aja540i

Do it!

Finished putting the M5 back together!! New thermostat, radiator hoses, radiator drain bungs, new coolant, 1 new intake boot and clamp, new sway bar bushes and end links, headlights polished and clear coated, freshly painted front bumper fitted. Also took the opportunity to vacuum 14 years worth of dead bugs out of the oil cooler and radiator!! Quick test drive tonight shows oil gets up to temp a lot faster so thermostat was past its best.

I think the only logical thing to do is take mine down a quarter mile and see if they are all shagged at this age or if that one is particularly sad!!

I will be quite happy watching a 440i go past from the driver's seat of my M5, but I suspect that if the example in that video was in as new condition the gap would be a lot smaller, try it again when the 440i has 100k on the odometer!

No, just 32amp single phase plugs for welders, ev charger, kiln for casting aluminium, powdercoating oven, hoist ( one day...) etc.

32 amp plug on the house wall there, we can both stay dry while I do all the work!!

Yes, same one.

put the finishing touches on my 2 car carport today, it has taken about 3 years to get to this point but I finally have some protection for the cars and me when I need to work on them!!

It won't need to be that much, there will still be far more old school cars coming in than EVs, if its 8 to one then its only a grand extra on each one for example.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3113010241?bof=2UuwBZ49 Should do nicely!!

I have a Dension unit in my M5, bought direct from their website, they have a few options, controlling through the idrive is a little bit clunky but otherwise it works well and is totally reversible.

When I did the towbar on the M5 I went to the parts guys at Continental ( Jerry Clayton BMW then) and asked them, they printed the instructions out for me!

Ace windscreens .

Just drained the fluid, removed the pan, swapped the filter, refitted the pan with new gasket and bolts, refilled using an electric oil pump. Front of car on axle stands and rear on a trolley jack so I could get it level and used an infra red thermometer to make sure temp was correct when refilling. I have a large measuring jug to drain the old fluid into so I can see how much to put back in, but still fill to the level of the hole. I know it doesn't get all the old fuid out which is why I did it twice with a few kms between changes.

Still having some wierd boost surging issues so unplugged the MAF and drove around the block, goes better with it disconnected but still doing bizarre things, ordered new Bosch MAF from eBay so will cross that off the list and move to the next thing, will probably do MAP sensor as well because why not!

No, solid discs and quite rusty now.

Have taken a hub off and measured, id of small bearing is 19mm so probably not what you need.

Found a set of front struts / hubs, will have to take them off to measure the bearings, I have got some rear arms with brake plates on them, quite rusty but spare if you need them. Will try to measure tonight.

It does support the front edge of the guard liners so you might find that they are rubbing on the tyres without the tray there to hold them, it will take quite a while to wear right through the inner guard though!

Would be perfect if you could retrofit a bluetooth module into it....

I had a similarly priced Uniden unit that worked well but would overheat on long trips on sunny days and shut itself off! Also be aware you will need a large capacity high speed micro SD card (probably) which can double the price!!

So buy a nice one for 35k and keep 15k in the bank for a rainy day, sorted!!

New thermostat, 4 New radiator hoses, New O rings and crush washers, 2 New radiator drain bungs, ready for new coolant! Tested the old thermostat and it seemed to work fine, but the rubber seal fell to bits as soon as it dried out so seems a good time to replace it!

In 1991 a 5 litre V8 HSV only managed 180kw, so not too shabby for the day!