elmarco

Holy scheiße!!! Last time I heard of a battery exploding was in a mate's mini back in 1990! Batteries are actually reasonably dangerous pieces of equipment - they are full of sulfuric acid, generate hydrogen gas and can provide huge currents if shorted. Oh and they hurt when dropped on a foot... Must have given her one hell of a fright!

Yeah - some muppet actually registered mine as "Sports Car" under body style.

From the "not my job" file no doubt. I have seen lines painted around roadkill before - looks equally as funny.

Wouldn't that tear your nightie.... Just curious - was the head gasket leaking and the cracked block a result (6 months later), or was the block cracked and giving you symptoms of a leaking head gasket at the first inspection??? There is a lesson in there somewhere - just hope (for the owners sake) that you can get a replacement block.

Ohhhh - that is good!

Sadly, it looks like it is US residents only. Be great if it was available to kiwis though! I guess it depends where the RHD versions are built - aren't some of them built in South Africa??

Oh bugger. I guess the sludge may also explain the laboured idle. The oil on the road sounds like $$$$ too - I take it the exhaust has oil in the pipe?

More reason to cross quickly!

I know they go damn well with a V6 of the Chevrolet variety in them....

502 crate motor - nice! Not too many people prepared to spend money on big block power at the moment. I like your thinking - if you are gonna do it, go the whole hog... There is no replacement for displacement! I have always loved the early Camaros and would gladly trade the 330 for a '68 RS 396 4 speed.....

Isn't the std E46 TV screen variant pretty much the same as that? You might find one on trademe or ebay from a wreck. Best to check with Hotwire or Jochen as to exactly what you need. Incidentally, that picture actually shows a Pioneer Sirius stereo. This is a satellite radio system only available in the US - certainly won't work in NZ. I don't know if it also receives terrestrial FM as well (which is what you need here) - sorry.

Yeah they still tow the same... Just make sure they do make use of the factory mounting points (normally in the chassis rail I think) and you can't go wrong. I have seen some that just bolt up under the spare wheel well and will end up folding the wheel well up and doing untold damage to the car.

Badass!! There is something special about a black 60's/70's muscle car. Even tastier when you know it is a big block . EDIT: How much work was it to get that CHMSL into the bootlid?

LED lamps draw a very small current (and therefore power consumption) compared to an equivalent bulb lamp. While checking indicator function is a legal requirement, more advanced vehicle body computers check either the resistance and/or the current draw of the lamp to tell if the bulb is working or not for other functions as well. The low current draw is what is causing your warning signals. This has been a big problem with truck and trailer systems especially (they were the first adopters of LED technology) and commonly people have had to fool the system to use LED lamps without the dashboard signalling problems. There are more advanced systems available now but they are only relatively recent developments. LED lamps are much more robust than bulb lamps (dependent on their design) and designed to be maintenance free for their entire life. If you have quality OEM spec parts, the LED current and quality of LED's is tightly controlled and you should never have a problem (as long as they remain sealed). Cheap chinese (normally but not exclusively) lamps commonly overdrive the LED's as they use poor quality components and getting the required light output is difficult. If this happens, eventually the LED's will burn out and you will need to replace the entire lamp, or a solder joint could crack etc. Luckily, even this is not all that likely (unless you drive with your brakes on the whole time), and they should last the length of your ownership. You will be able to see very easily if an LED is out (it will appear as a dark spot and may affect more than one). You are lucky that you can reprogram the body computer to recognise LED's (according to Jochen's note)!

+1

No - it was Mobil racegas and most definitely not aviation fuel. We were the only place in South Auckland that sold it (excluding Pukekohe). Touche!

I was quoted $156 + GST a while back for the wiring module (admittedly for an E46) - so not crazy pricing.

Also shows they are commercially astute - I can't imagine they do it for free, and they still have to live. Must be very tough to be an athlete at that level as so much time is spent training. If you've got it, why not flaunt it?

Not sure about Australia specifically, but you would expect to pay both import duties and GST on the value that their customs put on the car (regardless of what you paid here). However, if you have owner it for more than 12 months or 2 years (have heard both numbers in the past for different countries), you may get away with it as a personal property type import (as in not for commercial gain) - you would need to confirm this with Australian customs though (and keep all correspondence in writing!). Bear in mind that their auto industry is still relatively protected by import duties - so they are not as understanding about used imports as we are. Where this could also come unstuck is if the car doesn't meet the ADR's - and this could happen if it was a used import in the first place. They will want to go over it with a fine tooth comb to make sure it meets the regs (at your cost) before giving you a rego (I know of the authorities removing headlamps and sending them to a test lab for verification!). I believe the NZ new models are the same as the Australian homologated version, and they may accept the first registered in NZ as also meeting the ADR's. Japanese imports sometimes have a different spec (one obvious example is HID headlamps - the Japanese ones don't always have headlamp washers which are required by ADR) which could make life hard and or expensive. Best to check twice with the Australian authorities before you commit to this or you could end up with a car either crushed or on a boat back to NZ (with all the cost that entails) if it all turns sour....

It's not the timing chain knocking is it? I presume the V8 uses chains not belts or pushrods . My last VR6 was kind of rattly like that at idle - just the timing chain and nothing to worry about unless you tear the entire motor apart. I believe it is relatively common to be able to hear timing chains at idle once they get a few kms under the belt. Best get a second opinion though.

$489 + GST is a pretty good price - I was quoted $1500 for my E46 (at the stealership)! The E46 needs a wiring module to interface the computer with the extra electrical load, and I believe it also turns off the parking sensors when a trailer is connected. I would expect the X5 to require a similar setup.

Makes for some damn expensive motoring! By my calcs you would need 24 litres of racegas for 41 litres of 91 to get to around 96 octane (in a 65 litre tank assuming it is 106 octane). At the normal retail, this would be around $370 (+GST) give or take a bit for a tank full . You want to make sure those litres aren't spent in the Auckland traffic!! Everyone was complaining about $2.30 a litre - think yourself lucky you don't need to use 106 octane every day!!!

Hook, line, sinker and half the Pacific ocean by the look of it!

I have never ever felt the desire to play golf. Until now. Likewise for synchronised swimming, pole vault and gymnastics.

Now there's advice I can agree with! And drink to.