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Yeah I meant $20 to fit, not $20 a tyre!! Ended up just replacing all 4 tyres as I saw a steal on trademe, and the two legal ones were under 3mm tread so no biggie.. Current tyres came with the car 3 years ago so they did well to be honest. Person I bought the tyres off had the original purchase receipt and never got them fitted to his car. Managed to get the garage he bought them off to fit and balance the tyres for free. Went back to VTNZ on Saturday day and passed with flying colours this time! And my first 1 year WOF

Just an update if you wanted to know, thanks for all your comments btw: Took my car into Jeff Gray BMW on Wednesday morning as they'd agreed to investigate the problem as it was potentially to do with the headlamp I purchased from them.. Turns out it was fitted upside down, so they fixed that and gave the lights a little alignment too, free of charge.. good on em!! Decided to buy some new tyres for the ones that needed replacing. Does anyone know of a cheap place in Wellington that fits tyres?? Cheapest I've found is $20 in Petone which might be my best bet.

Yeah, I'd heard that before I went there but was in a rush on the weekend and they were just down the road with drive through... Plan is to get two new tyres, stick em on the front and rotate my decent ones to the back - no issue with this. I just checked through my car stuff and I got a new headlamp for that side of the car in May this year, purchased and fitted at Jeff Gray BMW.. Guess I'll be giving them a call on Monday, hopefully they can as an act of good faith review and fix/replace for free. And Jason, I only dim my headlights when I'm driving down my street so I don't disturb the neighbours.. had no reason to raise them when i went to get my wof as it was midday. Realise it's unsafe to have them that low, but yeah thanks. Appreciate the feedback.

Hey guys, Took my car in for a WOF yesterday at VTNZ (why'd I choose them...) and my E46 failed on a few things... They said that the Front Left tyre is worn, and Rear Right has 2mm tread and wearing edges (caution). Took it into a tyre shop afterwards and they said that my front tyres are fine but my rear ones are down to 3mm. Definitely not a wofable issue (with the new laws, so not sure why they pulled me up on this) but worth getting the Rears replaced. Both headlamps need to be aligned. I normally get my wofs done at BMW and they were fine 6 months ago... Do you think they just didn't know to use the dial in my car to move them up? because they were facing down when I took my car in. My right headlamp is out of focus ~ what does this even mean?? Google hasn't helped me at all. All in all not too happy with the WOF - they indicated the wrong tyre needed replacing, and I do think my headlamps are to do with my alignment dial.. I will be getting two new tyres this weekend ~ putting existing front wheels on the rear, and new ones on the front. What do you think I should do? Thanks

Update: Took apart the right side of my boot any all the cables looked fine and the connectors. Found online, a good way to test is the BST has blown is you should be able to push the cable into the BST end, so I tried this and it didn't budge (well maybe just a bit) Gave it a re-check with inpa and tried clearing the code, success!! My BST must be a little loose or something so I'm good for now Thanks for your input EuroSurgeon

Hey, The lock cover broke off when I took my car in to a mates of a mates for a service (don't get me started), and I'm wanting to glue the two pieces back together ~ the catch and the cover. I know how to take the cover and lock mechanism out, but I need to know what sort of glue to buy. Is it abs, pvs, upvs, pp? Any ideas what it's made out of? I've got some upvc solvent at home.. Thanks in advance!

Thanks again. My OBD diagnostic cable arrived yesterday and I've managed to install INPA on a spare work laptop running Windows7, and it looks like it's installed and working all good. Tested it with my car and the cable today and managed to pull the same code (had a help from another forum member to pull the old code) so looks like I've got the green light to fix the problem this weekend. Let's hope this weather holds out!!

Kicker is, it wasn't me who put the chains on but the staff of RAL. I've been working the last few weeks to get them to cover the damages. Which they have finally just took a while and a lot of back and forth. Punctured my tyre too, having to drive down the mountain on a flat spare was a bit of a laugh haha. Thanks Andy I've given them a call and mentioned your name. Going to drive out to see them early next week. Getting Craig at Final Touch to check it out tomorrow too. Thanks guys.

Hi, Recently I had a bit of damage done to the rear right side of my E46 by some faulty snowchains that came off as I was driving up the mountain the other weekend. It's all superficial but I want it fixed up. I've had one quote so far of about $1300 to fix up the lot (4 hours labour and the rest "paint"), pricing is for: RR door Right sill Petrol flap RR guard Rear bumper Just wondering if anyone knew anyone based in Wellington who was good and reasonably priced/could do me a good deal? Thanks in advance!

Yeah, that's what I originally thought when I first had the aribag light come on and read the code - I did a brief check at the time and then tightened it all back up, and it seemed to do the trick. Through searching the net it looks as if the BST has activated then the car wouldn't start at all, am I right? I've got a fair idea with what I'm working with, so will investigate further this weekend. Plus found a decent youtube video explaining the ins and outs. Is there any way to damage the BST? When I was removing my sub over the weekend (it's power connects through the positive battery terminal) I accidentally dropped my spanner on the positive terminal and the centre metal bit (it screws down to hold my battery in place) and the spanner started sparking, and then went red hot within seconds until I flicked it off ~ not my finest moment lol. Thanks again.

Hey guys, really appreciate the replies. So you think it's a problem with the occupancy sensor in the passenger seat? I thought I would of been given a clearer code fault to come to that conclusion? Is there a way to figure out if this is the case? Reading up I get this statement though "When they break the sensor will either give a short circuit (no resistance) or an open circuit (infinite resistance)." whereas my reading says "too large" although maybe as you said it could do with a proper scan. I still have the original fabric seats that came with the car (I replaced them with leather ones) - could I replace the sensor and see if this fixes it?

Hey guys, I've checked the forums for any existing post concerning my problem but couldn't see anything at all, so sorry if this is covered anywhere and feel free to link me to it! My airbag light came on again a few weeks ago and I'm due for a wof by the end of the month. I was driving to castlepoint with some mates and I swear I just went down the curb/drive of the liquor land in Masterton and the airbag light came on. With an INPA scan I got the following code today and I can't clear it: This is not the first time I've had my airbag light come on. The first time I had it when I changed over my steering wheel, but putting the old steering wheel back on and a reset cleared the code. I got the light again 1 year later and this time I got the same code as in the picture above (along with some other codes - faulty rear left sensor) but I had the part replaced and a reset at BMW fixed it. Now I have it again 6 months later except this time it won't clear. I've googled the code but it seems to be the most vague code of the lot!! Apart from that the car works fine, no problems with starting etc. just need this light removed for WOF Have my own INPA cable on it's way and already have the adaptor for OBDII 16 to 20. Any help would be most appreciated. Regards, Based in Wellys.

Hi, Was just wondering if anyone had an OBDII usb version (not BT) that I could borrow to grab the error codes out of my E46 323i '00. I was just placing an order on ebay for one, but delivery is 2-4 weeks away, so was hoping someone could help in the meantime.. I've got both the Torque app and BMWhat app on my android phone - but supposedly my ECU is too old to grab the codes properly via bluetooth. Alternatively if you know any places that would read my error codes for free/cheap please let me know JKSouthern is charging $50 and Jeff Gray @ $80 with mates rates. Have spent too much on my car recently and trying to do this cheap... Thanks!

Thanks for that Brent, When I suss out what's wrong with my car, will definitely be in touch. Do you sell individual sway bar links or do you recommend replacing them both at the same time?

Thanks for the replies guys. I've been told that the sway bar link should just go back on no probs (the reason it's out of sync on the picture is just the height of the ride at the time). I was told nut couldn't be removed (he had the tools to do so) in case it snapped due to the force on the potentially weak nut/bolt - then ride would be screwed. Also, the handbrake and abs light came on before he actually started work on the handbrake itself ~ either through driving it or it just came on.. So any reason this might be? What I plan to do: Get the guy in to attach/fix the anti sway bar link. For the parking and abs light found this: "With the car and light on and handbrake lever down pull the wire from the switch. If the light goes off you have a bad switch". If it's the switch, get a new one. If not, book it into BMW and see if I can't get the codes cleared and the abs sensors looked at if that doesn't help ~ got a mate who works for Jeff Gray BMW.