BreakMyWindow

Bump stops cheap? haha well for the rears they are about $40 each!! (the msport II suspension has its own unique bump stops, along with rear shock mounts. Am doing the whole lot, (Springs, shocks, spring pads, pockets, bumpstops, strut mounts etc). Will look at getting a front strut brace.

The M-sport 540i's have slightly thicker sway bars (1mm thicker in the rear, and 0.5mm thicker in the front). I have ordered a set of Bilstein HD's, after doing some research, they seem to work well with stock m-sport springs. At the same time, i'll be installing the m-sport sway bars I picked up. Hoping for the excellent balance between ride and handling the m-sport 540's have. The sturt tower on the passenger side is slightly mushroomed, will be sorting that out as well.

Those cheap and nasty wheels spoil an otherwise beautiful car.

In the next few months i'm looking at getting some new shocks for my 540i and am wondering what the best set to go for is.. Currently it's running on what look to be H&R or Vogtland lowered springs (there is a slight rake where the front sits lower) The front shocks are either Koni of Bilstein, and the rears look to be standard non sport.. I have picked up some M-sport springs from an 01 540i, as I'm completely over being able to feel every bump/road imperfection through the steering wheel and seat, but am not going to install them until I choose some shocks. I'm wondering what shocks are best paired with these springs apart from the standard m-sport ones (they are too expensive) I'm leaning towards Bilstein HD's or the Bilstein Sports, but am not sure which will give me the more comfortable, yet somewhat sporty ride character. Any ideas? Cheers, Martin

B10 Bi-Turbo. Do want! http://exchange.goo-net.com/usedcars/BMW_A...5004/index.html

Am running falken fk452's on all corners. 225's on front, and 255's on back. Great tyres, but they get a wee bit noisy after the first 5,000kms.

Have done this in mine as well.

The top radiator hose in this example looks like it's ready to burst at the plastic connection to the water pump any day now. The plastic shouldn't be brown like that, well only if it's very old. Based on that pipe I'd say the rest of the cooling system should be looked in to immediately. Common issues on the 540i are well documented on the net. This one looks to have the m62tu which seem to be more prone to timing chain rail failure. The repair is not a cheap fix, expect little change from 4 - 5k if you take it to a professional to get done - They will probably find numerous other parts while they strip the entire front of the engine down that will need replacing. These motors also rattle on idle, and slightly above. It's normal, but expensive to repair if you're sick of the noise (new vanos gears) I've owned my 98' 540i (with the same engine) for nearly 4 years now. Bought it with 220k on the clock, now done just over 280k. This is what I've serviced so far : 1.) Reaction rod bushes (steering wheel judder at approx. 80km/h) 2.) Front brake discs and pads 3.) Centre link(drag link) 4.) valley pan gasket, along with valve cover gaskets, vanos solenoid gaskets, intake manifold gaskets. 5.) Both oil seperator valves 6.) Timing chain guide rails, deflection plate, new timing chain due to worn guide rails. 7.) Radiator, water pump, thermostat, Heater hoses. 8.) Windscreen washer jets, hoses and fittings (go brittle and leak over time) 9.) drive belt, and associated pulleys. Next service will be all shocks and springs, along with new spring pads, pockets, strut mounts. The example you're looking at seems to have standard suspension. Ones that have been lowered on stiff springs and shocks can 'mushroom' the strut towers - look it up on google and you'll see what i mean.

No wonder they're so cheap second hand...

Same here - Loving my Dice Silverline DUO kit.

Apparently there is a repair for the vanos knock, It seems quite promising, but also rather labour intensive. Lots of info on Bimmerforums.com about it.

We have 5 days to spend in Germany, And the plan so far is to visit the BMW museum, Porsche Museum, and of course the Nurburgring. My plans for the ring are just to go for a hot lap in BMW the ring taxi. If I can manage to score a few hot laps with a driver instructor that'd be awesome. I've always wanted to visit the Dingolfing factory, however I never knew they did tours!! I will be doing a bit of research on driving the bahn beforehand. RvT - Please feel free to pm me your learnings.

There are companies near the ring that will let u hire race cars.. a race ready e36 325, or even a 911 gt3 were some of the choices. The insurance related costs put me off though. I can enquire and see what they're stance is on taking a rental on the ring.. besides it is a one-way public toll road. Will let you know.

Yup using the BKR6EQUP got 8 of them for $68.32 USD + Shipping (ended up buying a few other bits and pieces as well) I got them from www.autohausaz.com

Hi All, I'm heading to Germany in September for 5 days. Starting off in munich, working my way up to the Nurburgring, and then back to Frankfurt. Whilst i'm not keen or silly enough to take a rental car on the ring, i'm looking at hiring something nice, ideally an M car or similar to enjoy the Autobahn highways. Has anyone hired a sports/luxury car in Germany before? if so share your experiences or recommendations. Cheers! P.S I promise to take and upload pics of the various museums I go to ;-)

When I had my timing chain guides and all the associated hoo-hah replaced in mine, i got the valve colours acid dipped to remove the remaining bits of paint on them. They will need some sanding to smooth out the rough surface. I never bothered. Any way I bought some self-priming hi temp silver paint, and it's lasted 2 years so far. Where any of your plugs loose? I've had the bosch ones come loose on two occasions in 20,000kms. I installed the factory spec'd NKG's and no looseness issues in over 10,000kms so far.

Used for approx 20,000kms, plenty of life in it yet. The maf is from a VW something a rather, and has been installed in to the original bmw housing. The VW MAF sensor works fine with the m62tu engine. $50

I have installed an alpine 250w rms amp running a 12" in to the boot of mine. I used a line level converter I got from Jay car for $20, and tapped in to the rear left shelf speaker. I now run a dice silverline duo, very happy with the results.

www.bmwfans.info

There are several grades of leather. The link to the online ETK to check the options list of your BMW has details about the different grades. Most NZ new e39's came with the lowest grade leather that i've seen.

There is a brand new bimmer parked outside nearly every week. This one is definately my favourite so far. Neighbour works for BMW. Sweet Perk!

1 of the 2 M5's currently in the country. I know what 228k will be spent on if I win lotto. Merry Xmas all!

That's $25 US + shipping.

This came as a bonus gift with my recently purcahsed Dice Silverline Duo Kit, however I have no need for it. It is brand-new and never been used, same as the one in this link : http://diceelectronics.com/remote-kit.html $40 pick up in Central AKL area.

Hi All, I have a nz new 99' 540i that came with the in-car phone, the manual says it's compatible with the old GSM 900mhz standard, I'm wondering if there is a way to make it compatable with the TCNZ XT network (UTMS 850,2100mhz) ? The reason being is that work pays for my phone calls, they have given me a second sim card to put in my car, so when someone calls my mobile while im driving, the call diverts to the sim card for my car phone. I think at this stage I will just need to purchase a VFNZ pre pay and chuck it in to the car phone, and setup call divert on my mobile to divert to the VFNZ mobile. Any one tried converting their in car phone to become UTMS capable?