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4 pointsFor Sale: 1995 E34 540i/6 six speed manual (1 of 16 imported) $12,000 ONO (Also listed elsewhere) Location: Wellington, NZ Note: This is being sold as a restoration project on an as-is-where-is basis and is priced accordingly. Will not be answering questions like 'what does it need'. Keen for the car to go to an enthusiast. Due to level of interest, there will be limited viewing dates: Wellington 3-4 August 9am-5pm by advance appointment only. by advance appointment only. Offers considered following this. The sale included numerous parts including a number of spare panels. If you are genuinely interested PM me for a list. No response will be made to requests for individual parts. Any parts not taken at sale will be sold separately. Will be sold with min. 6 Months reg & current WOF New Zealand New Vin number: BKxxxxx M60/2 engine Diamantschwartz Metallic (303) 1 of 2 540i/6 of this colour imported Black Bison Leather sports interior ASC+T Alarm Blackout trim Sunroof Dimming rear-view mirror Walnut trim Auto A/C M Sport suspension HiFi Loudspeaker system BMW Business head unit & CD changer Trip computer EXTRAS INSTALLED IN CAR: Genuine BMW EW34 rare electric rear blind, including original loom and switch in original seat centre console. Fine working condition. Genuine BMW E34 cruise control, including stalk, control unit, cable & actuator all in fine working condition. Genuine BMW boot floor lipped tray Genuine full original boot lid toolkit Genuine Engine bay lighting Genuine rechargeable glovebox torch Genuine original Business Sound System including head unit, CD changer with code (supplied separately- installed head unit NFS). Bilstein Sport suspension This is a very reluctant sale, I have owned the car for 18 years (130,000km~320,000km), and has had oil & filter changes every 10,000km with Fuchs oil. 95% of the mileage is open-road running 700km round trips and the engine is still as swift and powerful as the day I bought it. Anyone who knows or has driven this model knows these are not a standard E34. The combination of the quad cam V8, 6 speed manual transmission and sports suspension make it a go-cart in comparison. Selling as a project on an as-is basis. Needs a new owner with the energy and time to restore her. Unfortunately, I find myself 18 years on, no closer to having either. The car comes with heaps of new and used spare parts I have been collecting for 18 years with the intent or restoration. Not interested in selling individually, as parts have been collected specifically for this purpose with the car is really where they need to go. While the interior including the Recaros is in good condition with the original carpet unworn (matted all the time I’ve owned it), the exterior has needed work since I bought it. The driver’s door lower edge has some rust, and there are a few spots around the car that could be easily addressed during a full review. The spots on the roof and A-pillars are professionally neutralised stone chips in anticipation of future restoration. The clear coat has gone on the genuine BMW/BBS deep dish wheels. The A/C pump has failed and been disconnected. This is not guaranteed as a complete list of items that need attention. PM me for a parts list. Contact for viewing
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3 pointsGarage queens be dammed - I can’t think of anything worse,. You’re basically depriving someone of using the car for its intended purpose purely for financial gain…. Selfish. if you’re looking for investments, buy some gold, leave the cars for people who truly appreciate them 😆 I think it was Jay Leno who famously said: ”Not driving your car in order to keep the mileage low is like not banging your girlfriend to make sure she’s nice and tight for her next boyfriend” Wisdom beyond comprehension
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2 pointsWas stupid low then and crazy cheap now haha 🤣. Tempting at this price and it would be an awesome addition to the collection... but nah, I'm good with two 😉
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2 pointsTried a couple more diff's since the last post but results were similar to the above. Im current running a 3.15 ratio from a 325i which provides a little more pep with no real noticeable downsides (unless you care about 0-100 times as it taps out at around 98kph in 2nd gear). I think ill end up taking it to KBM at some point and get him to check it out, decide whats in the best condition and maybe swap the helical over if it checks out. I had a weird surge at low rpm when the engine was cold so decided to check the fuel system first. I discovered it was loosing pressure fairly quickly after shutdown(10mins it would be at 20psi) so decided to replace it with another VDO unit(after checking the fpr and injectors). Pressure now holds ~47 psi for at least 15mins and surge is gone too. Unfortunately the pump is much louder than the original VDO one, you can hear it whining as you step out of the vehicle or have the idle down at idle. Guess ill have to live with it for the time being and monitor it. Decided to try the CMP solid steering coupler. I hate the look of chrome plated bolts and nylock nuts and like OE look so OE bolts and new locknuts instead (did need a little extra filling to fit). Painted it in high temp silver paint to match. I had to disassemble it because i forgot to mark it and the BMW parts diagram showed the wrong clocking of the 2 halves. Wasnt expecting a massive improvement given i had new OE unit but its certainly reduced the vagueness and it feels much more like my E36 now. I did strip, clean and re-grease the steering rack too but upset the pinion seal in the process and created a leak. Ive ordered a used unit LPSR in Australia this time. They double the price($600) but at least they are inspected and tested, much better than wasting my time\money traveling around gambling. Ordered a seal kit from them too so i can repair my old for backup. Sump gasket started leaking more than i like that was changed out. Sump had no sludge as expected and just typical carbon staining. Was going to check the oil pump and nut but ran out of time, my poor man engine support was taking up lots of floor area making it hard to move around. Its a very rare failure for a normal car as far as im concerned. With all this cold foggy weather about i decided to try a DMSO engine flush based on a E46 fanatic thread - here. Can't say i remember reading about DMSO flushes but its supposedly a common procedure Russian etc. Ive never really accurately monitored my oil consumption, but it does use some when you are on the Waikato autobahn with higher rpm and vacuum conditions. I didnt notice the oil carboned up\got dirty very quickly when i did an oil change awhile back. I know the vehicles history and have had the valve cover and sump off so no real sludge to worry about. Id say most used M54 engines could benefit from this treatment if nothing more than a preventive measure in helping oil rings out. Lots of variations of this procedure but I did it slightly different due to time constraints and circumstances. I used 20W-50 because it was the cheapest i could get, but i agree with another poster that DMSO doesn't noticeably thin the oil so any cheap 10W-40 or 15W-40 is likely fine. Its hard to avoid inhaling some of the nasty vapors when draining oil on the ground especially the first drain, you could probably use a respirator if you were concerned. Fans coming off and on at various stages but coolant temp never went over 95 degrees. Having a refreshed cooling system is piece of mind and doing it in winter helps, i just periodically checked on it every 10mins. My Engine was already filled with fairly fresh oil and filter after sump gasket so wasn't going to waste it. It was quite darkened given id only done about 10km on it. Drove car for ~15mins to warm up oil. Drained ~1L of oil and mixed with 400ml to DMSO and re-added to oil Idled for 50mins. Drained oil and replaced filter. Re-fill with 6.5L 20W-50. Idled for another 50mins. Increased revs to 1500rpm for a couple of mins every 10mins. Drained oil and replaced filter. Filled with 5W-40 and idled car for 5mins. The following day drove 20mins on the highway mostly in the 2.5-3k rpm range. Drained oil and replaced filter. Filled with 5W-40 Drove same route as above with a some town driving, approx 20km. Inspected oil and filter (Minor carbon particles present in both) Light wouldn't penetrate the first jar it was so black with carbon. Filter is black with dissolved carbon and moderate carbon particles. The second had much better looking oil with the filter being less black and noticeably less particles. 3 3rd and 4th were much the same with pretty clean oil and filter with some minor carbon particles still being caught Oil now looks like new and i expect it to stay much cleaner with the filter catching the bulk of the remainder particles. No leaks and will monitor consumption from now on to get an idea. I'll do the second stage cylinder clean at next oil change - here
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1 point
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1 pointTook the car to the Springfield road hillclimb up in Whangarei on Sunday, was great fun but far from ideal conditions for a rwd twin turbo car on semi slicks, absolutely no grip, was pouring down for most of the day. Made it home safely in one piece which ill call a win. Have now began the next project one ive been wanting to for a long time, a manual conversion. Diff, driveshaft, exhaust, intake manifold, starter motor and gearbox are out after a few hours of wrenching on the weekend, really not bad at all to do on jackstands. Have also removed drivers seat, brake pedal, accelerator pedal, various trims, center console, etc. Am now waiting for more parts (clutch,flywheel,diff and various shifter linkage bushings, dssr etc). Have made a start on the wiring in the meantime, removed the auto box wiring, plugged in the manual gearbox loom which is mostly plug and play, just need to disassemble DME connectors, with the exception of two plugs which are missing on the manual loom (most likely all the communication to the TCU). Only issue I can forsee is potentially some ground wires going through those plugs that other modules rely on. Next up will be figuring out the clutch switch wiring to FRM/CAS/DME. Will also need to get a clutch line made as I dont really want to try have to run the factory hardline behind the dash.
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1 pointYeah it may well technically be worth its price but economic and market conditions as you say. Covid era pricing was artificially inflated and quite a few older BMW's now seem to be priced around their pre-covid values. Its certainly a speculator vehicle\garage queen at this point and that who would probably bit on it.
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1 pointBBS RG-R 18x8.5 ET38 on 245/40's Been on the look out for a decent set of wheels for awhile. E36\E46 wheel selection is pretty rubbish in terms of availability you if want something different in reasonable offset\tyre size. Saw these on locally on facebook along with set of similar LM's. Looking at photos i decided the RG's would suit a newer car like the E46 better. They are forged wheels at just over 8kg compared to 10-11kg style 72's, very light even with the tyres. Originally they had silver centers which i would of preferred, but beggers cant do choosers and they have been freshly power coated. Tyres fill the front wells great but do touch the fender lining under full lock as expected. Will be swapping out for current ones then moving over to a 235/40 square at some point. Gold center caps to replace to red ones if i can find some at reasonable price, otherwise ill swap BMW ones onto them. Part 2 of the DMSO clean. Didnt get everything as hot as id like and things were cooling down to fast to do a real throughout job but it works (completely black before). Used a vacuum bleeder to suck the fluid out which worked great, engine fired up instantly after cleaning Will do a another round in warmer weather to finish it off. Compression test after cleaning was 175-180 psi on all 6. Engine certainly feels stronger after doing these cleans, but be prepared for the exhaust to stink\smoke for ages if you do this part.
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1 pointRecently I picked up a matte screen protector for the headunit. I wanted to give it a go and see if it would be an improvement over the glare that you get from the glossy head-unit screen. I wasn't able to find one exactly the right size so had to cut to size (which I got wrong slightly as you'll see in the photos). But it's good enough to try it out. If I decide I want to do this permanently I'll pull the head unit out and disassemble it so that I can get the screen protector across the entire surface of the screen so it sits perfectly behind the bezel. It's quite a big improvement. In the photos below I intentionally didn't clean the surface protector once it was on, so it has my fingerprints all over it. With direct lighting from behind onto the screen this was the most reflection I could get: And here's a couple of other photos (again with the same lighting conditions but photo taken slightly off-axis. I'm very happy with this so will try it out in driving conditions over the next few weeks and if I decide I want this permanently I'll pull the unit out and do it properly 🙂
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1 pointOooh yeah, the Dakar 840! What an awesome example of a BMW classic... and as @ssbmw says - waaaaay too crazy cheap!
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1 pointGot the new plate on and the extinguisher mounted up 👍