Rona318ti

Hi Brent I'm unfortunatly overseas until 10th May, will get in touch after then if thats OK? Cheers ian

Hi again. my bonnet gas struts have given up the ghost and the bonnet tried to eat me! is there anywhere or anyway i can get them re gassed or do i have to get new ones? Cheers Ian

Hi again. my bonnet gas struts have given up the ghost and the bonnet tried to eat me! is there anywhere or anyway i can get them re gassed or do i have to get new ones? Cheers Ian

I had the same problem with my wife's 318ti, in the end bit the bullet and went to McMillian BMW in Newmarket and was very supprised to find the owners manual was only $24 plus GST. The BMW base ball cap cost $28!!! so for a very resonable price you get the orginal manual. It's probably the only reasonable BMW price though! Cheers

Andrew Thanks for the info. I found the same information. My question is about the 10th digit, it's a zero and as the table below shows zero does not corresponds to a year, so why does my vin have a zero for the 10th diget rather than a 'T'???? '10th Character: The 10th character in your BMW's VIN tells you the model year. (This varies somewhat among car manufacturers - see the chart in the "Here's How to Find Your Car's VIN" section below for specific locations by car make.) VIN Character - Model Year Codes 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 B C D E F G H J K L 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 M N P R S T V W X Y 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A ' The table comes from :- http://www.autohausaz.com/bmw-auto-parts/b...on-numbers.html Cheers Ian

Hi Can anyone shed any light on the vin number of the 1997 318ti vin number. My number is WBACG82090AS82943, car is ex Japan. Its the 10th number I have a problem with, all the information on the net says that the 10th number is the year code, but BMW do not use I,O,Q or 0 (zero), but mine is a zero and comes up as year unknown or incorrect number. The AS82943 number corresponds to the car when that it checked on the other sights. I got the number off the ownership papers, and the back of the engine bay, just below the driver’s window wiper, is there another place on the car where the number is stamped??? Curious Ian

Jochen what you guys do is just brillient, i can only decribe it as magic and you must have balls the size of ..... just to start touching all the expensive electronics. great! Ian

Jochen I was looking for the same thing for my Rangie V8 and came up with this below. 92US octane is 96NZ and 87US octane is 92NZ. i would stick to 95NZ octane to be safe and sure. Cheers In most countries (including all of Europe and Australia) the 'headline' octane that would be shown on the pump is the RON: but in the United States and some other countries the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, sometimes called the "roaD Octane Number" or DON, or (R+M)/2. Because of the 10 point difference noted above this means that the octane in the United States will be about 5 points lower than the same fuel elsewhere: 87 octane fuel, the "normal" gasoline in the US and Canada, would be 92 in Europe.

Hi Hybrid Thanks for the help, i appreciate the time, and jochen is the guy i will definatly contact. These forums are a mountain of good information, once you get through the daunting amount of chat. look forward to your short cut later cheers ian Cheers Hi lidistick will do, thanks for the link cheers Ian

Hi Guys I'm brand new to all this so bear with me! I just bought my wife (Rona) a 11/1996 318ti M-sport (first registered 1997) little red rocket ( I got a Range Rover for my 50th birthday!) and i must say it's a hell of a little car! I had a British XR3i escort rally car for 17 years and it's way better than that. This is our first BMW so have no experience of the make at all. My question is that its a Japanese import and has no owners manual. Has anyone got a copy on file i can download so I can find out all the good stuff and how it works? I will need to talk to the "BMW radio man" when i get back from overseas too about the japanese radio convertion to NZ frequencies. My wife had to listen to Paul Holmes this morning, as that was all she could get. The Dr said she will make a full recovery!! I look forward to many interesting converstations. Cheers Ian