Allanw

Reliable and doing things well aren't the same thing though

NO WAY would I have expected a Yaris of any kind to be better than the van 🤣 As long as the van wasn't a Toyota! Every Toyota I've had (all work cars!, never owned one, myself) feel like they're about 15 years behind the clapped out old euros I've owned. Toyota can't even make a car where the front and rear suspension feel like they're from the same car. While driving a 2019 / 85K Corolla in Wellington a few years back... I found myself continually yearning for my mrs clapped out 2006 VW Touran 2.0 with 280K kms on it. The VW would have done EVERYTHING better, except economy. The rental guy looked pissed, when I told him it was "fine", just as sh*t as I'd expect from a Toyota. The trans was forever in the wrong gear - it was either doing 1800 RPM, or 6000. "Sport" mode meant it was just as slow, but it would drive the revs up to 4000 as you stopped, but it would still die on every hill. It would hold onto a high gear, until it was so slow, you needed 6000 RPM to get back to the speed of everyone else. It would hold on, until you ended up with your foot hard down, then try to go to max RPM, while Nanas in their Hinda Jazz were cruising past you. The boot was smaller than the storage cubbies in the VW. It made a horrible buzz at anything over 3000 RPM. The SatNav told you to turn just AFTER every intersection. We nearly had accidents, from flooring it and (wrongly) expecting some acceleration, when I was in the wrong lane on the motorway or trying to match speeds of other lanes etc. I ended up using manual mode on the trans and just keeping it between 4000 and 6000, unless it was flat and straight... and even then, the CVT would decide what the RPM should be in any "gear" and not do the same thing every time. Then there was the "steering"... Horrid things. Dull as f**k. Possibly reliable, but I'd rather die early, or be in debt longer, than own one 🤣

Also... "Paging: @aja540i.@aja540i, report to Pick-a-Part Mangere."

Wait... so this IS an M5, but Pick-a-part are trying to convince us it's a 525i????? There's a change from the norm!

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.

If I *had* to have an auto, 325i would be my only option. The autos are very old school... and kinda ruin the "fun" of an E30... but if needs must, they're still fun in other ways. 325i can be a little bit hungry around town, but better cruising and performs OK. 318i isn't quick, but not too hungry. 320i auto has the worst of both. Hungriest of the lot around town, and not quick. They do sound nicer than a 318i... and they sound like they're working hard a lot of the time, because they are 🤣

Nah. Someone just stuck a BMW badge on a Hyundai, that's a rip-off of an E-class. Then they bumped into a classroom and the heating radiators got stuck on the front.

If it was something exciting/collectable etc, low milage is like an extra long horn on your unicorn. On something super ordinary... I don't see the point. If it was a factory manual wagon, would make it 1000x more desirable than it is. Even just a 'vert would be 500x better. As it is, if I was in the market for a similar car, I'd probably pay a 20% premium, just for the unusualness... but I'd rather buy a 1 owner car with 120k, in good nick... which probably also gets a 20% premium over all the clapped out 328i's on the market at any given time. And to be fair... at least it isn't a 320i 😄

... it soon will be???

My Mrs car has jumped up from $470ish to $590ish at AMI. I shopped around and the quote from AA (as a member) was $900! None of the online ones came in cheaper, so I just renewed it. More annoyingly... the house insurance is up $600 on last year!

The hotter the engine runs, the more power it makes (to a point!) for the amount of fuel going in. The hotter the engine is, the less heat energy it can absorb from the combustion... so it helps economy by a tiny amount, and reduces emissions by a tiny amount. I changed our E39 525i (M54) to a fixed temp stat and did away with the Map-cooling. E39's didn't bring up a check engine light for no map-cooling, but did have a fault code (Which was dumb, because when the thermostat heater burnt out, they just ran really hot ALL the time!). The 6's didn't run *that* hot on the mechanical only anyway (98?), like the V8's did (108?). I didn't notice anything dramatic change as far as economy, but you want to make sure the new stat stays 100% closed until the engine is at operating temps, or it'll take longer to heat up and use way more fuel during the cold start enrichment phase. My first kit had a bleed hole drilled in the thermostat and it was stupid and unnecessary. I replaced it with a solid one and it was way better. Later cars may be a bit more complicated, but that unit looks like it still has a map-cooling heater anyway?