Allanw

Or followed one in a Hiace???

12.25 years in the E39 I'd normally change it, just to be safe, but I'm really keen to see how long it goes for! Plus manual means I can probably roll start it if required

Very rare ours would be up to operating temps on a lot of the trips . Oil usually takes longer to heat up than the coolant, and often the coolant only gets to 70C. Some of our cars trips are only 7 minutes on VERY country backroads, and to town centre is only about 12 minutes We just have to drive up and down, and round and around an extinct volcano to get anywhere The school run is the one that heats it up good - open road the whole way, but corners and hills to make it exciting Like you say, the SAE test ranges are quite wide, so the least viscous 40, is pretty much the same as the most viscous 30.

The LL rating has little to do with a suitable oil - For the M54, BMW specs said LL-01 AND ACEA A3/B4 The A3/B4 makes it a high shear strength oil, and suitable for long drains anyway - getting the LL rating just means manoey has been paid to BMW to use the name (and the oil makes the grade, of course). I just changed our M54 from Penrite 5W-40 back to Castrol Edge 0W-40. Intersting to see the fuel consumption drop sharlpy after the change, I noticed it go up when I went to the Penrite. I can only attribute this to the HIGH amount of short trips we do with thick/cold oil, and the 0W rating meaning it's thinner than the 5W Penrite when cold. Certainly no difference is noise or performance noticable... but really the fuel consumption should be getting worse, with the MUCH colder weather we've been having!

Does anyone read the Herald??? Seriously?

That's about 70% of the population though... I think they actually have NO IDEA what's going on around them, or what they are doing.

That's Awesome Glenn! I hadn't seen that before.

Like Andy said, just because a code for an item comes up, doesn't mean that item is faulty. Someone who knows what they are doing needs to look at it. Replacing those parts MAY just be money spent replacing parts that are functioning perfectly, but are given out of range readings, because something external is influencing them. It happens all the time, then people moan about how expensive their BMW is to maintain... when really, they've spent $1000 replacing things that weren't broken, and the $25 part fixed it... but the retard "mechanic" who though he knew better is hardly going to tell the customer that part! Common one is the mixture deviation code for E39 o2 sensors - people replace the sensors at great cost... when it was just a split in the rubber intake boot.....

30 Minutes isn't bad... I've been contemplatinng it for a while on the Touran... just haven't got to it yet. I don't need the engine to last too long... but I'd like to be able to sell it after the conversion is done and recoup some $$$ If it's only 30 minutes, I'm going to have to give it a go soon. It does sound a bit like a diesel (euro, not a jap one!)... though I hear that's sorta normal at idle - but I worry it's the lifter poked too . The Thermostat is a bit knackered too... But I can't be arsed doing that - especially since I brought the wrong replacement. I've got one of the typical NZ New ones - Dealer serviced except for 1 oil change before I got it... and nothing on it is quite right! Just the minimum done to justify a dealer stamp in the book...

Actually... if Mrs W didn't think E38's were "ugly, old man cars", and they had 5 lap and diagonal belts, we'd have one instead of the E39... ... I was gunning for a very late 728i, that I could convert to manual - I reckon they'd move OK, and have a good amount of space in the back for the kids, and pretty cheap to run. Either that, or a 740i

NO! E38.

Agreed - after a country drive, you've have to look in the grilles to see what got caught - pukekos, hawks, milking sheds etc. That grille is probably the size of a complete original 7 series.

Maybe put the price up by $450

To be fair though, if his car was leaking coolant, it would have overheated in the 40 minutes spent driving to the grass verge.

When the Pain Killers kick in.

Pain

That alone probably bumps up it's value for a lot of people

I just got that too! Highest one is $135... but the '72 Beetle and '29 Ford are around half that, from memory Might have to daily them

Is it registered as a 540ia? with the "a" on? that suggests it was an auto to start... though dealers have been known to register cars wrong. A lot! Like Kyu says above, it's rarity is in the manual trans - That's would be my interest in it: But I'd take a standard manual facelift over a prefacelift with the schnitzer bits,,, if there was one,and I was in the market. You can never really tell what's its worth until it sells, but I too would think $8K to $9K, but that's just me! It's hard to put the price up, but easy to come down though! Start high and see what happens!

They shouldn't be allowed a license! Too busy texting and "driving" to realise???

Coz it's F-ing awesome

Thank goodness! I want about ot take the piss, coz it look like Mercedes stole there design cues from those butt-ugly Ford Taurus's (tauri?) with the saggy bodywork, dodgy headgasket and suspect transmissions...

Getting my tonsils out, looking at them in the jar thinking how much they look like mussels..... ..... The hospital lunch was mussel fritters I don't like mussels

You think that's bad... I'm currently driving an auto Touran, that HAS a clutch pedal - ready for the manual conversion - try to NOT use it when approaching stop signs etc

There you go - dkonsta1 has a fireplace