NZ BMW

Does seem excessive - it's a bit similar to import licencing back in the day. It's been interesting to watch a company like Telecom be broken up over the last couple of years and the same principle would apply here. With a number of companies being able to supply plates via a connection into the NZTA database or wherever all the information is held. I'd be interested to know if the original poster of this thread ever got an answer back from Joyce when he was Minister of Transport. Brownlee who is the current minister is probably fairly busy with the rebuild - you might have more luck with Bridges, who is the Associate Minister.

Guy I share the office with at work drives a Lexus. Anyway his plates got stolen the other night and the cops pulled up a guy down in the Waikato driving a white Lexus (same as his). Didn't bother to check the plates or that the rego in the windscreen didn't match the plates on the car. Guy got lit up by a radar down the road and didn't stop until he crashed. If the cops are not going to check the plates in the system I don't know why they have an issue with people changing the format. One thing I do think could be an issue is the potential in the future to implement the same system in the UK where a machine vision system mounted in the nose of the car "reads" the plates. It would become more difficult to design the system if the were a number of different formats. But it could be done. personally I think that if you can run the plate in the system then the format of it irrelevant so long as it meets the test of being clearly readable. We've already got enough laws in this country, I would love them to strike off a few of the more stupid ones, this one included. BTW you can get "NZ Europlates" here but the font is slightly different: http://www.autoplates.com/_custom/euro/eur...p?prod_id=68599

I just got mine from the dealer - figured that if it lasted 115,000km's and 10 years then it would be fine for the rest of the time I own the car. I don't think 16 years is that bad for a radiator really... There are a couple of options out of the US but they are very pricey.

You need to take oil reading with the car at operating temp and on a flat surface. Otherwise the oil can look low, especially if it is colder weather.

Sweet, my e39 must be worth about 50k then.

I think the difference is also that it is not a 100M dollar recall as such. The cars are collectively worth 100M. I would imagine the gigantic Toyota recall of a few years ago would have been a billion dollar recall then... Lazy journos...

Agree - if it's from being parked they tend to go away with a bit of driving - you could always run them at higher pressure too.

My car was towed because of a breakdown - towing company managed to lose it and took them an hour or so to work out which of their yards it was in the next day.... :sigh: The guy who towed it filled out a condition report with me which I signed off - I would imagine they would have to fill these out for any cars they towed or impounded. Guess they might get "amended" if there are any accidents when they tow.

It's great to see this thread written from a New Zealand perspective. Often on the US-centric forums our cars maintenance patterns are different due to the types of driving we do. When I was in the US last time I was talking to a guy who had driven his car to 120,000 miles plus and had not replaced his pads and rotors, mainly because all his driving was on flat interstates and his brakes were not used. I actually wish I had seen this thread as I've recently had the cooling system replaced on my car, this would have been easier to do whilst that was all out of the engine bay. But interestingly at 125,000km's my car is showing no signs of failure at all. BTW - I'm up in Whangarei area for Easter, I'll have to give you a friendly wave if I see you on the road!

Obviously some of your symptoms are unique to cars with a manual gearbox. But what do you mean with regards to the poor idle. Are you talking unstable rpms or what?

Actually I think it is from lack of use, the mechanism get dried out from lack of lubrication. Then when someone actually goes to use it, it fails.

Howick or Onehunga are your best bets given your budget and requirements. Lots of nice villa conversions going on in Onehunga, Howick has more modern homes from the mid to late 1990's. Then there is always G.I

Thanks, are you talking about just using something like spray and wipe when you refer to citrus cleaner? I've been using Meguiars "one-step" cleaner and conditioner and am not convinced is it really that great for the actual cleaning.

Is it possible to share with us what exactly what you did to get these great results?

I can't be bothered reading all this thread but you do know that the gap to the left of the graph is still full of people who will pay up-to the top of the line for whatever you're selling. If I can capture all that value for the exact same product/service from someone then why not? Hence "not in a hurry to sell, won't drop my price". Equilibrium as "the only sale price" is not true.

You should also be aware that paint fades with time. Depending on the colour of your car touch up paint may not match exactly. In some respects that makes going to an aftermarket place better as they can mix the paint to match the paint on your car rather than just the colour code.

You do know that Evans European is there and they're one of the biggest Euro pannelbeaters in Auckland: http://www.evans.co.nz/ But generally lots of the smaller operations in Onehunga could up their game. This all sounds extremely frustrating to say the least.

For what it's worth and for anyone who wants to know if appears that it may have been the alternator pulley. According to my mechanic it was fairly well buggered and since replacing it the sound has not come back. According to them the alternator runs a bit harder at the initial start-up and this is why the sound may have been so pronounced. Kinda annoyed that this did not get picked up when it was in for work the other week given that the alternator belt was replaced. One would think that would be the opportune time to check the pulleys and possibly drum up some more business...

Thanks for the offer, but it's just not practical for me to try and get all the way out to Botany and then backto the office on a weekday during rush hour. I'll have my local mechanic look at it.

Haha, no worries - I will send it somewhere on Tues/Weds when everyone is back at work. It's always a bugger that these things happen on a long weekend!

I'm located in Newmarket - that did come to mind as I had a previous car where the pulley was noisy when cold but was fine when hot. I didn't see any belt transfer, but like I said before I can't really see a lot of of the pulleys clearly in the engine bay. Would you be willing to come and have a look at it? How much do you charge for a call-out? It would be nice to have an indication as to what is going on for when I get it fixed.

Just tried a hot start and there was no abnormal noise - guess it must be the pump. I'm happy to pull the cord on the pump - but will this trigger a check engine light? I would imagine the the O2 sensors will not be getting the correct signals if the pump is disabled. Does anyone have an exploded view of the pump on an e39? I'm keen to pull the plug and try a cold start to see if there is any noise. Also look online at some of the US based forums there is also a concern that NOT having the pump can cause excessive carbon buildup. Any ideas on this? Thanks for all the input so far guys!

My tools are very limited to be honest - What I might try is just reaching in there with the engine off and giving each pulley a wiggle, my understanding is that there should be minimal play in them at all - if one is significantly more than the others, then that might be the defective one. The space with this engine is so tight I don't think I would even be able to get any tools in there safely whilst it was running anyway.

I'm going out to the airport this afternoon so I'll let you know when I get back. It does not happen when I'm driving I've even tried manual shifting to keep the revs up and I don't hear any difference even with my windows down, AC on or off etc. I'm kinda hoping it is a pulley as those pumps are kinda pricey and to be honest a bit pointless to the functioning of the car (with the exception of emissions controls). Is there a rebuild kit for the pump bearings?

Mine stops by the end of the video - the louder noise is the unusual one, the camera is just amplifying all the other noises which is what you always get with cameras. So it does not last very long at all. Which could suggest a pulley... Would the power steering pump or anything like that make a noise at start up? Is there any way this could be related to my recently changed belt? Perhaps the tensioner not being adjusted correctly or something?