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In an accidental/ brain fart moment today, I connected the jumper leads to e30 backwards and fried the ABS relay. Repaired the relay, jump started and drove back to the city to put her back in storage with the red car.

The price of basic car cleaning products right now, wtaf... $70 for wheel cleaner? $60 for carwash? Someone in the supply chain is making an absolute killing.

Finally managed to get a weekend to get some X5 jobs done. Pulled the Trans mechatronics unit out, fitted the Sonnax zip kit, new filter and fluid and refilled. Is shifting a lot nicer now, but still has that rough 2-1 shift, but not as bad as it was, and the 4-5 flare, but again not as bad. So looks like it’s a solenoid kit next to sort that. While on the hoist, I replaced the rear drive shaft coupler, and fitted the front shaft with a spacer to push the spline into the transfer case further, which has a habit to wear out otherwise. Was also hoping to fit the ECS lift kit, but ran out of time. Did fit some new wheels and test tyres to sus out sizing, these are a 265/65/17 and is tight when on lock, so will stick with that I think. Is only about 25mm taller overall than the factory ones. Is a bit of poke on the front, but should have a set of iS flares arriving this week that should cover them

Hi all, Bit of a shameless self promo here-I’m responsible for the “Buying a neglected M5” videos on the tube recently. I’ve just uploaded episode two where I get stuck into the rod bearing job, check it out here. https://youtu.be/GgoFUOo4YH4?si=5fJqrjDjsYPfMa_V I’m not a mechanic, I’ve just always fixed my own crappy cars over the years and when values for Japanese cars went a bit crazy I dipped my toes into the BMW world and now here we are. Started with a great e28 535i (malachite metallic) then an e34 535 5 speed followed by a fairly broken e39 540i 6 speed with AC kit. Anyway, I always wanted an e60 and couldn’t resist the challenge of reviving this one. Open to any comments, questions or criticisms! Cheers Jordan

Disassembled the front seats in the E30 as there were a few niggles, sorted all excluding the stuffed backrest shocks, which will be replaced one day. The drivers side backrest bolster had broken and missing plastic piping and a split wide open seam for a few inches. I sewed a new run of piping using the original nylon core around some spotlight vinyl, then sewed that into the two parts of leather using the existing holes so as to not make a ‘tear here’ line(leather needles have a blade which cuts as opposed to separates the fibres). Happy with result.

Changed out the nylon motor gear in an E70 X5 transfer case actuator. What a c**t of a job on the ground, with basic home garage tools. 1. Move heat shields out the way to gain access 2. Drop cross brace as there's still not enough access to the E10 bolts 3. Remove worm gearing from actuator to remove E10 bolts 4. Curse a lot while getting to that last E10 bolt 5. Cuppa tea to cool off, and begin to disassemble actuator casing 6. Soak in WD40 to help split press casing 7. Curse more as pocket knife which would've been perfect to split casing is in E91 with your partner across town 8. Finally get it all apart, replace nylon gear and reassemble 9. Curse some more getting all the fiddly bolts back in their fiddly holes Highly recommend only going ahead with this if you have access to a hoist. Otherwise budget around 4 hours for as many cups of tea as it takes to not throw it across the room.

Sub 300km until the 180,000k mark.

Even with the non matching panels it looks so good on the Alpina rims

Inspired by @CSET and the Facebook series “playing with cars” I decided to use some spare bits to get the convertible back together so I can at least take it for a WoF while I wait for the parts to come back from panel and paint. So I now have a “rat rod” style Vert, fingers crossed for the WoF!