was cracked, the other kept getting condensation buildup inside and both the fender ones were foggy and faded. TYC brand ones looked to have good reviews and were cheap enough from Spareto so I ended up getting sets of both clears and ambers. Put the latter ones on for now to switch it up a bit, quite like how they break up the monotony up front. Will see which one I end up sticking with long term and will sell on the other set. Boxes of new parts keep stacking up in the garage. New additions are an AC compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and a full set of O-rings, all ready to get the AC back up and running in time for summer.

Is this "news"? Not sure, mods can move as required. Many of you might have one of these, they've been kicking around since 2017. I'm sure the risk is low, and it's only certain models, but it may concern you.

So I finally got a good finish on the roof, and learnt how to polish something properly finally it seems !! Never really had the hang of it before it seems. I'll likely leave it like it is and then get it re-cleared after summer perhaps so I can be sure there is a good thickness for UV protection. Only thing left to do is reinstall the weather strips now, these will be glued in with polyurethane. It's pretty hard to get a good picture of it in the garage ... will try and get something more fancy in the future.

Funny enough, the pugs Alternator died too.

Alternator died. Got house. Lost job 1 week later. Water pump died.

So 5 years to the day after my wife's Golf GTI got side swiped by a kid learning to drive while we were having breakfast at the local cafe, the M5 got backed into at the same cafe. Thankfully both times someone witness and recorded the whole thing for me and then found me to provide all the evidence. Without sounding like a racist POS, the "taxi" driver in a Prius backed into it, got out, freaked the f*ck out and then ran for it. So I need a new drivers headlight, support panels, guard and possibly liner which had some rubbing on the way home, front bumper is cracked and possibly the bonnet has a tweak. Who do I go to when insurance asks to get this properly fixed and not just thrown together and kicked out the door. In this age of CCTV and cell phone cameras why do people think they can get away with this sort of BS. This picture is after I pulled everything off the tire, I only got a wheel alignment done two days ago FFS!