Allanw

It wasn't actually a check engine light - it's the "check" light, for the warnings on the ceiling console. It flashes until you press the brake, or stays on if there is a bulb warning, coolant warning etc. OBD scanners don't work on them either - the later ones have the pacman connector that does a few more things, but most of the useful stuff it can do, can be done with a short piece of wire, or a paperclip 🤣

It's probably all those " kilo newtons " it has...

This one is pretty rough, and appears to have been dicked with a bit, judging by the springs in the boot, and it's a repo! https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/320ise/26607615 An SE is always nice. There seems to be a lot of manual SE models. Dad had a 325i SE manual for 18 years. Plus a 320i is a waste of time as an auto. slowest and hungriest of them all.

I bet you wish I HADN'T sent you those pics, right??? JUST as I opened this thread; Solomon (my 14 YO) yelled out "OW, MY EYES" about a game... but good timing 😁

I can smell the 2-stroke fumes through my screen 😁

You forgot Wangers (Ranger Wankers). Pass everything in sight on the straights, then hold everybody up while struggling to negotiatiate corners and STILL endanger the oncoming traffic, spending half their time over the centre line.

Close enough?

That's totally logical 🤣... I stripped down my Touran engine to fit the thermostat, discovered it was the wrong part, so took the engine out and put a VR6 in there instead. Then couldn't drive it for a year while I finished it. 😁

Vanos seals, plus you'll probably find it's not really getting up to temp properly (remember the gauge is totally useless). Check the REAL coolant temp. They should heat up fairly quick, and stay there. Dunno if the X3's can still access the KTMP vis the dash, but you could do it on E39s' really easy. Otherwise check with a scan tool. The gauge will show Normal (straight up and down) from about 70C, but it's still not pulled all the cold-start enrichment at that point.

"Headway Horace" Did someone think "Horace" - it's got race in it, so sounds sporty??? Perfect for a tyre name... I dunno... it's got a "Plasma Booster" on the coil... 🤣

"Somebody" already has SLOWGN on an E61 M5...

Make sure they put mesh in the concrete! (some didn't up here!) Get recommendations from people about who they've used and check out the work. My extra garage (6 x 7.2, plus roof extension etc) was over $50k (although that included extras, and concreting my barn floor too), and it's Brilliant (Skyline Whangarei). One of the competitors wanted an extra $5K for mesh(!), and another $5k to put a half-assed lean to between the garage and house, instead of extending the roofline, like I have now. These guys integrated into the existing roofline perfectly, were super helpful and charged less. They actually made all the frames manually offsite after pouring the floor, so the roof is mm perfect. They were really into doing everything "right". Which was awesome. It's not tall enough for a hoist or anything, but it does have 3 phase power (it was only about 5 metres of cable required).

Pfffttt... All those hand brake slides... E39 hand brakes don't work like that 🤣😁

Yeah - and carefully check the wiring to the sensor - that -128 would normally be an open circuit default value, wouldn't it? Or maybe short to ground? The -20 outside won't help either - they use a number of temps to determine what it going on with the whole cooling system. It won't make the gauge peg or anything, but it does alter fan PWM calculations etc.