M3AN

Thanks, will do.

Update: Amazon came through as I mentioned above and the goods arrived at Mainfreight within 2 days. Mainfreight are also trying to make this right - they're airfreighting the package (25kg) apparently at no cost to me... I'm going to be fascinated by the final invoice! I have the DHL tracking number and it's about 10 days away.

Thanks SJ. It doesn't feel violent or consistent enough to be a misfire... I think (because I've not experienced one in this car before). I'll give the MAF a clean when I get home... I tested the coils 12 months ago and they were fine... might have to do that again and check the plugs.

UPDATE 21/01 I've "fixed" the problem, it was a faulty VANOS exhaust solenoid. After three days of intermittent problems the car failed to start. I replaced the VANOS and re-timed the engine and it seems to be okay at the moment. Details throughout this thread. ORIGINAL POST Okay so I jumped in my car yesterday after stopping in at the hardware store and went to pull out onto the main road and *cough* *splutter* a few times just from idle to around 1200 RPM. The car didn't seem like it was going to stall, a little bit more go pedal and it was fine. The car was already up to operating temperature. It did it once more on the way home from idle (pulling away from traffic lights). But it doesn't do it every time. On the way to the office this morning it happened again. Also, if I coast down a hill put it in neutral and let the revs drop to idle and tap the gas I can occasionally make it splutter - I did this twice and both times the oil level light came on momentarily and immediately extinguished. Oil level is fine (could probably do with another 500mls but it's good). The oil light does not come on every time the cough, splutter happens. Full power and no symptoms above about 1200 RPM. E36 M3 3.2 6 Speed. Almost seems like fuel but I can't correlate to the oil light... Any ideas, this is a bit of a concern. Cheers.

So I have confirmed I am a tool and ordered the LHD part. I'm normally very conscious of the R/LHD differences but due to the circumstances of this purchase completely overlooked it. My penance will be drilling the correct two holes and finding black rubber bungs to suit the redundant holes. The bungs aren't entirely necessary but this is punishment after all. There's a lesson here to buy local in some cases. Net I think I saved 25% of the purchase price (which only equated to about NZ$40) by importing. And now that I can't return it (practically speaking) I realise how well that extra $40 might have been invested into the NZ economy! Cheers buddy you too and that's good to know. I thought it would probably fit somewhere in that 3-6 month maintenance window. Need to get the brakes on first... but I'm waiting for a few bits so I can do everything at once: S/S brake lines - en route Rear rotors - en route F/R springs - en route F/R sway bars - en route Sway bar bushings - en route 15mm rear spring pads - I should order these soon or my 255x35x18's ain't gonna fit! That made me cackle a little... I scrolled back up and saw what you meant!

OMG - how obvious, and stupid, is that! Look's like I'll be doing some drilling and plugging lol! <goes to look up part number he actually ordered!>

I've just received some new parts from the US - not enough to complete my brakes or suspension but getting there. New Rear Shock Mount Reinforcements (15 min job): Solid Brass Caliper Bushings - these are really smooth compared to the rubber bushings but have no dust covers so will be high(er) maintenance. And a new windshield cowl - this is an OEM BMW part but I'm missing two holes!! ?

Yeah, took a while! But sub 350 for 4 springs, 2 bars and bushes is worth waiting for I reckon.

So it looks like I'm not the only one to suffer with freight forwarders! Some of the stories, wow. Aside from their monumental initial failure Kiwishipping seem to be responsive and helpful so far. Also they're less expensive than Youshop and they will do consolidation which is important for me. I have no idea what the end result will be but I'll post back here with any relevant updates - I'm hopeful because others have had positive experiences and you'd expect Mainfreight to be able to sort the freight bit out okay once they have the package.

I thought I'd share a recent experience with you about the subject operations (Mainfreight and Amazon) because it's amazing and amusing as well as anecdotally relevant to many on this site. TLDR; Amazon.com rocks! Whilst it does seem as if things are working out for me this is only as a consequence of some astonishing customer service from a party that had absolutely no hand in the mess that was created. I've been watching the price fluctuations of a high quality spring and sway bar kit on Amazon for about 5 months now (tracking the price with camelcamelcamel) because the kit retails for about US$800 (often >$NZ$1400) but it's been offered for as low as US$345 from time to time on Amazon which is quite an amazing price (for a brand name kit - Eibach). The product is only available to ship to the USA so I got a quote from Kiwishipping to freight forward it that I was happy with and signed up for their service in anticipation. Well on 27/12 the kit was at a great low price and I hit 'Buy Now' and made the purchase on Amazon. I also purchased a smaller, unrelated item at the same time. I then downloaded the instructions under "Help" on the Kiwishipping site and followed them to the letter to complete the order and shipping details on Amazon. A day or so later I received tracking numbers (one USPS, one UPS) and I thought "wow, this is easy!". Some two or three days later Google Now (of all services!) advised me on my phone that the USPS package had been rejected at the delivery address "Recipient No Longer At Address". WTF!!! How did I get that wrong? I didn't get it wrong. Mainfreight (Kiwishipping.co.nz), a Freight and Logistics company had got their own delivery address wrong! They had moved about a month ago and hadn't updated their user documentation! One can only imagine how many packages were misdirected. So I sent the Kiwishipping US and NZ emails addresses an urgent request (admittedly on Dec 30) but heard nothing back and had to call them yesterday. They said they'd get onto it. They did not. When I first called Kiwishipping yesterday the UPS package was still in transit and could have been intercepted. By the time they eventually got onto it (with my 3rd call) it was too late (rejected at address). The people I dealt with at Kiwishipping were polite but ultimately unhelpful. They said I should contact Amazon. Amazon had already processed a full refund for the USPS package having received it back (no questions asked!) but my concern with the suspension kit (UPS package) was that the price had already gone back up by more than US$200! I would receive a refund but If I had to re-order then I would be out US$200 + tax + duty etc, etc. So I logged on to Amazon, went to customer service and started a chat session. It wasn't Amazon's fault but I had no idea what my options were - I was at best expecting a new quote that I could pass on to Kiwishipping to negotiate with them since it was their monumental cock-up that had resulted in my inconvenience and potential loss. What actually happened was amazing. Over the course of a one hour chat (!) Amazon apologised many times for my inconvenience (despite me reassuring them that they were not at fault) and would you believe actually offered to "replace" the order to a new address at no additional cost to me!! i.e. they were willing to ship initially for free, accept the items back and restock, resend the items to me at a new address honoring the original price and they even upgraded the free 7 day shipping to free 2 day shipping because "that would be better". Keep in mind this is a 25+ kg package. OMGWTF!?! I'm still going to expect Kiwishipping to provide some compensation for my time/anxiety but that is almost secondary to the amazing experience I had with Amazon - all businesses should operate like this.** I can't recommend Amazon enough. We'll see how I feel about Kiwishipping when I (eventually) get my goods. **Shout out to Bellars Motor Works and Kayne Barrie Motorsports who I have first had experience of also operating in this customer-focused fashion (at their own expense).

^ so holding the throttle down, by any amount and into any key position (1, 2 or 3), seems to do nothing at all. At least not in my tests. The digital rev metre on the climate control also doesn't register anything different.

I'll try it tomorrow and let you know!

Thanks for the offer, I might need to take you up on it if I ever do all of my hoses with the Roose kit. Clearance for a proper tool is my main concern, some of those buggers are pretty difficult to get at!

Yeah, I was surprised at how tight the tail sits! It took a few goes with the pick (I was working blind though). I didn't drain, the hoses easily stayed in place, even with some deliberately applied tension.

Yeah, I sort of stumbled on the pick idea myself due to lack of space and available access to the reservoir clamps. If you have easy access then you may just be able to grab the 'tail' with needle nose pliers and yank it off the latch/hook. That would be faster.

Cheers and no problem. Something will help someone sometime if it's written down. I'm jealous that you have access to a hoist! I'd spend so much more time on my car if I did! Good luck with your power steering, keep us posted.

I posted some of this in the "What did you do..." thread but I'll keep it here for the record books too. Leaking Power Steering This is a very, very common problem for the e36's and it occurs because the hoses degrade internally and eventually loosen at the fittings. Mine turned from an occasional drip into a constant drip so I needed to do something about it. I was fortunate to find my problem was at the bottom of the reservoir and not at the crimped ends of the hoses (although they'll eventually give way as well). To fix this I replaced the Oetiker clamps under the reservoir with worm-drive clamps. The Oetiker clamps are are pain to remove unless you know how and I used a hook pick to lift the "tail" off the "latch" which immediately opens the clamp. Replaced those with screw tight worm-drives and not a mil spilled in the last few days. I'll eventually need to replace the hoses but would be keen to do that only when I need/want to replace the rack. Cold Air Intake Reinstalled I recently removed my carbon airbox to see if that was the cause of my hesitation problems (it wasn't, that was the throttle position sensor) and have since reinstalled it. When I put it back in I included a temp probe inside it and a separate one in the engine bay - I wanted to establish whether it really was a "cold" air intake. It does appear as if it offers sufficient isolation from the surrounding heat to do the job. Perhaps one day I'll do a back-to-back comparison with the stock box and heat shield but for the time being I'm happy. Once I'm up and running at ~50 kph temps in the intake drop rapidly to a little above ambient and at 80 kph+ the intake temp is almost ambient (it's worth noting that I'm using the stock sensor to measure ambient and I have not idea how accurate or precise that is). So at the moment I have no codes, no leaks and it's running like a beast! Still on the hunt for the best brake options but my priority now is getting a baseline dyno (to compare to my last one in 2004!).

Whilst I don't want to count my bridges until they're hatched and am driving around whilst touching wood... I seem to have inadvertently solved my hesitation/miss concerns... I think. It didn't happen all the time but the symptoms were annoying and frustrating. Idle would occasionally bounce around and I had more and more hesitation under mild load. * I got a smoke test and replaced 4 vacuum lines - problem got worse. * I removed and cleaned the ICV - no change. * I swapped my carbon airbox back to stock - no change. Then, last weekend I removed the TPS and tested it - readings were fine. I then reinstalled the TPS and re-tested and got different readings from one set of pins but these matched a known good M3 so great. Since putting the TPS back in I've not had a single idle or throttle problem! The car runs like new... As I say I'm hesitant to claim victory yet but the last week has been promising. If that is the cause then I can only conclude that either the contacts were fouled or the TPS is on the way out (and benefited from a shake). I'll keep an eye on it but at the moment I'm pretty chuffed.

Bellars Motor Works on the shore.

I deliberately went with "soft" poly for the reasons you describe. The ones I have in (SuperPro) certainly transmit some of the rear end undulations but only at a level I find to be reassuring, not annoying. And I'm thankful for this because it can be an expensive mistake!

RTAB's, Tyres & Alignment The results of doing this combo are great. I can't compare them to any recent known good configuration because all of mine were in pretty poor shape. I'm very happy with the results and the whole car seems to have responded very well. The RTAB's took 4 hours to install which is pretty long but matched my worst case scenario so not a problem. Vacuum Leaks Unfortunately not all fixed... three parts (two hoses and a cap) were replaced but during reassembly another breather hose was found to be bad... ex-Germany of course. I had Bellars Motor Works do the work for me because they performed the smoke test and have been pretty good to me recently. I was astonished when they let me drive away without paying and offered to only charge me once for the hours (airbox and plenum disassemble and reassemble) when I bring it back in. I think that's a pretty amazing gesture given it's not their fault the other hose was bad... and the car does run better! "GT" Splitters I was never sold on these but since installing them today they're growing on me quickly. Picked them up in Europe for cheap, they're just ABS reps but I wonder if they might get ripped off anyway!

Will it ever end? RTAB's & Tyres So the 2,000 or so km's I've put on the car since the VANOS job was enough to totally trash my RTAB's and in the process my rear tyres. The right hand side RTAB has completely collapsed and the left one is pretty shot too - half of the crush sleeve is visible on the RHS! I noticed it on the way up to the Bay of Islands last weekend when the rear end of the car literally "fell" sideways at speed around a tight bend, heart in mouth stuff. The inside of both of my rear tyres are ruined (threads are visible - although they were fortunately due for imminent replacement). So these are going in on Monday (bushings $175, installation is a LOT more): And I'm glad I'm not putting them in because they look like a real bitch to install! After choosing poly over rubber I had to decide what brand I wanted that was available locally and these SuperPro ones have some subtle design characteristics that were appealing such as grease channels to keep the grease in. Also there are significant advantages to the one piece design (which comes at the cost of installation ease) and many poly bushes are two piece. As for tyres I lucked into a killer deal on new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrical 2's: 255/35/18 - $299 each fitted and balanced 225/40/18 - $239 each fitted and balanced More rubber than I need but at less than half of the recommended retail I couldn't resist... I'm getting these fitted tomorrow but will need to keep the k's right down (i.e. drive home and park it) until Monday when the RTAB's go in and Peter Alder does my alignment. But still... it's another $1800 or so that I didn't expect I'd need to spend right now and I'll soon need 4 new rotors and all new pads... boy-oh-boy...

It's charcoal grey, certainly not black but it's pretty dark. More so than the light shade in the pics, yes.

Edit:

Whilst I'm optimistic this is the cause of the problem, it does seem likely, I'm not going to count on that until it's actually fixed! Knowing my luck it will just lead to something else...