Allanw

NICE! With that thread title, I was expecting to see a 520i auto "M5" with a bonnet scoop and flyscreens hot glued into the kidneys etc..... Actually... speaking of Kidneys - selling one would almost pay for that!

It's only a 318, so doesn't really matter - you could order M bits on anything, and anything that's not an M3, M5 etc, is just a car with some M options ordered (or maybe added later. If it's a nice car and you like it, just go for it

I wouldn't have thought a single coil would cause a stall. Are the codes on your reader Hex, or decimal? If you've read them off the Hex list, they'd be different to the decimal list: Decimal 16 and 63 are supposedly "Crankshaft Sensor" and "Secondary Air Switching Valve", both of which would be far more liekly to be related to the stall. Are there any members near you with INPA, the BMW software? It will give the BMW specific code/description, but also how often the code occurs, and what the engine was doing at the time (RPM, Temp etc)

Buy the software: either: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-USB-OBD-Diagnostic-Cable-set-UK-GT1-Ediabas-Inpa-DIS-SSS-Code-Reader-/281128248013?pt=UK_Diagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item41748ca2cd http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-USB-OBD-Cable-lead-Ediabas-Inpa-GT1-DIS-SSS-Progman-/281101114471?pt=UK_Diagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item4172ee9c67 Depending on whether you need the adapter. The guy, Jimmy, is well known in UK BMW circles (E39 in particular): His direct website: http://www.cable-shack.co.uk/order.php

Yeah... 400 kgs and 2.8M long Welly to Whangas for $150 cash By the time you get it yourself, you often don't save money if it's far away. You forgot to factor in pies.

1995 Daihatsu Mira 850cc 3 cylinder. Mine sounded AWESOME! My Cappuccino was better, as it revved SO much higher (though I only ever got a bit over 8), but not "relatively common" - last I knew there were 32 registered in NZ, and the guy who brought mine has 4! Shame my Wagon R turbo was 4 cylinder - sounded boring. The Subaru EZ30's do sound great... That's why one's going in the VW bus next

It is pretty impressive... but auto. It might disappear, or it might be around for ages at that price... who knows - Probably hard to find a better one with low miles, and low miles only happen once.

The service lights are fine.... IF you use the correct oil! Most don't seem to. It's also supposed to be in there 2 years max, regardless of milage. Lots seem to get any old crap oil with the right viscosity (or what they think is close enough), and bung it in and STILL use the service lights! Mineral or semi-synth should really only be in for shorter changes intervals, and not all synthetic is designed for long intervals either. Our M54 would normally come up every 22K kms, but I programmed it to be about 15K 15K isn't really extended intervals anyway, because our 2.5 holds 6.5L, a lot of jap 2.5's of similar vintage only hold 4 or 4.5L with 10K intervals There's nothing to worry about inside your motor

That's not dirty. This is dirty:

I miss read that like this^^^

And don't park too close to the end of your garage - real awkward to get out Some later ones had reverse though - not so much the early ones

This is E39 specific, but it MAY work for the E38 and E53 too - not sure, probably best to find out, before you try it. I made this from info collected off the net, and use it quite a bit, so thought I'd tidy it up and sort it out to hopefully make it of use to others. Because of the high number of problems with cooling systems, and the HUGELY buffered gauge on the E39, I thought I'd make a "How to" to read the KTMP (Coolant Temp) your E39. NEVER trust the gauge - there are a lot of E39's out there with faulty thermostats and are consuming copious amounts of fuel because of running too cold. Also, on those with "map-control" electronic controlled thermostats, they can run too hot if the thermostat heater is burnt out (It logs a fault code in the DME fault memory, but does NOT bring up any warning to the driver). The E39 temp gauge seems to read "normal" (12 o'clock) from about 75C up to at least 115C. High OBC is a text display under your instruments Low OBC is a picture of a car under your instruments Test 7 displays the KTMP figure, in degrees Celcius. This is the coolant temperature that the ECU is measuring in the engine. I've not confirmed it, but some people report change in the KTMP display depending on key position - Position 2 (with the engine running or not) appears to be the side of the coolant sensor used for the ECU temperture readings, and position 1 appears to be the temperature the gauge uses - The sensor is called a "Dual Temperature sender" because it has the two readings. If one side is faulty, this should show it up. To access the "High OBC Secret Menu" and KTMP (Coolant temp) add up last 5 numbers of your vin (mine are 59439, so 5+9+4+3+9 =30) turn ignition on 1 or higher (or start engine) Hold right side button until test appears( 5 seconds?), repeatedly press right button until test 19 is shown, then repeatedly press left button until it says Lock: 30 (or whatever your VIN added up to) press right button press right button until test 07 shows press left button and it will show KTMP - coolant temp. press left will cycle through KTMP, RPM and something else. It will stay there until you turn the car right off (key position 0). To access the "Low OBC Secret Menu" and KTMP (Coolant temp) The 'low' OBC, with your one button is a bit harder: There are three actions you can use with the button: short press, long press (1 second+ish) Wait turn ignition on 1 or higher (or start engine) Press and hold the button until "test 1" appears (5 seconds?) and immediately release the button. quickly start "short presses" on the button, with a short pause between keep up the short presses until you get to "test 19" (if you go past, you can keep going up to 21 and back to 0...) While "test 19" is displayed, "wait" - it will enter test 19 after a short wait (If you accidently drop into another test, Easiest way is to start again - key off and back on) Display should show "Lock ON/OFF", where on and off will alternate between one and the other. short press while it says "Lock OFF" and as soon as it display changes to "test 0", start the short presses again, until you get to "test 7" When "test 7" is displayed, "wait" to enter the test, and it will then display your KTMP. It will stay there until you turn the car right off (key position 0). Thermostat ratings: M52 = 92C, Mechanical thermostat M52TU and M54 = Map Control, Mechanical rating 97C (generally run at 92C - 98C at cruise, may drop down to high 80's briefly under load) M62 and M62TU = Map Control, Mechanical rating 108C (generally run at 92C? - 110C at cruise, may drop down to high 80's briefly under load) S62 = 79C, Mechanical thermostat Diesels = I think 88C, Mechanical Thermostat The Mechanical Thermostats should generally stay above the Thermostat rated temperature, unless going down long gradients using no throttle (lot's of airflow, but no fuel burned) - though that will usually only drop slightly and come backup quickly once fuel is burned in the engine. They may go higher, if the cooling capacity is exceeded - the viscous fan, or auxilliary fan should pull the temps down before "the China Syndrome" The Map Control ones will function like the mechanical thermostats above, except the ECU controls a small heater built into the thermostat. It can heat the thermostat up, forcing it to open more and pull engine temps down during heavy loads. The engine temp can vary a lot, but should never cool down much, for very long. Most of the time you should be in the ranges I stated above. Do be aware, with the Map Control ones: The small heater can burn out, and the ECU loses it's temperature control mechanism - it will them run at the High temperature that is the Thermostats mechanical rating, and should be replaced, ASAP. It will NOT bring up a warning of any kind, except when scanning the DME (ECU) for codes. Diesels may have an EGR thermostat too, which can cause warmup issues. If you have any cooling system issues - use the KTMP reading to see what's really happening - because of the bufferd gauge, it doesn't tell you what's going on, and if it does move to the red, it may already be too late! High OBC cars (only) will give a loss of coolant warning. Low do not. If the coolant suddenly escapes, you can cook the engine without the gauge even moving - the sensors only work properly when they're IN coolant.

Genuine 8" E39 rims were all ET20 I think - I haven't seen one yet that wasn't. Most E39 wheels can move out about 15-20mm easily Staggered style 65's on an M5 had 18x9.5 ET22's - 17mm further out than the normal ET20 8" wheels. M5's had different rear wheel liners though. Yours will already be 7mm further out than a factory wheel 10mm spacers would get the same look from the outside The front always look really sunken on an E39 - It's one of the things I have trouble with - it looks weird, like the buldge on the bottom corners of the motorsport bumper.

It's manual time either way... $ are probably involved... unless by some freaky chance it's just low on fluid... check it just in case, but it's probably more terminal

Nice! My favourite type of gearbox too! GLWS

Good Move ET20 is correct for an 8" rim, those are 7.5's (weird that they are narrower on an E60!) they'll be about 6mm further in than E39 17x8's, but will look about 1 metre and a half further out than the 15's No problems with that. the 15's might be worth more as scrap than as wheels

Measured scientifically, of course

It must have been a good one! By that milage it should have been in for a clutch and at least an injector - surely the dealer would have given it an oil change then?!?!?

I find it's easier to highlight your text, copy it (Crtl+C) then press F5 (to refresh). If the post is there, sweet. If not, Paste (Crtl+V) your text in the reply box and submit it again. Worked for me, though I don't have it happen much at all (will happen now though, just coz I said that!) Maybe the interwebnet needs new batteries?

You trying to get me killed? SHHHHHHHH! My wife might look on here!

At least if Mrs GJM has the 320d, you won't get the milage up too high on it A lot of those "smaller SUV's" are like Ron says (actually, he was being PC... he meant CRAP! ) And like most SUV's, their assumed safety isn't actually a reality, because of the handling/dynamics (plus they're no "tougher" than a car, usually). They can also be less economical than you'd assume. A friend had a 1995 4.0 Falcon GLi. She drove nearly as far as you each day, and "upgraded" to a 2004 Toyota Rav4, 2.4. On average (mostly open road, bare in mind) it used 30% MORE gas than the Falcon! She's since gone to a Mondeo, which is slightly better than the Falcon was.

What are they to fit? E39 ones are MUCH harder to get, because of the centre bore size.

People worry about engines so much. It's the rest of the car you need to worry about! Any decent car will do many, many hundreds of thousands of kms if they're looked after. I've had several cars with well over 300kms on, and no issues with any of them. I actually had more issues with a 2002 Corolla between new and 150K than I had on the cars with 300K+ (although one Legacy did lunch a trans at about 300K). One of them ended up at a business on Tutukaka Coast, and it had done 420K when I last saw it - had a clutch and an exhaust manifold since they brought it. The problem is: Kiwi's are sh*t at looking after cars - as they get older, they start to be cheap with them, and they become wrecks pretty quick after that. They seem to think it's cheaper to buy another car and the old one isn't spending money on - if it was a decent car, that very rarely the case! If you find one that's been properly looked after, the kms are somewhat immaterial. It may have already had a bunch of stuff done, so may be better than a car with 100K on it.

Oh yeah, I bought 8 of the last 10 cars I've bought, sight-unseen. Never had anything unexpected happen. If you're looking at the right cars with expectations matching the price, and the sellers have an OK attitude, they seem to work out fine. Even the Model A! Now 85 years old, and better than we expected! One of them was a 1995 Subaru Impreza with 288,000 kms - the thing was stunning. When I arrived to pick it up I was surprised that there'd be two red ones the same there..... but there was only the one - looked like it could have done only 88K! serves us well until 325K, and only sold because the back seat was too small (for the kids to fit in... not for making them).

Either Captain Transporter, or Pete's towing. It's always way cheaper to get it shipped to Auckland, and get the bus down to get it from a mate's place or somehing. Captain Transporter did our Model A, and Pete's bring it up the last bit anyway, and I collected it from their depot. I seem to recal it being about $500 from Feilding to Whangarei.