Allanw

I can't go on you tube at work, so will have to look later. I don't mind coming to work, it's the 8 hour wait to go home that's a pain in the butt.

I think mine were less, from Milland. $29??? Maybe? It's cheap in the scheme of things Certainly cheaper than other bits. If you're going to spent shitloads, you may as well go the whole hog and really get yourself in trouble. My Mate recently upset his wife, because he spent on his 540i touring, what our 525i cost us to buy! He's not quite divorced

Mainfreight, they can deliver them to the CHCH depot, and he can collect them there - makes it a lot cheaper.

I brought a cheapy strut brace to help reinforce the strut towers - Was $100 from a sponser on here... can't remeber who though The metal plate just helps sandwich the tower in between the tophat, and gives it more strength. I was raising mine up a bit, so I have a 10mm aluminium plate under the tower also. Buy new bumpstops too! If the tower is mushroomed, the bumpstops will be poked!, they're cheap enough, as are new boots.

Zionsville to an all alloy radiator for them, but it's $$$ Someone here could make you one - do you have the normal hose conenctors, or the quick fit later type? We put a replacement Nissens unit in Dads E30, it lasted about 8years - the lower fins started to corrode (wasn't leaking yet, but didn't want it too!), and we recently put in another one, about 2 years ago. Whatever you get will prolly only do the life of the original OEM ones, unless you go alloy, which are mega-dollars for a good one, and it can still corrode. Put a good plastic one in, and plan on doing it again it 8 years or so. Use the correct coolant too!

Bummer dude! You know 4WD's/SUVs are arse in snow, right? Sounds like Subaru time, or maybe X5!

Leave them is the sun, out of the car, until the glue heats up, so you can get the fronts off. There's a bit of work involved. I've just got a set of brand new genuine Hella xenons on the way - if you want brand new complete units, they're about NZ$1400, but they come with the ballasts etc, which you already have (I only know of one set at that price though). A brand new set of Halogens is now about $800 plus courier. Prolly worth repairing if they're in otherwise good condition.

Shame you aren't still up here - I'd be straight back there!

The gauges have a designed "normal" range. The engine temp fluctuates, and the "normal" position is always displyed over a range of engine temperatures. I know the gauge in M54 powered cars shows normal over a very wide temperature range - seemingly from mid 70's to abou 115C! Hence their intolerance to being "overheated"! An E30 probably doesn't show "normal" until it's near or into the 80's, so might actually show normal much later than an M54 powered car, even though the M54 is actually at a cooler temp. I guess the short answer is that the gauges are NOT linear. Older cars used to show the temperature fluctuations of the engines, but it started to worry people, so the curve of the gauge was altered to hide them.

SWEET! "It makes it safer AND more fuel efficient, Sweetie" I went for the carbon, cost an extra $75, but it really cuts out the heat - I had to turn the temp on the AC up driving home, and you can see out really easy in the dark - Had to go to the shop earlier tonight, in the pissing rain! Took about 40 mins to do! I was stunned. Looks really tidy. I did remove the rear parcel tray for them though, as the fabric is a bit loose on it and I didn't want it to get knackered... of course when I removed the 3 car seat tethers, the threads stripped! Lucky the mate I'm staying with is a engineer (has a 540i Touring and E21 "race car" project). So I re-tapped them all and fitted high tensile cap screws. I pulled the fuses for the windows... but it kills the central locking. I hope the Mrs remembers not to move the windows! Shitty phone pic... I wish I'd taken it AFTER I'd washed it - covered in road grime from the drive down!

I got Sachs (oem) motorsport fronts from Paul at Milland.co.nz for our 6cylinder. I THINK they were about 275+gst??? Could be wrong though. Be aware that E39's are known for bending the strut top hat, and mushrooming the shock towers - that could be the cuase of some of your rake - especially if the car is on harder springs. I fitted a 10mm spacer to lift the front of the car, and it came up 20mm, because of the bent parts I replaced.

I'm sitting in the Car Folie waiting room, while the E39 gets it's tints done I told the Mrs it makes it way better for the kids, and is much safer. I wasn't sure I could get away with telling her it makes it more fuel efficient though...

Sometimes people on here know what they are talking about. Me... I just make it up as I go There are a lot of people who know FAR more than I ever will, and will be a great deal of help if you ever has issues! I've heard of transmissions going for long distances, and some not so much. A mate of mine has an NZ new 540i Touring, he gave it it's first trans fuild change at about 230K and it's still ok now at about 280K. I understand that NZ NEW 540i E39's still used a different box (ZF 5HP 24) to the Jap ones (that will need to be confirmed though! I'm not spouting that as gospel!). It wasn't the Jatco box though - may have been GM, like some US BMW cars used. Like I say - all that needs to be verified with someone who actually knows! You don't want to overcool the trans either, I'd imagine - It may get upset. Surely theres a thermostatically controlled cooler available??? The trans can be done by BMW if you force them to :-) The genuine filter is the best, and realistically, the new fluid can probably stay in there a while - It doesn't need to be done every 30K (probably!). It's high quality, long life synthetic fluid too. I think BMW USA (if not elswehere) revised the lifetime fill thing down to 100K MILES. The sealed for life thing is a have! It was introduced at the same time BMW USA introduced free scheduled servicing... coincidence? Probably not. Cars that used to have regular servicing, suddenly overnight, didn't require anywhere near as much servicing. Plus the lack of waste fluids was "better for the environment"...

That's probably the best advice, right there! I worried about that too, as ours is a Singapore import. I didn't have much choice though - not many manual E39's around! As it turns out, Singapore's average humidity is within 2% of the humidity here in Whangarei, year 'round. I can't see why they would have the problems and we wouldn't. Other parts of NZ would be similar. The cars from the salty areas of Japan can be REALLY bad for rust - Had a couple in a rental fleet a few years back, and even the trans cooler pipes rusted through! There are a LOT of Singapore imports. Many of the facelift 525i's and 530i's seem to be Singapore. Singapore spec cars are the same as the Euro versions (mostly), few minor differences like Hot climate version etc. They have the wide number plate gap, like the NZ and Euro cars and have radio and sat nav that is the same setup as the Euro cars (on the stuff I've looked at anyway). I can actually set my radio etc to Gulf states, Australasia, Europe etc. Japan isn't there, as they're often completely different (although some of the very late E39's from Japan can be set to our settings). There are a LOT of E39's around, so you can take some time to find the right one for you (unless you want something rare - I wanted manual, so was limited!). My M54 2.5 goes REALLY well, after the Vanos seal repair, and I imagine a 3.0 would be impressive. Before doing any towing, I'd be looking at trans cooling, and making sure the engine cooling is up to snuff - It's the weak point. The thermostat is electronically controlled, and if the electric element in it fails, the engine runs extra hot until you have the fault codes scanned and see the element has gone open circuit. It does NOT bring up a check light! The cooling system has other issues, such as plastic water pump impellors wearing, radiators exapnding along the bottom etc. I'm actually going to fit a conventional thermostat to mine. I imagine the 3.0 would be quite a bit quicker than the 2.8 - It may not feel like it, because of the broad, flat torque curve of the 3.0. The double Vanos seems to make quite a difference ( it was on the M52TU 2.8 as well though - most 528i's seem the be single Vanos M52 though). Be aware that the Vanos seals will need replacing on whatever you get. Mine were totally poked at 116K (Vanos Seals Thread) and they make a MASSIVE difference to the torque. People get hung up on servicing - I know from the Lease cars I've had, they get the BARE MINIMUM servicing in NZ - even at the dealers - The lease company spends as little as they can on the servicing and specifys what they'll pay for, so a NZ new example isn't always better serviced. Plus lots of kiwi's do it themselves on older cars and don't get it right (The correct oil for a M54 engine is NOT cheap). The BMW specified 20K+ oil change interval is probably a bit long for a lot of drivers too - lot's of city driving isn't good. I bet most still wait for the lights to say it's due, when there is usually a maximum time specified (and ignored). As stated above - the condition and a prepurchase inspection (somewhere GOOD!) are a good start. There are a LOT of diffrent spring rates and ride heights etc. Realistically, as soon as you need new shocks, they'd probably the generic type anyway. The motorsport suspension is a lot firmer and more "jiggly" ours has it, and is stiff. There are 4 main types of E39 suspension: two types of motorsport suspension, a rough road verson and an eastern european suspension package - the last two are 22mm higher (done with a spacer on the strut tops) and some other minor differences. I don't know the difference between the two Motorsport types though. Maybe one is for the V8's only, because of the extra weight??? Dunno. The Touring will often have self-levelling rear airbag suspension. If you get really serious about a car, it may be worth whipping off the rocker cover and make sure it's all sparkly clean under there. You can't see in through the oil cap properly, and the rocker cover gaskets are prone too leaking anyway, so may as well be replaced. Some have been known to sludge up on the wrong oil. The service indicator lights are based on oil meeting BMW's specific specs, and not all oil will last the distance! Also the trans and diff are "sealed for life" which in BMW speak means don't service them at all, and then throw them away when they die. You'll want to have them serviced, again, with the correct fluid (not as easy as it sounds, the fluid specs aren't simple!). Good luck! They are great cars, considering they're all old now!

All sorted, Gone! You're too late!

It's of absolutely no use to them anyway, and it could be considered a security risk. Either they give it to you, or you watch them destroy it - REALLY destroy it - grinder, vicegrips, gas torch etc.

only E39 sorry...

I was I'm actually hoping that they'll sneak through without GST being charged on them, as they are being couriered privately, not from a business. Unlikely, but I'm hoping! I don't really want to spend the money on them, but they're taunting me! I've kinda got my money back on the old ones, by sorting a deal that works for me and the buyer, although more for him... Oh well, At least I'll have bling bling lights . The orange indicators actually are correct for my car, and I actually prefer them with our paint colour. Shame the shipping is so much! They're HUGE freakin boxes (as you know, Shane), and this has the self adjusting retrofit kit and loom in there too. Mrs was in the UK a couple of weeks back too... I also out her about 3kgs over the baggage limit because of the VW driveshaft I got her to bring back - the headlights probably would have caused a divorce (plus she's 6 months preggers and the bag was kinda heavy!) If anyone is keen, PM me asap, I'll probably paying tomorrow, so no deal after that. Dude doesn't have any other models either They are genuine sets, but are coming from Germany, via the UK this time. Not local. Cheers,

Will be interesting to see their response... As I say, I'm not familiar with the ordereing etc, but You should be able to have the remote key. The prices sound about right for the dealer. I have a sneaking suspicion they have ordered you the wrong one and they proably want to sell it to you anyway

Anyone interested in buying a genuine Hella retrofit kit??? I'm thinking of getting one, and there is still one more available. Has EVERYTHING, including self levelling included. has ORANGE indicators. Works out to $1380 inc GST and shipping. Let me know ASAP, will probably be ordering next 2 days, and there was only 2 available when I asked. Cheers,

not sure pic showed it on a pre facelift, possibly in gold, with the spoiler in white. All i remember

I guess there's a possibility that he does or does not know what he is talking about. How much did they charge? The cheap key price? You'd hate to pay the remote price for the cheap key! Does the button do anything? I think remote locking was standard, but some Jap imports were infrared, instead of Radio. I'm not knowledgable in the area, but I'd think they've stuffed up your order - not the first time it's happened with keys!

There was something similar (in fibreglass) on tardme recently.

I thought it was kinda cool how it looks like it's abandoned If you want, I'll try yours out, so you can see how cool it looks

Prolly!