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Let’s fix the window, it’ll only take a couple of hours… Easy enough, let’s replace the door lock actuator while we’re at it… everything working on the test fit. Closed and locked my door, unlocked it and the mechanism jammed. Door wouldn’t unlatch. All of the above work is less fun to do crouched in the drivers footwell, but I did become somewhat of an expert on E36 door locks, sing out if you’re ever in the same situation! I ended up having to punch through the case and pick the lock. Shout out to @HELLBM for sourcing a replacement door lock, great to deal with as always. Good to have everything working as it should again!

231495km Few things ticked off the list this week. Power Steering pump replaced with a LUK second hand one. New sender hose, managed to snap the plastic clip on the radiator return hose trying to get the cable tie off the reservoir end, turns out the reservoir end was welded onto the reservoir anyway so will swap reservoir out for new one when this new hose arrives in a week. Interesting BMW wanted $850 for this hose.....$100 delivered via Spareto (1 week). Euro Italia were out of stock. I have made a ghetto fix in the meantime so i can keep using the car...hopefully it holds. Steering is feeling better but could also be placebo....nothing obviously wrong with the old pump which i have a receipt for in 2019 (3rd party no brand). Also replaced the little bushings that had perished that hold the hoses to the rack. 02 Pilot mod Nice and straight forward, didn't break any nipples....have just topped up the oil so will know after the next 2000km if its making any difference. O rings Not sure what this is called but I new i had left over Orings from the pcv overhaul when i first got the car and never new where they went until I saw Jon's post working on @Olafs car realised i had never taken this part off the intake. Most of the old O rings snapped trying to get them off. Expansion tank + Thermostat The one that really didn't want to come out was stamped 2013 so it had obviously been done at some point but still 10 years old so no harm in putting in a newer one. The thermostat below it also snapped in half but thanks to the internet i expected that and had a new one ready to go. I also RTV'd the thermostat housing while it had no coolant in it as it was dripping. It's an FCP one so if it keeps leaking ill do a warranty claim. I also got a cheap DA from super cheap a while back and did a first attempt at cut and polishing...Think I went a bit conservative on the cut, as it still has plenty of scratches but it did go quite shiney. Reverse camera is working out really awesome....esp when people park like this... My rear glass hatch keeps randomly opening. I've replaced the switch before so wondering if it's more likely to be in the loom somewhere. Still have soft brake lines and trailing arm bushings to do but that will have to wait for another time ( @Spinner99 do you still have the bushing tools?)

Interesting piece of local BMW history ... "This was once the BMW NZ director’s company car and .... was sold new for nearly $200k to BMW New Ze3aland Management and we have original invoice of purchase price and original manuals with service history." $20K with 167Kms on it... very well spec'ed. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1156064998.htm

They haven't yet recovered from our previous govts complete f**kery of maintenance budgets into ideological changes sans good science. Give them time, it'll get unwound.

Sold!

And another. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/740il/listing/4698261042 Lush.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bmw+2002+n54+swap

They are all through the Wairarapa towns now. They are inconsistently built, cause a huge increase in noise for those who live around them (truck acceleration etc) are poorly lit and pooly marked, I have seen unsuspecting people hit them at 50kph. This is all on SH2. 99.99% of the time they are unused. They should have lights and a button. I think there is meant to be 18 of them installed just between Masterton and Featherston. The roads here have been choked. At one stage between Featherston and Masterton there were 22 posted speed limit changes. And to top it off there are No passing lanes. Only Slow vehicle bays.

Shout out to @BM WORLD for sourcing the correct window motor, easy to trade with and reasonable price!

For All thee Hardcores...if you know...you know.

So the end result of this is that the car now has a new correctly installed OE Pilkington screen courtesy of CCBMW after S+S had put 2 new aftermarket screens in, awful whistling above 50kph with both. I swear the inside vehicle SPL is about 10dB less with the OE screen. Very happy

Got my partly broken x5 it’s own partly broken x5.

You could try urethane sealant to re-bond them eg Sikaflex, 3M products etc. Not that cheap either but maybe cheaper than the bushings?.

Mine were the same when I replaced the power steering hose. My theory is that because those hoses always leak that the power steering fluid makes the rubber degrade.

230,6xxkm oil+filter change with Penrite HP5 5W40. had a bit of an inspection underneath. All pretty good apart from these power steering line mounts are fully perished…bit odd but will get some new ones. car seems louder than I remember, wonder if I have an exhaust leak somewhere. Maybe an inspection when I get round to doing some rear end stuff.

after seeing the ‘no signal’ everytime I went into reverse I felt motivated to get this reverse camera in. Quite a bit more involved that I would have liked but overall just fiddly. Few learnings, even if the ad says it’s HD, if it’s going through an RCA you can guarantee its actually only going to be 720p. I got the number plate light and camera and it’s quite fiddly to put together, if I were to do it again I would opt for a camera that screws into the trim, and save mucking round tapping into the number plate lights. I had to do quite a bit of dremelling to get my camera to fit. my camera points down to much. I can live with it as I have a rear window to look out but I would like it tilted up a bit more. the cool thing was the RCA had a little positive pig tail on it which connected straight to the head unit so didn’t have to tap into the reverse lights. I did have to cut the RCA plug off though in order to feed it through the elephant trunk and then attach it again. I routed the USB‘s under the cup holders, it didn't really fit, but once the phone cable is attached it can pop out the coin bit quite nicely. I went through the elephant trunk and taped it to the existing loom running down the outside of the window, then in through the grommet at the bottom (tell me your car is a central Otago car without telling me it’s a central Otago car) a lot of gravel dust to clean up here. Once that was all working and made into a bit of loom with some soft tape I replaced the battery ground cable that I broke ages ago. still working on getting the splash screen working, at the moment the unit won’t recognise the files on my usb stick. Other than that, it’s working awesome. I suspect the encroachment on the number plate might be an issue at some point, I think the plate will just have to be lowered though. quick clean and jobs a goodin.

230xxxkm New headunit Xtrons IA8246BLHS after consulting with @Karter16 I pulled the trigger on an Xtrons unit. I went for a lower spec as I only intend on running CarPlay and a reverse camera so not sure I need 8gigs of ram…but let’s see. Not sure what the difference is between the IA8246BLHS vs IA8246BLH but it was cheaper so I rolled with it. Landed in a few days and at the same time so did the HVAC relocation bracket from @Vass (along with a couple of other goodies, thanks!) Pretty sweet install, but a bit of a jungle of loom back there, have fabric wrapped the loose connectors for now but will be back into connect up reverse camera and route the USB’s through the Center console maybe. Also as Karter pointed out I need to file down the top of the bracket which is currently making it look a little squeezed. car came with an FM transmitter which worked ok but I found my self trying to change songs etc while I was driving which is naughty. Now I’m left with an adhesive circle which I fear will rip the gray painted dash off if I try remove it so might just leave it, the steering wheel hides it from the drives position anyway.

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.

Have read a few posts on here that it could be the switch on the glass itself being faulty/having water leaking into it. Worth checking out. Otherwise it's the dreaded harness repair job.