camera doctor

If it is the occupancy sensor in the passenger seat, you can buy a bypass plug on Ebay if you do not want to go to the expense of new sensor matt. As long as you do not have kiddies in the front, will be OK. Just means passenger airbag will go off in accident. You may still need the Airbag light reset at dealer or auto sparkies.

Part Five Small Upgrade - changed all interior bulbs from incandescent to LED, much cleaner whiter light than the yellow factory bulbs ! LED bulbs avaiable on Trademe, or for a lot cheaper on Deal Extreme or Ebay

Wow ! 23 000 kms

Been a Bit slack keeping up this thread sorry ... Part Four ....... I added a rear power plug ( cig lighter plug ) Useful for camping trips, to plug in the cooler etc. Genuine part, purchased from www.ebay.co.uk Used drill and handsaw to cut hole in side panel, made a cardboard template first, and made sure there was enough backspace before cutting !! Fitted an inline fuse holder and wired power direct to the nut on the battery terminal, and earth to earthblock on rear arch. All done !!! I also use this for power source for Jochens Navcoder -- more on this later Tidy unit I thought, the cover is spring loaded just lift it up to plug in accessories.

+1 on the wide body I read the posts saying how people did not like it, then looked at the thread, thought car looked great in first couple of posts, nice ICE upgrades etc. But then ........ argh .. widebody does not look good to my eyes Must be cause I'm Forty in less than a month :D

Easy enough to add a reverse camera - did my 530i Touring a couple of weekends ago - great for parallel parking

The EK is a 'Garage Project' !! Totally complete, but 1/2 way through rust removal. Unfortunatley it seems to be well down the list of projects at the moment, but I'll get there .....

Yea, the 530i is no slouch, but definatley down on power from the 540i in a seat of the pants test Still, as I said earlier, I think my 530i corners better, so overall it creates more smiles BTW - That black one seems a bit steep in price?? Sold my 540i today with 112k's for $8000 cash I would definatley hold out for a facelift one if I was you.

540i vs 530i At the moment I own one of each The pull of the V8 is addictive - but the 530 seems to be 'tighter' and more controllable. Maybe it is just my 530i is newer ( even though it has higher k's ) but it definatley is more 'chuckable' So you get the the corners faster in the 540i , but feel more confident to corner faster in the 530i ! Personally, I'd go for a facelift with the factory HID headlights, as the car looks more modern and the headlights work 1726175217 % better on dip than the pre-facelift !! Facelift will also give you niceities like 16:9 screen, Tiptronic that goes the right way etc etc 16:9 screen is much better if you are considering updating to NZ GPS Navigation - see my thread re doing this to my 530i Either way, I am sure you will be more than happy with a E39 over any Aussie Tank

Wow, what a safe car !! read the speeds the crash happened at - all unhurt - that is except the car Crashed M5

Nice looking car, the one you linked from Trademe The swirl flaps sound like the same thing that Ford Durotec engines have ( Focus, Mondeo ) On the Fords they get noisey, then fail, fall onto the conbustion chamber and you can guess the results! Although I wonder with the high milage that BMW has done, they may have already been removed?? Maybe I am biased, but I still think the Tourings are the best looking varient BMW make

1 - Price depends on exchange rates as Nav Computer is ex overseas, also would depend on how competant you are with the wiring, that is, are you doing it yourself or not ? I suggest you PM Grant ( Hotwire ) on this forum, as he is the best source of knowledge and Nav Computers / necessary extras. 2 - Yes, mine was world tuner and was able to be programmed to receive NZ stations, including RDS Copied from another thread : 1. Switch on radio 2. Within 10 seconds, press and hold down the 'mode' button until the serial number appears (takes around 10secs) to enter the radio's service menu. 3. Use the + or - buttons to cycle through the menu settings until you see AREA JAPAN or just JAPAN (varies a bit depending on radio) 4. Use the 1...6 buttons to select either OCEANIA (or OCE) or EUROPE - both are valid settings for New Zealand - see below for differences. 5. Switch radio off to store the change Voila! Your radio has now bee reprogrammed to receive NZ FM frequencies! Also, the cool RDS features will now be available. Differences between OCEANIA and EUROPE modes on an E46 Business RDS radio (other radios may vary slightly): a) EUROPE has LW, MW and FM. OCEANIA has AM and FM only. b ) OCEANIA shows ST for a FM stereo station; EUROPE doesn't show anything for stereo or mono FM stations. c) EUROPE has the softkeys set to RDS and TP; OCEANIA has RDS and PTY Which ever one you choose - OCEANIA or EUROPE - is up to you, they both work.

If it is the same as my E39's it depends on what position you have the siding switch to adjust the mirror at. One position the auto-tilt works, on the other position it does not. Try it out, you will soon work out which position is which.

Part Three...... Ok, so all wired up, battery reconnected, Disc inserted, all working !! Modes include: Fullscreen Map 3D Split Screen, Map and street names and directions : Notice bottom of screen shows distance to destination and ETA Split Screen Showing Latitude / Longitude : Fullscreen of Street Name Etc : Split Screen with OBC and Nav together : So far I have found this to be a great system - I already had a standard portable GPS unit, but I found it did not give you the street names until you were almost upon it, whereas the BMW system gives you the name as soon as you turn off the previous direction change, plus it works in parking buildings etc, where a portable unit does not, as it looses the GPS signal. The voice directions automatically turn down the stereo, which is also a great feature - the next step is to install the Bluetooth ULF phone system, which will allow voice control of some Nav commands too!

Part Two ..... Ok, some wiring modification needed to convert Jap to Rest of World! These are the plugs from the back of the Jap Nav unit : I will not go into specifics of the wiring - if you want to do this mod, please contact Grant ( Hotwire ) on this forum, as he and Jochen were the ones who figured all this out, he quite rightly reserves the rights to distribute But here is a pic of the mods in progress Also the Nav unit needs a signal from the reverse lights, so it can work out when you are going backwards, if you are out of sight of the GPS satellites. This is easy in a sedan, but in the Touring, the reverse lights are in the hatch door, but luckily the loom can be picked up at the drivers C pillar. White/Yellow or Blue/Yellow is what you need. Be careful - there are more then one wire of that colour, so I did a continuity check to the blulb holder to be sure With the Touring, the Jap GPS aerial comes to a box next to the Video Module, under the floor behind the seats, so Grant supplied an extension lead. This plugged into the lead once disconnected from the box under the floor ( this box no longer needed ) and I ran it to the New MKIV unit.

Ok, as promised, I am starting the thread of whats been going on in my E39 530i Touring over the last couple of Weekends - I'll post this in sections as I have the time! Happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability to those looking at doing similar OK, Here is the 'Before' Photos of the Jap Nav : First Job as always DISCONNECT BATTERY ! Starting at the lefthand side panel in the wagon area, we find the Jap Nav Drive : Luckily the previous owner ( in Japan ) had left the removal tools in the glovebox - but you can bend wire to suit or use four small screwdrivers : Japanese Nav Unit, Ready for iits new home -- the rubbish bin :lol: To be continued ..........

If you are looking for cheap option, wht don't you take your factory ones out and run a bead of silicon along the top to stop the leaks, or perhaps BMW sell just the foam seal separately ?

About time !! I've been saying for a few years now that it is pointless for cars to have CD players with all the cheap digital format music and devises.

Wife has a new project, a 550 litre tropical fishtank! It is bascially a marine ply box with glasss panels, and the inside has been fiberglasssed. It is currently a lovely 70's aqua blue, but we want it black. Talked to paint shops, fiberglass guy, fish forums etc, and consensus is to use Gelocoat, but knowbody can say 100% if it would be toxic to the fish ! Surely there is a special gelcoat for potable water for fixing watertanks ? Any experience on here ? Thanks

As listed on Trademe Trademe If interested please bid on Trademe I think this camera is PAL, so if you want to wire to your VM, you would need to code the module, or use on the AV channel.

:D :D :D Got a Mate with a W124 300TE ............. now there's an idea !! Reminds me of the 1980's when there were U-Bix sponsored Euro Tourers in the Touring Car Races, I think they were Volvos??

For Tints, see thias thread Bimmersport Thread

Wow, that is a nice E39 I love the stainless interior trim - like the M5 I have just done the MKIV Nav upgrade on my 530i Touring with help from Grant - I am working on an install thread. But, after your work on the E46, the E39 Nav will be a doddle !!

I have just done mine last weekend - I am working on a thread, keep an eye out!

My brother-in-law and myself are both self employed - GST registered and have some concern over the GST rate change on 1st Oct. Nowhere on the IRD website that we can find is any mention of adjustments for stock on hand Think of a business ( most small businesses ) that run GST on Payments basis - all stock on had at 30th September has been bought and paid for at 12.5% GST Therefore 12.5% GST has been claimed on GST return. BUT -- Item is sold after 1st Octoberer, and GST of 15% is added - to the retail price - therefore on next GST return GST of 15% of the Retail price will be due, effectively meaning the business has had to pay the difference between the claimed 12.5% and 15% on the cost price........ Please show me where I am wrong, or where the adjustment for this is to be made - and lets remember, some stock may sit on shelves for months / years before it is sold, so the only FAIR way is for us all to do stocktakes on the 30th September, and be able to claim the difference on the complete stock ?? Smalll $$$ to my business, but think or a large retail shop or BMW NZ for example, this could run into 100's of thousands of dollars. My Brain hurts