Allanw

I'd imagine they go inside the moulding, and are connected to the window stop sensors. If you push on the moulding while the window is going up, it should stop and go down a certain distance.

Correct. Democracy is a popularity contest. Funny you shoud say that. Mrs just took the boy for his 2 year old checkup at the mobile dental caravan at a school not too far from here. Her appointment was 15 minutes long and was at 1130 AM. The Dental Nurse thanks her profusly for showing up, as they had called everyone with an appointment this morning, and my wife was the ONLY one to have shown up today. At 1130! Surely there must have been at least 8 slots before that available - None even bothered showing up with their kids. These will be the same people moaning about what the government doesn't do for them etc. We'll all be paying for these kids rotten teeth soon enough anyway! I'd rather pay for my own stuff and the useless bludgers can miss out if they can't be assed working to pay for their own. I just had a $6000 operation on Tuesday that the Government has paid nothing towards. Hell, I WORK in public health and see who the real money is spent on.

Yep, look at each car on its merits.

Yes it is, but it stays warmer over there and there is likely less condensation inside electronics that are the supposed problem. Like I say, people talk about it, nobody seems to have real evidence of a decent sample size. There are a few stories of a guy that had one car that had a couple of issues. They probably aren't related to the climate at all. There a craploads of E39's from Singapore (A LOT of the facelift ones seem to be - they have the wider number plate area in the boot lid). There are a lot of cars fro Singapore full stop. They tend to be highly specced and are usually higher end cars (It's basically just luxury cars that come in from there), so likely to have more problems anyway.

I wonder of it would it be any different in Japan though? Plus people everywhere still don't waste petrol for the hell of it... do they? I think they all have their fair share of problems, regardless of where they come from. I know people who've had trouble with NZ new ones too.

Ebay UK. Top gaiters or something like that has craploads of them, not sure on the finish/fit etc though, haven't seen one first hand.

I hate people who put boxes on the car! The in laws did that. ONCE! I can't help with a shop down there, but they should be able to tidy it up reasonably well without too many $.

What sort of interior damage are we talking about? A Holden Astra lease car we had, had the dashboard literally melt off in the sun in Auckland and was replaced with a new one (in a lighter colour ,funny enough). Singapore Humidity averages 79 to 82%, Auckland is 74 to 84%, Wellington 67 to 78% and Chirstchurch is 73 to 84%. The temperature here is lower, but that makes for MORE condensation, which is when damage occurs (like with a hot moist day and a cold evening). Plus, realistically, the cars are driven around with the climate air on all the time - that dries them out. I have yet to hear enough stories (first hand) about enough cars to make a singapore car sound any worse than a japanese one. Nobody seems to worry about the salt used on Japanese roads in winter though. Weird.

Besides, Labour wouldn't spend the money on aything useful, like they've listed on the ad - they'd spend it one more bludgers who deserve stuff because of their "Human rights", but the rest of us have to work to get the same (or less!).

Don't tell anyone, but I'd possibly pick that particular Merc over an E30 M3. Shhh!

I Heard you can fit E60 front wheels bearings/hubs to an E39, but not sure about the rears.

Nah, should show warm pretty quick - the gauges are buffered so it reads "normal" (12 o'clock) over a HUGE temperature range - it'll require a new thermostat, which is reasonably common - If it's a M54engine (twin Vanos 2.2, 2.5 and 3.0) they have an "electric" thermostat which can fail so it runs cool, or fairly hot (not usually overheating hot though). They do tend to fail one way or the other quite a lot. If the electric parts fails (it's a small heater coil to elctrically heat the thermostat into opening to cool the engine more) it can run hotter, and the fault will ony be noticed with a scan at service time. Google BMW MAP-controlled thermostat. They're pretty cheap though, $100 or $130 from memory, aftermarket.

They are pretty awesome! That kit is pretty brash, but very DTM looking.

A butt-ugly people mover that handles like a 3-legged cow? They haven't got a people mover yet.

I believe all E39's had the imobiliser/transponder key. Only some had the actual alarm though.

Humidity Myth again? The humidity here in Whangarei averages about 2% lower than Singapore all year. Singapore has "normal" euro spec, so the radios etc all work here - Jap can have a number of Jap market only special "features". NZ ones are easier to trace history through the dealers. Google each particular model to see the common problems - Some of those valvetronic motors were having serious fuel system problems (I don't know which ones, but I assume it's those Glenn mentioned) Agreed - the 6's sound awesome, the 4's don't. Even a full service history can be scrimped on, and just the basics done (like lease cars - show a full history, but an only an oil change still gives the book a stamp!) - Have an experienced/knowledgable BMW mech look at it, or be happy that it will need some money spent (It will need something anyway!). I just spent $1200 on rear suspension parts... NOT including shocks on the E39. It's only at 120k and is a bit sloppy.

Just park next to a VL commodore. If it has central locking, I used to be able to get into one in about 30 seconds without rushing. No damage at all either. I did need a special tool though: I probably best not mention how, but at least one of the Holden design team were a bit dense! As was said above, if they want it that bad, it will be gone. If they just want a joyride, they'll take something easier. If you have an M5, you might have more to worry about, but what are they going to do with it? Sell parts on Bimmersport? Trademe?

The originals were calcium weren't they? Hence the long life. Do the dealers still sell calciums? Mine is date stamped 2003 or 2004, and I wouldn't mind another calcium if that's what it's got. $$$, but long life.

So true. If you see a manual one, you pretty much have to buy it - They don't come up much :-( There's a manual 528i in Warkworth, silver 200 odd kms. reasoanbly cheap. Sedan though. Haven't seen a manual touring over here yet... there must be one somewhere.

The place is full of tards BMW 316i M series

My Mate put one in the demo derby. Did REALLY well - those E34's are pretty solid in the front!

I understood Japan had higher Octane fuel generally. The US rating are NOT the same as here, their 89 is like 93 or 94. 87 is 91 or 92ish. They don't trnaslate exactly, but they use a different rating system. A lot of manuals say you can use lower octane fuels, but usually it says you can lose power and economy by doing so. 1 tank isn't enough to compare, unless you reset adaptaions etc. I only run the E39 on 95, but I had a 2004 Pulsar new, which I ran on 91 for 20,000Ks, getting about 450 kms a tank. The service manager at Nissan said my car was gutless, did I use 91 or 95? I changed to 95, and then got 600kms per tank! Also gained a lot of midrange torque from the more advanced timing. Higher octane doesn't make more power in itself, but it allows more efficient running through more timing advance (better power) and leaner running (before knock occurs) on "complicated" engine management systems, because the higher octane is less likely to "knock". I have a mate with a 540i Touring who gets better economy from 98 than 95, but he has a lead foot! He averages about 13.5 last I spoke to him - but drives Glenfield-ish to Silverdale each weekday.

Told the Bro in law about it, he's going to give me the meat, I'll make it, and give half back to him Awesome. Slightly OT: Got my other favourite dead pig meal in the oven right now - slow roast shoulder It's only little, so 20 mins at 250C and 8 hours at 85C will be grand. Did 9KG at Christmas for 14 hours. Literally pulled the bone out and shredded it with 2 forks. Mmmmmmmmmmm Dead pig!

While they're in them!

Well said. I had a Daihatsu Max 360 that did AWESOME burnouts... it was a 360cc 2 stroke 33 hp, 400 kgs.