melowpuf

Looks carefully, Axle stands on grassy dirt doesn't look much better.

Axle stands on dirt???

Ha Cheers thanks Ian, another day older.

He already had car cover silly but the tree was too heavy for it.

Yeah that was the first thing I noticed when I first went to look at it, the drainpipe off the back. It is OEM so it stays. Other than that I can't fault the car, except its not quite as comfortable as my E34's. Specs for it are: Fuel: Diesel Fuel Delivery: Intercooled Turbo injection Transmission: Manual Gears: 5 Speed Engine Size: 2498 cc Cylinders: 6 Power Output: 143 bhp Valves: 12 Torque: 260 Nm Torque: 192 lb/ft

Probably my Mum. We work together in town. *wonders why she was at the hospital* According to BMW and LTNZ its the only one registered in the country. Had a few issues with insurance as they didn't have another one to compare it with, so we have an agreed value of $1X,XXX. Bought it with a fueling issue and was pretty confident I knew what was causing it, and sure enough. The fix involved a screw driver and an air compressor. Will be getting leather interior in the near future and aircon. Summer is a killer without it. Other than that I like her the way she is.

Its a little bit expensive to run It cost me $76 to drive from Auckland to Wellington and back up to Auckland again towing a jetski Did the round trip on less than a tank. $13 Auckland to Bay of Islands towing an 18ft boat, compared to $90 in my E34 (driver and 2 passengers). Its a great little car.

Something a little different in the E36 range. Needs a good wash and might give the engine bay a birthday one day, tidy it up. And I must do something about the exhaust pipe one day. Have never liked it, but it serves a purpose, and does it well.

I've been keeping an eye on that one its deregistered though which is a huge put off. Have contemplated doing a conversion into one of my sedans. If its the one I think it is it was floating around up in Whangarei as a repo a while back and the finance company sent it off to turners to try and get some money back. I put an offer in to the finance company when they had it on trademe.. before they sent it off to turners. They should have taken my offer So this guy mustve bought it from turners. and now its back on trademe. What a shame it wasnt looked after.

Theres a few missing. Have sold the e30 and added a few more various E34 models. But I still don't have an M60 yet or an E34 Touring. Good things take time.

I have advertised a few cars on Trademe, and always cringed at the success fee's. But I accept the fact that Trademe is the easiest way to sell a car and just pay it. In my last auction I was surprised to see the success fee's had been changed. Or so I thought, they had only changed the wording. What is your interpretation of the following screen shot in respect to Auction prices and success fee's? (the highlighted section)

Ill have to give her a wash and get some photos. Here's one in a line up of some of my bombs on the front lawn.

Yes it is very economical, even after road user charges she is by far a lot cheaper. I wish the plonkers would hurry up and sort out the RUC on small non road damaging Fuel Efficient private diesel vehicles. I cringe when I look at the 3 tonne sticker in my windscreen (I'm sure my ass isnt that big). Our holiday home up the far north costs me $90 each way in my 525i e34 (driver and 2 passengers) and $13 in diesel in the e36 (driver and 1 passenger plus an 18ft trailer boat holding on behind). I honestly scoffed at this car when I first saw it thinking bleh DIESEL!! Why would you??? Then I took it for a test drive and had to make a detour to a hole in the wall to get the money out to buy it. They are excellent little cars. Only drawback is it doesn't have aircon. But it can't be that hard installing it which is a must before next summer. I would Highly recommend buying one of these if you ever get the opportunity. There's a bit of turbo lag but you learn to live with it, she still goes plenty fast enough to get an instant loss of license with ease and hauls ass over a 535i. But it was never designed to try and break land speed records.

Yup thats about all that I've read that goes wrong with these. Apart from the usual diesel quirks. Injector seals etc. But no big issue really. That and some don't like starting with less than 1/4 tank of diesel?????. On the odd occasion she will crank over a few times and not fire, but I'm 95% certain its an alarm issue. next turn of the key and fires on the first crank as per usual. Trying to sort out a noisy tappet issue at the moment. I havn't used it for a while but I'm sure it was noisier last time I used it. The E34's are just so much more comfortable to drive around in. The E36 is a noticeably harder ride. You've had some experience with these engines 2 slow?

I wonder if a 525tdsx exists. out of interest where did you get the extra "t" and "i" from? From what I've read, alot of the front suspension components on the 525ix are the same as the M5. I suppose i could do a part number comparison to find out.

No trouble tracked one down if needed. Yes there are some precious moments caught on tape, unfortunatly nothing lasts forever. Just yell out if you need me to go grab it for you. Tis only fair to return a favour.

Im sure I could cut the bottoms out to make them a bit deeper. I did a round trip from Auckland to Wellington a month back to go pick up a jetski and just for a leisurely drive really in the 325tds. I got back home with just under a quarter of a tank left. The fuel light flickered as I came over the bombays. It took $76 to fill the tank back to the top. The trip was about 1300km in total. I want an E34 touring. I suspect it would be slightly more expensive to run than the e36 but damn cheaper than my other E34's.

I'm on the bat phone trying to dig one up for you. I know of several floating around the family, so I should be able to get one for you. How soon do you need it?

Yes mr smarty pants... would be doing that but umm in the excitement after cleaning up the messes I made whilst drooling, I made the mistake of thinking my memory was better than it is.

I was driving to lunch today and I spotted a Lachssilber E34 5spd manual Touring parked in Parnell, drove past spotted the badge on the back Put the brakes on reversed and parked beside it. Checked the rego sticker and sure enough the badge was correct it was a 525tds. If it is yours I want to buy it, but like me you probably don't want to part with it because you will know the fuel saving benefits and the power these m51 engines have. But wait... I have an e36 325tds 5spd manual if you are interested in a swap. I am looking for something a bit bigger as I like carting lots of stuff around, so maybe hopefully you are someone wanting something a little smaller . Or if you know who owns it please let me know. It would be good to know someone else with one of these to share experiences, these are far from common over here (Team McMillan said mine was the only 325tds in the country). Whoever you are with the 525tds touring you have in my eyes one of THE BEST BMWS ever built. A manual E34 Touring with the m51 engine. It would be THE best if it was Cirrus Blau with dual sunroofs and had the 4wd drive line and leather interior, neither which would be hard to achieve with whats advertised on trademe at the moment. If anyone knows of the m51 engine please get in contact with me. I have spent many hours in Range Rover forums as they use the same engine. but otherwise I am on my lonesome. I would never trust a mechanic or BMW with my little car (at first I was told that no such car existed So I had to walk him out to it Even when I give them the chassis number they tell me to go and check it again). I even have to wait for them to bring in my Oil filters because they don't keep them in stock.

Whats it doing Ollie?? One issue I have seen lots is doors locking and then unlocking again straight away and unlocking and locking again. Easy fix - lift the back seat and replace the blown fuse under the back seat. Check the loom in the boot to see if any wires are frayed causing a short. The fraying loom in the boot is another common one. Light issues (Bulbs are good but headlamps/tail lights still not working) Check/replace the LKM (Light control module) Cooling hoses - old cooling hoses = bad, wont be long till they crack and start leaking, you lose water and over heat and do a head gasket (lost count of how many times I have seen this). Replace a hose a week if you can't afford to get them all in one go. Its cheaper than a replacement head. A compression test will tell you what condition the bottom end is in. Cam belt - self explanatory. If you can do this yourself DO IT again anyway. its cheap enough. Rust - check at the bottom of the rear windscreen in the corners, the boot lid covers it when closed so open the boot. Water pools in the corners, I have seen a few with rust there. The Shimmy as already discussed. may also be hub rings if it has aftermarket wheels on it. Test drive the car before the engine has been warmed up - take it for a drive around the block, the trans can slip when cold sometimes. If it does slip and goes away when it is warmed up you maybe lucky and might get away with a trans flush and new filter. Loose steering or play in the steering - Idler arm most of the time, easy fix just a nut, tighten it up. Check the shocks - if it feels like your driving a water bed, they're poked. They're like e30's. But bigger. and easier to work on.

I've got plenty of these ready for the scrap metal man if anyone wants to give it a go. Pickup from Manukau.

Don't try this method with your diff, I wouldn't try it if you think your spark plugs or coil might need attention either. But yes most likely valve clearances, but do bear in mind the m20's have a natural ticking sound but should not be excessive. Lots of write ups on how to do the valve clearances floating around. The clunking could be the diff mounts, or the center hanger bearing on the drive shaft. The source of the clunking sound can sometimes be deceiving. Best way I find the problem is put it up on the hoist (back wheels off the ground) with someone in it, go underneath it start it up, put it in gear and play on the clutch. Easy to find where the clunking is coming from that way. I have done it using a jack and some logs as axle stands (it was at the racetrack and we didn't have a hoist handy) but it was a bit scary I don't recommend checking this way. I should start a new discussion "How not to diagnose faults"..

Some of you may have read a post I made a while back in regards to a battle I had with with my car. Well It happened again today but slightly differently and slightly worse. I got locked in my car in the middle of the road waiting at an intersection after work in Parnell. I finished work and went out to my car and unlocked it as per normal with the remote. I started it up and somehow when I put the key in the ignition it twisted the remote around and put enough pressure on the arm button to activate the panic mode (you have to press the arm button for 5 seconds). I started driving unaware and a few meters up the road I heard the beep of the alarm. Didn't think too much of it and carried on driving, the engine was still going so no need to stop. About a minute up the road I hear several more beeps from the alarm and knew something was not right. Something was about to happen..... AH OH... The engine died, the doors deadlocked and the window wound up. I tried to start the engine again and knew straight away that the immobilizer had kicked in and I was going nowhere. So here I am at the front of the queue at the intersection, Alarm screaming, trying to deafen me, horn honking (gotta love the e34 horns), unable to start my engine, unable to open my doors, unable to get out of my car. Oh *expletive*. Well many expletives actually. Lots of pushing of the remote buttons later and all the noise stops, but I'm still locked in the car, and still no engine. So from past experience I took the key out of the ignition, put it back in and turned the key and wound the drivers window down, I then climbed out of the window (I didn't get my arm stuck in the window this time, I learned my lesson last time and climbed out first and then took the key out of the ignition and did the whole point and "HAAAAAAA" I beat you at my car as the window wound up). Used the key to unlock the doors which also resets the immobilizer. Waved at the line of cars behind me, jumped back in and drove away. I'm glad there are still some patient people in this world. I might be sick tomorrow one of my colleagues was a couple of cars behind, and I saw the evil smirk on his face. AS much as I hate having this happen, I think I still like my alarm. I would love bullet proof glass so I can lock robbers in if they try to steal it. I think I'll keep it.

It would look funny without the front seats though...