nath

Find me a nice m325 or a base spec black plates coupe that I can keep original. Maybe I need to let the B3 go

Beautiful car, perfect combo of paint, amber indicators, mtech trim and thick wheels. A great, 1990s sports look

I need to get an E30 to do things like this! Now wheres that one with the Alpina 2.7...

The images perhaps suggest that it has encountered the business in Oz who were licensed importers of Alpina gear- but aside from the stripes, the single exhaust suggests nothing extra under the hood.

Kerbed the crap out of a rear wheel on the B3 today, very disappointed with myself!

File photo

Excellent, I'd love to see it

I need to stop using my nla Alpina mats; does anyone have some nice E36 fitment mats that I could buy? Sedan, but probably same as coupe for front. Perhaps other generation 3 series mats may fit too. I'm in Auckland.

My c250 did this a few years ago on the motorway once or twice and felt like we had been hit from behind it was so hefty. Nothing came up on the scanner at Auckland Mercedes so they replaced the crank sensor anyway and it fixed the issue. Replaced under their warranty, followed by a major component of the radar system replaced under their warranty a year later by them. A couple of pretty bad experiences with them if anyone asks!

That was cheap, I would have bought it if I had seen it earlier. To the questions on trademe: Sytner did 4-digit numbers on their plaques. The stuff about other options missing is the usual garbage question from someone who's only seen the specced up models on 'dream cars' calendars. I'll admit that the plaque doesn't look original though? Different border to my e36 B3 and ex e30 Sytner C2 which both had the same machine-bevelled 45deg edge.

More ChatGPT descriptions generated: it uses 'timeless' in everything it produces. At least this one leaves out 'elegance'.

This reflects my experience. I just really don't drive my car like I stole it, or push out the revs. Perhaps the next owner may want to but I prefer the intrinsic aspects of the car, and replacing/fixing things which need it. She basically runs from her storage to my house and back once a week or fortnight with a coffee in between. I did take her to Coromandel a couple months back which was a painful drive in the end- should have taken the 'cruiser.

My '98 B3 with B3/M3 420g transmission has a really bitey clutch engagement which you have to be good with, every-single-time you pull away lest the car stall or chirp. I see that M3 Evo's had a delay/lock 'valve' which seems to be just a flow restrictor. From most of what I read, this would provide a more smooth engagement for my Sunday morning café trips. Whole setup is new (probably 1000km) including dual mass flywheel. My question is, could a valve help, or is it just because I have aftermarket clutch and flywheel installed? Both are some version of OEM spec, as lazy/heavy as I could find. Thanks Nath

I feel ya, although it's been a few years now but still feels raw: Me: What range are they hoping for? Agent: What do you think its worth? Me: I dunno, you tell me. A: Why don't you make an offer? M: Ok i'll offer xyz. A: That will be great. Months later after auction passes in, see it listed a few hundred k over what the agent 'implied' was the range. Agent acts surprised when in reality they knew the expectation and wanted to either shame the vendor to drop the price, or justify their marketing fee by getting 10 offers and 500 feet in the door. Usually after $500-1000 of DD

Looking great, I have a red e36 on the shore too, may see you on the road one sunny Sunday

Yeah- I'm not being overly pedantic but sort of expected that things would be more smooth. I do have a new flex disc and CSB+housing, but didn't fit them as the existing ones were in top condition. I have certainly had bad csb in the past on e30 and on a urS4 and the thumpa thumpa is very obvious!

I see that I didn't make a post about the end result. 1998 B3 3.2 switch-tronic saloon manual 6 speed conversion. The 4 saloons which were built in RHD were all switch-tronic so I thought why not. Except for the steering wheel, everything is oem spec 3.2 manual. Sam at Hellbm completed the conversion for me, with my supplied parts including various new bushes, bearings etc: -M3 evo 420g, C.V driveshaft etc -New e36 m3 clutch, dual mass flywheel etc -New Alpina shift knob Sam completed the work smoothly and quickly which was awesome. In my tarting up of the driveshaft paint I had painted over the white alignment dots, and there was a bit of a thumpa thumpa at 90kmh which I attributed to this. Dots found, realigned and still thumpa. I took it apart again and lubed the splines up, checked preload on CSB etc. reassembled and vibration mostly gone. Maybe anything remaining is the rear wheel balance?? Clutch engagement was near the floor. Clutch pedal disassembled and found to have flogged out bushes/material which I rebushed and for the small amount of slack which was removed, the clutch engagement improved drastically. Darned plastic pedal... Alpina used the US spec Siemens MS41.1 which is half OBD2 and half OBD. INPA etc over usb identified EWS, KMB and ABS but would only access EWS for me to change from auto to manual. So I just removed the trans fault bulb from the cluster. No issues anyway with idle or rev hang, as evidently the Alpina DME don't have auto or manual allocation. I'm sort of curious whether the KMB fuels differently when pulling away from standstill between auto and manual, because I do have to focus a bit more than I recall on manual BMWs I have owned in the past. I still have the switchtronic steering wheel and will likely keep it out of sheer laziness, unless I can source an Alpina stitched airbag and have a sport wheel restitched to match... End result I'm really happy with.

Managed to find a clutch set plus DMF for 3.2 evo at a great price, and have the rest of the gear sorted- can't wait!

I understand that solid flywheel is not the way to go got my 6cyl manual conversion, does anybody have a dual mass for sale in Akl/ NZ new or I suppose low km used? It is for a 3.2L motor. cheers Nath

I wouldn't count on the stereo blank being original, even the most basic 316i manuals had the Bavaria C in NZ. ...Blacked out grilles and possibly retrofitted tacho. 15-20 years ownership was common for the 316 for some reason vs. 325 etc. love it either way

Thanks guys, the 'box is from an E36 M3 Evo, so assume a kit from that will work but I shall wait for it to arrive in NZ first. Cheers Nath

As above, in fitting the factory spec 420g to my e36 B3 3.2 I will need a new flywheel and clutch. The motor is based on neither the m52 nor the s50, but loosely shares the block of the s52 US. Does that make fitment unique, or does one meaty clutch/flywheel fit all? Which should I buy? cheers

Seems that its only the forward portion is different length auto vs manual, so with appropriate balancing and condition checks I could mate the evo front to Switchtronic auto rear?

Interesting.. wonder if that's what I should do behind the 420g

Hi guys I have all the gear from an E36 M3 Evo to convert my Switch-Tronic Alpina 3.2 to factory spec manual. The trouble is, the M3 diff has a 6 bolt flange and a 3.15 open diff has a 4 bolt input. (Irony here is that a while ago I had the retrofitted 3.15 swapped for factory spec 3.46, which I will now have to change back). What is the best course of action for the install? I assume that all standard non-m diffs are 4 hole? cheers nath