E30 325i Rag-Top

Yup, that is the actual car, parked up outside Ma & Pa's house. In the UK at the moment, but hopefully coming out with them soon when they emigrate. What gave it away? The fact they are all touching one another, and there isn't any garden in sight? I kind of forget how crammed in the houses are now, it was just the norm over there.

A couple of pictures of the E46 wagon that I finally managed to find for my old folks, a late 2004 330d M-Sport 6-spd manual with grey leather. Not perfect, but it is in pretty good overall condition, nothing a little bit of TLC can't fix (I hope). And I managed to get it for under 10k

I saw the S14 bits and got all excited... ...until I realised you meant Nissan S14 not the proper one

With the genuine CSL wheels (three times the price, second hand and won't fit the rears of a wagon) there is a lot of concave "dish" on the wider rears, fronts are not the same. These are pretty close to the fronts, but not exact and should still look pretty smart. My concern was how they would look on a wagon, rather than a coupe or sedan, will soon know, wheels have arrived, just waiting on photos.

Decided to go for it and order the wheels, if they don't look right I can always sell em on, the standard MV2s in 18" on the car aren't that bad.I know what you are saying about the 19's on NZ roads, which is mainly why I decided that the 18's were the best size, 17s look too small on an E46, and I will just have to suck it up when it comes to tyre time. At least I can rotate the tyres around as the wheels aren't staggered fitment. I will post up some pictures when they are on.

I have been looking for a decent E46 wagon for my olds for quite a while, but then I am very fussy and very tight, so not easily pleased. There are certainly very few of the higher spec models around, with reasonable kms and at realistic prices. They are not the biggest wagon in the world and the rear leg-room is not overly spacious, but neither is a real issue at present for them. On the up-side they do drive very well, are pretty comfortable in the front seats and have an acceptable level of equipment.

So it WAS you ya' bugger! I was so wanting to win that competition and you beat me to it, git. Shame the got your name wrong in the magazine or are we to call you "the Don" now??

I am thinking of getting a set of these: In 18" to put on my old man's E46 M-sport Wagon. Having never seen these on an E46 wagon in the flesh, I was just wondering what others reckon, look good or no? Only down side is you can't fit staggered rears on the wagon , apparently.

Fixed

Why are you only selling the removable tongue & ball? It's not much use without the other bit. Technically the weight ratings would only apply when the two parts are together, if used seperately they are not certified. Unlikely to be picked up on it, but you never know...

Have a good one you mad Deli you! Don't eat and drink too much though - you still need to lose that 200kgs

This may be a very silly question, but how does it attach to the car? Don't you need another big hunk of steel that bolts up under the bumper and to the boot floor somehow? Also, what is weight rating on this?

A very interesting way to start a race, I have no idea how they decided the grid positions in that one - this car went past the Porsche and E30(?) before they had even moved out of their box! That and the two people wandering about on the track as they start - you can just see the second one leap over the barriers as this guy comes howling down the inside of the track - classic LOL!

+1Overall I prefer it to the previous incarnation, but it has looked even better previously. With these latest changes: Removal of piping from the front +ve, even lower +ve, rims -ve, roof chop ----ve IMHO. Photography and effort / work done - unbeatable.

Not Brooke's new project is it? He's been very quiet recently...

Glad you are all fixed up mate! Would have been funny watching Andrew push start you for each session though. ..

Good on you for giving it a crack Glenn, I'll see you on the other side!

Have a good Birthday Marty, hope you get it fixed soon!

Correct it's not a kangaroo, but it is in fact a deer not a fox.Wrong colour and too big to be a fox, and the wrong shape I narrowly missed a deer on the M3 in the Uk once and saw it take out the car behind in my mirror - made one hell of a mess of the car. Not as big a mess as the roo I saw that hit the Hiace van in Victoria though, I would not like to hit one of those things, I drove along at about 50km/h after seeing that!

For most vehicles the break-even figure for diesel to be better value is around 30-40,000kms a year with all the bits and pieces, RUC, etc. However, i think that includes the depreciation which would be a lot less on the diesel wagon you are looking at, putting a few more Kms on that won't depreciate as much as a petrol with fewer Kms. That figure does start to drop dramatically if you lug a lot of gear around with you or tow quite frequently - this is where deisel really wins. Article on swirl flaps and blanking them off.. swirl_flaps.pdf

From that list I have got: 1 x Brutal Money Waster 1 x Beautiful Mechanical Wonder

M20B25 Oil cooler set up? Radiator, hoses, sandwich plate,etc? $$?

Get in touch with Gavin at Euro-Italian for the ball joint, I got one off him last week for the other side, was just over $30+ gst. You can bash, sorry press, the old one out and the new one in rather than replacing the whole control arm.

I have done quite a lot of looking into the E46 diesels as I'm after a 330d, a couple of things have come up 1) Turbo reliability - the oil really needs to be changed before the service intervals to give better life from the turbo. You can tell if there is an issue quite easily - down on power and noticeable smoke. 2) Swirl flaps - a little gadget in the inlet manifold to reduce emissions at idle, it's basically a flap like the old fashioned carburettor throat. It's mostly made of plastic, but has 2 metal screws holding it together. They can break and come apart, where they get sucked into the engine. the plastic bits just get chewed up and spat out, however, the metal screws cause a lot of damage taking out pistons & heads then turbos and cats on the way through. No official recall or acknowledgement of the issue, but there was a new design of flap introduced on very late E46, you can also fit blanking plates and take out the flaps, makes no difference to driving the vehicle. 3) EGR valve - as with most diesel this tends to get filled with oily soot and needs to be taken apart and cleaned regularly. Not a biggy, can just make the engine smoke a bit and run a bit rough when it gets too bad. If you do a lot of kms then a modern diesel is highly recommended. Not sure about that particular car as it has quite high kms, would look for a full service history and then some if it were me.

*Cough*, this is bimmersport, whatever the question, the answer is a turboed e30 On PCs though, you are spot on.