rogan

Thanks for that. I had a google around but couldn't find anything. Even getting the middle up 1.5" is hard. I'll have another crack tomorrow

Bought a new door rubber cos the old ones a bit perished in places. To fit it I've gotta take the sill protector plastic thingy off. Tried a few things but it don't move easily and I don't want to break it. How do they come off?? Slide forward or backwards ??

How do you fit the headlamp washers to it; is it just a case of drilling some holes in the top??

The tops of the windows on our new 1998 e46 are creaking. Sounds like old floor boards. Stops whn I lower the windows out of the rubbers. Guessing the rubber's perished and I need new ones to quieten them down. Interesting it happens on all 4 windows, so is this a general fault; will replacing the rubber get rid of it or will I always have some creaking??

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-117220633.htm Wow. gotta be something dodgy doesn't there? Same car here (same rego) for $49,990 http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-117119481.htm ???????????????????????????????

Firstly, what is your personal perception of BMW? Overpriced quality new, but well worth it second hand. Good solid all round car which does everything reasonably well. Some parts are dirt cheap, some of them are ridiculous. Take the BMW badge on the front bonnet, what are they new $50+, I mean get real, that's advertising for BM so they should be out at minimal price so those who have a faded or stolen one can renew them without big cost. I got a free BM key ring for the dealers, so why is the badge so expensive. And then the key remote battery, it's $12 from BM parts, or $4.50 from Dick Smiths What makes the cars so good? Who said they were so good?? They don't have the reliability of some Jap brands (toyota etc), they don't have the handling and engaging ride of something like an Alfa Romeo. But all round they do all areas well. People rave about the e30, personally I thought it was a complete piece of junk, ffs the designer had a senior moment and forgot to line up the pedals, seat and steering wheel. What do you love about them? The comfort level. The e39 has a real nice solid feel but also smells of luxury. It just says it's gonna get you there comfortably and safely. Oh and did I mention it goes like stink when you hoof it? Secondly, how do you think BMW is regarded New Zealand wide and partcularly by non-BMW owners/drivers? Expensive to buy and maintain. How do you think people in NZ see BMW drivers? As a recent buyer (wife's had one for ages) - complete tossers who value image over value, that or rich. Very similar to new Rangerover drivers. (Damn I own an old Rangerover as well) Thirdly, what do you think of BMW advertising/marketing? Very image orientated, the last TV ads have been a bit flashy, don't tell you anything about the car, just badge promotion. Did it have an effect on your car choice? No, in fact it put me off, but then I'm not your target market. How do you think they could advertise/market themselves better? (1) Get real on the pricing -- true (2) Don't show any pics of the latest models, they're well ugly. The 6 series has grown on me but that's because the 1,3 and 5 scare children

Because yours was valued by a BMW dealer who has no concept of what the car is worth on the private market. Having bought a 1998 e39 540 for $16k (107kms NZnewfsh) and a 1998 e46 318 for $8600 (123kms NZnew fsh) in the last 3 weeks, an e36 Msport 328 ain't worth $15k, but you should be able to get $9 to $11 for it

Rightee, water pump out, looks fine, impeller all good and defo not the problem so back in it goes. Hooked the radiator up to the fresh water and gave it some blast and no problems with water flowing through it. So put it all back together with no thermostat and with no fan on the water pump. Bled the thermostat housing and the top of the radiator. Ran it up to 1/2 on the temp dial - centre of the radiator is still stone cold. So I figure radiator is the problem. Is there anyway these can be flushed out well. The radiator's only 2 years old and car is used as a daily commuter from the Nth Shore to the CBD

Radiator is an option, could be blocked but I figure it's easier to yank the water pump out and check that out first. Defo not the thermostat

20K, shi!t. My budget is about $8k and I reckon I'll have a hard to beat sq system. If you're spending that much cash on audio, go see Chris at Pauls Audio and have a good long chat about options. He knows his stuff. Personally I wouldn't recommend the E30 as a sq car, you sit far to far to the sides of the car and the dash isn't deep enough - this creates path length differences between drivers which are difficult to overcome even with the best time alignment and eq'ing. With the way the car is set up there's limited options of angling pods for on-axis sound, and the only way I can see of getting any decent staging and imaging into an E30 is to use horn loaded compression drivers under the dash and put the midbass drivers in the doors. I'm not convinced the under-dash shape of the E30 is suitable for horns (need a curved surface to extend the horn throat up lifting the sound stage to winscreen level). I'll be putting horns in my E39 - will be a very interesting experiment

Got an E30 318 M40 and there's a cooling problem. Cooked it about 2 years ago; got new radiator, new water pump, thermostat and heater core then a few months later had to replace some plastic hoses. It's started to do some funny thing with the temp gauge so had a feel of the radiator and it was hot at top and bottom but cold in the middle. I've pulled out the thermostat and put the housing back on, refilled it and then ran it. Same thing happened. radiator top and bottom hot, middle is cold. So I'm thinking waterpump. I'm fairly mechanical so shouldn't be a problem pulling it out, but how do I get the radiator fan off - looks like I just need a big spanner - anyone know what size and any other tips on replacing the waterpump?? Thanks

The E30 isn't the greatest car to do audio installs into. The factory front speaker mounts are rubbish. 5 3/8 is the biggest size speakers you can realistically fit unless you do some decent work on the mounting, and even then you can end up having the pack out the trim panel a little to get them to fit behind. I ran tweeters in the triangle by the wing mirrors, the sound is a bit in your face and directional. Next time I'd look at putting the tweeters in the A pillars or maybe in the front corner of the dash just to try and get them a bit further away. I run an old 10"Soundstream Exact off 300rms and it's got plenty of grunt, it's in a sealed 0.75ft3 enclosure pointing through the ski hatch. But your instal depends on your budget / what you're wanting to achieve (street bass / sound quality or somewhere in between), and how much you can do yourself with making sub boxes, mounting for the fronts etc etc

Why not just use the reversing lights feed instead of ignition position 1

From my limited knowledge of the E39 audio system, the stacker is an Alpine model but with a different plug (Alpine is usually Ainet). If you're in Auckland, ring Top of the Range in Albany (415 8148) speak to Brett. They're a Land/Rangerover specialist and are wrecking a few; might have something that can fit and they're usually pretty good on pricing. Other thing to check is that the h/u has CD shuttle control (I presume it does but best be certain before shelling out any coin)

No but same, here's a pic of the actual car, has the cassette above the MID And one of the car itself

Ok, have bought car, now time to do more planning. Anyone know how to pull the MID and casette out (looks like a 1 piece unit to me). Remember reading somewhere that I pull the volume knob off and undo somethere there and the whole thing pops out ?? (edit: found it again http://www.bimmerwerkz.com/forum/5-series-...oval-38014.html ) Just want to temporarily pull it out and have a look at the space available for a h/u

Anyone got any front door cards for a e39, must be black leather to match the pic below. Want to keep my originals intact but need to butcher a pair for the front speakers to fit Also looking for a switch for the electric seats

Bridgeable 4 channel amplifier 4CH: 40 watts per channel into 4 ohms. 20-20kHz at no more than 0.8% THD (rear/front) 4, 3, or 2 channel operation Bridgeable RMS power of 130 watts 2 ohm stable (2-8 ohm allowable) I'm guessing it's only 2ohm stable in stereo operation, so will only suit a 4ohm svc or 2+2ohmdvc sub when 2 channels are bridged. Rare that amps are 2ohm stable bridged (Boston Acoustics are but can't think of any others off the top of my head)

Yep, we could end up having a huge debate here about car audio, and end up going completely off topic. Yep, I would have said one of those two things 'they'say, and the other with certain conditions. Oh and the back seat in my car sounds great. Time to agree to disagree or maybe start another thread.

sq derived from rear speakers, that's a bit of a novelty. They're only rear fill so as long as they sound reasonable they won't have much effect on the overall sound quality. For a speaker to work properly, the rear airspace needs to be sealed from the front airspace. Without getting too complicated, the type and volume of the rear enclosure assists the suspension of the speaker cone.

I think the biggest questions is what's your budget and second what do you want out of it pure sound quality ---------------vs-------------- sq not so important good volume bass ----------------vs-------------- ear bleeding bass

If you're wanting something cheap, try ringing Surplustronics at the top of Queen St. There might be a home speaker (8ohm) that can be used in car.

I happen to be selling some DLS iridium 3 way components, wanting $800. Not sure how you'd install them tho. They'd need a great amp to run them so probably well out of budget. On budget, Infinity Kappa fronts and then a sub/amp in the boot. If you can get over the North Shore, there's Image Dynamics subs on sale at Car Stereo Specialists (note I'm the importer so I'm probably a bit biased). You can't really buy any better bang for buck than the iD range (iD12 is $279) and the idmax subs are very well priced (starting at $589) but you want around 1000rms to get the most out of them. A few of us car stereo geeks had a good play with them on the weekend and more than happy with the results. ID site: http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com/index.php

Put them on TM and sell them. Not exactly sure on the E46 model OE mounting but the only place you could fit the would be on the real parcel tray and they'd be ugly as sin. So sell them, save the install costs and put that cash into some drop in replacements if needed.

5.25" component fronts. The OE speaker mounts is absolute garbage so don't spend too much up here unless you want to DIY front speaker pods in the doors, but then go 6.5"components instead. Don't go super budget, but have a good listen especially to the tweeters cos those are what you'll hear the mosts. Choice of the woofer isn't so important due to the rubbish mount. Don't touch the rears. The sub and amp for boot, size and power depends on your quality / boom boom bias and your wallet.