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There’s been a few E39’s posted up for sale lately in various colours and more importantly condition . Pricing varied and the example at Archibald’s in ChCh just recently sold and boomeranged its way back to Whangarei . So with this said I thought I’d do a show n tell on my example . I’ve owned the car twice . I should have never sold it some 13 years earlier , but I got a knock to the head and went down the Porsche route for many years . Anyway coming to my senses I had the opportunity several years ago to purchase ‘ol blue back. I’m really a purist at heart however the car has morphed into essentially what is a NZ version of a Dinan stage 2 car . To the uninitiated it looks stock which I really like . It performs very well , sounds epic and has been maintained to a very high standard . Mileage is circa 117,000 kms from new . It’s an NZ new car , built April 2002 and delivered through McMillans in July same year . Cheers .

Been slack on here again recently. Has been a busy time. Finally had my graduation after completing my practical work hours, so I am officially a mechanical engineer now, Ive become a New Zealand citizen and Ive signed a contract to start a new job in the new year. Not a whole lot has changed with the car to be honest. Ive had the car back on the dyno at work just to check the tune again to make sure all is still well, changed oil, the usual stuff. Car is happy and running well. Ive installed a RTD motorsport chassis mounted short shifter. Ive made some changes to the radio delete plate and cut a hole in it to install an OBDII scan gauge. This is a much better solution than MHD monitoring as its permanently installed in the car, doesnt require charging, turns on and off with ignition, and has been set up with Audible alarms should oil or coolant temp exceed set thresholds. Wrapped to plate in some alcantara/suede to eliminate glare, quite happy with how it turned out. Now need to make something similar as a shift surround for the new shifter. Also bought and sold a few cars in the meantime, traded the 123d hatch for a v6 tdi touareg, sold the touareg, bought another v6 tdi touareg but this time a facelift one in much better shape with all the options (minus a sunroof, dont trust those) and full dealership service history. Fantastic car and in my opinion the perfect daily driver. Incredible comfortable, spacious, smooth and quiet with sufficient power and surprsingly good fuel economy. Plus it can tow 3.5tonnes.

Managed to stumble my way into another problem project. With an addition to the family imminent, I started looking at options to upgrade the wife's mode of transportation. Her trusty Subaru Outback is getting rather tired and is not a car I particularly enjoy working on so was keen to lure her over into the wonderful world of German engineering. With her enthusiasm for eventually getting back into riding and owning horses, the criteria was a 4wd with enough ground clearance to at least not get stuck in a paddock, and something capable of towing a horse float. Easy enough. I wanted to keep it in the familiar era of the early 2000's so quickly narrowed the search down to E83 X3's & E53 X5's. The V8 was never an option and despite my love for the M54, I felt that in a big lump of an SUV (SAV?) it might be a bit underpowered and too thirsty, so the legendary M57 became the preference. Not an awful lot of them around as it turns out, and all close to or above 300k on the clock. One 306k example had popped up, went to check it out and although I was impressed with the drive and feel, I decided against it due to the shoddy aesthetics - passenger door handle was missing, a bunch of interior trims were quite worn, the steering wheel was sticky and disgusting and some underbody plastics being held in place with self tappers and wood screws. The condition was reflected in the price but since the car is meant to be for the better half, I'd have wanted it to be a bit nicer. I then went back to a FB Marketplace listing I had saved a while earlier. The ad had been up for a good number of months, the asking price was essentially double that of the car I test drove but was well presented and looked heaps tidier. Before I got around to texting the owner though, the exact same car popped up on a TM $1 reserve auction with a "FUEL INJECT. SYSTEM" error on the dash and a crank no start condition. Despite numerous messages and requests for a viewing, the seller never replied so I was left bidding blind. Not ideal but it is what it is. I figured I'd go low enough that I could recoup the investment through parting it out if need be, and after brief bidding war I emerged victorious at a price I was happy enough to gamble. The next day, I recruited a mate to help out with towing duties, hooked up our rally car trailer that was barely big enough for the job, huffed and puffed pushing the 2 tonne beast onto it and carted the new family member home. And there she is - 2004 E53 X5 3.0d with 288,600 km's on the clock. Overall looks really tidy, the body is straight with a few paint imperfections here and there but still presents really well. I do love the facelift design, doesn't look at all dated even at 20 years old, in my eyes anyway. Interior is in great condition too with the only blemish that stands out is the passenger door arm rest leather coming apart. Even comes with an Android headunit, which is pretty handy. The biggest drawback, for the wife in any case, is the lack of heated seats, although that's something I can try and rectify at a later date. All of that counts for nothing though unless I can get her up and running again. The car had sat since July, the battery had gone completely flat to the point even the gear indicator light wouldn't come on. Took 2 days of charging to get the battery back to full charge but I suspect it might be too far gone anyway and a replacement will be the first item on the shopping list. Ran out of weekend before I could start properly digging into it but did get the battery charged up enough to pull some codes. Definitely something to do with fuel delivery. Whether the code for fuel pressure regulating points to the regulator being faulty I'm not entirely sure. I've learned that these cars have a total of 3 fuel pumps - a low pressure in-tank pump; an inline pump and a high pressure pump - and it could be either one of the 3. Will need to do more research on whether any of the codes might help pinpoint the culprit more accurately. The glow plugs should be easy enough to replace and definitely on the list of preventative maintenance I'm aiming to take care of. Whether the glow control unit is also a common failure point I'll need to also look into. Another suggestion I found was that the fuel sender unit may have gone bad, the gauge would still show there being fuel in the tank but it wouldn't be making its way over to the pump side from the opposite side of the "saddle", causing a fuelling issue. The fuel needle did indicate barely a fifth of a tank so could be plausible. I'll try pour some 20L of diesel in it and see what happens. Would be pretty funny if that's the cause of the issue but I don't dare hope to be so lucky. On the running gear side, a few codes could be a cause for concern, namely the transfer case code for oil abrasion and gearbox shutdown code due to overtemperature. Will see how she feels once she's running and driving but servicing those two will definitely be on the list. Will take some time on the weekend to dig into it proper, see how far I get with the diagnosis and start putting together a shopping list of parts. Pretty excited for my first diesel experience. Time will tell how much of a bargain it turns out to be. Long live the Family Tractor.

Thank you, i appreciate the kind words. Its definitely been a journey but its what kept me sane during Uni, i didnt enjoy my degree very much at all.

Yeah plus one on the Nice Work - great work on the wiring remediation and patient servicing! You'll be setting this one up for reliable extended life, so many of them get neglected. I think the auto-dimming door mirrors are a pretty good feature when you're on the open road at night and there's a knob behind you on high-beam 🙂 Still, low cost is a good option! Looking forward to your next installment. Keeping chariot trouble-free and reliable for family use is a major priority.

Hello Search for the Baur TC1 Register in Germany world-wide after BMW E21 Baur Cabrios and its Baur number this stands on a plaque in the engine compartment and on it stands for Stuttgart body Baur A00.... - .. we should have this number for Baur registers. Unfortunately the entrance too TradeMe is not permitted to me as foreigners. Baur register: http://www.baur-tc1.de/pageID_8837473.html We look for this Baur now: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-278466217.htm It gives believes still two Baur in New Zealand 1. Warkworth, Auckland 318i 1981 green TI4659 2.Matamata, Waikato 320 1980 green Thank you for your support kind regards from Germany Uwe Hinz

Absolutely transformative. Can't believe how much better it makes the car look.

That's some pretty pornographic carbon work for sure 🍆 I like the paint booth, about to do something similar in my kitchen 🤣 Gotta love those holiday projects hah

Hello Wish everyone in the forum a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025. BAUR TC1 Register has existed since 2002 and is still active. And search for BMW E21 BAUR TC1 VIN. https://bmwe21baur.hpage.com/startseite.html nice greetings from Germany Uwe Hinz Webmaster of bmwe21baur.hpage.com (bmwe21baur.de)

LPSR purple tag - The used one he send me had a preload issue so he gave me a discount on a new rack with his rebuilt one. CMP front brace - Was debating whether to install it but ive never used the fold down seats since owning the car so i figured why not. Haven't really pushed it hard since installing as i need a alignment but it appear to give at least a subtle improvement in rear end feel. Meyle HD bushings - Only found out recently looking in the Bentley manual that there is a distance spec for these to be fitted (~289mm +\-1mm from inner ball joint to rubber bushing). Mine had been re-used which wasn't ideal and weren't pressed on near enough. I made a similar tool to proper ones to ensure i got them on properly this time around. Ive always felt the car wasn't as stable and lacked steering feel it should have and this was very likely the main cause. Even with the wheel alignment off its day and night especially combined with the above tweaks.

Nice work @Vass - that previously janky wiring strongly incentivises working on my car myself. Some people just have no interest in doing things properly (but are quite happy to be paid as though they do)

The first parts order arrived so I dug into a major service. This batch was aimed at servicing the engine and was as follows: Glow plugs & module Crankcase breather valve Water pump, thermostat & coolant flush Oil & filters First thing to come off was the intake manifold. Really quite easy on these engines not having to disconnect any fuel lines unlike on the M54, just a bunch of nuts & bolts to undo. I was in for quite a shock once it was off though. I knew diesels were "dirty" engines but this I wasn't quite ready for. The intake runners were gunked up so badly that they must have been reduced to roughly half the original diameters. Cleaning these out became the biggest and most time consuming task of this whole endeavour. I went through 5 rolls of disposable rags cleaning out the intake. No matter how much gunk I scraped out, how many times I rinsed the intake through, more and more gunk just kept coming out. Insane stuff. Must have taken a good 4-5 hours just scrubbing away at the intake with rags, brushes and screwdrivers and rinsing it out with a garden hose to get it to a point where it was relatively sludge-free. I then stuck some rags down the openings on the engine side and picked away at the sludge with a screwdriver to get that cleaned up as best I could. To top it off I then made a simultaneously genius and moronic move in taping a piece of rubber pipe onto the end of a shop vac and sticking it down the openings - genius in that you could hear the sludge getting pulled out of the engine so got that end of things cleaned up really well; moronic in that the vacuum tubing now needed an almighty cleanup job itself. Win some, lose some. I then tackled the glow plugs. Have read that these are known so seize inside the engine and needed a really careful approach as to not strip any threads. I'm guessing it's more of an issue in colder climates as mine came out without any issues despite almost certainly still being originals. Glow plugs aren't really critical in our warm-ish climate but good to have the system functioning properly and get rid of some fault codes. The glow plug module is a bit of a mission to get to, sitting underneath a variety of coolant lines, wiring and vacuum hoses. To make access easier, you can remove a coolant flange bolting onto the block, which is what I did since I was draining the coolant anyway. The flange is known to break when working in that area so I ordered a spare Febi one just in case and bolted it on once the new module was in place, which ended up being a mistake as I later discovered. I felt the coolant hoses were a bit loose when reassembling but didn't think much of it at the time. Then with everything reassembled and the coolant topped up both hoses started pissing out fluid with the engine running, all over the brand new glow plug module. On the bright side, it took me just 15 minutes to remove the intake this time around so it didn't set me back too much. Luckily, the original flange didn't get damaged in the process so I just transferred over the gasket from the Febi one and bolted everything back up. No leaks this time around. I know Febi are hit and miss nowadays and have now ticked off my first bad experience with them. Water pump & thermostat went on without issues. The water pump was still original, the thermostat was date stamped 2021 and the coolant that came out was still blue and fairly clean so the car was at least somewhat taken care of. The radiator got a good rinse and clean and went back on as well. Still original but seemingly in decent nick, will have to keep an eye on it. Was surprised by how much of a mission it is changing out the air filter on these. The thing itself is massive and you have to take off the whole cabin filter panel, all beauty covers and several more covers just to get to it, and even then access is really tight with the cover panel hitting brake lines at the side of the engine bay that houses the brake booster. No wonder the filter that came out was filthy as all hell. Had claimed quite a few innocent lives throughout its tenure that thing. On the flipside, oil changes are a breeze as I didn't even need to drive it up onto ramps or jack the car up to have access to the sump. The PCV was a simple in & out affair. Also threw on new expansion tank and oil filler caps for good measure. The engine bay now looking clean & tidy. That's pretty much it on the engine side of things. Will do another oil change in a few thousand km's just to be safe as I don't have much in terms of service history. Have also put an order in for a proper EGR delete kit as I don't want to deal with the absolute horror show of cleaning a diesel intake manifold ever again. Have just unplugged and capped off the vacuum hose going to the EGR valve for now. Luckily it's the older, vacuum operated system on this thing and not the newer electronic valve so didn't trigger any engine lights and no coding required. The engine now breathes noticeably more freely and generally feels happier. Previously it would momentarily stutter at idle when first starting it up so am glad to have gotten rid of that. Have also poured a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner into the tank to hopefully help her run a bit smoother still. I did discover a new issue that will need addressing sooner rather than later in the form of a split axle boot on the driver's side. Won't be a fun job by any means. Really hope the axle comes out of the hub without much hassle and isn't seized in. Another item I received in this batch was a new driver's side mirror glass. The old one had gone all brown and yucky, assumedly the auto-dim feature going bad. Seems like a rather gimmicky feature that I'm unlikely to miss so just ordered a "dumb" heated mirror as a replacement since it was 1/5 of the price - TYC brand at just 8 EUR a piece. The old one was a mission to get off and I ended up cracking it in my attempts to remove it, spilling that nasty fluid all over the place in the process. The new mirror is nice and clear and has a stronger convex so gives a better field of view than the old one, which is nice to have on a bigger car. I've since discovered the passenger side one to be held together with double sided tape and wobble at cruising speeds so have ordered a replacement for the other side as well. The next batch of parts is now on the way, including the CV boots, fuel and cabin filters that I forgot to include with the original order as well as transmission filter, mechatronic seals and other plugs & gaskets to start changing out the trans, diff & transfer case fluids. Won't be straying too far for the time being with the split boot but wifey's pretty chuffed with her new chariot.

Have been slowly chipping away at this thing over the past month or so. First order of business was a good deep clean inside and out. Discovered quite a few dings and scratches as you would expect but still presents quite well. The headlights are starting to get quite faded and unfortunately these are similar to E46 facelift coupes in that the lenses are molded into the headlight and aren't easily interchangeable for new ones. A mate of mine has the knack and gear for headlight restoration so get him to have a go as that cleans up the look quite drastically. The inside got a good deep clean and vacuum. The bigger mission was sorting out the various messes that someone had made of the wiring. There were some weird unconnected cables added on at the headunit end that I ended up removing and tidying up. In the trunk area, instead of a towing module I found whatever this contraption is. Haven't tested whether the trailer lights actually work yet but that also needed a few dodgy wiring joints tidied up. Hopefully it works as I'm having a hard enough time chasing down one towing module, let alone two. The car came fitted with a reverse camera that was refusing to work. I had a spare one sitting on a shelf so decided to investigate. Hooked up the new camera to the existing wiring - nothing. Hooked up the new wiring to the existing camera - nothing. Hooked up the new wiring to the new camera - works like a charm, so somehow, someone along the way had managed to mess up both the wiring and the camera itself. Upon closer inspection I was again greeted with a whole bunch of dodgy wiring - a combination of wires soldered, crimped, taped together, added plugs and even a terminal connection all covered in copious amounts of electrical tape, sticking out from behind trim pieces in the cabin along the length of it. Ended up ripping the whole thing out and running a whole new length from the headunit to the tailgate, using proper solder-heatshrink butt connectors and taking off door sills and trim pieces to tuck the cables tidily out of sight. The car came fitted with both front and rear parking sensors but neither were working so tried digging into that issue as well. I was fearing the sensors being faulty but the scan tool only gave a code for the gong so dug into that. Taking off the kick panel I discovered the gong wasn't plugged in at all and the plugs were nowhere to be seen. Took a bit of digging around to find the ends deliberately tucked away in behind the carpet. Someone really didn't want these to be found. Figured it would have been done because the whole system was faulty but to my surprise both front and rears work perfectly fine after plugging in the gong. So now the car has fully functional parking sensors and reverse camera. Steady progress.

Roof rail delete looks so good on the e46 (and the PFL e91 for that matter)

I did also swap out the amber indicators for a fresh set of clears as some eagle-eyed folk might have noticed from those videos. TYC brand corners and fender indicators are good quality and still pretty cheap from Spareto so got sets of both ambers and clears last year. Paired them up with chrome bulbs from LEDPerf since they were the only ones I found (other than Aliexpress) that carried the smaller chrome fender indicator bulbs. Pricing seemed reasonable but did find dealing with them quite annoying so probably wouldn't bother again. Despite a .co.nz website and NZ flag plastered all over the place, they ship their stuff out from France which in my case took over 3 weeks to arrive with little to no tracking updates along the way. The bulbs look to be random brand and probably Chinese-made anyway so would just go direct to Aliexpress next time. Chrome bulbs do make quite a difference though and give a nice clean finish instead of the egg-yolk look you get with amber bulbs. With the fender indicators I somehow ended up with slightly different ones with one having a pearly white edge and the other more of a beige. Might tack on another pair with the next order to have a matching set since they cost the equivalent of a pack of chips. I've also taken up the practice of super-gluing in those metal tabs after having 3 of them shoot out one after another into the fender cavity when reinstalling them after a polish. Don't need the hassle of trying to fish those out again. Did enjoy the amber look but wanted to switch it up a bit after a a year and a bit on that setup and the car does look way more modern with the clears. Need to take her out for a scenic photoshoot up in the hills on a cloudy day sometime.

I've just finished reading through this thread from the start (I'm looking at getting one of these in the next year or so as my daily). Stunned at how you have done all this work as a student. Takes a lot of passion for the project and maturity I didn't have when I was a student. All my spare money went on beers and I wouldn't have had the motivation to do something like this (on the side of study plus part-time work). To have done all as a uni student - mean. Car is sick. Hopefully you now have it off the street and in a private space. Look forward to seeing what comes next.