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The detailing mission still slowly chugging along, I took on tackling the front bumper, which is by far the roughest panel on the car. It's suffered quite a bit of abuse throughout its life and probably deserves a full respray but that's not something I'm willing to entertain at this point so will settle for an improvement instead of perfection for now. The mounting rails that slide onto the hanger brackets were already broken when I got the car with the passenger side one being particularly bad. The bumper was sagging quite badly initially but I managed to align it well enough that it wasn't too obvious. Was about time to properly address the issue though so I used it as an opportunity to further hone my plastic welding skills. Bent the broken bits back in place and melted in some steel mesh for reinforcement. Won't be good as new but will hold much better than before anyway. The paint was badly stone-chipped all over, beginning to crack in a few places and had a few rough scratches here and there as well. I polished it up best I could, touched up the rock chips and the worst of the scratches on the underside. The mesh grille was looking quite faded and rock chipped as well so gave it a few coats of paint to bring it back to black. Only got a before photo of it though. The trim inserts got some Carpro Perl treatment to rejuvenate the front end even further. The result was never going to be perfect but from a few feet away now looks infinitely more presentable, which was the best I could have hoped for without it becoming a full blown repaint. Mint.

On the first drive post subframe work last year I was going 80 on the motorway near Kaiapoi, going round the bend I suddenly spot a pair of steel cap boots smack in the middle of the road. Only caught sight of them at the very last second due to the car in front and had no time or space for any evasive manoeuvres so ended up running straight over them with a nasty sounding clunk. Didn't think much of it but later on discovered the damage - they'd busted through the plastic arch liner behind the driver side front wheel. Beyond the gaping hole, the liners didn't look great and were also cracked where they meet the front bumper on either side. Thought about replacing them but hadn't yet gotten to the point where I could justify dropping $164+GST each through the dealership. Then stumbled upon a set of aftermarket ones on Spareto, costing just 18€ + 11€ shipping each so around $100 shipped for both. Seemed a decent deal so tacked it on to my starter+brake booster order and was soon greeted with this ridiculously bulky package coming home one day. How this cost just $30-odd to ship all the way from Europe I have no idea but I'm not complaining. Proceeded to strip the old liners off only to discover the catch. The material of the replacement liners didn't feel great but seemed sturdy enough. The problem was the fitment though. The aftermarket one has a weird bulge where the original wraps around the chassis and is also missing one opening for where the reinforcement plate bolts in. Could probably be chopped up a bit and made to work but I couldn't bother with it. Was worth the punt at that price but will eventually get brand new front and rear liners when I've got a spare ~$700 burning a hole in my pocket. For now just duct taped up the new hole and smacked the old liners back on. With the liners and wings off the car I took the chance to give the area a good clean. Man did it need one... 20 years worth of mud, dirt and rotten leaves. Got a good scoop full from either side. Enough to start a wee veggie patch. Also took off the side skirts and cleaned up in behind those as well. With the wings and skirts off I gave them a cut and polish and touched up the worst stone chips & scratches to continue on with the detailing mission, also treating a couple of minor surface rust spots in the newly exposed areas.

Should be sorted now, there was a minor configuration issue from the site being moved to new hosting earlier in the week.

I daily my 9bar (realistic 90-100km range) Leaf and its perfect. I have two other cars I can use if I need to go long distance and dont want to quick charge. I wouldnt go back to dailying an ICE though, nothing beats the instant torque, silent running and costing bugger all to run. The problem with a PHEV is you are getting the worst of both worlds. A short battery range, and lugging around the ICE hardware. What people dont understand about normal PHEVs (i cant comment on the REX as thats technically an EV with a range extender), is that the ICE only fuel consumption once the battery runs out is terrible, worse than most standard ICE cars and definitely worse than a normal hybrid (which also doesnt pay RUC).

After an E9x 335d? This is the one you want. Alloy block and head M57TU2. 175,783km which will go up occasionally, RUC’s paid to 182,012km. Regged till next year and just flew through a VTNZ wof. This has been my fast / reliable daily for the last 40,000km with cost being no object to upkeep when I was commuting 160km a day. Usage case has dropped to below 8000km a year, so it's possibly time to downsize to a smaller diesel. The Good: Serviced from new at Jerry Clayton until 120xxx km, and then Continental BMW / Hell BM / Bellar's / Hansen’s Auto from 135xxx under my ownership. To my knowledge, this is the only E9x 335d in NZ with the Harmon Kardon stereo, I won't buy another BMW without it - it's such a massive improvement over the poverty versions. Very well specced for tech, with internet prep / combox / bluetooth / professional nav / usb / music via mobile all optioned in. Hardwired Passport radar as well. Has the later style Magneti Marelli xenon’s which look vastly better than the Hella version. Electronically folding tow bar that hides away under the rear bumper (spot the spelling mistake in BMW NZ's label). Under my ownership: Updated PCV valve to the improved later design, all pipes replaced. All filters replaced as required. NEW intake manifold and all gaskets replaced. New transmission sump. Wheel speed sensors. New 92AH AGM battery (genuine). 6 new glow plugs and glow plug control unit. Battery terminal and blower controller recalls carried out. Currently sitting on 19” BMW Performance style 313 wheels with Michelin PS4S rubber, the wheels were fully refinished by Arrow Wheels to as new with diamond faces, and the rubber is showing 5mm tread all round. Racechip XLR throttle controller installed, which takes all the delay out of the electronic pedal in the sportier settings. Brand new ATE discs and pads in the rear, installed 500km ago. BMW F series 4 piston Brembo performance calipers up front with 340mm floating discs (to be installed today maybe?). BMW Performance black grills installed, and I’ll throw in a NOS BMW Performance carbon fibre mirror cap, see if you can have better luck than me finding the other side to match. Black number plates installed. All of the engine work done is a “when not if” when it comes to the M57, and I wouldn’t buy and M57 without this work having been done or factoring it into the purchase price. All emissions gear is still in place, and the TU2's don't eat intake manifold butterflies like the 4 banger diesels do. The Bad: Definitely a “6fter” – the paint comes up well with a polish, but there are scratches that could be extracted from the clear coat if you wanted – winters are fairly harsh in Queenstown so it didn’t bother me that much. Rear bumper paint is cracked – I never got round to getting it booked into the panel shop. Front bumper lower edge has seen plenty of curbs over the years, but that’s par for the course for any E90 with the M-Sport front bumper, and they’re impossible to find second hand in any decent condition. Curb scratch on the LHS side skirt. Both headlight washer covers have broken, and $70 each at the stealership seemed a little egregious to me. LHS passenger door handle looks like it’s been 12 rounds with a chainsaw, suspect a previous owner’s dog used it as a chew toy, and it’s not a part that’s available as a spare. Rear seat bench has a couple of marks in it, suspect the same dog. Window tints are getting scratched up from the window rubbers, you could either replace them or remove. Stone chips? You’re gonna love them! Sadly that’s the par for the course in the deep south. Headlight lenses are showing signs of burn-in on the inside. A very common problem on this era of headlight plastic. Asking $18K. Any further queries / questions don’t hesitate to ask.

In a departure from 35 years of only owning 4x4 vehicles, I have taken the plunge and now have a 2013 320i and a 2018 118i I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from here...I have already realised just how rough the last 35 years have been...

Looking for a front undertray for a E87, 2008 123d Motorsport hatch. In Auckland, closer to the shore or Avondale the better. Cheers

Big oil sale on at Supercheap auto Pretty much 50% off everything us bimmer fools would want to use. https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/

Bump and price drop to $16.5K - work has thrown TC and Cardrona season passes my way and I've found the 4wd to replace this! Is also now tuned to 336hp and 711nm... 😅

Contemplating an i3 certainly makes you evaluate your use case senarios in more depth. As a one vehicle solution, I don't see how a BEV can work - particularly for that 1-5% of the time you want head out of town. I cant imagine going on too long a trip making 150kn jumps with charging stops. A PHEV seems like a pretty versatile option, [ or for the i3 a 94ah rex ]. TBH, a 60ah REX would actually cover all my needs but the newer model and slightly more range would be a nice compromise. I also worked out for my average 7k km per year, adding in RUC's + charging costs, this is not about saving money on fuels [ coming form a 5L/100km car ]

Another four months gone by, done a bit to the old girl so thought I better make another post to update the thread! May have posted in here already that I sourced a minty black headliner for it. Any decent E46 headliner is a hard find these days, let alone a non-sunroof, black, Touring one! After sitting on top of my Tech2 E30 in the garage for at least a year, and the original one deciding to come away completely, I had a spare afternoon and got it installed into the car. I have to say, doing a headliner job on a touring is a breeze compared to a sedan, as it flys in and out of the tailgate! I also decided to service the transmission, new filter oil and pan gasket as no idea when those were last done! At the last Wof I got an advisory that the left front shock had very slight misting and to keep an eye one it. I forgot all about it, but the last month or two I have noticed the car a bit bouncy in the front. So I have ordered some Bilstein B4s, and of course tophats and bumpstops as makes sense to do those while in there. I have a set of M Sport springs here, so I think I will put those in place of the original 320d ones and see how that looks and feels. If memory serves correctly, when Graham owned the car, the front control arms and CABs were changed already, so shouldnt have to do anything more for many more miles! Other than that, just keeps going and going, starts first time every time, happy days!

231xxx Km return hose turned up crazy fast from Spareto. New return hose and reservoir installed. Replaced some rear end bushings. RTABS - Meyle HD Lower control arm to trailing arm bushing - Corteco Upper control arm to trailing arm ball joint - Meyle massive shoutout to @Spinner99 for helping me out in his drive way for what ended up to be quite a few hours last Saturday. will get an alignment next week. also I pulled fuse 58 for the rear hatch glass cause it started being super annoying.

Lovely car - GLWS