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Hand tools. The Teng stuff can be had at reasonable prices. I'm not keen on their ratchets. Also consider Jonnesway from BNT, nicely finished, work well. 1/4" drive set, with a small comfortable ratchet, extensions and wobble-bars and unis is essential (IMHO) on BMW and Volvo. You'll need the torx sockets, and the deep sockets as well. I got by with 1/2" and 1/4" for a good while, though ultimately having 3/8" drive as well makes things more comfortable. 1/2" power bar. You want a strong one, as when you need one you've got to rely on it. You're going to STRESS it. You're going to put a 1.5 metre steam pipe - or anything you can find to add leverage - and you need to avoid breakage-inflicted injuries. Don't cheap-out on a breaker bar. Look for one with a big-diameter pin (the one that pivots the connector socket head). Quality Screwdrivers. Good quality screwdrivers fit the fasterner better, grip in your hand better (and thus transfer more power), and are more durable. Cheap screwdrivers are as much use as a chocolate teapot. While you're at it, you've no excuse to buy cheap screwdrivers to abuse, as you've just bought a set of Pry-Bars. Use the proper tool for the job - they're safer. And buy a set of drifts/pin-punches, they're the bomb. Circlip Pliers - internal and external. Nuff said. Right tool for job. A 12v test lamp!. When you just need to find power, or confirm power is present, the good old test-lamp with needle tip (or the modern equivalent - the power-probe) is the bomb, and faster than a meter. Old tools. If you can find a full set of old tools - like 1960's/70's/80's from the likes of Koken/Stahlwille/Britool/Sidchrome/Aigo/Facom, they're better than new stuff. Let's face it bargain Snap-On rarely happens. Older quality was better in the mid-range than most of the modern mid-range, and used top-end will cost you less than new mid-range. You can find these value-buys on TradeMe, at Garage Sales, deceased estate, second hand shops etc. Save big. You can build your own set from bits and pieces, put your sockets on a keeper bar. The modern stuff (eg new Craftsman, new Stanley etc are not like the old stuff. Example: Craftsman used to be made in USA and unconditionally gauranteed forever - now it's made in China by a company that's bought-up a lot of the old-school tool brands. I have a 17mm or 19mm 1/2" Craftsman socket that I've beaten-on for more than 25 years, it's lost some of the plating at the tips from (quite) a bit of abuse on a rattle-gun and it just keeps going - Deathproof! I've jinxed it now. Real Estate Signs. Excellent insulation for lying on or kneeling on beneath your car. Corflute rocks as an insulator, and you'll frequently find them blowing down the road when the winds are strong. Recycling! LED lighting. Portable LED lights are excellent for working beneath your car. Squinting sucks. Garage Stereo. Again, from trademe or a garage sale. Fill it up with 00's CDs from the tip shop. You want to have some tunes while you work. no need to faff around with a bluetooth speaker, get a hifi for under $100. MOST IMPORTANT: PPE. You need to take care of yourself. Eyes: Safety glasses, safety googles, face sheilds. So much cheaper than ACC and a glass eye. Ears: get some good ear defenders and use them compulsively. Your future, older self will thank you for it. Hard to chat up your future wife/husband/insert your preferred title here at a bar if you're deaf. Hands. Gloves - mechanics gloves for general use. It's easy to learn to handle the fine stuff with the thin neoprene gloves that absorb shock. For everything else, use latex or the blue/black/orange disposable gloves. Helps with quick cleanup of your hands when you've finished a job if you've not filled your nails and cuticles with stale grease. Also keeps all the fluids you handle out of your skin, a good thing. Lungs. Get a decent respirator. Use the appropriate filters for the job. Visitors: get a bucket of ear foam plugs, and extra pair or two of ear muffs, some extra safety glasses, disposable respirators - if you're lucky enough to have a mate lend a hand, help them stay safe. Fire Extinguisher. as someone mentioned earlier, fire extinguisher, and perhaps a fire blanket. Steel can with lid for discarded rags - they can combust. A steel cabinet to store your solvents/oils/paints in. Keep it closed!

Also converted a couple of 123d`s. One to a manual with origional N47 and another to M57N2.

Recent update: 135 Brakes, M135 Wheels and Manual conversion.

Thanks for the input. I already have a SUV, have had a couple actually and can say they are less practical than a wagon or even a hatch back in many cases, problem is the roof line protruding down at the rear door point, it impedes on ability to load the car .. the same way many "seven seaters" have seats eating into cargo space. Dynamically SUV's are compromised also, maybe not a problem for some but I am a little picky, I take the back roads. You notice how compromised SUV's are when you hop from SUV to car. To argue that they "drive just like a car" is only really just revealing your helmsmanship XP level. The seating position is nice though, easy on the back to get in and out or load the baby, so they do have advantages. Basically just want a proper long roof wagon that drives like a car again, I would like something that I actually want to take on road trip. I did spot that, looks nice. Thanks for the input.

Springs are calculated based on options and body style I presume hence no part numbers. Assuming no one has swapped them they are probably correct. As you know Eibachs prokit are soft and non specific, so stock touring appears to be the better choice

Thanks mate! That's a solid bit of analysis there and I reckon the right conclusion. When it's time to change tyres 245's is what I'm going with. Still heaps of life left in the current tyres though so will try and get my money's worth out of them before the switch. I believe the Eibach spring were one-size-fits-all solution for the E46 unfortunately so that might be part of the issue. Obviously with E46-specific Style 68's the rubbing is not an issue as @adro can attest to but with different offset rims and wider tyres I really am pushing my luck. Interesting thing is, the original Touring springs I took out (I've referred to them as Msport springs a number of times now but actually still don't know if they even had separate Msport ones or they're just regular Touring-specific, RealOEM doesn't seem to give me part numbers for springs for some reason) are actually shorter than the new Eibach ones. I guess they might just be that much stiffer...? Good news is I took the car for a good run up to Kaikoura today, a round trip of roughly 400km and with -2.5° camber and the trimming-bashing I'd done, the rubbing is now greatly reduced. Had my ~100kg dad sit in the rear left seat and there was only 4-5 instances where any sort of rubbing occurred, those being over really pronounced rough patches in the road, most other situations where rubbing had occurred previously it now handles without issues. I reckon with just myself or 1 other passenger in the car (which is likely to be the scenario 90% of the time going forward) the rubbing will be very minimal. Will take the wheels off in the next few days and check where the remaining rubbing has migrated to. Might be able to trim back or bash in those areas some more. All in all, another awesome road trip with the folks. Went up to Kaikoura through Mt Lyford and back down along the coast. Had never taken that route up before, a good 30 minute detour but well worth it! Encountered very little traffic along the way, awesome views and delightfully twisty roads throughout, got to put her through her paces nice and proper. Also, to revive the Akebono debate somewhat, don't want to jinx it but I'm very much enjoying them. I do get where you were coming from in regards to the reduced initial bite but I feel like I've adjusted pretty well. You do need to press down quite hard if you want to stop in a hurry but overall I've found the pedal feel to be pretty much linear and predictable. They've handled some spirited driving quite well, no squeaking or fading and the wheels are still nice and clean. Feels like an solid upgrade in every way switching from the old rusty rotors and pads anyway.

Was beginning to think i was the only here. May take me awhile but i could probably build up a quality tool set for a similar price than some cheapo new one. Facebook marketplace can deliver too despite the rubbish 'search'. Used Koken stuff (mainly ratchets) always seem to be for sale on trademe for around $50. What ive used for most of my wrenching life - https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/building-renovation/tools/hand-tools/sets-kits/listing/4405203721 Love my Fenix headlamp. I know some people dont like them, but i wear mine much that forget its even there sometimes. Lamps have their uses too.

@Vass I've been following your thread mostly via email updates. It's been a big journey! I see you're having clearance problems at rear, and trying multiple solutions. Forgive me if I've not been through the full detail of your thread - one thing occurred to me this morning. Tyre width and offset on e46 FWIW the Msport tyre package for e46 is F: 225/45R17, with R: 245/40R17 You probably already know this. This works fine with e46 Style68 7.5J17 ET:41, 8.5J17 ET:50, or the e90 Style 194 8J17 ET:34, 8.5J ET:37. I did a *heap* of research (a metric sh!t-ton) when figuring out how to get a bit more rubber to the road. General theme was 255's a bit tight on e46, approach with caution. I did all the math, using online calculators allowing me to compare offset, rim width and tyre size. I went 245/40R17 with confidence. At rear the style 194s produce 13mm additonal rim poke on the outer edge (and 13mm more clearance from the strut on the inner edge), before we add the 245 section tyre on the rear, Noting that your 255mm setup is same between R17 and R18 rims - most particularly with respect to rim width and offset - perhaps the additional 5mm of tread on the outside (assuming your 10mm wider tread section distributes to 5mm extra on each side) is enough to catch on the outer guards/liners? I can't talk to the Eibachs, as mine's on standard springs, with big (bigger than stock, at least) ARBs. I did learn that the touring is sensitive to rear springs after an Auckland wrecker sending me the wrong springs (green paint dabs (4 cyl coupe maybe?) instead of orange for 6 cyl touring) which produced a saggy low rear, sh*t ride, and general dissatisfaction. That was later resolved with a pair of the correct orange-dabbed springs from an e46 ninja on this site. Your thicker spring pads are a valid response to mitigate the low.... I digress. One question on springs: Are your Eibachs Touring-specific springs? Or are they Eibach one-rate-fits-coupe/sedan/tourings e46 springs? Back to tyres and a Summary - possible clearance issues with e46 touring by running e90 255 section tyres in place of e46 245 section tyres at rear on e90 offset. You've ruled-out offset differences between your Style 194 R17's and the R18 package. I suspect if you threw your 255R17s onto Style 68's, you might get just away with it (13mm less poke), though it might rub. I'd be fairly confident that 245/40R17 on your Style 194 would be a doddle - and prove that 245 on the 18inch package would work. The easy solution IMHO is to run e46 tyre section (245mm) with the e90 offset for greater track width. If you were here in Wellington I'd be happy pop my rears wheels onto your car for a quick test. This setup has been serving me very well on e46 Touring for years. HTH.

Have put circa 30k on my F11 535i MSport over the past couple of years, so here's my 2c. The N55 paired with the ZF8 is a great combo. Relatively good response down low, the small turbo means it runs out of puff up top if you're really on it. Mine is stock, however the facelift EWG models net a healthy gain with a tune/remap compared to pre-facelift PWG (which mine is). The ZF8 is a very impressive gearbox. In terms of ride it almost feels too soft for an MSport coming from a few different 3 series in the past, but it is very comfortable and quiet. I ditched the standard 351M's with runflats for 437M's paired with PS4s's - less road noise, better size/fitment, and more than enough grip for a big boat on the open road. I recently switched to an E90 M3 for daily driver duties and the F11 feels like a limousine in comparison. My wife is now driving the F11 with a newborn at home - nice to have the integrated door blinds and tinted windows in the rear for the baby. I had an Apple Carplay system retrofitted to the CIC system - worth every penny for a daily driver. In terms of reliability and servicing, main items attended to are: Rear suspension airbags - one leaked, so replaced both. RF lower control arm always had a bit of a creak going over speed bumps which bugged me, so had both LCA's replaced which 95% eliminated the noise. Boost solenoid. Gearbox serviced (recommended every 10 years or 80k from memory). Otherwise just standard items every 10,000km. You won't go too wrong with a well-spec'd F11 535i MSport at $20k (or 535d MSport if any are on the market). Bonus if you can land a facelift model for that price.

I’m back home in the UK at the moment and this is for sale near my dads work: Laguna Green, factory manual, sports seats, smileys, factory load cover with dog guard, service history, taxed and MOT’d so drive it home for £4500 (just over $9000).

FWIW, try and hold out for the M3 ones, or see if you can source some TWR equivalents. Unless it's an urgent replacement you'll kick yourself if you buy stock ones then find M3 ones. I forget what they're called but the front upper arms are same length and material E8/9x = M3 with the exception of the bush which you can get poly replacements for easily enough, and then you actually end up with a better outcome than the M3 version.

+1. For a home mechanic they are fine if used properly and only on occasion will last a lifetime. Funny, I have a Koken socket set from an uncle that passed away in the 90's and its still mint also. Even still have the 10mm. One thing people also forget is a decent fire extinguisher. They are inexpensive but could save you thousands.

@E63 - pretty sure I have this kit if you’re interested. Bought new and never used. had the intention of diying. But reality is that’s never going to happen 😁 lol

Buy the tools as you work on the car. There is always one thing you don't have. It fills the n-1 equation. n being the ultimate amount of tools... Crow feet, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 socket set and extensions.

Ohh, and thanks for pulling me up on it! Since you pointed it out it actually started bothering me to the point where I felt motivated enough to do something about it Took the panel off the bumper, moved the license plate further up to line up with the protruding edge in the plastic, chucked in some rivnuts, went with 4 instead of the original pair just to be safe. Then took some hardcore pick tool and scraped away along the bottom of the numberplate creating a deep groove, then just cut my way through the plastic with a box cutter knife, filed the edges smooth and voila! I'd have probably never even given it any thought, but it does look so much cleaner this way. Thanks! Just need to find 4 matching bolts to tidy it up further.

Yeah i see him advertising on facebook. I think local is fine if you aren't particular about brands and doing small orders. Most of us here go for the higher quality stuff and order lots of parts at once, local doesnt really work well for that.

Ok so I got the Bilstein B4s from ecs tuning, the shafts were about an inch longer than what came out but even with the H&R springs they were juuuust captive and still compress so the same length as what came out. Definitely rides a million times better now.

Got onto the 330i brake refurb. All disassembled, I had them vapour blasted by a fellow bimmerhead I'd met, saved a good number of hours on the wire wheel. Gave them an additional scrub and 3 coats of satin black caliper paint. Then threw on new seals, guide pins, rattle clips, OE rubber hoses and a set of speed bleeder valves, as well as Akebono pads (sorry @Olaf, I'll be careful). All tidied up and set aside. Also scrubbed down and major rust off the subframe and control arms, gave it a few coats of rust converter primer and the same satin black paint. Will get onto pressing in the new bushes and bearings next. Front hubs are also now disassembled and awaiting a tidy up.

Found it looking for your build thread. So good

it all looks fixable! Though expect to fix a lot more than what the previous owner has neglected or butchered. Lightweight, a poor-man's CSL! A slicktop 316i coupe is the lightest e30, they have little sound deadening. In rude health and with good suspension, they're a quick car through the twisties and can hold their own with 325i's (and some much bigger cars too). Make no mistake, on a straight road with the chance to stretch it's legs, the torque and extra HP of the 325 will eat the 316i. Horses for courses! Air Filter: I doubt the cone/pod filter is going to give you any more HP, paper filter elements are cheap and the factory intake will be quieter and give colder air. Selling the pod might get you some dough for a rear muffler. Rubber: Essentially you'll find a 30+ year old e30 has probably been pretty well neglected, and you can expect to work your way through every rubber bush and mount in the car, once you've got it on the road. Engine and gearbox mounts will look okay, but that rubber has lost it's elasticity, and replacing them improves NVH. Same for rear subframe mounts, RATBs, diff bush. No need to go to Poly, the OE/OEM rubber solutions are proven, inexpensive, and reliable. Check your fuel hoses! easy to replace under the hood, you might as well replace the fuel filter while you're at it, it won't have been done in years, possibly decades. Be sure to use EFI high pressure rated hose. Lubricants: Time for gearbox oil and diff oil. I'm running Penrite Synthetic, don't mix them up (get the back oil into the middle and vice versa). One assumes you've already done the engine oil and filter with quality kit (I like the Mahle) Brakes: Slider pins - unless they're badly pitted - can be cleaned up in your battery drill with a scotch-brite pad and Brakekleen. I like the ATE silicone brake grease. Brake hoses are cheap, give the existing ones a good look over. ARB bushes and endlinks are cheap too. 316i has solid front rotors, you can get six cylinder calipers which allows you to upgrade to vented front discs, a little more meat. Two types of front calipers, both run the same pads. The racers prefer the ATE calipers which makes 'em more pricey (one can run brass bushings in place of rubber - though for street use not really a consideration); the Girlings are fine. You can take your time, recon a set of calipers (seals, bleed nipples, boots, sliders, paint) then install with new hoses, pads, rotors. Bear in mind the six cyl calipers/vented rotors are incompatible with the factory steel wheels if you ever wanted to go back there, once the pads are worn in. You could always extract some more cash to fund your brakes by selling those D-window steelies and stretched tyres and score some bottle caps for next to nothing, ride the coming fashion resurgence of bottle caps being uber-cool and authentic 80's e30. Stay cool: Give your cooling system attention, replace aging hoses, check thermostat bleed and flush it, replace with BMW Blue coolant and demineralised water. Check passenger side carpets for glycol, this is the age that those heater matrix are letting go. HTH