E30 325i Rag-Top

Bloody great cars, vastly under-appreciated. But then I'm biased. The 325i is still more a cruiser than a sports convertible, but as it says big enough for 4 and even has a proper sized boot, with the top down as well! Only thing i would add to that article is to check all the "convertible only" areas of the car - rear-seats, rear windows, hood horseshoe cover, etc. as these parts are a lot more scarce than the parts that are common across all E30 and hence harder to find and more expensive.

Now if you had sprayed it in there as well, that would be cool!

A quick check of the full info from the end of 2018 shows what looks like 14 of the NZ New cars still registered (including rego on hold) and what looks to be about 8 imports under various different descriptions of 318iS / 318i S / 318i5, etc that fit the criteria of an E30 model. Still a very rare and under-rated car.

Not sure on that one, never seen the S916A code before and it's not live in any of the systems now. Your Z3 would have been a bit earlier in time, so possibly was another way of distinguishing what was to go into the car as a special build, as well as the pre-series control.

balancerider is spot on there, in amongst the option codes at the end of the build list there are flags for the factory to make special builds, the 991 code is one of those. The term "pre-series control" means it is a test vehicle that is being built for the purpose of testing and homologating a new function, or combination of functions on the vehicle. This will be used by the engineers in Munich for a period of time, which may not even involve driving it, to carry out the required tests to make sure everything is working as it should before the function can be made available to order on standard production cars. After the tests are completed the cars are offered to various markets, like NZ, for sale and if not sold are recycled (there is a cool video of this process on the Tube). And yes, these cars do often get built with funky options, like 330d wagons that have full Professional Navigation but no auto lights or wipers. Nothing wrong with them, still good cars, just different to NZ specs. Quite a few of these vehicles have ended up in NZ over the years as we are one of only a few RHD markets, and we have very loose import controls compared to most of the others. For Press cars there is a seperate option code which is 902, there are also codes for Show cars, that is cars which are to be presented at motor shows or other exhibitions around the world, and various others. There are many rumours about the 902 Press cars having different engine tunes to give more power and better drive, etc so the journalists give better reviews! No idea if this is true or not.

Has it got M3 front steering knuckles and hubs or the shocks and springs?

Is the crankshaft 360 degrees out? The crank goes past the timing mark twice in one revolution of the camshaft, so the marks line up twice in one engine cycle. Did you have to move the crank and or camshaft much from where it was when you took the old belt off to get the marks to line up again, or was it all pretty much all in the same place? Unlikely it is the case, but it is possible.

I thought just about everything in NZ was a franchise, maybe not always locally owned but quite often they are? Downside though would be the franchise fees would be going to the Aussie mother company in a lot of cases - Bunnings, Harvey Norman, etc.

Porsche 911s are quite a bit more than a 3 Series when they are new though, so you would expect them to be worth more in later life especially given the scarcity factor of how many they made and or make. Although I do believe the last of the E30 M3s, the Sport Evolution, had a sale price equivalent to some 911s when it was launched in the UK but look at where they are now... if only. Love that pricing on the E30 325i Convertible, I will have to increase the value on my insurance policy by a big chunk now. Considering the buyer would have got a big discount as it had been owned by the Twat in the Hat, probably used to run some Paparazzi over as well so would have damage.

To be fair, they didn't really have much to get excited about, the ABs put in a fairly tame performance. And compared to any UK football crowd, ANY set of rugby fans in NZ are quiet and tame - it's called an atmosphere and getting into it. I got told to sit down and be quiet at one of the Lions games - by a guy that left before the end, go figure.

Yeah, too bloody lazy to put the gloves on, got a box in the garage for just such an eventuality - if only I'd thought of it sooner. Probably should have put one of the face masks, that are next to the gloves, on as well but I seem to have become a full blown naturalized Kiwi and H&S = she'll be right mate!

Nothing interesting to report from my recent late night garage stints, I'm now very bored with wet sanding primed FRP panels and scraping underseal out of the wheel arches. Likely to bust out the angle grinder and welder to relieve the boredom in the next day or two. Humourous story though, managed to slice the end of my finger open on a spiky spot weld whilst scraping the underseal, once I stopped it bleeding I then put some cure-rust on a couple spots in the arch - which really f#$king stings in a cut finger (ask me how I know this..) and then proceeded to double down on this with methylated spirits when cleaning it off. Remind me again how old cars are "fun" and "enjoyable", I seem to be missing that bit..

Loving the self tapping screw and bent split pin holding whatever it is in place. Always a great sign that a craftsman has been at work.

Rivet-counter of the week goes to...

Pretty sure there were no winners in most of the thread, so have tidied it up a bit. Please keep it civil.

Time to take it on the track...

Spent most of the week-end moving wheels and tyres between various BMWs, taking my race wheels and semi-slicks off the 'vert while it's parked up over winter and putting the Alpina reps with the knackered tyres back on it - two of which were on the race car, swapped some bigger wheels on the wife's 116d to see what they look like and if they rub, had to take the front wheel off the wagon to change over the brake wear sensor. Sneaky new design (different from the E30 to the E46 - so not really "new"), means you HAVE to replace the sensor or the light on the dash doesn't go out, grr. No more putting the slightly worn old one back in. And scraped some more underseal off the race car, so it'll be nice and light.. lol.

Removal, or modification, of any emissions equipment on a vehicle SHOULD result in a WoF fail under current rules. Unfortunately there are so many poor and/or easily influenced inspectors these things don’t get picked up. Hopefully all the current reviews by the NZTA will improve the implementation of the rules, with tighter controls to come in future.

I've still got the wiring kit for the touring in the garage cupboard somehwere, never fitted, never been out of the box.

Don't panic, you've got an early (pre-facelift) E30 with the M20 that has the L-jetronic engine management system on it as opposed to the later Motronic that is fitted to the later cars and has the ICV. So yes, it is "stock" for an early car, no it's not an ICV delete, yes you can swap everything over to the later system if you want - but there is quite a bit to move across which could get expensive. Mechanically the long-block of both versions of the M20 is the same. There is no reason why the system you have shouldn't work - there is a cold idle adjustment system under the throttle body (often referred to as the "wanky thing") which can cause problems if it gets old. Try googling the L-Jetronic idle for how to adjust properly. In terms of timing belt - it's the same for all M20s, and the tensioner. It's an easier job on the L-Jet as you don't have to remove the dizzy and have more hoses across the front covers.

Nope, price is fixed, it was an error in the setting up of the configurator, now fixed. As as I said earlier in the thread M340i is not available for NZ at launch, will be coming once it’s available.

The web-site and configurator are hugely important on the buying process now, so it is very important to have this information correct. As you can see from the feedback above, it can reflect negatively on the product. Rivet counters of the world unite.

Thanks, getting it corrected.

Are you definately on the NZ web-site for the configurator (check it's not re-routed you through to .com.au) as both the Auto Tailgate and the Heated Seats are standard for both the 320d and 330d models for NZ?

Can you please post photos of everything listed as per forum rules. Thanks Admin.