Jacko

Yeah classic leak, was the tail light on mine... made everything go insane till dried out as properly messed with PDC and CAN coms. Ended up conformal coating the PDC board, its never leaked again after retorquing the light, but if it does it can swim as much as it wants.

Interior back together, skanky to swanky conversion complete inside. Rear wiper is trashed, the usual issue, $40 on aliexpress for a new one Now the real sh*t starts, looking forward to sorting the headlights out will look way better when polished up. Yup, and the all belts and tensioner... things been leaking for so long everythings just soaked in oil

Interior carpets cleaned, made some f**ken disgusting coffee.... the good news is its starting to smell less skanky. Waterblasted all the interior mats and they changed colour. Got the headliner professionally redone, dirt cheap if I pulled it out and reinstalled it - Jimmy (aucklandautoupholstery at gmail.com) out at Ardmore is the absolute boss. Drivers door speaker was blown, 0 ohms, so easy fix there. Starting to go back together at least on the inside. Have all the parts to start doing the real work, short of set of B4 Bilstein's. Sump gasket kit Trans service kit Rocker gasket kit Engine mounts Power steering line mounts Headlight level sensor Oilcooler gaskets New plugs All the filters as they are all nasty. Also ordered an ACS replica spoiler and some ACS1 decals... will get some fresh tyres for the ACS Type IVs, because eurotrash Should be a nice 130 when done. Still have no idea where coolant was pissing out from, decided the best way is to pull the whole front end off (bumpers all skewed anyway) and pull the cooling system apart and put it back together will make for better access to everything else anyway. The radiator and all the lines are new, so best guess is something just isn't together correctly or an O ring is missing or something dumb like that.

Not hugely accurate, tape measure and all, but the smallest diameter is ~400mm, it steps down a little towards the spokes. Will be 400+ further in.

OK condition, 1 of them is mint. 1 has kerb rash, couple have corrosion under clear coat. Genuine units made by BBS, rare staggered E87 fitment and pretty lightweight (11kg and 11.93kg) 7.5x18 ET49 - Hankook S1 Evos - WOFable (225/40) 8.5x18 ET52 - Near new Michelin PS5s (225/45) If it was me, Id get them cleaned up for a few hundy and switch the tyres around with the some new PS5s on the rear... $1300 ONO

Epic work, saving 130's is now the jam it seems... its a pity the prices even for decently sorted ones are still so low. On the cams - I remember reading years ago about the hydroformed ones, from memory they had a switch in production around the time of going to the "black tops" LCI engine, where the game was to make N52s cheaper to make, and the solid cams came in then with some crossover.

Anyone got any use for these, box of stuff I kept. Boston black leather, aluminium glacier-silver trim bits. Everythings in good condition, just dusty. All four door cards, instrument cluster, glove box assembly, centre console etc etc. Free Also have electric boston leather Msport front seats sitting around if anyone wants them (my hoarding pile needs some culling)

Few hours on the Silver Lemon this arvo, its smelling less disgusting and the left side of the interior is no longer sticky. Done about all I can with the seats, drivers seat just needs redying, everything else cleaning up OK. Lots of scrubbing, multiple rounds, then leather conditioner. Wondering if I have a go at the headlining myself, anyone done this before? There is an interior place up the road that did my other 130 and its mint, but it also cost coin... and I can see myself losing money on this thing quickly!

Parts all ordered to fix the leaks and do all the servicing, debating on what to do with the exhaust. Could put it on the other 130, it does sound good and looks kinda cool, but actually want a Laptorr for it as they sound properly legit. Could sell the exhaust and go back to a stock one. Could just leave it on there (will get autosol'd up so it looks shinier). Same thing with wheels, could bang these ones back on, or swap them for the ACS Type IVs, which would look pretty legit silver on silver. Could even grab an ACS replica spoiler and ACS1 decals and make it an "ACS1" (Not that they really existed), 2000's eurotrash tuner it up with the oddball lemon yellow and walnut interior. Anyone interested in buying the exhaust (or BMW Performance 313s (they're genuine staggered set, made by BBS)) Baring in mind the idea is to sell it, not going to make heaps on selling it, but also dont want to lose coin haha. Thoughts?

Found a valuation service with taste

AMI, premium barely changed.

130 now insured for 16500, took some work...

BMW Peformance intake installed where it should be. My helper dog of the last 12 years crossed over the rainbow bridge last night, so will go make it howl in his honour later.

Go drive a modern MG, things are atrocious. Its laughable they released them like this, and then people buy them!

Agreed, its all relative. The trick is to not buy faster cars, go get yaself a 2006 Toyota Ractis :D .. then the 130 feels like a supercar. Even the Skoda, it pulls harder mid range and feels faster after initially putting ya foot down.... until its properly rung out and you run out of revs and turbo runs out of puff, but if you jump in the 130 its noticeably actually faster as it keeps pulling up top (and has WAY more steering feel, sounds much better, grips harder etc).

TLDW; Keep the 130

For shits I asked ChatGPT to value it for insurances purposes. Wasnt too stupid to be fair as it did nuance between various things (including the NZ market, it looked at trademe and bimmersport!) and valued it at 31k insurable value, that's cost to actually find one similar, then all the parts on it (try find some Recaro SP-DCs, or at current exchange rate you wont get Birds B1 kit here for less than $7k).... I told it insurer isnt going to buy that For sales prices It figured 18k if found the right buyer, 12k to sell "quickly" on market to buyer who wanted a sorted manual, if it was just stock NZ new manual its 8ish in average condition at 300k. After some prompting, got to 16.5k insurable, which is about what I think it should be insured for. Did a surprisingly thorough job with little prompting, just images and k's.

Agreed, big difference between insurance and sales value though and that's where the issue is, car has more new parts on it than one with 100,000km. I don't want to sell it and wont be, I just want to be able to replace it if It gets stacked... and 12.5k just doesn't meet replacement (the only manual on tardme or faceballs at the moment is 13k). Maybe I should rethink it, list all of its parts and get them insured separately under contents cover... Carvaluations company responded with - Its the k's thats resulting in low valuation BMW Auckland - Cant value it with that many k's and mods. Will keep trying, hopefully someone lets me pay them more money

AMI has a slider value for each vehicle, 130s stop at 10k. Im paying 1129P/A with 500 excess. Clean history (+house, contents, business, business car etc with AMI) Maybe its worth looking at classic cover, it doesnt do many km anymore.

Thats who sent the above

emailed BMW Auckland, who sold it new will see if they can help.

$172 for insurance valuation, and its just not high enough to cover replacement, very frustrating. Im not planning on ditching it, but there is no way 12.5k would cover replacement. 12.5k would probably cover parts to bolt to another 130! Anyone got any ideas on a valuation service? I could keep going through the phone book and finding people who just look up values on tardme and the k's on it...

BMW Performance intake, no way this things makes more power than stock and a K&N filter It does however look and sounds cool. Primary difference is slightly large intake snorkel, the carbon bit, and airbox lid has a secondary intake facing backwards above the guard... which is probably where the cool noises come from. If it makes 5hp increase, taking the lid off makes 40hp

Day 2 of saving the Silver Lemon. Cleaning out the interior... I wore gloves. Found the source of the stench, combination of mouldy chips and pie crumbs combined with a leaking jellybean scented pod airfreshener thing in the centre console, lovely cocktail, eau de rotting bean. Subwoofer and wiring butchery removed, drivers door speaker still not working however, multimeter time.

Day 1 of operation "Save the Silver Lemon." Doesnt actually look toooo bad, has things growing on the top, all the fluids leaking out the bottom, but she has good bones! Wheel bolts were all seized, had to breaker bar them. Radiator is new, and someones put new bump stops on top of flogged out shocks. Started pulling the stupid sub box out, which turned into pulling all the interior out to chase the BS wiring. Will combine with pulling all the interior out, has a few hundred mouldy dick monalds chips under the seats and it smells like a hookers handbag.