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After 10 months of ownership and fairly constant wrenching on the car I thought I better start a thread to document and discuss the on-going project. Shout out to @Sammo and his thread for the inspiration!! My first car was a Lachssilber 1987 M325i so have always had a soft spot for the Mtech 1 e30’s. Would have been a lot cheaper if I had kept it rather than selling it for $6k back in 2014… crazy how much the market has changed since then. Side note, if anyone has any info on that car I would love to hear where it’s at and how it’s going. Rego was NF9539. Current goal with the car is to use it semi daily / on going project. I have already done a fair bit to the car over the last 10 months which I will list below. The plan is to document as I tick jobs off the list and will also be posting breakdowns of work I have already carried out along with photos. Things completed: Engine / Trans: Cambelt / water pump / tensioner / cam seal / accessory belts / air filter Valve cover gasket / Valve adjustment / spark plugs Engine mounts Oil filter / oil pan gasket New OE fuel lines / filter / pump / fuel regulator Clean and rebuild injectors New OE coolant hoses / coolant reservoir / level sensor / thermostat New OE vacuum lines / intake boot New OE Distributor Rotor / Distributor Cap / spark plug cables New gaskets: intake manifold / throttle body / thermostat housing etc Z3 shifter Manual Transmission Mounts Shifter cup / Washers for Shifter Linkage Derlin rear bushing carier / Derlin shifter bushings Suspension / steering: New Bilstein B8 Sport dampers / Eibach Pro-Kit performance lowering springs Shock housing refurb / hubs / brake pads and rotors Purple tag rack / custom power steering lines New control arms / tie rods / bushings / drop links / sway bar bushings Front subframe stripped and repainted Exterior: Window seals Repaint shadow line trim / grill / plastics Brand new OEM tail lights 15" basketweave refurb: paint stripped / lips cleaned up / repaint Centre caps: paint stripped / repaint (New BMW emblems yet to be stuck on) Interior: New OEM style shift boot New driver door handle / surrounds / sunroof crank Lots of things to come with the car, most notably a full new interior re-upholstery. Have the kit ready to be installed (in all its OEM houndstooth glory)

Waking up a dead post here, I BOUGHT IT! Sourced an M Sport Bumper and some Bixenon non-AHL headlights New FRM module (coded by some random guy in Poland for $30). H+R springs and Shocks, 35% tints all round, Style M763 Reps 8.5 and 9.5". Stage 2 @ 375bhp 800nm torque and 6.1l/100km between Auckland to Wellington! I've wanted one for years and this came up being quite rare in NZ and i had to have it. Best daily I've owned!

Flywheel power unfortunately which is around 320-325wbhp, still plenty or a daily driver! Regular oil changes, don't beat on it until its warm, Human turbo timer etc, the usual.

Explains why they didn't see the flashing lights, hear the alarm bells, or see the honking great freight train bearing down on them...

A transfer case service is cheap insurance.

You're not comparing apples with apples, really. My e60 ZF6 was done with drain-and-fill, run ~500kms, and them drop the pan, do the seal, pan filter, all the bolts so more labour and more fluid. This was a car with ~152k kms that had never had a trans service, so I was trying to give it love before it shat the bed. The e46 ZF5 had shat the bed at ~115k kms and had a full rebuild, and a trans service (pan drop, filter change, new fluid) at about 165k kms, prior the service (below) at 205k kms. 1. Drained and filled 2. Filter Change etc (This is more like what you'll be doing on your driveway at home.) I got my e46 ZF5 done as part of a larger service covering many items, and used the fancy machine so used less fluid. No messing around and it shifted like butter afterwards. Essentially you're committed to a course of action, your Trans sounds like it's not at all happy, and you're trying not to spend too much and hoping it's going to get better with least amount of $. I'm picking your oil's going to be black and burned with grit it it. You might want to look into the drain a litre, add a lite approach that I had to use on my old Volvo 850 T5. Here's what I recall - do your own research. You have a clean container marked with a litre (or a quart), and a dirty container marked with a litre (or a quart) as per your clean container. With a warm engine and trans, disconnect line from trans to cooler, connect hose to your dirty container. Run the engine and watch the dirty container slowly fill, shut off at the line. Add same quantity of clean fluid into your trans (Through fill port, trans dipstick tube, or via the trans cooler return line or fill port in your trans - depending on your application). Rinse and repeat until your oil is coming out clean-looking. For my Volvo that took 14 litres. I added 'Trans-Tune' from the folks that make the magic decarbonising fluid Seafoam - that's a whole other story on whether or not additives are a good idea in your ZF. For my Volvo, it improved shifting, improved overall operation of the auto. This is the backyard equivalent of the fancy trans machine without the hydraulic pressure of the machine pumps behind it, using the trans to do it's own pumping. And you'd still want to drop the pan/filter beforehand and change it out, so you're up for ~5-6 litres for that, and then, what.... 10-14 litres for the prime thing? Best of luck. I think there's some how-tos for re-doing the valve blocks in the ZF6, with O-ring kits? I forget now. HTH. EDIT: What difference did I notice after the e60 ZF6 Fuchs trans pan and mechatronic sleeve service? It was 'more decisive' going downhill and changing down a gear automatically... changing up on a light throttle was smoother, less indecision... and changeups under load were crisper. No harshness introduced as a result of the service. We surmised we'd gotten to it at the right time, before friction material had gotten burnt off badly.