Allanw

It's a pretty late E34 touring - It's what I was looking out for when the E39 showed up... Shame that ones auto though :-( It's probably not a bad price - the Tourings are always quite a bit more expensive than a comparable sedan. Someone who knows E34 can better sort you out, but If that has a sunroof, they are very complex and fairly troublesome. Good manual conversion candidate!

No, I think it's probably more likely related to the early Vanos not actually doing as much - it's basically only 3 stages, on only one cam. The M54 in particular, is prone to it, and they are infinitly variable between two points, on both cams. Apparently the 3.0 is affected more, and can actually stall from the issue, during cold idle.They use the cam timing to heat up the cats, and also reduce idle emmisions etc, depending on the engine temps etc. They have to make sudden changes upon opening of the throttle etc, and with the leaky seals, it takes longer for the oil pressure to overcome the leak. The exhaust cam is retarded during cold idle to increase the overlap, and heat the cats faster. Opening the throttle means it has to quickly alter the cam timing to provide more power. Eventually, the seals can get bad enough to bring up fault codes, which is when BMW would fit a new/rebuilt Vanos unit. It was a problem in the US and UK, which probably have much better servicing regimes than the average NZer would stick to! I'd wonder if doing the seals on yours would improve the power delivery? I have no experience with doing it on the earlier engines. The 3 stage thing is probably easier to control though, whereas on the M54, if it's constantly advancing the cams as revs climb etc, it may struggle to keep up with the rate of the revs rising??? It made the most difference at low RPM on ours though (possibly related to the lower oil pressure at lower revs?). I think it's one of those things that people don't notice getting worse, like shocks or similar, because it happens slowly over time. Then when it's really bad, other symptoms show up. I have been told BMW brought out software changes for the M54 to mask the symptoms too. I don't know if that's true, but some users on other forums reported better running after "software updates". Our car has no build up under the rocker cover to suggest any problem with oil, or the changes. Even the entire Vanos assembly was immaculate - the O ring is the wrong material though - it was like all the plasticizers had come out, leaving a shrunken, hard o ring. I could literally snap it by folding it over. I'd be worried if they'd used the same material for something like the rear main seal! The only thing I've ever seen that bad, was valve guide seals of on old aircooled VW - they were probably 40 years old, and would have been hellishly hot on an aircooled head.

I think I need to do that to a 7 seat X5 for the Mrs

At least the back-end looks better than an E60!

SE's look awesome! It's the little details that make them, even though most people don't even notice the little things.

You'll probably be lucky to have them last 100K Ours was 117 K and 10/11 years??? Absolutely poked! The seals in mine didn't really seal any better than the piston did. Seriously - the piston actually fell out under it's own weight with the old seal. I could move the piston side to side in the housing, and it touched the sides and "clicked". The movement was easily seen with the naked eye. It affects some engines more than others. The M52TU and M54 have double Vanos, and at least on the M54, it's infinitly variable - affects them a LOT, based both on what I've read, and what it did for our car. The low end torque was very noticable. My Vanos Thread

MID is piss simple if you're vaguely techy. I brought the new cable, but not the heat and stick one. Seriously easy to do, as long as you line up the pins correctly on the LCD/ribbon. I used nail polish remover to clean off the goo - just make sure not to damage the tracks on the board. I then tidied up with a fibreglass pencil. On the LCD side, i scratched off whay I could with my finger, then a TINY bit of nail polish remover to tidy up, then fibreglass pencil again (Was worried solvent might eat into the LCD edges). You can get cheap MIDs on ebay sometimes with pixel problems, and repair your self, if you want the BC button. If you don't have the BC button, I assume you don't have high OBC??? I don't know what functionality you'd gain???

Could have a vacuum leak too, or really bad Vanos. Or sticky ICV Probably need to see some live data

I saw the specs BMW recommend for water to mix with coolant somewhere. The majority of town supplies in NZ MORE than comply, but if you're worried, find someone with tank water to fill up. I doubt many garages use distilled water! Some people also go overboard recommending stuff, but don't know what they are talking about - some have said to use RO water - DON'T - RO water is "empty" and will dissolve anything it can, like aluminium. If nothing is dissolved in it, it WILL dissolve anything it can. We have to use SS pipes here in the hospital for the RO water, otherwise things disappear - the plug hole in our sink dissolved (brass) from it, and the main cast iron drain from our workshop down to the basement sewer did too. We had to bypass it all with plastic pipes :-) The minerals in water are dissolved in it. They won't deposit them selves in the system, unless water is continually evaporating off and increases the concentrations. The town water here in Whangarei has a hardness of about 50g/m3. In the car cooling system, that would be .25 grams max, dissolved in the coolant, assuming 50/50 mix and about 10L. There are some other minerals etc, the the amounts are similar. I don't stress about it, but then I have tank water (which has minerals in anyway) PS: most of the water in Europe is hideous, and probably doesn't meet the BMW specs. It probably still gets used.

You mean ///M 318i

Photoshop PRO

Thats clean. Most engine conversions look a bit half assed, but that looks like it should be in there (Well... other than we know what it is). Well done!

You photoshopped in those glasses, I don't wear them.

Not too many option lists that are shorter than this one! VIN WBAAD620X0AG28117 Type code 1462 Type 320I (EUR) E series E30 () Series 3 Type LIM Steering RL Doors 4 Engine M20 Displacement 2.00 Power 95 Drive HECK Transmission AUT Colour BRILLANTROT (308) Upholstery (0269) Prod.date 1990-02-27 Close Options Code Description (interface) Description (EPC) S215A SERVOLENKUNG, DREHZAHLABHAENGIG Power steering, engine-speed-dependent S350A WAERMESCHUTZGLAS GRUEN, RUNDUM Therm.insulat.glass green S411A FENSTERHEBER,ELEKTRISCH VORN/HINTEN Window lifts,electric,front/rear S423A FUSSMATTEN IN VELOURS Floor mats velours S498A KOPFSTUETZEN IM FOND Headrests mechanically adjustable, rear S520A NEBELSCHEINWERFER Fog lights S530A KLIMAANLAGE Air conditioning L807A JAPAN-AUSFUEHRUNG NATIONAL VERSION JAPAN S925A VERSANDSCHUTZPAKET Dispatch protection pack Here is my fathers one - STILL not an M car, just and SE. It also doesn't show options that must be standard fitment, like fogs, boot lid liner, body coloured bumpers, SE side skirts etc, etc, etc: Type code 1412 Type 325I (EUR) E series E30 () Series 3 Type LIM Steering RL Doors 4 Engine M20 Displacement 2.50 Power 125 Drive HECK Transmission MECH Colour GLETSCHERBLAU METALLIC (280) Upholstery (0378) Prod.date 1990-04-05 Close Options Code Description (interface) Description (EPC) S200A KATALYSATOR - ENTFALL without catalytic converter S215A SERVOLENKUNG, DREHZAHLABHAENGIG Power steering, engine-speed-dependent S219A SPORT-LEDERLENKRAD Leather-covered sport st. wheel 380 mm S288A LEICHTMETALLRAEDER BMW light alloy wheel, cross spoke 29 S339A SHADOW LINE Shadow-Line S350A WAERMESCHUTZGLAS GRUEN, RUNDUM Therm.insulat.glass green S401A SCHIEBE-HEBEDACH, ELEKTRISCH Lift-up-and-slide-back sunroof, electric S411A FENSTERHEBER,ELEKTRISCH VORN/HINTEN Window lifts,electric,front/rear S464A SKISACK Ski bag S498A KOPFSTUETZEN IM FOND Headrests mechanically adjustable, rear S530A KLIMAANLAGE Air conditioning S548A KILOMETERTACHO Kilometre speedo S551A BORDCOMPUTER II MIT FERNBEDIENUNG On-board computer II with remote control S562A KARTENLESELEUCHTE Reading light S675A BMW SOUND SYSTEM Sound system Code Description (interface) Description (EPC) S682A RADIOANTENNE AUTOMATISCH Rear seat bench in fabric S687A RADIOVORBEREITUNG Radio preparation S728A EDITION ZV Edition ZV S750 BASISUMFANG FUER EDITION S806A Neuseeland Ausfuehrung Third stoplamp S850A ZUSAETZL. TANKFUELLUNG EXPORT Additional Export tank filling S925A VERSANDSCHUTZPAKET Dispatch protection pack

I was just thinking that! Geez... why? They're so "common" Looks awseome dude. Well done.

Bummer! Probably best to get it done! Shouldn't be a drama, perhaps they'll come to the part a bit on the over lapping costs. I'd have thought it'd be something a tech would recommend.

Changing the tank can be more costly than a complete unit - Price one up - they're probably only 3-400 for a complete brand new Nissens brand or similar. Dunno if I'd get a no-name chinese one though.

That's a good point - the gauge on the E39's is VERY buffered - it will read normal from about 70-75C, but the engine is running rich until at least the mid 80's. You have to use the live data to diagnose a problem anyway Dunno how it's done on an E60/61, but the E39 is via the OBC (unlock etc). I assume it's in the I-Drive thing somewhere. The thermostat will bring up a code if the electronic parts has failed, but it just runs hotter if that's the only problem (not really good either to be fair). My Mate with the E39 540i Touring got mid to high 9's on a trip from Auckland to Wellington and back. Our manual 525i can easily get 8-8.5 on a trip up north with the family in the car, and I have acheived 7.0 from Whangarei to Warkworth, by myself with very little traffic. I wonder if BMW had fixed the Vanos seal issue by then??? Probably not!

The rest of the plastic will be about as brittle - it was on borrowed time already it seems! repalcement radiators are cheap these days.

In THEORY about 200 amps would probably cover it... BUT try it on a cold day, with cold oil/engine, and it could possibly increase a lot, as the slower it turns with more load, the longer each winding is a "short" for. The current will peak at each compression stroke. 200 Amps at 12V is about 2400W, which is about the rating of a M54 starter motor (dunno what the others would have), but thats not taking into account how in-efficient the motor is - And I don't think they are very efficient - my electric assist bike only gets up to about 85% and it's electronically controlled DC brushless motor). Just because the starter is rated at 2.5KW, doesn't mean that power is always required either - the engines compression/tightness determines the required load. The wire resistance also goes up as it heats up, so if you are too close to the limit, a long cranking time could result in less and less power to the starter, and the wire getting hotter and hotter, making EVERYTHING worse A geared starter should have less peak draw, as they spin faster and smoother., but it's average will still be quite high It could still get up pretty high in the right situation.

The thermostat is there to stop the cool water flowing in from the radiator if the engine is too cool. the pump circulates water continuosly through the block/head, and when the engine temp is higher that the thermostat temp, it lets some "cool" water in from the radiator to mix with the hot water. Dads E30 runs at less than 1/2 - ever since the thermostat was changed to a cooler running one (which I think was part of the cooling system recall years ago). It always runs at the exact same place though. Yours sounds like it's not closing properly.

Thermostat sounds dodgy - cruising should not let it get lower. On our E39, if you drive down a long hill using no throttle at speed, the temp only drops a few degrees - maybe three or 4 MAX. Once the engine is up to temp, the thermostat should keep it pretty constant.

There is a lot to be said for decent tyres. I brought a set of alloys for our old SUbaru with Achilles on them... Would you believe: they wife got a puncture and drove home on it, knackered the tyre, so I got another new one to match. Then in the folowing 15,000 kms, got 8 more punctures! I wondered what she was doing. I couldn't be f'd with the cheap peices of crap, so put Bridgestone MY-01's on. They're a pretty good touring tyres, and never had a puncture in them, even with the Mrs driving all the same places.

It's back to 8k no reserve, or 8.5K buy now. Maybe they worked out that being a turbo isn't that special

You're talking about the M5 right? The bonnet switches cause a lot of false alarms. You can unplug the switch and see if it does it again. Of course, it might not ever do it again anyway I've never looked, but I wonder if you can see what made it trigger via software, or some other way???