Leaderboard

Wash and a fresh WOF for the 540i today. First time out of the shed in several months, forgot how nice it is to drive!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/5430229231?utm_source=tmm-savedsearch&utm_medium=email&bof=ffdclawW Lovely. Just lovely.

<$6k at 16h today, 4 hours to close: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/5424722124

There are phone apps that will work out the code based on units serial number or online service that will do the same. eg https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=4797224868258853173&hl=en_NZ

Not sure, but this thing is worth the same as a non wof 2013 Hiace, so that gives you a start to do the maths on a re-shell.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/isetta/listing/5429835513 This is gorgeous

Front subframe out ready for the sump gasket job. It cleaned up real good and I swapped the M3 steering rack on ready to go back in. Before that though there is lots and lots of cleaning to do to the underside of the engine bay, then new sump gasket and engine mounts can go in. Probably my favorite but about having it completely apart is to clean it spotless.

Time for a few little updates: First the wheels/tires - having had some more time driving on them, and in particular on some dry roads I can't believe how much quieter the Potenza Sports are than the RE050As. I know that one of the complaints about the Sport is that it's noiser than the PS4S, but honestly it's still a huge improvement over what I had before, so still feels like a win to me. I'm super super, happy with the 18x9/18x9.5 combo, and the lightweight 18in rims have given me everything I was hoping for in terms of ride + driving feel. I try very hard to make sure that each change I make to the car aligns to my goal of "improving the driving experience", and this change has absolutely nailed that brief. As an aside, at the time that I installed the RACP brace I also replaced the rear cover on the diff with a new one with new bushes. I'm super happy to report that the combination of these two things has completely addressed what remained of the diff slop/M-Clunk/whatever you want to call it. I'm stoked about this as wasn't sure whether the diff was getting a bit worn out, but I'm super happy with how this has resolved, particularly as my brain has reprogrammed my driving style to not work to minimize situations where it happens (same thing happened when I got the tune dialed in for rev matching, it takes a while for your brain to realize the car is going to behave predictably and that you don't have to avoid certain scenarios any more. I've also ordered a Gauge.S for CAN/D-bus logging. Thanks to Bry5on and heinzboehmer I've adapted Bryson's ash tray insert for the Gauge.S to suit an RHD car. I've also ordered the connectors for the Gauge.S board headers, etc. Still to do is to confirm the exact connector used on the steering angle sensor and order a pair to make an extension for the Gauge.S. The plan with the Gauge.S is to put everything I can into a couple of custom CAN messages from the DME so that the Gauge.S can log these at high data rate. I've written a custom program ROM which allows me to specify the memory addresses of the variables I want to push on the CAN bus in the partial/tune binary. The advantage of this approach is it means that reconfiguring the messages is a simple tune flash rather than a change to the program binary. I can't actually test this until I get the Gauge.S setup, but it's otherwise sitting there good to go. Also while disassembling the CAN functions I uncovered that ARBIDs 0x700 and 0x701 (which are disabled in the 0401 tune) can be enabled to send knock manager data. This is going to be super useful for tuning and big thanks to Bryson for confirming the behavior with logging. I've got a bunch of half-finished projects on the go at the moment that I need to finish before I start anything new (which I'm itching to do): - Finish the boot/trunk interior work with the RACP brace in place. (I managed to get myself stuck for a while on the best option for the false floor, but think I've got a reasonable option) - Finish the SMG expansion reservoir bracket (No blocker here, I just have one that works well enough and need the motivation to sit down and do the final design) - Print and install Bryson's Euro M3 bumper to CSL snorkel duct (this one is currently blocked as Dad is having some 3D printer issues with ABS that he is working through) - Finish documenting all of the CAN messages on the main CAN bus for the 0401 binary (I mostly have what I need, but want to produce comprehensive documentation on this for the benefit of the community) Think that's all for now...

M42/M44 hybrid is in and running, I also converted it to a rear battery setup as well while the engine was out. Looking forward to the first drive to break the new motor in. Phase 2 will be getting some ITBs on it, and installing the Bilstein b14 that have been waiting to go in.

Today's task was pulling, cleaning and reinstalling both vanos solenoids, followed by oil and filter change. Managed to spill about 2l of old oil on the drive by using a shitty, bendy, too small drain pan. 2 hrs and 1/2 bag of kitty litter later, good news is that limp mode and error codes all gone again Spirited test drive and seems good so far. Have spent the last week frightening myself with everything that can go wrong with N54 vanos.

I ordered tires this evening. After much research I decided to go with the Bridgestone Potenza Sport. I had been planning to take the well-trod route of Michelin PS4S's, however they're not available in New Zealand (and importing tires was just going to be too expensive to make sense) in any of the sizes remotely close to what I need (I confirmed this with Michelin NZ directly), this was a surprise especially given I'd checked on their NZ website that those sizes were available here 👎 This meant I then needed to figure out alternative options. In Michelins that meant PSS's or PS5's (no Cup options available in NZ in the sizes I need). The PSS's are too old, and the PS5's while by all accounts very good had me a bit concerned about the softer tire wall than the PS4S. The RE050A's that I'm running currently, are fairly stiff in the sidewall department and while objectively terrible compared to modern options I am used to the stiffer sidewall. By moving to 18's I'm already introducing more compliance for a better ride and road stickability (that's the technical term 🙃), and I was a little concerned about also moving to an even softer sidewall as well. I then looked wider, and after a bunch of research, looking at what is available in NZ, settled on the Potenza Sport. The Potenza Race would be an even better option I think, but they're not available in 18in options. The RE71-RS's while the stickiness would have been giggle-worthy, don't give the same degree of feedback and would be impractical in wet conditions, so the Sport it is. TireReviews.com have a good review of it and on dry handling it's very close to the PS4S, slightly better in the wet, and ranks worse on comfort (due to the firmer sidewall), slightly worse on noise and worse on wear. The wear doesn't bother me as I won't do enough km's anyway, the firmer sidewall I'm okay with and the noise will still be a lot better than the RE050A's anyway. This is all splitting hairs of course, but might as well get the best option I can. Big shout out to @Palazzo for suggesting Costco. Bridgestone NZ direct have the best price out of the rest due to a special deal currently which comes to only $2376.32 NZD for all 4 tires fitted. Costco, for exactly the same thing, is $1379.94, plus in addition you get a $360 store credit as well. Given we regularly shop at Costco for essentials this means the end cost for the tires comes to $1020. Which is quite astonishing to me. That's significantly less than I paid for new performance tires for my 318i in 2007!