BreakMyWindow

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.

Ah didn’t see your update. I just checked my spares and have 2 switches missing the damn contacts. I had issues with these contacts in the old wagon, i managed to find a used set out of an msport e39 wreck at zebra. I wonder though if the same contacts are found in more commonly found bimmer switches? The alcantara seats look 👌

New tyres on and much better with basically no tramlining. Unfortunately the tyre shop scratched the rear wheels fitting the tyres so that’s getting sorted some time next week. They also torqued every wheel up gorilla FT. F’ing muppets 🤦‍♂️ Over sharp bumps the front wheels would squeak which was annoying, but not anymore after cleaning up the brake pad “ears” and their contact points on the calliper, and calliper retaining bracket. Then I applied some anti squeal paste to those areas. Another niggly but annoying thing ticked off the list.

Down to the wear markers but still got me a wof. One has had a puncture repair but does hold air well enough. After a monthly pressure check the repaired one would consistently be 2-3psi less than the other. Some scalloping on the inner edges. Suitable for skids/drifting Mid-late 2016 date code. $50 for the pair. Pick up in Auckland.

Some life left in them, not down to the wear markers yet, but some scalloping on the outer edges. Date codes are late 2015. Pick up in Auckland. $120 for the pair.

Yep, hmm ordered some more.

Couldn’t really call it done without replacing all the steering linkages. New tyres all round tomorrow too. Current tyres seemed to have worn in a way that makes the car feel a bit nervous over ruts and bad patches of road, probably due to stuffed shocks.

Gave it a Christmas clean and thrash.

Over the past couple of days the front suspension developed a bit of a knocking noise over bumps at low speed. Turns out the front arms on the bushing ends weren’t quite torqued enough. Whew. Had the pro’s at P&S autocentre correct this and do a wheel alignment. Suspension refresh is now wrapped up.

N54 swap.

Feels waaaay better over dips and bumps. Definitely “tighter”

And done! Didn’t do the steering linkages as they were ok but put a tear in one of the outer tierod balljoint boots 🤦‍♂️ Something to worry about next year. Hopefully get an alignment next week..

Not my project so don’t really want to spill...

Managed to conquer the rear axle today. Much like the lhs the shock and control arm balljoint were f’d. The lower swingarm balljoint was looser than the lhs one. Made a start on the front too. So far the lhs shock and control arm are f’d. The thrust arm balljoint and bush (x5 item swapped out 3 years ago) are fine, along with the drag link and tie rod ends still feel ok so may leave those and replace when actually needed. In the last pic I forgot to fit the strut mount bearing. Was a sign to finish up for the day. Hopefully wrapped up tomorrow.

The fun actually began today. Thought I could do the entire rear axle but only managed to sort out one rear corner before getting too tired and over it. After 21years and 197k kms the larger control arm balljoint and the shock was F’d. The rest was actually ok but since I only ever want to do this sort of job once, may as well do it all. Hopefully get the other rear corner sorted tomorrow then on to the front, which I think is alot easier in terms of access to nuts and bolts.

Bad aftermarket “tunes” as-well.

Nope.

Ah ok if shock/spring unit has play that’s a bit of a worry too. Yeah someone looking in behind wheel while it’s being wiggled should find the bastard easy enough.

Wheel bearing and or bad ball joint(s) me thinks.

Take wheel off and remove the calliper. Just 2 bolts holding it on. Spin the disc and have a listen for grinding noises from wheel bearing. Could be the dust shield behind the disc. They get crusty and get a bit of play when the speed nut doesn’t secure it to the carrier fully.

Not required so long as they’re aimed properly for wof. It’s just if you wanted to do it nice and properly then fit the auto leveling system.