E30 325i Rag-Top

That had a large donation to the scholarship car, thousands of dollars of prizes given out at the Prize Giving, plus parts support discount, spot prizes of lifestyle gear throughout the season, trophies donated, to mention a few... And wait until the 30th August...

Interesting, so how do you know this software is the same as that supplied with Aus and NZ new vehicles?

Have you checked the fuses? Might be one of those - couple of the cluster circuits run off different fuses. Try eBay for the speedo gears. I've not seen them on TradeMe, or local in NZ

From the photo it looks like you got one of the many wet days, shame you didn't get to enjoy them in the dry.

Hmm, that could get interesting! It's not just ANY Japanese emission code, only the ones which are equivalent (or better) then the Euro IV - I wonder if the importer realises this from his reply? Plus it will be the emissions of the Alpina modded car, not the base BMW E60 that you will need to prove, and that could be a mission in itself. It's quite funny how many people bring cars in that can't be complied, and don't realise it. Some of them can get quite shitty about it too...

Not sure if it is still the case but a few years back it used to be that any new (i.e. unregistered) cars that were damaged beyond repair were scrapped and crushed by an approved scrappy. This was to prevent the possibility of the chassis number being re-used on a stolen or written off vehicle.

The "Aplina" is a dealer, so really it's false advertising, and he knows it's not a genuine one. Not good. Joe Public selling their car and not really knowing the difference, ok I can accept that, but a dealer? If they are happy to do that on a car advert, what else are they happy to lie about to sell a car to some un-suspecting punter...?

Yeah, pulling all that lot out would have been one hell of a mission.

Yeah, I know what you mean, certainly not something you would want to risk. Injectors sticking on an engine that's been sat for a while, particularly without any fuel in the rail, is pretty common. The injector is held in the shut position, so it is sitting in place for a long time. The guy that sold me the engine did a full clean and adjustment on the injectors just before he shipped me the motor, and I think that added to the problem, they would have been squeaky clean when they went back in, and never had any fuel run through them. Seem to be all good now and squirting nicely! Fired up first time once I put the rail back on and cranked her over, sh!t its loud with just the headers on, even at idle.

Maybe that's where I'm going wrong.. not drinking enough beers during this project? Before I whipped the fuel rail off I tried to give them a tickle up with the hammer, but with all the extra pipes and stuff on an S14 there's not enough room to swing a mouse in there let alone a hammer! The old M20 was a lot easier and simpler from that point of view. Easy enough to give them a squirt of WD40 and a wiggle when you've got the fuel rail off (which is no major), I did notice one of the vacuum hoses under the rail was well past it's best so I will have to replace that while I'm there as well. Brent, when I took the starter out it was the smaller type I have on the M20, not the big ass M10 type one. Not sure if that is the same as the E34 one you mentioned, but I did find out the ring-gear is different from an M20 to an S14 when I tried to fit that one in there :banghead:

^^ Do It!!

E30 Face-lifted M325i - pretty place to start! Nice car. I recognize the plate from somewhere I'm sure, but not with those wheels - did you buy the plate for the car? Looks like you have most bases covered in your garage as well.

It's probably someone trying to break into your house, they just needed you to disconnect your alarm...

The dizzy runs off the end of the exhaust camshaft- so pretty sure that would be set right. I was thinking more sticking injectors, they were cleaned before going back in, so after sitting for a while and dry possibly stuck. Whipped the injector rail off, put some cloth under the injectors and cranked it. Sure enough only one damp patch, three stuck injectors.

Jerry-rigged up another feed to the relay to triple-check I am in the right area, and everything powered up as expected and I got fuel and a spark. Cranking over with the temporary feed still hooked up got it going "pop-pop-pop" so it is trying to start. Sounds very much like it's only firing on one cylinder though??

There are 6 cars (3 of each flavour) from BMW Au in the country already, look out for them on the highways and byways between Taupo and Auckland this coming week!

Do reckon that will get a WoF ??

I only have to service the E46 wagon as the others are company cars. The E46 is due a service in about 1,000miles according to the service indicator, hasn't had one for getting on three years. 18,000 miles is what I think it went up to on the indicator after the last service. It does use a little bit of oil, so has needed a small top-up on the engine oil in that time, I think a lot of that is that it is now only used on short trips. And totally agree with the above, to get anywhere near that you need the right oil (and there are only a few types that properly meet the full LL01 specification) and a good quality filter.

What people call a "mint" car varies from person to person, some would take into account the age of the car, others would expect it to mean completely spotless. Having seen Blair's car in the flesh, I know where on the scale his definition is. If a car has obvious faults, such as items not working, then to some it is not 'in mint condition', even though the body work may be un-marked.

Yes, it does have regenerative braking and a host of other energy recovery systems - not just braking. The maximum output of motor may be 125kW, but the rated output is 75kW, and that would only be a full noise - like the power of your petrol engine. In normal driving you would only be using a fraction of the power, hence the drain on the battery would be much less. And half speed does not necessarily mean half power, acceleration would be more the factor and when up to cruising speed the consumption would fall right off.

I was quite chuffed with my efforts, luckily I guessed right and found the relay issue straight away, didn't even have to phone Hotwire this time!!. Still trying to find where the problem is though, according to the wiring diagram there is a splice on the wire somewhere between the C101 connector and the relays, but I haven't managed to find it yet and I have unravelled a lot of that stick cloth covering stuff - ugh! Was your 205 a Peugeot, putting the Mi-16 motor in it? if so there's a few more wires on those than an E30 so I can see your problem. Not a swap I did myself, but a mate had a 205 with the Mi-16 in it, mental car, and then another guy had a 205 with the Turbo Technics kit - that was another world of silliness.

Very true Dan, the cars are getting bigger. The 2 Series Coupe is bigger than an E30, the 3 is now bigger than the early 5s, the X3 is now bigger than the first X5. But I think this is an industry wide thing, not just BMW, everything seems to be getting bigger, and then a new Micro, Mini, sub-compact segment is introduced at the bottom of the size chart. Maybe it's because people are growing taller and fatter and need bigger cars? Who knows, because apparently size doesn't matter.

I would say the scales are set up for corner weighting a car - so they are showing the balance of the car front to rear and left to right.The cross would then relate the the FL/RR against FR/LR balance, which is apparently important. Don't get too hung up on numbers, it's the pants dyno that tells the true story.

I have rushed a couple in the past and made a silly mistake which has cost a lot more time and effort to fix in the long run. Lesson learned, plus this is "my baby" and a special engine which I can't just throw away and start again. Tracked down the electrical issue to a break in the engine loom, not powering up those bloody bulkhead relays!! Pulling the loom apart now, fun!!

I have rushed a couple in the past and made a silly mistake which has cost a lot more time and effort to fix in the long run. Lesson learned, plus this is "my baby" and a special engine which I can't just throw away and start again. Tracked down the electrical issue to a break in the engine loom, not powering up those bloody bulkhead relays!! Pulling the loom apart now, fun!!