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Ahhh, memories. Back in 1990 I needed a stereo for my Datsun wagon. Paul Money Car Stereo advertised in the Herald, I think I bought with a couple of phone calls, a fax and a cheque, and they sent to Wellington. Purchasing is so much easier these days with the web! I chose a Sanyo compact digital radio cassette that fit into the dasboard (twin spindles - volume and tuning) and something like 25 watts per channel, along with two way Alpine 6 inch speakers that were destined for the front doors. When it all arrived they'd sent me Alpine 6x9" 3-ways, so the plan changed and they went into the tailgate on a 10mm particle board baffle that I knocked-up. I ran decent power and earth cables to the unit, it sounded really good for what it was. I couldn't find anything to fit my constraints (the dashboard moulding) in Wellington (other than low-fi models), and nobody down here was doing the stack it high, sell it cheap model like Paul Money did.

Good progress this weekend; the engine is now running with minimal fault codes, we were able to get it up to operating temperature and verify ancillary systems (alternator, power steering) were operating as expected. We've identified a small coolant leak around the rear turbocharger and have also found the engine has settled on the engine mounts more than expected, which will need to be remedied before continuing with the exhaust fabrication. 20250504_160416.mp4 20250504_162619.mp4

The top cars are still selling! Not surprising that didn’t last long.

Dug into the starter extraction first thing Saturday morning. Quite an easy job all in all, with no messy fuel lines to disconnect the intake manifold came off in around half an hour giving decent enough access to the starter/bell housing bolts from up top. Still quite a tight squeeze but not as hard up against the firewall/transmission tunnel than you'd have on an E46 and such. Cracked the bolts loose using a swivel head ratchet and then used a 10mm ratchet spanner to back them out the rest of the way. The intake itself was still nice and clean, just slightly oily, which was good to see. Took the starter to my mate who split it open and to discover brushes that were very much perished, leaving behind an impressive pile of carbon. From what he saw he reckoned it should be back in business with a good clean, regrease and new brushes. That would be a relief as new ones of these chunky starters are $500+. Left it with him to sort out during the week and scooted back home. Still had plenty of daylight left so tinkered on fixing an annoyance I had with the car ever since purchasing it - when pressing the button to fold in the side mirrors, they would fold in and go straight back out again, refusing to remain tucked in. Did a bit of digging and landed on this video which looked worth a shot. Popped off the mirror covers to inspect - the passenger side was fine but sure enough, on the driver's side the little metal lever had fallen off the sensor mechanism and was just sitting there. Gave the area a good clean, bent the tabs in slightly, reseated the lever and fixed she was. Also noticed the power steering reservoir had gotten wet again. I gave the area a good clean when doing the first batch of work on the engine so this was fairly new. The O-ring in the cap didn't look too bad but I managed to find a slightly chunkier one in my stash and threw that on. Hopefully that was the culprit of the leak all along.

This has been a great daily driver for almost two years, however with family expanding and the need for a tow vehicle this car unfortunately must hit the market. UK import E90 M3 (first registered in NZ in 2014). Interlagos Blue on Novillo Black leather. Rare colour for the NZ market. 127,800km. LCI (Oct-08 build). DCT. EDC. Rear PDC. CIC with wireless Apple Carplay system retrofitted. Avant Garde M359 wheels (brand new in September 2023) on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. Car to be sold with stock plenum and air intake installed, however I have available an aFe Power Magnum Force Stage-2 Cold Air Intake and CarboProject V2 Carbon Plenum (brand new December 2024). Matte finish. The CarboProject plenum paired with the aFe intake does an amazing job at enhancing the ITB intake noise that this engine offers which is rather muted when stock. Over the past 10,000km (circa 18 months), the following parts have been replaced with the following OE Genuine BMW items unless stated otherwise: Zimmerman brake rotors, Akebono brake pads, Pagid wear sensors (April 2025). Engine mounts. Valve cover gaskets. Exhaust gaskets. Engine rear main seal. IAT sensor. Spark plugs. DCT mounts. DCT temperature sensor. Rear brake calipers rebuilt. Bump stops (front and rear). Front sway bar bushes. DCT serviced. Diff serviced. Servicing largely completed by BM Workshop, Burger Motor Works, and Continental Cars BMW. Front end and side skirts repainted by Precision Autowerk (November 2023). Minor scratch on LHS of rear bumper. Fully stamped service booklet. I have all bar one of the service invoices dating back to 2019. Rod bearings have not been replaced, 1/2 throttle actuators replaced (previous owner). The car will be sold with a new WOF. The next 10,000km service is due at 134,400km. I sold my last BMW to a Bimmersport member so it would be great to do the same again and keep the car in the community. Asking price - $34,999. Car can be viewed in Northcote Point or Auckland CBD.

Sold!

After a fair amount of procrastinating, I finally bit the bullet and took the car for cert. I used Jody Thompson from Two Six Installation and fabrication in Rolleston - He is fantastic to deal with and I highly recommend his services. The list of mods up for cert are as follows.. Brakes BMW 325i discs front; BMW 325i calipers front, Larger (51mm) 325i front strut housing, braided brake hoses front & rear, manual pedal Steering BMW E46 purple tag rack and pinion Suspension Lowered front and rear; Ride heights: 335mm F, 320mm R +/-5%; Ride heights measured from the centre of the wheel to the bottom of the guard while empty and on level ground. Wheels & Tyres Rim size: 15x7 front and rear; Tyre size: 205/50 front and rear Engine & Drive-train 2494cc BMW In-line 6 cylinder DOHC fuel Injected (M20b25) with BMW 5 speed manual gearbox (Getrag 260) Jody didn’t have the correct category to certify the purple tag rack so he applied for an extension with LVVTA, this took sometime but he was granted the category extension, and we were able to go ahead with bump steer test. Bump steer test results As I had used factory bolt on parts for the manual conversion and engine repower, I didn’t need driveshaft hoops.. I was very happy about this! Booked in to get a WoF this Thursday and then ill be road legal

Memories indeed. In the late ‘80s I bought a pair of Alpine 6385 (maybe at Paul Money, maybe some place in Newmarket) speakers and paired them with an Alpine 3525 amp in my mighty Laser Ghia. With a Phillips head unit and Sony 10 disc in the boot. At 120km/h, a bass note would make the rear vision mirror vibrate so I couldn’t see.

An injector service is cheap enough and with some miles under the belt always advisable but something every 10 seconds or so probably doesn't line up with an ignition cycle, I'd expect more frequent "misses". Have you done a DIS VANOS diag? What about a smoke test? These things, certainly as they get older, are prone to vacuum leaks. Also, never diagnose startup or idle issues until the SAP has done its thing, it creates all sort of bumps, lumps, and noises during warm up. Happy to listen to it, or plug it in, if you can drag it to Epsom at a suitable time.

Lovely example, that engine cover is mega! GLWS.

The M340i wagon is a superb bit of kit but there are better examples around for much less asking. And what’s with the plastic wrapping on the steering wheel..??

Tested out the X5 as a tow vehicle the other day when taking the wife's horse float in for a WoF. Handled the task with ease despite the float being a heavy old homebuilt lump from the 80's. Lining up a trailer is an absolute breeze with the addition of the reverse camera. At first I thought I might be in trouble as none of the lights worked with the trailer plugged in so I was fearing another dodgy wiring job with the aftermarket tow module but turned out it was just a matter of the pins on the trailer end being too tightly squeezed together. Spread them out a tad and she was all sweet. Didn't notice the rear sagging with the trailer hooked up so not sure whether airbags would have improved the experience in any way. Then just a couple of days later the X5 got to enjoy a fun ride on the back of a tow truck... It had been a bit sluggish firing up the past few weeks, the first crank would be a lazy one and seemed to take an extra crank before coming to life. Then the other day it refused to fire up at all after a good 4-5 cranks and only started up after cycling the key 2-3 times. Something was up but didn't get around to addressing it at the time. Then today the wife popped by for a visit to my work and the tractor wouldn't start again when she went to leave, would barely crank until it stopped doing anything at all - no clicking, no grinding, no sound whatsoever when turning the key. Prior to that, the last time it drove I tested the voltage through the cluster display which said the battery sat at a steady 13.8-14.0V, and still had 12V with the engine off so that ruled out the battery (and the alternator). My best bet is the starter packing up after 20+ years and 292k km's of service, assuming it's still the original. Can't even be mad if so. Luckily, the wife still had her AA Roadside Assist membership active, which she had completely forgotten about. The only reason I even knew she had one was that I happened to be on the phone to AA earlier in the day making a change to our house insurance policy and them mentioning that we get a discount due to being members... So we got a free tow out of it. Handy. Will dig the starter out over the weekend, once it stops pissing down, hopefully. With any luck it's just the brushes that have gone, have a mate who has a knack for these things and can easily rebuild it if that's the case and get her back up and running pretty quickly. Fingers crossed that's the extent of it.

I bought a Kenwood as recommended by Olaf (thanks dude). Got one with a cd player in the end - for my son's birthday. We installed it in his z3 the other week 🙂 In the good old days I used to visit Paul Money's showroom off Dominion road and lust after an Alpine cdr-7998r (at least I think that was the model...). First mechanised Alpine headunit at the time - when off it retracked back into the unit. Alas student allowance didn't wasn't sufficent to buy it. Bought a cheap clarion unit instead for my rusty mk3 spitfire! Take a look at some vintage stuff here