Allanw

You aren't allowed red or blue... FYI. If you don't want to attract unwanted police attention, white or yellow/amber is all you can get away with.

^ he beat me to it. Code will probably be for a misfire - either dodgy plugs, coil pack etc... probably not to dramatic, but I'd take it easy, or not drive it until it's sorted.

A guy on a UK forum tried putting a bigger size in, and cracked the side out, got it welded and then it never sealed... so I'd be slightly wary of leaving it out entirely. When you drill a hole in a broken bolt, they're always off centre... I think it's a law of physics or summin. Then you keep drilling, regardless of how badly it's going... because keeping going means you have some chance of it coming out... it's just how it works I'd get a 6mm Timesert kit (or find someone with one). It won't make the hole much bigger, but it'll give you some decent threads in there. You may need to "adjust" the hole in the valley pan cover to allow for any offset. I'd probably do the lot... be a bugger if another hole stripped during reassembly!

Probably would have been better earlier... sit a nut over the top of it, and MIG weld it on, with a good amount of heat. Leave it to cool and then unscrew - it usually works pretty well as the heat helps loosen it because of the enevn expansion of the metals.

Wurth "High Strength" spray adhesive works well, I used ADOS the first time, is a suzuki van, has to redo it with the Wurth stuff, after the first headliner fell off the first day in the sun. Some cans say not suitable for headlinings... best not to use them!

Have you tried telling her "it makes it safer and more fuel efficient"?

be aware that there are one peice ones, and two piece ones. The 1 piece look average - make sure they have the bolts. Dunno if you're going to get the sizes you want though: http://felgenkatalog.auto-treff.com/ look on page 3.

Yep... exactly right. It will fit a few pre-facelifts, possibly from 08/99 onwards???

Wow... it's pretty tidy, but not mint - I'd sell it cheaper than that too - I left my replacement in Aucks on the weekend, and haven't paid for it, I can possibly get it down to the North Shore this weekend. Hard to ship I guess, with the airbag being in it! If someone wants it for $350, they can hand the cash over to Andrew and that'll cover what I owe him PM if interested Anyone want the 3 spoke?

Wow... How much can I sell my 3 spoke "sport" one for, with multifunction and silver trim then? Like this one:

Pick-a-part

Coding stuff is pretty easy :-) I think the cable mod is only for voltage detection, required for some procedures (new modules etc). If you get to that point, you can always mod it then - I think it's a jumper wire soldered onto 2 contacts. nothing tricky.

D'Oh! If you don't know how to do it, DON'T!

I'd like to be more help, but I haven't heard of lifter problems in them. What temp was the oil at? A couple of laps probably wouldn't have it up to 100C yet (it takes a lot longer than coolant to heat up).

Hmmmmm... AliExpress success rate for me so far... 50%. Getting refunds is painful at best 50% of the time, total value spent NZ$2K. Best be on first name basis with the customer service rep at your Credit Card company!

Not to talk you out of buying goodies... and I dunno how different yours is to mine, but on the E39 to delete the clutch delay valve, I just removed the valve entirely, and very slightly rebent the coiled hard-line to go directly into the fitting, instead of the valve.

Someone probably googled at and 97 says E39. It's actually a 95 model and was made in 95. You could get a 96 model that was made in 1995 too though :-)

Milland can get Genuine BMW too (Saved me about NZ$100 on a genuine key amongst other things)

Those temps are OK. The 6's run cooler than the 8's. The ecu only drops the engine temp when the parameters are met - ie load increases etc. It probably does run it hot at idle, because the hotter it runns, the more economical it is. If you were to suddenly boot it up the road, you'd probably see it drop (or try to!). Keeping an eye on the temp gauge doesn't help much in these... keep the KTMP up on the OBC. You don't have to unlock the OBC every time - I just enter "service" mode (secret menu) and enter test 7 straight away, and it works fine (unless you disconnect tha battery or code the car etc, in which case the code has to be put in to unlock it.)

It's a bastard having to turn the roundels on each wheel everytime you park somewhere... Need the Rolls Royce rotating items

Basically, pissing about with anything in the standard INPA/NCS/DIS setups you buy on ebay etc, aren't going to do anything major. I did it all by trial and error, and worst case, you code the whole car in NCS back to factory and start fiddling again. I'm assuming you want to fiddle with the E39, coz the E36 is really boring as far as nerd/geek types are concerned There's a bunch of tutorials on US forums, after reading a few, and running it up on your car, you start to feel pretty comfortable. I'm a geek, but I've changed the LCM in our car to an E53 one, changed the VIN and mileage to match the car, altered settings to stop bulb warnings (LED angeleye bulbs etc), altered the litres of fuel used before the service is required, fitted a brand new ABS module and coded it etc. I didn't know how to do any of it a few years back, and I haven't destroyed anything (Yet... I haven't used WINKFP, but will need to if I have to fit a 3.0 in place of the 2.5 ). I don't even use a backup power supply... though I do hook up the 2A trickle charger... because the battery in 11 years old The basic stuff as far as cool settings go, can be done in either BMW Scanner (another program and cable), or using the BMW software, in NCSExpert. There is a program someone made called NCSDummy - it makes setting changing easy, and is a good place to start. I'd start to get lost if I was doing anything really heavy, but the software only lets you do stuff that's pretty safe. The heavy stuff involves serious reprogramming, where the usual software just allows you to alter parameters or settings.

Also, the electrickery to run the electric fan comes from the batetry, and the battery is charged from the alternator... which is a parasitic drag... Plus the fan is only really a drag when it's locked. PS - the newspaper test ONLY works if the viscous coupling is hot enough to cause the clutch in it to lock - which isn't that much of the time TBH (the V8's seems to do it more than 6's)

I think they use the actual total number of reported vehicle stolen.... so the interceptor wouldn't show up, as there is only one. However, if they had 10,000 torneos insured, and 100 were stolen and they had 1000 accords insured, and 100 were stolen, they's be first equal... but the Torneo would still actually be less likely to be stolen, because statistically 1% of Torneos would be stolen, and 10% of Accords... Of ALL organisations with "Automobile" in their name, the AA is probably the LEAST knowledgable about cars. Subaru was the most imported car for a LOT years, so it's not surprising they were seen to be "often stolen" - if there's twice as many of them, that would double the rate as a start! I'm sure a LOT of Torneos were imported too.

Her sh*t was on your car... throw it inside and drive off. It clearly wasn't hers, or it would have been on HER car Dump it in a river. Sorted.

The bushes can look fine, but be poked, and highway is harder on them than around town. It they aren't changed already, they're probably not like new ones at all. Our E39 bushes looked fine (at 12 years and 115K, though the shocks were 100% rooted), but I rebuilt the entire front end (used powerflex bushses) and transformed the car - it's really tight and smooth now. I've not owned an E36, and I realise the E39 is a lot more complex suspension wise, but if it were me, I'd not bother with "Goodies" until the chassis foundations were sorted. Might turn out you don't need any goodies (even though they're more interesting ) Full service histroy doesn't mean a car has had all required work done either - it just means it went in for the "recommended" oil changes/inspection etc - additional work can always be declined by the owner, though I'd hope this was less likely on a proper ///M car. If you have all the invoices, then you have a usable history and can check for the bushes etc.