Allanw

That is one nasty E39! Do you think it's well maintained??? I like the ad for this E34: Hamish Gordon-Turner

Don't know them, but the '98 is really a 523i - Japan had them badged as 525i's though - not quite the same grunt as the M54 2.5 in the later one (There is about 16 KW difference, and the M54 has awesome lower torque with the vanos seals done). That later/NZ one has the folding rare seats, which is VERY rare on imports, though the import has a better radio - no leather but. The earlier one has been rereged though, and says it's NZ new on carjam, which it isn't. The history would concern me, and may account for it's "low" milage. I was bored. Can you tell?

A lot of 4 cylinders sound.... bad! I've yet to hear a driftboy get an SR20 sounding that good. That sounds awesome! You sort your car out Bruce, and I'll drive it back and forth so you can listen to it

Yours does sound very similar to our M54 525i. We always use 95. they are not desinged for 91 at all (95 is marginal too). We don't get great milage, as it's generally either in town, or the drive home. The drive home has 4kms of country road, but it's very hilly and up down, and lots of bends. There is no cruising, though the manual trans must help a little. The traffic is a bit easier here too. It also depends if you are using the OBC figures, or real figures too. The OBC tends to vary car to car, but a lot report them being rather optimistic. Ours is very accurate - seems to be within about 0.2 L/100kms compared to the actuals I get on Fuelly.

If they were only charging GST, yes. Some stuff has duty too, and the % varies, depending on the goods.

Was his wife telling him off on the corners? Liking the noise

^^^ This. It 's not based on the $$$ value, it's based on the value of the duty/GST charges. "Once the threshold of $60 of duty and/or GST payable is reached, then an import entry transaction fee (IETF) of NZ$38.07 (GST inclusive) is also payable. This includes the Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity system entry levy of $12.77 (GST inclusive)" I have found, if it comes in via post rather than courier etc, it's more likely to get missed. Most of the big international freight companies have their own customs brokers, so it's in their best interest to charge what they can :-)

A lot of the Model A guys swear by white vinegar mixed anywhere from 1:4 with water, up to 1:1 with water. Of course the Model A is just a cast iron block, and a brass radiator.... there's nothing complex in there! The vinegar is quite gentle really, and is easy to flush out (just flush it a number of times though) and it's very cheap - you can flush when the coolant looks grubby, and do it again. Some of them left it in for a month before flushing. Because a lot of Model A's were Run with straight water in the blocks, there is quite a lot of rust in there - we got 1/2 a cup out of just out radiator, getting it rodded out. The guys who used the vinegar got rust coloured goo out! I've also used the same trick on some laser cut steel brackets that started to rust, and straight white vinegar cleaned them up in about 12 hours. With all the thin aluminium parts in the BMW, I'd be more careful. I wouldn't think the vinegar was any worse than a radiator flush though (lots of which don't work anyway!).

Shhh... could still happen!

Dunno about techs down there, but make sure the rattle isn't the DISA valve too - they are dangerous to your engine if it falls apart. It's screwed into the intake plenum, directly above the throttle body. Listen for rattle there, or carefully take it out and see if the flap is coming loose and rattling. It it comes apart, there is a metal pin that can lunch the engine. It takes a while to get that bad, but very worth checking! You can new ones, or you can get aftermarket uprated ones.

I dunno anything speficificfic about E46 Compacts, but on an E39, you could potentially have an incorrectly coded module turning the brakes on dim as tail lights, or a bad earth feeding current back through circuits and tricking the LCM into thinking things aren't working the way it should. If the tail lights are blown, lots of BMW's will light up the brakes at half brighness to compensate. Same with front, the indicators glow at half.

Arse! I'd have talked the Mrs into that, I'm sure..... probably not fast enough though!

You can remove the fan, and drop it down inside the shroud, VERY carefully, and the shroud can stay on. It's a little fiddly, but slightly easier than removing the shroud. When refitting the thermostat, I like to use a very little bit of neutral cure sealant and the rubber gasket, tighten it up, the leave it to set overnight, before filling and bleeding the system. If you aren't confident to do it yourself, it's probably not expensive to have done - perhaps it could be done when you get the oil leak sorted??? or was that on the 520i???

If it ever drops down, or isn'tsolid at 12 after about 5 minutes, there is something wrong with the thermostat - Like I say - for it to read 11 oclock, it would only be running at about 60-70 degrees - it will richen the mixture at that point. It's a common E39 thing. Scanning won't show anything, unless the thermostat electronics are poked (which is common too). Check the OBC - you can't screw anything dramatic up - especially if you follow the instructions. I'd be looking to replace the thermstat based on what you've said. They crap out one way or another pretty often anyway!

I have that too, but also the weird text at the top of the page, and in the attachments section. On home laptop Win 7 and XP at work is the same. The smilies appear to be working less than normal too.

Yup - then the kink off to the left is where she reversed up, So I could get out.... You know, with all these videos popping up, BMW drivers look like Wankers

I like how he tries turning more..... it was already to late dude. I have no sympathy for him. If you're crossing the centreline on corners, you're doing it wrong. I actually have a dash cam for people who cross the centre line. SO many poor drivers can't stay in their own lane, or on their own side of the road. I've had one nearly head-on accident from someone on the wrong side - fortunately I stopped before she hit me. This photo is why I'll never use LUMLEY Insurance - apparently this was 50/50 liability: I'd hate to think what would have happened if I drove like she did! Now I have the camera, so I have video evidence when I file the police report

You may find the thermostat is poked and it's not warming up correctly (the dash gauge won't reflect this is most situations - it shows normal from about 70-75C, upto 115C at least). Our 525i manual gets 10.4 in our normal around town commute stuff (Kindy, library etc) and I can get 7.0 on a run (though usually more like 8L/100kms with the family and all the gear. You can check the coolant temp (KTMP) on the secret OBC menu. An M54 powered E39 should be running in the 90's most of the time, generally mid to high 90's, but as low as high 80's if being driven hard. You can Google how to do it, depends on whether you have high or low obc (text display or picture of a car under speedo)

Even if they DID have cheap stuff, I wouldn't buy it on principle. The stuff wasn't as cheap as I got it anyway, from a different chinese website, that I found on google. It's like they think we're idiots

You must owe you boy now! Think how much more the car is worth without that dodgy noise

No no, not SA, SE. The NZ New SE's are German assembled, so don't have the rust issues that the SA ones sometimes have. The SA ones have nothing on a 325i SE when it comes to options!

No, but the V12's take a bit more (almost 2x 6 cylinder engines in there, joined at the hip ) But you must admit...... It's hard not to lavish $$$ and attention onto a car as impressive as an 8 series!

Oh Yeah, If you buy one up here, I could put you in contact with out IT department - they had several hundred PC's to "recycle", last I heard they were running out of places to stack them.

If you want a REALLY well specced E30 - those SE's are the ones to get. I don't know Ray, but we did have a little discussion on his original for sale thread for it (though I can't find it now). It's the same as my fathers one, same colour and everything. They are really loaded with little things that you don't don't get on an average E30. Reading light rear view mirror, lined boot lid, rear headrests, headlight range adjustment (that won't work though), illuminated manual gear knob, "sport" steering wheel (still bus size), full OBC, "premium" sound, electric sunroof and all 4 windows, Touring/SE side skirts, ski flap, painted boot spoiler, proper full length twin exhaust with big outlets, shadowline, colour coded bumpers/mirrors/lower grille inserts/sills, oil cooler, and a probably a shiltoad I can't remember. Proper German made too Did you say one of those other cars had ONE shock replaced??? That's a half-assed repair right there! Also, leaking power steering fluid - could be the rack - common on E30's You can get them rebuilt, which isn't cheap, but the mod they do means they last a long time. Dads was done at about 95,000 kms, and is still fine now, at about 225 kms. Look for a good one - they aren't much more expensive to buy than an average one.