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3 series compound. Not a single sun roof, as god intended

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m5/listing/4954050652 Top tier colour combo, looks like a very honest example. Would love to spend 8hrs in the garage with a buffer! Edit: optioned with the 9" rears and the 2+2 seating option. Very cool!

Thanks Graham, i am doing a return trip WLG/AKL/WLG next week. Will have car transporter trailer with me too, and could fit a car on both ways (just using it for a few engines and panels etc at this stage) I dont come on the forum much any more, but feel to message me on (oh too sevin, 3079322) Koha appreciated, especially if i'm heading all over the place to pick stuff up!

On the "performance" side of things, I committed blatant sacrilege by throwing on some intake mods. First was a Bevinsee intake air scoop off Aliexpress. Wouldn't usually go for such things but it looked tidy, all black, no logos and supposedly helps with intake air flow and reduces intake temperatures by a few degrees so was worth a shot for the low price. The second was a Dinan airbox. I've heard of them mentioned over on the E46 fanatics forums, supposedly being one of the few intake mods that are somewhat of an improvement on the stock setup. I'd never be able to justify the price of it though so never crossed my mind actually getting one. I happened to be chatting to @Eagle one day when he mentioned coming into possession of one as a bundle deal on his recent purchase. He didn't feel like using it himself so kindly passed it on. Absolute legend. It's essentially just a different lid for the bottom part of a stock intake with a bigger filter fitted inside. Originally would have come with extra tubing which taps into the brake duct and drills into the bottom of the airbox, adding a third source of airflow. Unfortunately it didn't have that tubing intact but it's something I can just whip up as a DIY at a later point. The filter is an odd shape but the filter elements themselves look identical to the washable K&N filters. Supposedly these aren't washable and need to be replaced every 1-2 years. Unfortunately, replacement filters are stupid expensive, are out of stock in most places and the few places that do stock them don't ship to NZ. I dug around the forums a bit and found reports of people washing and oiling them with K&N kits for years without trouble though so that's what I did. Having taken it on one proper drive so far, the sucky noises do sound more pronounced, which isn't something I ever felt the need for but nice to have I guess. Whether it does anything beyond that in terms of performance, who knows. Does look cool though. I did discover a few new issues on the first drive post paint correction. The first one being a massive puddle that started forming right after parking up. The mind straight away jumped to the worst case scenario. Luckily, it needn't have. Windshield washer fluid. I had just refilled the reservoir as well. Didn't seem to leak when stationary but once the engine gets warm the fluid bubbling up and pissing out straight out the nozzles. Real weird one. Having talked to @Eagle about it he mentioned there's certain brands of washer fluid that are known to wear out the seals in the nozzles. Pretty annoying but what can you do. Will throw a pair of new nozzles onto my next order and will do some research on BMW-safe washer fluids. The second issue could also have been more serious but ended up being a simple solution. I'd intermittently get a trifecta of ABS-brake lights pop up on the dash, maybe once or twice a year. Usually happened after the car had been on jack stands so I didn't think much of it. You'd restart the car and the issue would stay away for another number of months. This time around in the span of 2 days and 200-something km's it must have happened a good 25 times. Something more serious was at play. Got so annoying I ended up killing the engine without stopping and restarting again on longer straights. Initially thought it must be a bad wheel speed sensor - some of the last components I've yet to replace - but having checked live data mid drive they were all returning the same numbers. Dug a bit into the engine bay having gotten home and discovered the positive terminal next to the ABS unit heavily oxidised and looking yucky. Cleaned it up with some wire brushes and contact cleaner, another 200km later and the issue is yet to return. Great success.

235,xxx km New Phillips D2S xenon bulbs. I replaced both so they hopefully colour match better. Also replaced the rear badge with an OEM I got with the last parts order. Out with the old. The fishing line trick really works wonders New one: Still checking the oil level since doing the 02 pilot mod and it might have burned a smidge it’s not low enough to warrant a top up so very happy.

Yeah man. It sounds amazing. The only things in the exhaust that aren't stainless are the colby hotdog resonators. My old mans stroker is ready to go. 1.5 mm oversized valves, shrick 284 cam. Heavy duty rockers, titanium valve springs, new rocker arms the works. Oh and the ITBs haha. I am itching to finish mine

You see plenty of people ignore the problem and drive around in a cloud of smoke for years on end. Common does not equal normal. There's really nothing normal about it, a well designed, properly operating engine will not be burning anywhere close to that much oil. Those manufacturers claiming it to be "normal" are just trying to cover their ass and not take responsibility for putting poorly designed products into circulation. All those faults are fixable but often not financially viable, hence them trying to normalize it. Not sure where you're getting the $5-9k figure from, might be the case for a V8 or V12 engine, no way it costs that much for a 4-cylinder. I asked the local BM Workshop for a quote for valve stem seals for an N42/N46 earlier this year, got told $1.5k + GST. As a DIY it'll be a weekend of work, $100-200 in parts depending on any extras you want to do at the same time (spark plugs, vacuum pump seals etc) and a few specialized tools (https://bimmerzen.com/store/product/3/BMW-N42N46-VSCT-Full-Kit).

In case you missed. Diesel BMW Driver Smashes Solo Coast-to-Coast Cannonball Driving Record (roadandtrack.com) A traffic-free L.A. allowed Stowell to reach the Portofino Inn in just 27 hours and 16 minutes. That time absolutely smashed the previous verified solo record of 27 hours 54 minutes set by Carl Dietz in a Cadillac ATS back in April 2020. Stowell also beats the pre-COVID overall record of 27 hours 25 minutes set by current record holders Toman, Tabbutt, and Chadwick. He managed to do this by averaging a speed of 105 mph, with a top speed of 151 mph. He also had the benefit of only needing to refuel every 800 miles or so, owing to averaging around 23 mpg during the attempt. .... Despite coming from a line of Audi S6 models, Stowell was convinced to purchase a 2015 BMW 535d by a buddy with an E90-generation diesel 3 Series of his own. The car isn’t exactly stock, with a stage 2 tune removing most of its factory emissions controls. An ECU tune brought output to around 400 hp and 560 lb-ft of torque, allowing for great passing power on the highway. A series of aftermarket fuel cells were installed before settling on the final unit, which was outfitted with some tank foam to limit fuel sloshing. This cut a few gallons out of the tank, but left Stowell with around 40 gallons of total capacity. An Insta360 radar detector was the main piece of anti-cop hardware, but Stowell didn’t run the several units we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in these cars. He told R&T that he plans to continue driving this BMW, and didn’t want to tear up the interior for this challenge. .....

these two tell you everything you need to know about the PO.

Painting the reverse lamps is a... decision.

Have you driven one? There’s no way it’s passing anything on the straight unless it’s a bicycle.

Sounds freaking sweet mate! Eventually I'll stroke and cam mine, lots of other things first though...

TMS underdrive pulleys. Whoever bought these along with the Dinan CAI must of been listening to Scribe. I guess they blew all their money like him instead of fixing the massive OFHG leak, worn pulleys etc, then finally tried installing random ignition coils, cam, crank sensors in an attempt to fix their flogged out engine, or maybe just broke it in the process. Turners list these at $260-280 USD + shipping but looks great compared to our local option Benefit i can feel is increased steering weight. Having this along with the solid steering coupler finally feels like my E36 with the same rack.

After going through a credit card\Paypal dispute to crawl back some money from the ****s at Milian exhausts, i spotted a local guy on FB selling a M54B30 in 'limp mode' he had removed to do a LS swap. One of the first M54's made being a '99 build and came with a few goodies - a full M52\early M54 exhaust (minus the cats which someone had cut out), Dinan CAI (which i gave to @Vass as it was cut improperly on the side and filters are way overpriced) and TMS underdrive pulley kit (fitted) Was tossing up using the M52 setup but no cats, crappy pipe work and me not wanting to polish another entire exhaust i decided to join the M52 downpipes on my existing system. Not a hard job right? turns out some muppet at BMW decided to use 2 different exhaust pipe diameters after the down pipes, never noticed them being different but on the E46 at least they are - ~45mm and ~50mm ID and ~1.5-2mm thick. To make matters even worse the M52 setup is double walled to the cats unlike my single walled system in the same section, i assume they did this to quiet it down a bit given the lack of primary cats. After finding nothing locally i turned to Aliexpress which always delivers. I managed to get 51>50mm and 51>45mm pipe reducers which were a near perfect fitment. Obviously the 201? stainless quality and thickness isnt on the level as existing system, but i think it will hold up for my usage. No TIG currently available so trialed some SS 308 flux core. The stuff actually welds better than expected correctly positioning ie not upwards on axle stands, tidy enough for an exhaust and leak free but i may redo it properly with TIG and better steel if i can find the sizes. After installing a new stud fitting the M52 headers was very easy, frees up quite a bit of room, less heat, half the weight and best of all you cant see the ugly cats now. Got M52 heatshield and another 990mm O2 sensor for the front bank in an attempt to route it the same as the rear bank, it mostly worked but was still slightly short so went along side the valve cover slot as opposed to in it. I dont know how exactly the M52 stock setup routes which would of been nice to know. Sound wise they are noticeably deeper, like someone turned up bass a couple of notches. It has a small burble\resonance at 1.5-2k range when accelerating slowly but otherwise you'd assume it had an aftermarket muffler. Certainly wouldn't want it any louder given my car was already louder than what people say their stock E46 exhausts are, given the lack of sound deadening. Performance wise it certainly feels like it pulls stronger, more noticeable in the ~5500+ range where most M54 start feel flat. Throttle response feels better too, maybe with the pulleys maybe adding a touch of help or just placebo. I do have various Draggy runs from summer 2023 on the old setup so will do some more in the future.

M20 swap itself is less work being factory fitment. M52 makes more sense in performance per $ terms, but that M20 is way cooler keeps the E30 ethos.

Where's the face palm button..................

Exhaust should definitely fail a WOF. I'd be a little worried about what else they thought was a good idea given that exhaust...

Update: I love this car.

High performance... hair dresser? 🤣

I got my brake lines, supplied locally via https://nz.helperformance.com/ ... if you're in need of tasty braided lines I recommend 👍 Last week also got the misc items from Spareto (front caliper pin kit, basic pads and M3 parking brake shoes). Have yet to pull the trigger on the custom brackets and hats due to cost ... hopefully will order on pay day 😬 Then only need to arrange the remaining cross over pipe for rear caliper I stuffed up.

Yes control units do go faulty. Replace all 6 glow plugs and the control unit

Thanks mate! What were you driving? I got a lot of beeps on the way up! Haha it's going really good at the moment. I loved being able to drive with the top down the whole time. Thank you so much but. I will continue improving it and adding other things to it over time. A full repaint is on the cards in early December so I can't wait fot that!

Hi All, Been a while. Listing here on behalf of a family member prior to going on Trade Me. You'll be hard pressed to find a more genuine, well maintained E46 330i. Asking $9,300 ----‐‐------‐----------------------------------------------------- NZ New 2003 330i Motorsport Purchased from Team McMillan BMW Auckland in May 2013 85,800 km on the clock when purchased and now sitting circa 113,000 km Automatic. Always garaged. Serviced by Jeff Gray BMW Hastings and more recently GH Automative Hastings (BMW and Mini Specialist) with all receipts in hand Work done whilst in current ownership 17/6/2015 – Aircon re-gased 30/7/2019 – New Rocker cover gasket 1/11/2019 – Rear LHS tail light. 27/1/2020 - New battery 17/3/2020 – Support lift (for under car to support car jack) 5/8/2022 – Replaced Intake boot Last full service done at 110,757 km Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza RE003 (plenty of tread remaining) Rego: Expires 20/1/2025 WOF: Next due 16/1/2025 Two Keys. Only known issue is the stereo. Was making an extremely intermittent “popping” sound from the rear speakers. As I prefer keeping everything original I did not want to take the stereo out and replace with some other random head-unit so the wires were just unplugged from the rear speakers.

Plenty of them on my way up to the coromandel on Friday. Had a cRaptor trying to prove he was faster than an old 1 series auto. Had to back right off as he was crossing the center line on blind corners. Turned off to Pauwanui (of course he did).

Just sold the F30 335i to a fellow up North - has been a brilliant vehicle and I hope he enjoys it

@Vass here’s a photo I took just before - unfortunately the camera captured the red quite saturated so not sure if it’s very helpful, but this is what they are currently like. Will try to remember to report back on this in another 6 months or so.

Yuuuuur love it, very jelly !!

Pulled this one from my M90 last week. Elring 1.72mm. Coolant passages partly covered.

All For Sale posts must have a price, as per the forum rules, can you please add one?

that e36 with the hardtop is 😍

Reconnected the E36 battery to start the day. Went a little like this: E36 > Silverdale Bus station > CBD office > Wiri CDG Depot > X5 to Hamilton > Huntly > Epsom > Home > E91 to pick up E36 > cool wee pic of the midlife crisis mobile and family travel wagon together.

Ok so car is fine, was the Alternator belt, clutch and Pulley. All replaced and now it’s fine.

Still working for me as of last night. (app 4.9.2)

Woohoo, clown shoe! Interesting cars, so ugly they're cool, with bit of a cult following. The interior just kinda matches the wild exterior design, you wouldnt want a boring interior.

NZ New pov pack auto with door damage on faceballs for 4.5k 173,000km

Good to hear. Few other areas which can fail unfortunately so if you keeping the car be prepared. PIpes under the manifold are the hidden time bomb which can let go suddenly, so id be keeping an eye on the coolant level often if you not planning on doing an overhaul.

If you want to check out a repair option I'd start here: https://www.carbotec.co.nz/ Have had some friends go there with foiling gear and have been very satisfied, really nice guy etc apparently.

The shadowline trims that go around the windows were looking real tired. The finish is somehow different to the vertical pilar trims, they were heavily oxidized and no amount of cutting, polishing or even wet sanding seemed to do much to improve the look. Ended up giving up and passing them on to professionals to get properly repainted. Ended up at Evan's Colour Works in Sydenham. The turnaround was quick, the price reasonable and the finish was mostly good, although did have quite a few dust bits stuck under the paint and a couple of runs. Ended up leaving one piece to get resprayed but the rest came out decent enough with a quick polish. Will have to get some 'after' shots later on. The roof rails were also pretty bad, with paint bubbling up and peeling off in a few places, as well the 3D printed plugs needing filling in. The finish was satin black so I felt more confident in taking these on as a DIY. I epoxied the plugs securely in place, carefully masked off the rubber seals, filled in the gaps around the plastic plugs and sanded down all the rough bits. I used 1 coat of etch primer followed by 2 3 coats of flat black enamel. Turned out mostly fine but I did a pretty poor job of filling in around the plugs so was left with a few craters. The spray nozzle was also pretty poor so ended up with a few drips here and there. Will sand it down at some point, fill in the imperfections properly and give it another few coats, whenever I've got some surplus motivation. I had epoxied one of the taillights back together a few years ago. Mucking around this time I noticed the other one coming apart at the seams as well so it also got the epoxy treatment. Whilst I was at it I also gave all 4 rear lights a cut and polish. Came out really nice, getting rid of the swirl marks and the yellow haze from the clear bits. Photo of a before and after of the inner lights below, no points for guessing which one is which. Finished them off with all new bulbs throughout and chrome bulbs for the indicators which made a surprisingly noticeable difference. Ohh, and I ended up swapping out for a slim black plate as well. Don't care much for personalised plates and wouldn't be able to justify the price of one, but for $200 I do love the stealthier look. Plus, it'll pay for itself if it does a good job of confusing a speed camera or two... Did get a new standard issue combination though, as a symbolic start of a new chapter if you will. Naturally, the plate holder plinths got trimmed down to size once again. Also, took off the towbar for now. Looked way too rusty for my liking so will give it a lick of paint before throwing it back in. Hoping to come across a towing module soon so I can wire that in at the same time. Another small tidy up mission were the rear arch liners. When having the rear guards rolled, the fella doing the job took a good few chunks out of them in quite a crude manner. Fair enough they're the part that rubs against the wheel as much as the guard lip itself but he took away way too big a piece either side, leaving a gaping hole for road dirt to get flung into against the chassis and inside the bumper cover. Not a big deal but has bugged me ever since. I picked up a pair of tidy ones and cut away the protruding parts in a more conservative manner. Then gave the bits some Carpro Perl treatment (the bumper and door trims got the same) and threw them in. Can now sleep a bit easier at night.

Yup - the one with the wood grain, black interior, had different rims too. Thought it was worth a shot and turned out a lot better than expected. There were more problems that weren’t mentioned on the listing - fixing a misfire as I arrived for example. Had service history in all fairness, though all from 2021/22. Just didn’t seem looked after as of recent and more importantly had doubt. Strong oil smell when pulling so must be other leaks or something. I wasn’t keen to pick it up for the asking price but there was no negotiability at all.

Bump, need gone, $7500 for bimmersport members

Legend

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

One of these is not like the other... 🎶

Full set of S001's RFT's here https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/wheels-tyres/alloy-wheels/listing/4723762004 Even comes with some free wheels.

I have nothing but good things to say about the f20 116i. (Owned one for over a year and in retrospect should have kept it) Very nice all round car. Reliable, enough power, newish tech/features, safe and economical. Way better than a corolla or other japanese equivalent.

Just over 12 months later, dumped all its coolant again.... Not sure if I can be bothered trying to argue warranty (parts) with Skoda NZ/Giltrap again, or I just take it to a indy VW specialist (its due DSG service), or I just do it myself.

'Spotted' doesn't seem quite right. If I'd not seen it, I shouldn't be driving. A 2024 750E Xdrive PHEV 4WD. It's HUGE!

Kerbed the crap out of a rear wheel on the B3 today, very disappointed with myself!

The car was insured but the driver was not unfortunately. Absolutely gutted as this car was super fun to drive and cost a bomb.