isnowi

Hi all, long time no post, I'm after a set of 45mm front struts for an e30, don't mind if they have shocks or not, and don't care if stub axles are unusaeable as i will be cutting them off anyway. Prefer local (wellington region) and must be cheap.. Let me know what you have. Cheers, Dan

Transmission has been serviced and now seems to be ok, hose form throttle body to air flow meter has been replaced and car no long er stumbles. Open to offers around $4500. Car has new wof as of yesterday. May be able to split stereo and sell the car even cheaper

Hi all, selling my (the missuss') Msport 318is automatic. I am asking $5000, but am realistic and open to (sensible) offers, car will come with reg until January, and a new WOF. It's a 94 with 140km on it in pretty good cosmetic condition, roof, rear 3/4, rear bumper and boot lid were resprayed around 18months ago, some bozo dropped a pallet load of fencing on it. It has: -genuine schnitzer type I's in 17x8 (these are the ones made by OZ with the squared off lip) good bridgestone rubber, rears replaced approx 6 months ago, have done maybe 2500 k's -genuine ac schnitzer spoiler -genuine ac schnitzer stickers badge -m3 mirrors and front lip, along with the obligatory m3 badge on the rub strips -k&n filter in stock box -jasma stainless rear box -all the usual msport fruit, sports suspension, sports seats etc -m coupe steering wheel, with original clock spring etc so no pesky airbag lights (is also a single stage airbag just like the one it replaced so no worries about it not going off properly) -black seat fabric, not the yucky (IMO) grey -it has suffered form the good old bmw glue failure on the door cards, the inserts have been recovered in faux suede (by me) the vinyl has been stretched back as best is possible (there is some damage to the passenger side vinyl) -the hood lining is still ok, no sagging. -has blaupunkt cd player, mb quart 3 way splits, powered by alpine amp, along with infinity 10" sub in custom FG enclosure -serviced regularily, had rear shock mounts, front bottom arms, tierods and balljoints done by BMW about 15km ago. The Bad. - Trans slips when cold, might be a simple fix, i don't know enough about them. - It stumbles at present when coming to a stop, i have cleaned the ICV but i suspect that there is a vacuum leak through the accordion hose to the Throttle body, i am trying to find a new one to sort out the stumbling. Note that the picture shows the fogs and bottom lip missing, these are now reinstalled after a bit of a cleanup. Tardeme linksticle

Hi all, looking at picking up a new/old interior for my 318is, everything except the headliner has sagged, can't be bothered trying/paying to fix the original fabric when it's all faded anyway, so i'm on the lookout for a complete leather interior, prefer the light grey but am open to other colours as well, would prefer sports seats, but again not dead set on them. I need full set of seats along with door cards, rear side trim , and armrest for the front too (might be pushing it i know, but worth a shot) Let me know what you have, Cheers, Dan

This is the charger that downing atlanta use for their e36 m42/m43 kit, seems to be well matched, they run low boost with nothing more than a FPR and bigger injectors, somewhere i found a AFR map from one of their cars, was suprisingly smooth.Cheers. Dan

Not too sure yet, was thinking of making a stainless jobbie in the shape of the infinity logo, but i'm kinda liking the minimalist look at the mo. It really depends on how careful her upstairs is with her shopping bags Cheers, Dan

In and running, no finetuning yet, has a bit of a resonance that will need looking at, hopefully a little bit of sound deadening in the box should sort it. Sounds nice in the lower frequencies, a little boomy up higher.

Nearly done... Cheers, Dan

Hmm, i may have been a little premature with my celebration, the thump came back worse than ever today when the car was hot. Lifted it and had a quick check to make sure that the nuts hadn't loosened, cranked a little bit on the the bottom one, but also noted that the swaybar mount looks pretty tired, i may look at those as a matter of course, and check that the swaybar itself is still straight. Fingers crossed that what i heard today was merely a nut not as tight as it needed to be. On the topic of sway bar mounts, does anyone have experience with poly ones in the e36? worthwhile or not compliant enough? I suspect they will be cheaper than OEM ones. cheers, dan

Well i replaced both swaybar links, and lo and behold, not only is the thump gone, but the steering is noticeable sharper, it doesn't shake like a warped disc rotor when slowing down, and just generally feels a million times better. The old links don't even look too bad, one has started to split, the other one looks in pretty decent nick still. I'm going to replace the sway bar mounts, as they are looking a little tired too, then i might have a look under the rear and replace anything worn there as well. Cheers, Dan

If its a seperate body/chassis you might be able to give it a body lift, would leave all your suspension in its original configuration, only things that would need attention would be steering linkage (i presume it is a steering box on this, in which case it'd be pretty simple to move the entire box, although that would alter the angles of the tie rods. The other hassle would be wiring. Cheers, Dan

First bit of glass, ran out of resin so only a half layer. I may look seriously at taking a mold of this one and making a few more up, they would be much the same as this one but the sub cutout would be a generic 10" one, (no holes drilled) i will see how the carpeting goes on this one before i make the call on whether the sub ring would be rounded like this one. Just gauging interest in them, obviously it's difficult to tell from these shots how well it'll turn out. I would probably look at pricing them between $300 -$400, depends on material cost really. Cheers, Dan.

Update on subbox progress. Have finished the back of the box confirmed approx 17L capacity with the sub mounted, and have wrapped the rest of the form in polar fleece ready to resin and glass it. pics: Cheers, Dan

I am 4000km into a new set of bridgestone my01's. Before i am chastised for not buying P zero's or sportmaxx's or any other UHP tyre i must point out that the car is an automatic 1.8 with a factory rating of 140hp, and is driven daily by 'non car chick' (my better half) For what we want the MY01's seem to be filling the bill well. They have a reasonably generous rim protector, are exceptionally quiet, and at less than $500 the set very good value. As for the comment re the value of family and friends lives, i do not for one second believe that in real world physics myself or my partner would be any better off on P zero's (or other similar UHP tyres), than what we have, in the instance of say a flat spin on some shingle on the road, because to be honest that is the only time an automatic 318, in good repair, is ever likely to loose traction without major provocation. I am quite happy to take criticism for that last comment, but i truly believe there comes a point when you are beginning to throw money away, for instance the Group A evo 5 i codrive has around $25000 worth of proflex suspension (replacement cost) and it handles phenomenally well, but i don't for one second feel less safe in my Ex lancer rally car with around $1000 worth of suspension, i just drive it to it's capabilities. For anyone in a similar situation looking at new tyres, i can honestly say that i have been pleasantly surprised with the my01's i though that they would be pretty noisy and generally behave like a cheaper tyre, however the opposite is true, they are very quiet, and for the driving that we do well and truly up to the task at hand. Cheers, Dan

Would you by chance be using an alpine head unit? if you can't get a clean sound no matter what you do in the way of signal/power cables then it is possible that the unit itself is damaged, i had one a few cars back that did the same thing, turned out that a track had been damaged in the power supply section of the unit, the added resistance made for a nasty whine that i couldn't get rid of no matter what i did. The solution was simple in the end....I bought an Audi. cheers, Dan

Rear of mold was made over the top of the existing boot panels, just used lots of masking tape and tinfoil in order to get it to release nicely. I may do another one as i am not too happy with some of the fibreglass work on this one, couple of thin spots etc. The steering wheel came from trademe of all places, i got an absolute bargain, $150 including airbag and slip ring, all i had to buy extra was a new bracket from BMW to enable the slipring to work properly. If you do track one done be a little careful to get one with the right airbag, there were 2 types, a single stage and a 2 stage system each is not compatible with the other. AFAIK m3's (e36) all have a single stage system, and the z3's have a single stage system up till 4/1999 then they had a 2 stage airbag. My wheel came from a 99 M coupe luckily it was an early 99 build. Cheers, Dan

Sounds like it could be more than the links on yours, the only way i could get any sort of noise out of mine whilst stationary was to really rock it back and forth heavily, and then it only just made the noise. Definitely seems to be heat related though.cheers, Dan

LOL, i was wondering how long till someone asked. I suppose i could take a mold of this one when it's finished and produce a very basic one for around $400 mark, most of the cost is the fibreglass. If i were to do it they would be raw fibreglass (no carpet, not paint ready) and the front baffle wouldn't be recessed like mine is, because not all 10" subs are created equal. Cheers, Dan

Progress report: Rear of box is now made out of FG, looks a little haggard, and has a few air bubbles to remove. Nothing that a mud load of resin won't fix. Also managed to get rid of hte thump in the front suspension, turned out to be warn and loose, and moved sway bar links. Cheers, Dan

:beer: :beer: all round to those that suggested sway bar links, passenger side was not as tight as it should be, and both mounting brackets had twisted on the bottom arm meaning that the ball joint on the other end was not working in it's intended range of motion. After spending so much time under there, it's obvious that the previous owner had the same issue, as all the bushes and ball joints are near on brand new. Bonus for me. Still needs new links and sway bar mounts though. At least i now know that it is nothing overly serious, and the missus can take comfort in that the wheel will not come flying off as she is driving it.. Cheers, Dan

I'm not so sure, the noise seems to be rapidly getting worse, the closest sort of noise i can equate it to was when the cap that retains the strut insert into the strut body (another car ) loosened allowing the insert to drift up and down inside the strut tube. Not having had the shock boots off of the beemer i don't even know if they are a removable insert or not. The other thing that it does sound like is a loose strup top bolt, (it's not, already checked) maybe i need to have a closer look to the strut top mounts, although they look pretty good from the top. I heaved on the sway bar link bushes and couldn't detect any movement, i also had a bit of a lean on the steering rack and tie rods, was able to feel a bit of play in the tie rods, although i am not sure how much is to be expected. Did notice that the rack seems to be held in by only 2 bolts and fairly flimsy brackets. Any insight? Cheers, Dan

DIN is a standardised plug, DIN is the german standards organisation, similarily you may see ISO used to describe car stereos size, ISO is the international standards organisation, quite often based on DIN standards.

Box is about 10% above spec size at 18 litres instead of the recommended 16, i can reduce it later with 'ballast' if i need to. Amp will be mounted upside down to the underside of the rear deck, Nicely hidden out of the way. The inserts were to match the blue/black leather in a Z3 coupe. Theres a pair on these forums at the mo. Was thinking about refinishing them, but not sure in what, besides it matches the blue diamonds on the upholstery fairly well. Carbon fibre would be cool, if a little flashy... cheers, Dan

I do still need some front components, have been looking toward either infinity perfect 5.1's (if Parallel imported ever stock them again) or more likely a set of infinity kappa 50.7 splits, or alpine type x 5 1/4's. What do you have to offer? Amplification wise they will be receiving 75wrms of alpine goodness, and will be required to keep up both volume and sq wise with a single infinity perfect 10.1 receiving 300wrms of alpine goodness. cheers, Dan

It is as you describe, it definitely gets worse as the temperature gets higher, on the drive from ChCh it was barely noticeable at first, by the time i was in Picton it had me concerned something was going to fall off. Then when i drove off the ferry it was gone again... Will look at the sway bar links, they look like a bit of a junky setup to me, may replace them and the swaybar mounts at the same time. Cheers, Dan.