JohnM575

19 hours ago, Michael. said:

 

Whos car is that?? Looks mint.

 

Those wheels too, look perfect for some reason, 17" over the 18 ones?

That's mine. It was Tom's (M3_Power) from brand new.

Those are the stock 18's. I have two sets of the stock 18's so I can run a square setup to fill out the front guards a little better, and have a full set of the 19's plus a set of the rears (thanks Brent), so I can run those square if I want too.

Keen to see this made into a coffee table!

Keen to see it in either of our M3's Christian!

I actually think it should be illegal to sell a car without a cert if the car requires one. Unless it's de-registered and therefore illegal to use on the road.

Amen.

why worry about a cert? would you be able to tell the difference by looking at the car if you didnt run it through realoem or vindecode? its clearly got around for a long time without so why worry about it now?

There's a few good reasons to worry about a cert...

1. Legality;
2. It voids your insurance policy in the case of an accident (I would imagine it would void it in the case of theft too?); and
3. If you do get caught, the potential costs and headaches to get it all certed.

Moral of the story;

If you don't want to pay $470 for one hours labour, ask first for a price.

I had got a quote for the Inspection II service prior to work commencing. This quote excluded the spring installation, so yes that was an error on my behalf for not inquiring about that prior.

I have since followed it up JC basically asking why it cost so much. Funnily enough the service part actually came in a few hundred dollars cheaper than their original Inspection II quote so that was pleasing.

Wow, they saw you coming.

Really? Doesn't make much sense mucking around getting the car to another place such as Mag & Turbo or the like just to install the springs IMO when the car was going to be at JC. First and last time I took a car to Mag & Turbo they started to take to the wheel well and arches on my old E36 with a hammer before I intervened in order to prevent the tyres fouling (standard MSport wheels on the car FYI). This consequently cracked the paint on the guard, which I followed up with the store manager and got a fully respray of the guard on them (thankfully).

Lesson? Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

A little late on reporting back, but the service is all done and dusted. Overall I was pretty happy with their service; here's a few things I noted:

I insisted the mechanic write down the valve clearances (which they did). For me I wanted to have a record of this with the service history. Thankfully they were all within spec so no adjustments were needed.

I also asked for them to check the differential bolts to see if they could swap them out for the updated bolts (commonly replaced part with the M3). They said the bolts were ex-Germany so couldn't swap them out at that time. There is no clunking currently, however I wanted to do it as a preventative measure. On the to-do list for next service.

However, I was left a little stumped when they charged me $470 to install a set of springs I supplied to them (Eibach Pro-Kit FYI). This does not include the cost for the wheel alignment following the installation ($100). This cost seemed a little over the top to me for a job that is said to take a couple of hours from internet M3 DIY'ers, having taken into account the approximate time required and a guesstimate of their labour charge out rate per hour.

Finally the windscreen washer pump had given up the ghost recently so that needed replacing. No dramas there.

Inspection II service cost excluding the spring installation and wheel alignment = $1,830 inc GST. About what I was expecting.

Hope this is of some assistance/interest to the fellow M3 owners out there.

Certainly not many manuals that have been on Trademe in recent times in good condition. Good luck with your search! If you want to ask anything do to with the E46 M3 (issues to look out for, servicing costs, etc) feel free to fire me a messsge.

The comment about putting a light battery in the boot is symptomatic of not seeing the whole picture.

It's pointless in a road going E46 because the lard is in the front and any weight reduction should focus on that end, taking it out of the back shifts the bias even more to the front - increasing understeer.

E36 sedan on the other hand is slightly tail heavy so it make sense to do a light battery and muffler to get weight out of the 'ends' to reduce polar moment of inertia without tipping the weight bias benefits the wrong way.

Taking weight out of the back increases oversteer, not understeer. Not that a lightweight battery would make a noticeable difference in a 1,550kg road car anyway.

Thanks everyone for your input and advice. The M3 is going to Jerry Clayton tomorrow for Inspection II. I had the PPI done only 4,000km ago so there shouldn't be too many surprises. Will report back with how it all goes.

So time has come for an Inspection II service. I have discussed this in some length with a couple of BMW owners but am still unsure about where I should take my M3 for such a comprehensive service.

Dealer or Independent?

Jerry Clayton & Auckland City BMW - Both provided me with a quote for Inspection II - both coming out at circa $2,000. To me JC seems like the best option having spoken to a fellow M3 owner (I have taken the dealership 'premium' into account).

BM Workshop said they don't do Inspection II as such - rather a "full" service, skipping items such as checking the valve clearances which are standard under Inspection II. Makes me wonder what other items they would skip from what is set out in Inspection II...? I also went to buy a new battery for the M3 from them and they recommended a battery with lower specifications (Bosch S3) than the Genuine BMW battery. This didn't instill a whole lot of confidence. I went down the road to Barry Clarke Automotive and picked up a Bosch S5.

Bellar Motor Works - Did the PPI on the M3 when I purchased it, and work on my old E36 - Anyone able to share their experience with them?

FYI the car has a full service history (100k), with all bar one service at Team McMillan/Auckland City BMW.

Before someone recommends HellBM or Botany Motor Worx, I am looking for someone Central or North Shore based.

Fire away!

That's how to sell a car. Good pics, good description and a cert.

Agreed - For someone who is after a modified example it has some pretty decent bits (Recaro, KW, AC Schnitzer) - however I think the extensive modifications may be putting people off who are in the market for such a car (myself included if I was in market for one).

The costings used for the aftermarket parts are a little inflated to say the least - In particular saying the wheels and brakes were $10k each...

In answer to my question: no.

Z3 Coupes got the 2.8, 3.0, 3152cc S52 or 3246cc S54

You're aware this is a Z4 right? The Z3 Roadster did come in a 1.9 though.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1104056260.htm

Bit of a unicorn here in NZ - a S54 powered Z4M.

If it was a coupe and full OEM spec I'm sure it would have been picked up by now.

Anyone here gone to check it out?

Could be a good buy at a low price. Need to consider what needs to be done to bring it up to a state you'd be happy with. Personally I'd have to get rid of tacky LEDs, get proper tyres for it. Probably new wheels too, really don't like those ones especially in black. I'd also want to know what the paint is like underneath and maybe budget for a respray if it's not good, because I really don't like that car in white.

I agree with the above. Something tells me the paint underneath (if it is in fact a wrap) might not be so crash hot given the price point of this example.

At least it doesn't have the Kiwi interior; that would be the icing on the cake!

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1091910403.htm

An interesting combo with this M3: looks to be a white wrap over Carbonschwarz Metallic (why?!), Goodride tyres, tacky LED accessories throughout, relatively high k's, no mention of SMG maintenance/service history...However it does appear to be NZ New having searched Carjam.

This could be a relatively cheap base for a track hack for someone, or alternatively with a bit of TLC it could be a project car and without too much work could be brought back to an OEM appearance relatively cheaply.

Thoughts?

Looking forward to seeing this come along Dion; looks like a fun project!

Imported from the UK in 2014, so rust could be an issue, as was seen in the CS also for sale at the moment - note: the CS owner (Justin) did the right thing and got it sorted.

$25k is probably about market.

Price update: $4,250 ono. Cheapest 6 cylinder manual E36 on the market.

Surprise haha

It broke the bank.. Let's put it that way

Hah, sounds like it's going to be a pretty impressive combo once they're on the car!

What did you end up going with?

I was going to go down that route, but Keith (Stocks) said they had ran out of supply of Vogtland springs for the M3 in NZ and only had King Springs left.

Can be flexible on the brand of springs, I just don't want the superlow variants such as Tein or King.

Thanks!

UK Import?

Chronic Arthritis



Getting fixed and with Ray as we speak.

Would these rub with 245 fronts and 275 rears (E46 M3)?

What brand and model of tyres, and how many mm of tread left?