M3AN

Did they shave your whole leg? ?

Lifted the car today to check out the diff with the endoscope that @aja540i lent me... and fail. The largest internal hex bit I have is 12mm, need 14mm. All good, I'm not too concerned although it does mean that when I eventually need a diff service the rear cover will probably need to come off (I need to know the type of LSD before I replace any lube). So I played with a set of spare wheels... I don't think it makes any difference to be honest although the e36 offsets do fill out the guards more, not sure what BMW was smoking when they defined the specs of the wheels for the e8x?

Stunning colour, one of BMW's best. Looks tidy, GLWS.

They were (are?) the only official/sanctioned BMW tuner in the US. They''re the ACS of North America so nothing to sneeze at.

Mine has a Y pipe, resonator delete and custom backbox and it sounds sweet IMHO. Not too loud until you really stomp on it. You can do it in stages for sure, won't cost you much more. 135i back boxes might be difficult to find in NZ so you may have to be patient. I think you can also modify the 130i backbox for more efficiency and noise but you'd need to read up on that. I also think the stock box has a muffler flap, if you keep the box get that flap disabled when you put the Y pipe in.

I wonder how hot that fire got? Anything less than about 600 degrees and I bet you could pop that VANOS unit off the front and it would be fine... there's an easy $1,200 once rebuilt.

? Jeepers, it could fall apart at that price and you'd still be getting a good deal. For somebody so inclined it would be a perfect project, buy for $4,265, spend another $4k on maintenance and good bits and you're away laughing with a near perfect car.

That's a very smart looking M5, it looks very straight and shiny.

Yep, stock and riding too low but that's to be expected with age. The thread Chris is referring to is this one (I think): https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=80208 Assuming you don't want coilovers the next best option is the Birds B1 setup I think but that can be pricey. I understand the best price/performance option is the Bilstein B12 kit (shocks and springs). I don't like the idea of the Koni setup with stock motorsport springs because of the springs but they are slightly adjustable. Nice looking car, my favourite standard wheels for this and I'd get them in a heartbeat if they were 17's. Welcome.

lololololol ?

Had to look that up, never heard of "MILV's" before... and still not entirely sure what they are! ? Perhaps if I ever need to replace the valve cover gasket (again - it was done last year by a PO).

So classic... and yeah, those 16's are yuck. Can do you a set of polished genuine 7.5" style 24's that'll look heaps better if you want. Can add NS2R semi-slicks or Pirelli road tyres for extra.

Very few of us pray at the BMW alter, we're more likely to hum a hymn or two on the front steps from time to time. Sharing your experience is welcome.

Yes, it's pretty difficult to think otherwise now, I'm feeling pretty lucky at this stage.

Which ones... there's a few... a couple here... http://bmw3series.johnavis.com/blog/686/fitting-us-market-cup-holders-to-an-australia-bmw-e36/ They all work pretty poorly in my experience.

The 2007 version has lot's of expensive bits... and it sounds like it's been looked after properly. All the stuff they mention is sensible. That intake is worth a fair bit and NLA. Great turn-in will be the M3 LCA's (or did you mean the other car?), and it still has hydraulic steering (you can see the reservoir). Still... too expensive IMHO. The 2006 looks quite unique and has a fabulous looking exhaust with the L/R outlets (very ///M). You don't see those wheels very often and they actually look quite good, as does that rear spoiler. But auto v's manual, surely that's your deciding factor, which are you looking for?

Software progress... So INPA tells me the DME is running firmware version "0049QK0MK80S" which is NOT an OEM build... so I search and find it here... which leads me to B&C Consulting, an aftermarket chip tuner. After fighting with their website (a little bit too Web 3.0) I was able to enter my details into their database and look what we find for 0049QK0MK80S/130i LCI... This thing just keeps getting better... ???

Hallelujah! That had slipped my mind... +1.

Most (all?) of the physical stuff has been done for the time being so onto the software... I've ordered a genuine Carly adaptor which should be here in a week or so. It may duplicate functionality but that's not an immediate concern for me, it's something I can leave in the car and use with the the Avin headunit. I also ordered a cheap K/DCAN cable from Amazon ($20) and downloaded INPA from Bimmergeaks.net and that seems to work fine although I've not tested much yet. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get going considering how difficult it is to get going on an e36. All of the error reports are in German though and I need to see if I can change that (main interface is in English). Currently downloading ISTA (Rheingold) and will see if I can get that up and running too, don't know if I can use the same cable, hope so. edit: lol 9.83 of 9.98GB completed and I've hit Mega's transfer quota... ??? So will hopefully have full diagnostics and coding soon.

Yes, I picked up a trigger bottle of this stuff (from Mitre 10 actually) the other day and it's great. I'd just finished a bottle of Dragon's Breath and couldn't say one was better than the other (I suspect they're the same thing) but this CRC stuff is quite a bit less expensive, even at retail.

"Better?" It's a religious thing. Any reputable brand of the correct type and viscosity will be "suitable". This is underwritten by the fact that vehicle manufacturers change their oil brand allegiance as it suits them. In the early 2000's after the bearing failures in e46 M3's, BMW said "you must use Castrol Edge 10w-60" and so people did. But (some) people also went to stupid lengths to get the stuff that BMW dispensed rather than what you could buy off the shelf. These people declared "there is no alternative, your children will die if you use something else" and the belief in unicorn piss oil persisted. Then BMW simply changed their oil partner and now fill those same cars up with Shell 10w-60 without blinking an eye... totally undermining the "only one brand/type" argument. My engine oil cap says "use Castrol" yet BMW will fill it up with Shell... But for those that prefer to use Castrol then 50% off normal retail is a good deal regardless of why they want to use it (as would be 50% of Penrite). I use Castrol Edge in the M3 because that's what it has always had and I'm happy with it. I intend to use Penrite in the 130 as I did in the 128 because I have no problem with the quality of HPR5.

Bump. 5w-40 half price at Repco.

lol - mine is fine, it has aftermarket coilovers. The other 6 were terrible. It's a common complaint and when you consider how the suspension works, riding on the bumpstops, entirely understandable.

Worn suspension bushes, regardless of which ones, can affect all measurements, it really depends on how they're deflecting. Having said that, worn RTAB's shouldn't affect a static measurement, rear toe is set with three pretty significant bolts. Most of that alignment looks fine for a not-brand-new car... you can't really adjust front camber or caster using OEM hardware (without swapping top mounts L/R)... caster and toe are fine on your 'after' print and the camber difference is only ~0.5* out and probably explained by worn(ish) top mounts. Nothing to worry about. Rear camber is fine really, that's an imperceptible difference (ignore the green/red, it's the delta L/R that you need to consider) but I'm surprised they couldn't get that toe closer, that's quite a long way out. Have a quick look at the bolts on the front of the left hand rear control arm (the 3 surrounding the RTAB pocket) to see if they've been recently released and tightened (i.e. years of crud or clean surfaces from a spanner). If they've not been loosened then the job hasn't been done properly... they've basically added 5mm of toe to one side and 0.2mm to the other... the 0.2mm could be explained by the consequences of changing the camber (although that's not conclusive). The 5mm on the other side indicates they've certainly adjusted that one... would be odd to do one side and forget the other.

Aftermarket camber arms require a cert... as silly as that is. Rear toe should be sorted by shifting the rear arm at the RTAB pocket, did they do that? Rear camber is adjusted via an eccentric bolt but both these and the arms themselves wear and become terribly imprecise over time. There should be a L/R label and an arrow on the front top mounts that tells you how they should be oriented. You can swap them side-to-side for an additional ~1.5* camber (-ve). The picture of your alignment sheet is too small for my poor eyes to read.