BreakMyWindow

There is no substitute for good old fashioned elbow grease imo. I bought some Sonax wheel cleaner from autogeek to try (the stuff that turns red once it reacts with the brake dust) and it's not too bad, but expensive and hard to get.

Yeah, thats common with nz-new spec'd ones. Less weight though.. ;-)

12k is a very good price for the 01 540i.

Kind words. thanks.

Before : After :

Spent about 4 hours on Saturday attending to this. I found a good cleaner by the name of "oomph" available at bunnings for $8. Doesn't smell like diesel or solvents, and does a good job of getting rid of built up oil and dirt. Dressed the plastics with crc 808 silicone spray. Engine bay looking much tidier now. Job done!

Not sure if the diff's out of the i6 cars can handle the jandle of M62tu torque, but worth a try!

Chop off the rear muffler, and weld some piping in place? :-) Works well, and passes wof's too - did it to my 540i about 4 years ago. If you remove the rear resonator (v shaped thingy), the exhaust note becomes rattly/tinny - Also hurts performance for the M62 in stock tune (Tried and tested in the USA) But with a remap, that i suspect Julian will be doing, the gains should be impressive.

Hope the wife and kids don't mind an obnoxious sounding v8! :-D

I had my 528i engine bay steam cleaned and it was impressive. Would rather put the elbow grease in myself, make an afternoon of it. In my previous experience though, most off the shelf degreasers stink the interior out of diesel, or what ever solvent in in the product, and with my new found sense of smell from not smoking, the 1 hour commutes to work and back home would suck.

Does the meguiars engine cleaner stink out the interior? And your engine bay is already sparkling! haha

That's going to be an expensive service to get the cooling system leaks fixed.

The M5's engine bay is a bit grotty from the leaking valve covers, and other general dirt from over the years. What's a good degreaser available in NZ that doesn't stink of diesel? And what do you guys use to 'dress the engine bay' ? Making the black plastics look nice and new again?

If u remove the full cabin filter covers from the corners of the engine bay, you will have better access to the heater hoses. Sounds like one of those has a leak. There are 3 or 4 from memory behind there. Valley pan is also a common place. Pain to get to as well. Good luck.

WIll do Jooles. Michael - did u get recordings of Ray's and my cars doing the proper dyno runs? The ones uploaded were before the ABS and DSC were disconnected.

That seems a reasonable price for the panels, are they OEM? Good point about repainting!! New v-belts, and fuel filter installed. The old fuel filter was manufactured in 04/99. Fuel pouring out from the inlet side was disgusting! The A/C belt was certainly on it's last leg.

Some more pics of a rare opportunity to drive a clean black car in Auckland. There are a few cosmetic blemishes that I will be sorting over the coming summer months : - rear diffuser (broken tabs) - Install missing gearbox under tray. - Replace both lower corner bumper trims - replace corroded shadowline window trim pieces - repair and repaint front bumper

Looks really nice with the splitters. You could always get the rear diffuser wrapped in cf, or get an after market one - That would balance it nicely i reckon. If you get it intergrated in to the front bumper, you'll need to install self raising front suspension though, you'd just hate to bump it on a parking barrier!!

Thanks Jooles. P.S Any Aucklanders looking for something to do this Thrusday evening, My band is playing at the Ding Dong Lounge (lol) on Wyndham Street @ 10pm. There will be a DJ also.

Very cool videos Jooles!

E34 540is in hellrot heading southbound on sh1 last fri arvo. Elderly asian man driving it. Missing emblems on the staggered style 5's otherwise looked very tidy.

Filmed at the RNZAF in Whenuapai one very early morning. Enjoy.

Remix of Charles Ramsey interview (Made the 911 call for when Amanda Berry and Co escaped from the evil rapist man in the USA). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oq1A25LF04&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hard to say, some people would probably just top the oil up when the check message appears, some check every 2 - 3 weeks. I check every 2 - 3 weeks. I'm doing about 550kms a week in mine at the moment and have had to top up 4 litres so far in the 7000 kms since owning it. Full throttle until redline, and lots of engine braking seems to make it drink, but there is no fun in nanna driving an M5 :-) Are you checking the oil the proper 'BMW recommends' way? Engine at normal operating temperature on a flat and level surface. idle for about 1 minute, shut off engine, wait about 1 minute, check oil level.

imho the older style ACS rims suit the e34 better.