BreakMyWindow

Defeated in honest combat.. 😂😅🤣

Oh lordy. Certified punisher ^^^

Can ya feel any play in the rear wheels ? Loose feeling in the rear is usually the lower rear swing arm balljoints. Good idea to replace these along with the upper arms/guide links in one hit.

At that price there’s got to be some hidden wallet smashers in the engine bay...

And by absolute credit to the owner do they mean an absolute liability? 😅

I wonder what cbs logic comes up with for oil changes on dedicated track cars. I.e Nordeschleife ring taxi cars 🤷‍♂️ 

E36 too

Cheers @hunter for filming the potato digging. No potatoes, just potato driving.

25 minutes ago, leichtbau said:

Doesn't the E39 M5 get nixxed for compliance by EU4 emissions?

I think you can apply for siv. I know of at least one that’s been brought in that way.

Those are some tasty wheels! Well done!

Make sure the drain under that DME box is clear, looks like condensation or moisture got the best of those plugs.

2 hours ago, aja540i said:

Can you do it in a pre OBD car?

As in via the round plug connector in the engine bay? If so yep.

One that meets your requirements...?

If you have inpa you can check the maf’s performance in terms of how many kg’s of air is registered by it being drawn in to the cylinders. I have no clue how much that is for a b20tu engine. If the maf is bad I would think you’d get some noticeable symptoms and not just slight fuel enrichment. The engine would run better with the MAF unplugged than it were plugged in if it’s bad as well.

afaik they are plug and play but do need programming to suit the particular car, I have the software to do that if needed.

The subframe itself isn’t the problem on e46. It’s the flawed design of the chassis the subframe bolts to. 
 

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

Personally ive never seen a cable stretch on any car but seizing or binding happens sometimes. Sanding coarse or replace the brake shoes along with rotors usually fixes cars ive had it the cables are free.

What was the handbrake like before you did the rotors? Is it holding evenly on both sides on?

It would keep the car still on a decent hill if you yanked on the handle. Probably 8-10 clicks. After “re-bedding” in the shoes I can now get the same effect pulling the handle up 6 clicks. In hindsight I should have probably fitted new shoes but the existing looked fine, just covered in rusty brake dust. 

26 minutes ago, Kiwi_BMW said:

There is adjustment on the cables up by the handbrake lever, did you loosen them off BEFORE adjusting the shoes?

If not go back and loosen them off then adjust the handbrake shoes and finally adjust the cables.

Yes, followed the official bmw adjustment procedure. I managed to get a bit of an improvement by driving for about 400m with the handbrake on at about 40km/h.

New rear brake discs and pads today. Tried to adjust the handbrake by making 3 clicks on the lever fully lock the wheels but made no improvement over before. Bloody mission of a job fighting the friction of the lsd with wheels off the ground, so had to keep fitting the wheels back on to test how much brake the shoes are applying. Conclusion drawn is that the cables are stretched and that’s something i’m not keen on getting into so a bit of man handle on the lever for the shoes to fully brake will have to do.

15 hours ago, andrewm said:

Im sure that one was up 8 years ago when I bought my 540I, it was a ripoff then too.

It was up on tm when I bought my 540i 13 years ago. 🤣

20 hours ago, Daniel said:

The astonishing amount of incompetent sellers on TradeMe. 
Appalled at the amount of morons, time-wasters, and straight LIARS.

Twice in the space of two days I've been in contact with people who claimed that their cars were in perfect working order. 
Upon receiving the latest invoices from their mechanics they each needed $1500+ spent.

Like, it literally says it. You told me it didn't need anything, then you gave me the paperwork to prove yourself wrong.
What is wrong with these people?

Yeah, nothing wrong with a 20 year old BMW... lol.... who is the seller trying to fool ?

Some common statements in car ads and what I think they translate to.

"gOeZ hArd 4 wAT it iZ" (Not only is it a basket case, it's a thrashed basket case)

"timing chain, no cambelt" (Engine is lucky to have had an oil change in the last 20,000kms)

"new tyres" (Yep new tyres from China... are they even made of rubber) ?

"cheap on gas" (runs it on 91 when it should be 95 minimum)

What’s your budget ? Well sorted ones go for 7k +. Projects typically float around 1500 - 5k depending on how much needs doing. 

It's unfortunate that the checkers are painted on as it may not suit everyone's taste, but aside from that it's an absolute weapon and I'd buy it in a heart beat if I won lotto.

Any recent work done to the cooling system, or any done at all ? By now i'd expect it to have at least the expansion tank, water pump, radiator and the odd hose replaced. If you do end up buying the car, and keeping it for a while, plan to renew all of it if there's no evidence of recent parts replacement.

The check message could be a faulty sensor, but I'm leaning more to the "get it checked out" likely conclusion you've drawn.

Ordered a new gen bmw hvac panel with button set. There was a label warning to not use the panel, just use the individual buttons...lol...

The old panel had broken plastic around the heating buttons, so even new ones wouldn’t stay in. All went pretty smoothly once I worked out how to snap in the circuit board without disturbing the fiddly little spring bushes. At the same time I vacuumed out all the dust around the air sampling fan.

Sold.

Sold.