fizzychicken

1997 318ti My low beams stopped working a while back and after switching out for some brand new bulbs they still wouldn't turn on. I swapped the low beam fuse relay out for the horn relay and everything started working again, though now I have no working horn. I am looking for a replacement fuse relay (preferably 2 so I can have a general spare) V23134-N52-X171 6136-8 353 447

Hi All Please forgive my total lack of understanding regarding my 318ti 98 auto engine. Last night after driving for about an hour I was at the side of the road with the engine running idle while my passenger ran into a house to get something, there had been no issues driving and I had no dash warnings indicating any problems. Air con was not on and no internal heating was being used. I do not remember glancing at the temp gauge during the drive. I was at the side of the road for about 2 minutes when there was a dull pop and a whole load of hissing and steam coming out of the front of the hood on the passenger side. I turn the ignition off and waited, the steam lasted about a minute and filled both my headlights with condensation. I have not started the car since this. Based on the location of the steam/smoke (none at the back of the car) and the fact that only the front left corner of the engine is wet, I would say this is most likely what happened (video content not necessarily the cause listed on the page) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00J99TyQ-w This occurred last night so it was dark but both the AA call-out guy and myself checked all hoses and couldn't find any indication of hose failures or disconnections so an AA tow truck got me back home over the auckland harbour bridge. Today I had a look and the only broken thing I can find is the plastic radiator clamp and I have no idea if that is a new break or it has been like that for a long time The cap appeared to be in good condition and doesn't look like it has leaked, but looking inside today and it is virtually empty (level indicated by red line) The dipstick oil looks normal with no indication of mixing. I am yet to start the car and I haven't taken any other action. Normally I would be content to simply get a tow to the mechanic to look into but today is Anzac day and then it is the weekend so everything near me is closed for 3 days I was wondering if anybody could advise if there is anything I can do to further diagnose this problem myself in a safe newbie manner? Many thanks!

Car is all sorted now. I can't recommend Burger's highly enough. An extremely good service at a very good price. When I initially took the car in they had the engine cleaned and then gave it back to me for a few days so they could check the extent of any leaks, they had my car during the daytime to fix all the bits that needed work. I was given the car back for the day so they could have it back in again to check their work held up. At the very end I was given an invoice for much less than I had expected. Burger clearly knows his stuff and I will no doubt use them for any future servicing/work that I (as always) have no time to do myself.

Hi all My front driver side floormat looks like it was used to wrap the dead sea scrolls, its all curled and tatty as anything. Passenger side and rear and in brilliant condition as I rarely have passengers. Seems I can get some good quality replacement mats from the UK/Euro if I dont mind be bent over for the delivery charge and then will have to wait a few millenia for them to arrive. Anyone know where I can get some good quality replacements here in good old NZ? (must be all in black) ta!

Car is with Burger's now, needs a steam clean first to identify the extent of the leak then they will give me a quote. thanks for the recommendations.

Thanks will check them out, still open to recommendations if anyone knows of any and as Shaneg suggested...I dont mind going a little bit out of the way. Yeah its pretty wierd waking up and seeing all over the news and TV that you are moving to NZ, my first thought was...'that's one slow news day...I moved here years ago!'

Hi All 98 318ti Auto Just failed my WOF due to 'Right front brake pipe crack and oil leak power steering' Got 2 weeks from today until my current wof expires. I live in Glen Eden/Auckland but I work in Takapuna/Northshore. i'm looking for recommendations of any known good mechanic in either of these areas that isnt going to do me over. Due to work load I have no time to even consider looking at doing any of this myself. Any recomendations greatly appreciated.

Yeah the crackdown/enforcement started at the end of last year sometime. I have my supplementary plate, you can also order a nifty velcro strap pouch with it to hold the plate to your bike which I recommend as it stays put on mine Supplementary Plates

Got the towbar all done at northshore towbars, fully powered up etc, now i have my bike rack too very my post on cycling forum about the towbar and rack with picturespleased

Checked all tyres and full wheel alignment front and back, all reports indicating that it is not the cause of the steering.

Hi all My 1998 318ti has started to want to steer to the left far more than your would expect from the camber of the road but it is only doing it when Im going 40 or higher, at slow speed it will drive true. I have had a wheel alignment done and all the pressure/tyres checked (I cant rotate them as I have directional tyres) and all has come back fine but the problem still exists. any suggestions of what else I should investigate as the cause of the problem?

Got there in the end, all speakers in and it sounds awesome! quite glad I did it myself. Made some templates from the shape of the original factory nokia bracket/cone thingy outs of multi layered ply, with two templates bonded with araldite where the speakers are screwed in from underneath. everything (eventually) fitted neatly. uploaded some photos part way through the process here My Flickr set for my 318ti

got my 318ti booked in for Dec 7th, looking forward to getting it done for summer.

Hi all have no idea what section of the forum this should go in but I need to get something to help me transport my road cycle and mountain bike about on my 1998 318ti I thought about roof rack but they dont seem to fit very from what Ive seen, plus I cant be bothered taking it on and off all the time (I have a sunroof) so I thought about getting a towar. I got a quote from nstowbars.co.nz for $450 which seemed ok but they had no idea about the 318ti so they gave up half way through fitting a standard tow bar. They have re-quoted at $490 inc GST to fit a custom made one. I was wondering if anyone knew if there exists a place where I can get a tow bar for a 98 318ti at a good price without having to have one custom made. thanks for reading.

I ended up deciding to do this myself. Paul Money in Mount eden do still have some speakers left so I got a set of infinity 4" for a good price, their Albany store has more and can order new ones in. I picked up a new set of 5.25" infinity's for the kick panel off trademe at a very good price....these were incredibly easy to fit and sound good. the mid ranges in the doors seem ok but If Im feeling generous after new year I might replace these too. The infinitys have the centre extended motor in the centre which means they have an issue of clearance, in the kick panels the gap is more than enough. The rear is an issue as most people have found, the stupid nokia oval cone bracket for the factory 4T speakers doesnt work well with replacements so I have made a template out of two layers of ply bonded together with a foam surround, I will upload some photos of this soon, it turned out to be a cheap way to mount the speakers in the same location as the factory ones.

looks like my original quote from supertrim is the only option at the mo, $450 + GST. I had some offers from some companies who dont seem to like replying to phonecalls or emails so I guess Ill wait until new year and try again.

Glen Eden, Auckland.

Hi all My 318ti still has the factory speakers and they have started to flap a bit so I've decided to invest in an upgrade. My workload at the moment is pretty insane plus I'd probably be useless at doing it myself so I'm looking for recommendations of where to go to get a good job done at a reasonable price. So far I've had one quote from Carline in Auckland to replace the front 5.25's with Infinity speakers and the rears with 4" coax infinitys. supplying the speakers and labour comes to roughly $500. Is this a good price? can anyone recommend where I could go in the Auckland region for a good quote? Thanks all

Hi all My 318ti headliner has seen better days, its sagging from the back and could do with replacing. As I have the sunroof I dont really have the time to faff around doing a half arsed job at replacing it myself. I have uploaded some photos to Flickr set for Headliner These make it look quite dirty somehow but thats just the flash messing up the colours, it does look pretty clean normally. The rear and middle pillar/column is fine as they are the hard cover, I have already had the windscreen pillar covers replaced as they were shabby a long time ago. so far Ive had a quote of $550 to have someone replace the whole headliner including the sunroof. I was wondering if this is a good rate or if anyone can recommend someone in and around the Auckland area who does quality work for a good price. I am also after gettings someone to replace the factory speaker setup with some reasonable infinitys but Ill do another post about that. Thanks all