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Been spending plenty of quality time with the F31 - May not be the most thrilling drive but is bloody practical and looks great. Had the rack bushing replaced again (free repair FTW) and new front tyres - post prang she’s looking as good as new.

Great drivetrain but I can imagine the ‘dog taking a sh*t’ silhouette might limit the market somewhat.

Its actually me that selling it, forgot to post here earlier! https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=5015937568 Its a monster of a thing. Only selling as Im hoping to put money towards an i8. Full service (plugs, oil, filters) and new rear, premium (Arnott) air suspension. No reserve, accepting bids form $17.5k.

Essentially as subject says, looking to offload to a good home my sunroof which was removed when I replaced the roof. Pickup from the North Shore in Auckland 👍 Happy to take a box of Pal's

FYI, been offered $17k, which Id let it go at, but told potential buyer Id wait a week (and Im putting in all new ignition coils in meantime anyhow), so any offers above that?

I put the wiring to the side of the structure. Its a bit tight but I managed to get it throgh and down. I just have the 2 screws at the front holding it down. Mine already had an older android head unit in place so it was already cut to fit.

17" X 7" BBS RC009 2 piece rims? Will get a pic later, part number is 1 181 887, quick Google search with the part number says they are E31 - look the same as these: https://www.wheelcollision.com/store/H59200-59200XXXX-840I-850I.htm Will try get a pic later of the actual rims if you're interested.

Been waiting on a special. These are now half price so gonna grab one today (last day of special).

Got a few bits and pieces done this weekend. On Saturday morning dad and I welded up the cracks in the top of the front right RACP mount. As usual I did a bad job of taking photos as we went, but I did get a couple here and there. As a recap, this is what the front right looks like from the top: As you can see in the photo above the crack coming down towards the bottom of the photo is hidden behind the rear seat sheet layer. So that we could see how far this crack went we inspected the bottom side of the top layer of the RACP with my boroscope. As can be seen the crack extends just to the point that the RACP bends down to layer up with the rear seat sheet. For reference the threaded insert visible on the right hand side of the image is for the seatbelt buckle. Knowing how far down the crack extended meant that I was easily able to cut the small section of the seat layer out so that we could access the end of the crack to drill and weld. We found that a rounded nose carbide burr in the die grinder was the best way to clean up the surface around the cracks. Dad then MIG welded the cracks up - I unfortunately didn't get any photos of this as I was running extraction and lighting while dad welded. A couple of comments though: - We used some ceramic fibre insulation segments to pack the RACP cavity to prevent sparks, grindings, etc. from traveling inside the cavity. the ceramic fiber insulation is good in that it's non-flammable. - I had previously measured the thickness of the RACP layers to be welded and dad had obtained some equivalent sheet metal to run some trials on and dial in the settings on the MIG. - We went slow to avoid heating everything up too much, even so the cavity wax on the underside of the top RACP layer tends to melt and smoke along where you've welded, good extraction is advised. - We used the boroscope again to check the other side of the welds (where they are on a single layer of sheet) and confirm good penetration of the weld. With the welding done I then cleaned up the top surface with the carbide burr to level out the welds and leave an, as flat as possible, surface for the brace to mount to. I unfortunately didn't get any photos of the welds prior to cleaning up and putting a protective layer of undercoat on. As you can see the surface is not perfectly smooth (the flash from the phone actually makes it look more pronounced than it is in reality - it is less than 1mm, which will be perfectly fine for this situation. The OE welds stick up a couple of mm anyway. I didn't want to take away too much material at any point with the burr, so played it safe and left a small amount of extra material in place. You may also notice that we welded the little cutout that we made to access the end of the crack back in place and smoothed it out with a little body filler. Not really necessary given it's going to spend the rest of its life under the seat again, but for the sake of an extra 20 minutes work it's worth it in my opinion. I hand painted on the under coat as I wanted to make sure I could get it into all of the corners well, there's not a lot of room in there to rotate a spray can. I'll do another layer of undercoat, and then sand it back a little, mask up, build myself a little spray booth inside the car and do a couple of coats with the e-coat matched enamel I have. I'll then dust on some A08 on the seat bench (when I can finally get some, whole other story) to replicate the original surface as much as possible. Secondly the DIN7984 hex head bolts for the MAP sensor arrived, they're identical to the original items except 18mm long to address the greater thickness of the 101 sensor mounting point, plus they're stainless rather than the zinc-coated original bolts. I'm happy with how these have turned out:

Yea i wasnt sure either after googling so i got under it and looked. has the metal flat pan and a sticker saying its the GM one. my 530i e61 has the plastic finned pan ZF trans

Date: 29 Nov 2024 Distance: 215742 kms 1. Battery Replacement I've had a headlamp bulb out. A couple of times the vehicle has spazzed-out while running when I turned from sidelights to headlamps - dashboard-reset with a BeeeEEEp tone, clock resets, trip meter resets. I thought it was about 7 years since I replaced it last? With the help of @Autoglym we metered the batty during start - 11.3v. A new Koba batty was sourced. The old AA3772 (720 CCA, 140 RC, 80 AH) was in fact 2013! I recall when I last replaced the batty in 2013, the original date-marked 2002 BMW battery was in there. So 11 years per batty - nice! The Koba SE57510 was a case of 'nearest avalable' in-stock, 730CCA, RC 125 min, 75AH. It's slightly shorter in height than the AA, so a couple of bits of rubber beneath the sole of the hold-down plate had it sorted. Figures 1 & 2: A Koba batty, amidst the chaos of my sub-floor area, yesterday. Yes it's true: I am a closet hi-vis vest wearer - at least when changing a tyre on the roadside, or photographing. The previous AA install in 2013 was swings-and-roundabouts. He'd used Permatex Battery Protector & Sealer, which foams up and dries in a purple colour - brilliant stuff - and all was clean and intact. PS: Does anyone still distribute this in NZ? It seems to have gone unobtaneum. Unfortunately he didn't reconnect the battery breather vent. 🤯 So the bottom of the battery compartment was a little crusty. I vacuumed up any loose scale and gave it a couple of liberal coats of Brunox. That'll slow it down until I can get in there and paint it. Figure 3: the artist formerly known as crusty, now tramsformed with Brunox. Figure 3a: Brunox. The gold standard in Europe, particularly loved by the folks on retrorides. Figure 4: battery breather vent now reconnected. Car now starts more snappily. (8mm socket for the interior frame. 13mm for the hold-down. #2 phillips screw for the clamp tension. 8mm for the battery clamps). Battery lifting by messrs tricep, bicep, & latismus dorsi. Remixed by paracetamol and codine for us old geezers. Next to order a couple of Xenon bulbs. I didn't have bulbs in my spare headlamps.

Fuel pump and filter.

Time for another post! In around august or september, i noticed a small puddle of oil directly under the right hand side of the intercooler after a long haul back from Hawkes Bay, which told me two things, one that the intercooler isn't completely sealed, and two that something upstream of the intercooler is leaking oil, which of course can only be the turbo. i recalled that Graham had fitted a new turbo to it during his ownership, however after chatting to him, found that it was fitted, didnt solve the problem he was looking at, so the original one was put back, leaving a minty one in the box with him. A deal was struck, and I was the owner of the new turbo, ready to be bolted up for the second time. (As anyone who knows me knows, I have owned several hundred BMWs, at least another 50 or so non-BMs, and worked full time off and on in other shops as well as for myself. It was the first time I have ever done a turbo swap!) I also made sure that the exhaust was clocked properly, and reinstalled the chassis brace I removed a few years back im sure I mentioned here somewhere! Road test, and wow, what a difference, and now i believe that 320d are quicker than 325 328i as the internet says they are. initial 1990s/2000s/diesel turbo lag and then hits hard! Never done it again tho, as thats not what this car is in my life for! Tho it does have a very audible whistle to it which i do enjoy, and wish my F15 M50d did the same! Intercooler went back in as it is, and will deal with that air leak at some other point, if it becomes a bigger problem. As it turned out, after a few weeks of driving, with the added boost, the DDE was obviously demanding more fuel pressure, and two weeks later the mid fuel pump decided to quit 3km from home on another little road. The 320d run three fuel pumps, one lifter pump in the tank, one mid pump located next to the fuel filter/regulator (both of which are same location as a petrol E46), and a third HPFP which i replaced already. Upon diagnosis, I found all that happened was the plug had come off the pump, however it was covered in diesel, as was the underside of the floor. plugged it in, and the car fired right up, but drips formed quite quickly from the plug. Have seen this a few times before, especially on N52/54/55 waterpumps, but not on a fuel pump before! Ordered a replacement, and good to go once more! I mentioned earlier i ordered some Bilstein B4s and had some used msport springs here. While the car was in the air and waiting for the pump to arrive, and another WOF a month or so away, i had a quiet day so time to swap the front struts over. Again, these turned out to be another original part from 2002! on removal, I managed to snap the bolt holding in the ABS sensors on both sides. I doubt they have been moved since 2002 either. for now, i have just urethaned them back into place, and will deal with them if/when they ever fall out. Cant say a huge difference in handling since its not a car i throw around anyways. however, there is a bump in my drive way, and three speed bumps on my street, that feel a lot more solid going over. As for ride height, i was expecting a bit of a drop from the msport springs, but nothing! I measured the car before and after and at best would be 5mm in it! A pet peeve of mine with the car has always been that the cluster is in miles. I respect that the car is a UK import, and with Graham being a pommy too, i like its part of the cars heritage. but mpg means nothing to me, and if the ODO was in kilometers the number looks much bigger!!! I played around with NCS Expert and PA Soft, and now have the digital part of the dash showing metric. Its still the original cluster with the M35080 chip which means not a lot else can be done with it, which is reassuring! And of course the physical speedo is still in Miles, so still true to its heretige! Last week, I was pulling out of my street, and had a wee incident with a Mercedes. Young indian chap, learners license unaccompanied, and only in new zealand for a few weeks. almost brand new A class merc, and rubs his bumper along my left rear door and wheel. ripped the whole corner of the bumper off his merc, and only a paint graze no dent at all to the 320d. Which brings us up to today. Intending to take it for a roady up to Hawkes Bay tomorrow and being out of a WOF (expired two days after above incident so that was lucky), i took it down today, and another clean sheet WOF. Unfortunately while there, they did mention the fan looked a little wobbly, and sure enough its time for a new water pump! Ive known the viscous clutch has needed doing for some time, however being a diesel they dont get hot anyways. So another couple of things to add to the list. So tomorrow I will have to take my F15 M50d, which im not upset about obviously. Planning to catch up with Graham too, who has some old paperwork for the car he has kindly kept to give to me! Its funny these old cars. It's definately not the prettiest in my driveway, and i have parted out much tidier cars than this one. With the parts ive thrown at it over my ownership its not the cheapest to own either, even if the economy would say other wise. But for some reason, I have quite the affection for it, so Im planning on keeping it on the road as long as it wants to!

Non car things over the weekend. Small bikes instead. Massive amount of fun. Syds Run 2024 in Christchurch. A charity run for leukemia in the name of the guy who started this event. Syd. 560 odd scooters and small CC bikes. I've been two years in a row now. Syds 100th Birthday (RIP) would have been next year. They reckon there is going to well over 600 bikes this time. Buy a sh*t bike, chuck on your battle jacket and join the fun. Live your Pest Life. I have a 1978 Yamaha Chappy LB80 which is a laugh.

I went for the Toolshed own branded 1/2" and will be getting the 1/4" this week. Not flashy but the selling points for me were: Nice Nm only scale Legible 0-9 units around the twist barrel Comes calibrated, with certificate https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/product/15319-toolshed-torque-wrench-1-2in-dr-30-210-nm <--- Pretty sure i didn't pay $219, would have gotten on a special 👍

Just ordered the 5000TL230V quickjack from Sulco. It's on special at the moment there: https://www.sulco.co.nz/5000TL230V. Still pretty expensive and the price on there doesn't include GST (so you're basically getting it at the pre discount price but without GST). They had the wall racks in stock as well so I got those with it. Looking forward to using it though. Looking for a new torque wrench. Any recommendations?