M3AN

Caught me by surprise too! Headlight, and all components are OE (Valeo) as delivered from the BMW factory. There are reports of this happening (UK and DE) from as early as 2 years from brand new vehicle purchases so it is a common and persistent problem. There are reports from Europe that some were "fixed" under warranty whereas other claims were rejected, no pattern is obvious to me in these cases. The water I drained was clear enough and with no tell-tale 'tide' marks on the housing so I assume this is a recent accumulation over Auckland's wonderful summer. I did drive home during the January floods, I did drive in the wet during the February cyclone, and it was parked outside for ~18 hours during the "atmospheric river" that we had last week... so a terrible set of circumstances. Regardless, the failure is inexcusable from a design and engineering perspective, cars get wet. Mine verses others? Can't be sure but it's certainly a common problem ( heaps of reports on 1er and babybmw), I suspect it's just a matter of time if the car is ever exposed to severe water/rainfall. Apparently the way water runs off the gutters of the car funnels it almost directly to the headlight, which then drains to this housing. It's an afternoon exercise to check and create the drain holes, I'd recommend that as preventative maintenance, I don't think there's a real downside (unless you're submerging the vehicle).

If you have Xenon headlights, and haven't created drain holes for your ballasts then be warned...

BMW engineering... 😭

I've not needed to do much with the car recently other than drive it, which I don't do all that much now anyway because I normally bus to work and back. Having said that I've had to spend some time on it recently, including today. A few weeks back I had a problem with the right front indicator, after faffing around for a while, which included removing the airbox and then the front bumper, it turned out to be the bulb holder so I sanded the contacts and bent them out a bit, did the trick but it's an unnecessarily complex task. Then, just the other day, my right front Xenon died, literally straight after the new WoF sticker went on (whew)! Long story short - the ballast flooded whilst it was waiting in the yard for it to be collected... how? Shitty BMW engineering. 😠 If this hasn't already happened to your E8x then read on because it will happen eventually... I confirmed the HID light itself wasn't faulty by swapping it to the other side (terrible design, requires removing the entire airbox). I knew from prior research that the ballasts can flood, unfortunately this is a headlight removal exercise which requires removing the bumper (again, terrible design). With the bumper removed I pulled out the RHS headlight and it was sloshing with water... which had all drained to the housing that contains the (high voltage) HID ballast (terrible, terrible, dangerous design)... I mean seriously BMW, do you not saturation test your vehicles? (No, they don't). The entire ballast was submerged. Pulled the ballast, filled it with a ton of RP7 and left it to dry whilst I removed the other headlight to check that. The LHS was dry as a bone which aligns with many internet anecdotes, it's typically a RHS problem. The permanent fix is simple, some 10mm drainage holes, I did both sides, as BMW should have done from the factory... Tested, reinstalled, and ~4 hours later fixed. What a faff caused by a bunch of poor design decisions. As I say above, if it hasn't happened it will if your car sees much water, including washing. I was lucky, my ballast was salvageable but many report they're not so fortunate so be warned. Edit: my car is very rarely parked in the rain, garaged at home, inside carpark if I drive to work, it normally only gets driven on the weekends. Auckland's summer of rain hasn't helped of course and the day it was at the mechanics was Tuesday just gone, so a little bit wet!

It's plug and play really, no software knowledge required. Probably worth looking into installing a standard Bluetooth Professional unit from a later model, I understand you need to upgrade other components to make this work but it's been done successfully before.

Yep, installed in the 130, here's my initial impression: And if you search that thread for "avin" you'll find a few more comments. Yes, I'm happy with it, completely modernises the interior because it's such a high quality/resolution display. The Bluetooth issues I originally had were solved when they swapped out the incorrect 2GB unit for the 4GB one. Had I picked a random one from Ali, although the same units, I might have had more trouble exchanging them, in my case I shipped back to the USA, not China (although both units were dispatched from China). I also needed some support exchanges via email and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and prompt that was. There's a hidden menu with lots of important settings (like LHD/RHD) so don't forget that... I wasn't aware until support told me and gave me the PIN for access. Some people mention that the screen is always in your field of vision... well, yes it is but like most things the human brain adapts and I don't "see" it now unless I'm looking at it. Radio Sport is gone now so I no longer use AM frequencies but it was weak with those. You can drop back to the car's built in CCC system any time and it also preserves stalk check control capabilities. You can continue to use the CCC dial to navigate both the legacy and new Android system. Having proper nav with offline maps and live traffic (if you hotspot from your phone) is gold. Not much more to say that's not covered in the post in the other thread... go for the latest Android version with the most RAM you can afford and absolutely nothing lower than Android 10 and 4GB RAM. Get the mic and external speaker at the same time to install for Bluetooth calling etc so you save the hassle of pulling the thing out again. When installing use some thin anti-squeak adhesive tape for where the hard plastic surfaces contact each other (IMHO). I have an old Samsung NFC tile under the mat in the armrest storage (I swapped the 'phone ready' cassette for a blank storage cassette) which is where I put my phone, once placed on the tile the phone turns the hotspot on and once I've pulled out of the garage and lost the home wifi connection to the headunit it automatically switches over to the hotspot so I remain seamlessly connected for both data and calls.

I use one of these and really like it: https://avinusa.com/10-25-multimedia-navigation-system-for-bmw-1-series-e81-e82-e87-e88.html There are many clones on Ali if you want to save a few bucks. Just be sure to go Android 10+ with at least 4GB of RAM. Install is involved but not too complex but paying somebody to do it could get quite expensive, it's many hours of labour.

Nice result. To be fair, I think any setup will provide 95% of the benefit over the objectively poor, arguably dangerous, stock setup at pace, a proper custom setup such as this plays into the last 5%. Perhaps I missed it, what tyres are you using? And the LSD is in yet?

Here's what you need to do if you keep your e36 inners: You can alternatively use e46 inners that already have the vents, you lose some lock doing this because they're slightly longer (although some manufacturers, I can't recall which, have them the same length). The amount of lock you lose is negligible. On the other had, the work above cost me like $20 which was less than I'd pay for e46 inners.

Good looking example there Andy, welcome. 👍

Welcome Rachel. I've had success with these guys before: https://www.mrpositive.co.nz/automotive-batteries/ But the best bet would be to establish the battery you need (type, capacity, size, CCA) and compare prices across a number of resellers. If the previous battery worked well, for a long time, then you can probably use that as a reference. Most places you call will be able to recommend a suitable battery. Note that unless the car has stop/start (e.g. engine stops automatically at traffic lights) you do not need an AGM battery (they're more expensive). This may help as a general guide: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/articles/bmw-battery-choosing-the-right-option

For what exactly? Some/all/one? $40 for the lot?

Hi Andy, Welcome and be sure to post some details of your new acquisition, perhaps here if you don't want to start a fresh thread. Most of us import many consumables if it's not urgent because prices here are normally pretty rank. FCPEuro is very reliable, that would be a good place to start, others will have more suggestions.

Still got a standard definition rig in the man cave? Grab some sci-fi and action flicks before I put them on Trademe for pennies on the pound. $5 each individually, much less in bulk, and feel free to make a cheeky offer! Star Wars Original Trilogy Boxset w/Bonus Disc Star Wars Episodes II & III Matrix Original Trilogy Top Gun (Original) Kill Bill Volume II Predator Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Edition) Casino Royale Blade I have literally 100's more DVD's so if you're seriously into that format let me know, it might be worth a discussion.

Yes, that's the part I got.

No idea sorry, I've never used them. Pretty premium price!

I used Stoptech from Turner, looks like they're on back order, Goodridge is also fine.

Oh, so one pictured is not stock?

Yep, and I registered as required and Auckland City BMW never got back to me to schedule the job. Pretty irresponsible given it's a safety recall, I'll remind them when I get the imminent airbag recall invite.

Does anyone in Auckland have a basic paintless dent repair kit that I could borrow? I want to try and pull out a dent on a refrigerator door. Aiming for something simple like this Ali one, at <$20 I'll probably pull the trigger on it if there's nothing similar available locally. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004590852472.html TIA.

Whilst I agree with this statement it's also worth pointing out that, based on the recent work completed, the cooling system is the only glaring risk here IMO.

That's absolutely true, but it doesn't fit the "law" of unintended consequence, that's a different thing.

You'll need that regulating rod... and you'll have a spare hex nut, bank that one.

I'll ask the dumb question then, as the challenge of painting an installed cage has come up a few times recently, why not have the construction (welds etc) inspected with the cage out, paint the cage whilst it's out, install the cage, have the installation inspected, and then touch up any required spots? Or powder coat the whole thing out of the car?

Bit of a weird auction this one but it seems you might be able to pick up an LCI manual with some problems for $7k... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3993663546 Listed as an auto but it's a manual, says they'll accept $7k in the description.