Allanw

There's 3 of you, that's 6 kidneys in one household! ...sounds a little excessive, to me!

Set the climate control to recirc, when you heat up your tyres... Andrew: Remember that 928 that sucked the tyre smoke in, and he had to let it out the sunroof

Removed the sheilds off the brakes on the E39... We get a stone in them EVERY time we go out, and the brand new discs are already marked to hell. FYI: Whangarei District Council = retarded. The roading division seems to be all morons.

Pick-A-Parts???

Not sure, but probably - he uses You Shop a lot, maybe kiwishipping too??? Because they are 4S's, he could only get them from the Aston Martin dealer here, so he tire-racked them. NZ$4800 here, NZ$2800 there. I must find out what his Mrs drives too. He Has an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, AND a Lotus Elise.

A guy at work just ordered Pilot Sport 4S's for his Aston Martin from tire-rack, because it was 42% cheaper than here, all shipping and GST included

Pretty sure I paid about $300 for a key for the E39, from Milland a few years back. It s a proper one with induction charging etc too. After Dads Toyota (18 years ago!) being shitty, and the ass-raping parts prices, he brought his E30 and enjoyed the better drive, better reliability and cheaper parts ;-) I had a Daihatsu Mira, and Toyota wanted $110 PER rear drum slave cylinder! I'm proud to say I've never owned a Toyota, and am fairly sure I won't... ... unless they invent some type of anti-suicide interior covering that absorbs through your skin and numbs your senses.

I think the best safety comes from a car that AVOIDS the accident to start with. An E39 will out handle and out manouver a vast majority of tall 4WDs, and is far less likely to tip over etc. After that, is where the safety of the structure comes into play. If I was going to crash into a deformable barrier with a 40% overlap at 64km/h (designed to replicate me hitting another car of the same weight, both travelling at 50 km/h), the Swift would be a great place to be. Real life data (from Palazzo's post above) from Australia suggests the E39 is a much safer place to be in real life . 5 stars vs 2 stars. If I was going to crash the right front corner into a concrete bridge abuttment at 80km/h, spin 360degrees and then also hit the oncoming car who was on the bridge with nowhere to go, I'd much prefer the E39. That's what my wife did: Her face had hit the steering wheel fracturing her skull in a number of places and knocking out a tooth, the ignition key was IN her right knee, her left knee had some dashboard in it. She required extraction from the vehicle. She was in a P10 Primera, which did FAR better than you'd expect, after 2 massive impacts. The front right wheel was roughly where the drivers seat started, the front corner of the car pushed back to where the base of the windscreen should have been. Weirdly - the passenger side looked almost fine - the front gaurd was on a slight angle! I'd like to see a Swift and an E39 AFTER hitting a concrete bridge and THEN doing the crash test Airbags only work once...

Google tells me 1286 plus options for a 325i manual. It's on the internet, so it must be true,right???

I recall Dad's old 1990 E30 325i wasn't much different in weight to a 1990 commodore or falcon ;-) something like 1300 vs 1400 vs 1500 kg and the commode was a buttload bigger, not to mention the falcon!

That is a folding seat, and a non-folding seat. I'd not noticed before :-)

The Issues with the golf do need to be looked at. my "other" cars are VW. One is from the 70's - it's fine. The newer stuff though... the HPFP (High Pressure fuel pump - google it!) MUST be sorted before failure, or you can be up for replacement cams and even more in some cases. The DSG CAN be a major issue, but there are more than 1 type. research what the car you look at has. The 1.4 TSI's have been known to go BANG at times too ;-) You do hear more horror stories, as production numbers increase, but also the demographics of the owners determine possibly WHY there are failures, but also how much you hear about them. The major difference is in comparison to the E39, the VW is probably as "troublesome" (at least potentially)... but the parts can be eye watering sometimes!, especially locally. I tend to get the VW bits from overseas, but they still aren't always as "cheap" as the BMW parts I've required. The technical knowledge and "experimenting" done with the E39 is far higher, and far more in depth than the VW stuff you can find - things like DIY cluster EEPROM programming for the E39 is something I've done, using an online guide. I haven't found quite the same detail for VW stuff - it's often more about air-ride and how to stop your sump tearing off (mostly overseas). Having said all that, you can't pick a brand and decide they're good. ALL makers have made some dogs, and if you buy the wrong model, it can all go pear shaped ;-)

Yeah, it was OK - I didn't have the 2.0 for long though.

Ha - I replied to your thread on VASK too - just clicked... even though your name is (almost?) the same :-) Different versions didn't. My Touran had the BVY engine (same basic engine as yours) but different emmissions gear. I think it was different on the later models mostly? There were some running issues with the Stratified mode, which my Touran doesn't use (although it doesn't have the 2.0 FSI now... it's a 3.2 )

Cool! Should last a while then! Only some models use the NOX sensor.

Get a kit for your vanos - easy. Oil filler and ambient sensor are cheap as chips - Milland.co.nz, or ebay.

Google how much those NOX sensors are ;-) They must have found a used one somewhere :-)

That's all normal. You just need to pay your gremlin tax to keep them away a little longer.

Speak for yourself! We had 50mm here last night... which more than doubled the amount we've had in the last 3 months! The roads were so slippery, I had "sustained loss of traction", in my 72 Beetle - they're like a 911 or E30 - once the back is loose, DO NOT button off, or it's all over!

It's funny... Dads nice E30 had a mint dash - 100% perfect, as he had a cover on it the whole time he had it (18 years?). He replaced it with a Legacy 3.0R spec.b and it has a crack in the dash... even though Dad fitted a cover You don't expect it in modern stuff.

I've driven it in 2WD mode, but needs the 4WD fitted, which is this years project. (you can't rush these things!)

Vw Tourans came with 1.4, 1.6 or 2.0's (petrol), so I thought about putting 2x 1.6 badges on... because mine is a 3.2 now

If he shorted two bolts and it worked, it's bypassing the starter solenoid. If the solenoid is knackered, the starter often won't crank, or does so intermittantly. You probably either need the solenoid replaced, or maybe a used starter.

You know you'll end up buying a Gold 7 Series V8 now, right??? Just remember too: The prefacelift jap import "525i" was really a 523i, and some are registered as 2001's, just as some facelifts are registered as 2000's - like our 525i facelift. It was built November 2000 but is a 2001 "model year". You need to watch that overlap if you only want a proper faceliift (the lights and grilles can be changed on the prefacelifts too).

It's like when you wash your car - you do it with a bare hand, so you can feel any bit of grit or tar spots etc. any remove them, before doing an damage. Well... that's what I think about, when I give our car it's annual wash, with a sponge