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Or buy my Merc 190E manual for sale, open to offers Way more uncommon than an E30 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/mercedes-benz/190-e/listing/4906738493

for $30k why wouldnt you clean the jizz off the back seat, and have the bumper repainted?

Good buying if you’re in that neck of the woods. I viewed one locally and was pleasantly surprised after taking it for a spin. Good thing I picked up the X5 at the weekend, the baby showed up last night!

Got my ITB's for my stroker build. Pretty excited 😊

Did some late night Italian tuning - quick run out to Arrowtown and back. Got absolutely DUSTED on the Dalefield back roads by an Alfa GTV. The 1.6 was well above 7K and spitting flames as it rocketed past me 😁 God they're an achingly gorgeous car. 1299691.jpg

I could not say no at that price to be honest bud. I have no idea what size the trumpets are but I am not fussed as I will probably change them anyways for some polished brass ones ;). Here's my old man's stroker we built with the same ITB's.

I picked up some cheap Style 386 on the weekend. They look like this. Okay I guess. Better size than the 207's. 225/40 and 245/35 which is the same as my white 130 on style 269's.

Got its own rap song too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYaIFvRqv2k

Getting snowed in, so tickled up the CSL in the garage

Cheers m8! Gonna practice my wool pad skillz as they're sorely lacking. Not bad for a panel that was frozen to the side of the road for a week though 😂

Yuuuuur from the research I've done: My OEM 318 is 22.2 / 20.6 330 is 23.8 / 22.2 E46 M3 is 25 / 20 with MK20 ABS and 25 / 22 with the MK60 (these look like approximate sizes, likely 1" in reality etc) So I'll likely have a look around once I know what sort of front to rear size ratio will work best for my setup. Have located TRW M3 for a non insane price Printed off a rotor hat so i can do more fitment mockups / validation, only just fit on my printer bed and took about 16 hours !! I then added a portion of the rotor and glued them together ... too keen to get it glued up and neglected to ensure it was nice an square so may turn out to be of limited use 😕 Might do another one for the other side over the weekend and ensure i do it properly. Picked up the result of my thinking cap time also and am really pleased with how these worked. This was to validate more accurately (than my 3D printed 'jig') what i had measured with my laser level. What I'm measuring here are the offset front to back as well as depth of the caliper mounting holes in the knuckle vs the centre. Attached is my high tech engineering drawing if anybody wants to replicate 😆 Worked out really well, and proved the 3D printed jig was only about 0.2mm out front to back !! From memory there was a previous 1mm variation between the laser measurements and the 3D printed jig also. Shout out to James Simpson Engineering who turned these for a very reasonable in 2024 $40. I should point out that while the 3D printed jig was a good fit when on the car it was essentially impossible to measure the 'as built' dimensions of the plastic part. I'm being pretty particular here as I'm in no hurry.

Not mine. But the wife's. Just rebuilt the gearbox and got it up to scratch for her.

Ks are fairly irrelevant if looked after, there are 130s in the 400,000km range now doing track days that have never had more than sump and rocker off for gaskets, proper maintenance is what actually matters (and owners giving a feck)

Drove the compact, shredded the drive belt. Luckily not far from home, so let it sit for 10-15mins to cool down, drove it 2 mins up the last part of three mile hill, then coasted it pretty much all the way home with only needing two quick bursts of power then shut it off again. didnt have a spare belt, so fitted the rear strut brace instead.

Anyone dealt with replacing the vanos bolts? I didn't know they were an issue until recently. Wish I had known while I had the rocker cover off. Though it's not a major to remove it again. Also working on this shitbox is a Rollercoaster. Found the fuel vent sensor was not connected.. Though reconnecting it still gives the same code so it needs replacing. Replaced my exhaust vanos control valve which actually made my issue worse. But I didn't test the new Hella branded one and I think that's my problem. Or the vanos bolts. Changed to the Style 386. Not great looking. But better than stock. Neglected 130s are fun.

Hi All Looking to convert to European after a few years of being on the K20A train. I’m set on a (lower k’s preferred) manual 130i. Though not a fan of the beige interior so far and have patiently, albeit regularly, looked at Trademe/FB for any new listings as the current ones look like they may need a bit of work - which is fine, though not yet ready to bite the bullet on any of them. Just extending the search here in case anyone knows of a tidy manual 130i that could reluctantly be let go of, but comforted knowing that it will go to a great owner who will continue to keep it in good shape. Preferably based in AKL. Any help is appreciated, cheers.

Messing about with some hellrot panels from a ti that decided to upside-down itself. first pass at 1000rpm with farecla G3 premium on a yellow pad with a Rupes 21mm DA. Gonna have some fun ending up burning through!

New rotors (been in storage for a while) and wheel bearing hubs for the vert today. Soon everythingthing will be new

😀Still for sale?

Fair enough, if 4 is good 6 is better.

Modified a factory sump guard to fit my vert today

Yeah I'm rebuilding another engine so I have it all in bits at the moment. I will probably get some high compression pistons instead of the roller rocker conversion

Repco have 50% off some Castrol, Penrite and other oils right now

I'd go with the roller rockers, but I have a bit of a 'thing' for them. To be fair, it is probably simpler to rebuild the top end than it is to replace pistons, rods or crank. And the top end can always be done later.

Called it 😁

Nah, he mentioned hes done heaps of them with sunroofs though. I pulled in and opened the door, he looked at the 130 and said "Headliner?"

You'd want to run the the 323 diff if its the manual 3.07 ratio. Should be able to use swap 330ci output flanges into the 323i diff.

Nice one SJ, dude was practically giving them away at that price! What size are the trumpets? I reckon pistons over roller rockers.

Stu's trim & sound in Wiri. Stu and Ross are legends. Had them do a handful of odd jobs over the years and never been disappointed.

Not sure how it compares to the Nissans but it's all fairly well documented and very much doable. Involves a bit of wiring and coding which is easy enough to grasp following some handy DIY guides. Happy to lend a hand with those if you run into trouble, seeing as you're also Chch based. The hardware will mostly bolt up with the main incompatibility being the diff as alluded to above - can either swap the input flange or the whole diff, depending on the ratio you'd prefer I guess. The 330i automatics have a 3.38 ratio diff, your 323i will probably be a 3.07, assuming it's factory manual. A manual swap technically requires going through the certification process if you want to do things by the book but you'll fly through WoF's without it if you do a tidy enough job.

You're welcome brother! Such a lovely ride

Yeah I reckon that’s good buying for a runaround / daily! Timings not right but who knows haha

good buying!

I did a bit of work on the X3, I cleaned the MAF, checked the disa which was sticking, I freed it up and then took the car for a decent drive. The improvement was nearly 1.5l per 100kms around town. Part of the issue was that the trans needed a service and was slow to shift up, and that combined with my daughter erratic driving style contributed to the average economy. I also performed and oil change but I cant see how that would have influenced economy. I also had a faulty coil so I replaced it a good second hand one I had. The car was certainly a bit smoother. Its got to go, My wife has her eye on a e92 Wagon.

Did a run from Wellington to Havelock using the Gentle Annie route, if you have not driven this road I highly recommend, superb !

I have a spare 8.8 screen.. let me know if that’s what you need.

Because when you’re looking at buying an E30 practicality is high on the list of “must haves” 🫠 Only thing better, apart from the boot, in a Compact than an E30 are the engines.

Not defending, just proving you completely wrong.

EV company car for the win! Zero fuel bill, RUCs paid. Also next to no brake dust as regen braking is used 99% of the time for single pedal driving (wonder what old 3pedals would have to say about that) so don’t have to clean alloys that often. Amongst other things 😜

Car finally back and better than ever at least - the delay was caused by a wait on a front shock - assuming they only replaced the front left but front end feels a bit tighter now at least.

One last thrash before going on holiday for 3 weeks - an extremely rainy morning out to Piha. Not my picture, makes me miss my old proper camera.

Why i like the E36 Ti vs E30, the less attractive sister with a ugly bum, but she's objectively superior in just about all other areas.

Audison AP8.9bit is now in the car and working well. My one piece of major advice is: Never ever ever update Audison DSP firmware unless there is no other option !!! When first installed, I updated the firmware thinking that would give me the latest and greatest hardware and also remove all previous user setting. The firmware failed and it's taken me most of the last 2 weeks to get it back running. I talked to Audison (Italy), and the Aussie Audison rep - neither could fix the issue. Researched google - lots of Audison firmware update horror stories; thought I had bricked it. Not idea why, but when I used a different laptop I was able to update the firmware and get it running. Set up: Channels 1& 2 - tweeters 35rms x2 Channels 3&4 - midrange 35rms x2 Channels 5&6 and 7&8 bridged - midbass 130rms x2 Channel 9 - pre out to sub. Haven't started tuning it yet, just got it running. Sounds decent already. Interesting it analysed the base headunit's front output and decided it didn't need de-equalisation.

Gold caps and 235\40R18 Michellin PS5's fitted, got $500-600 off compared to average retail price so though id buy them while i can.

Exquisite taste to run the dished 8.5" Apex rears!

Easter Cruise a couple of weeks back. Holding onto the last of the summer sun!

Comes from the Land rover clubs in UK... nitpicky pratts that will go totally off the deep end if they suspect that an old land rover has been put together/restored with the incorrect number of rivets... etc... much like the small group of BMW "rivet counters" on this forum that anally go after any car that is not OEM (in their absolute opinions of course!)