R90S

I have an E3 2500 which I bought it in 1994 and it has now made the ultimate sacrifice to become a parts car so that others might live . . . . and I also have a BMW 900cc bike which I bought in 1986. I feel old . . . .

Um, my take on your *overview* is that you're both guessing . . . . Start with a check of the valve clearances and a compression test. If necessary, follow that with a cooling system pressure check. Maybe even do a TeeKay check on the cooling system to see if exhaust gas is getting into the cooling system. Once you've either established that everything is OK or corrected the problem(s), move onto the ignition system. The idea is to begin with the stuff you can measure, where there are known values to check against. my $0.02

Livi, you were fortunate that it was a non-contact spin. I was coming home tonight in a 70kph area just after dark (6:15pm) when a guy in a late model XR8 pulled out of a side road straight in front of me. The road was wet, and I slid into the XR8's right front corner with the front of my car. I was in my ancient Subaru Legacy wagon, and it's buggered. Crumple zones are a wonderful thing. It's my first "serious" car accident in 35 years. I'm grateful that there were no injuries, but equally p!ssed off at the cost of replacing my car. It had an intergalactic mileage (381,000km) but still a pleasure to drive. I had just picked it up from a local garage after getting a new clutch fitted. Did i mention that I'm p!ssed off? It was worth nothing to sell, but the cost & inconvenience of replacing it is keeping me awake with frustration right now. It was registered & WOF'ed but I only had 3rd party, fire & theft cover, so I'm expecting a bunfight with the other guy's insurance company. I am struggling to express how p!ssed off I'm feeling right now. Once again Livi, you can be thankful that you didn't hit anything.

no E12 option on the list either . . . .

My understanding is that insurance companies are more concerned with modifications with a performance slant, or make theft more likely. An insurance company is primarily concerned with assessing "risk", so that's why they take an interest in any change to a vehicle which influences their risk calculations whether good or bad. Hence an immobiliser is good, a humungous turbo is bad. Very bad. my $0.02

This thread is quite entertaining, and the comments made have been quite enlightening . . . . We've owned an E36 M3 convertible for several years now. It's a distinctive colour, having been ordered through the Individual program in Ice Blue. There aren't many E36 verts around, and probably less than a dozen genuine M3 verts in the country. The M3's don't stand out these days because many of the E36 verts have been "M3'ed" to some extent. Ours looks quite benign and tame, with the average punter quite oblivious to its true character. And that brings me to my point (yeah, i actually have one!). Until folk get the opportunity to live with a car like this for an extended period of time, there's just no way to explain what it's like. Maybe the chassis flex bothers some, but it's never been a concern for me. We live on back country roads which have been wrecked by truck&trailer loads of quarry metal traveeling through. These roads aren't kind to cars, yet the M3 vert handles these roads capably. And that engine . . . . The M3 is our first convertible. We'd never considered one before, until we hired a Z3 2.2 in Australia in 2004 and had a blast. My wife & I love motorcycling, and find that a convertible is a good compromise that allows us to talk freely and enjoy the luxury of a heater. I evidently stand alone in this thread, because I prefer the looks of the X3 over the X5, and consider the Z4 a badly proportioned and deeply unfortunate styling experiment. The X6 is the perfect answer to . . . . what was the question again?? For me, the X6 is a classic case of niche marketing taken too far. How can it be "fit for purpose" when its purpose is so unclear?

Very nice, very tidy. The Norton peashooters make a nice sound don't they! The aftermarket fairing screen looks good too. Mainstand mounts getting tired? Or is it just the angle of the camera?

Ahh, another broad generalisation . . . . my wife is an real estate agent, and we've never been tempted to fit a towbar to our car. Too easy for a potential buyer to (justifiably) assume we've been dragging a 30ft caravan or an 8 metre boat around the countryside. Not that it doesn't have the mumbo to actually do that, mind you . . . . Still 'n all, I don't have too many gender issues that I'm aware of due to ownership of an E36 cab!

Yeah, tell me about it. Especially M3 cabs in Ice Blue . . . . . anyhoo, why do people fit towbars to convertibles? Especially when it specifically says this in the owners' manual: "VERBOTEN!" (Love that word!) Now, where did I put my handbag?

FWIW, I have just been through the process of re-vinning two cars with lapsed rego in the last two months. As Ross alluded to, the process is actually intended to actively discourage old cars going back into service. Car 1 was a 1993 Subaru, NZ new, which had been getting wof inspections at the local testing station. When it went for a Vin, the inspector noted a previous repair to the front chassis rail, and tagged it for an independent certifier inspection. The certifier looked at it and said that the car would probably never get certified again because at first glance the repair had been done so badly. When I pointed out that the repair was probably done up to fifteen years or more ago, he didn't flinch. He then checked the diagonal measurements almost as an afterthought, to see how far out it was. IT WAS PERFECT, WITHIN A MILLIMETRE. I took the car to my tame local panelbeater and got the chassis rail tidied to the certifier's satisfaction. Car 2 was also a 1992 Subaru, NZ new, just purchased by my son. It had a dent in the rear guard, but seemed straight, tidy and otherwise unmolested. On the advice of a car dealer friend, we took Car 2 to a compliance shop in central Auckland. He looked at the car when we arrived, tore out the boot trim and popped the bonnet and then announced that most of the left side of the car had been hit previously and repaired, with the evidence clear to see when studied closely. He asked if we could wait until the following week for another staff member (on leave) to return, because the guy working that week would fail it for certain. We agreed, and the following week I got a call to say that other than some water in the left front indicator and sticky rear brake calipers the car had been approved. I'm not suggesting that Car 2 wasn't subjected to as stringent an inspection or that it shouldn't have been approved, more that the inspector/compliancer had a more reasonable view of things. The panelbeater who straightened out Car 1 freely admitted when I asked him that his work hadn't made the car one jot safer. The certifier essentially "clipped the ticket" to the tune of $350 for maybe 40 minutes of his time. The inspectors aren't interested in determining whether a previous repair is safe or not, they're only interested in covering their @rse at the sign of ANY repair. For anyone else reading this far, if you have a car that is going to be off the road for any length of time, PUT IT ON EXEMPTION!!! All you'll need to get legal again is a simple, conventional WOF. You do it for free by ringing 0800 108 809. If you decide to sell the car before it's roadlegal again, it will be MUCH easier to sell because most of the headaches will be avoided. I'm not here to advertise or promote compliancing agencies, just sharing my recent experience. If anyone wishes to know who I dealt with, you're welcome to ping me.

Welcome. I'd like to see a piccie of the RS . . . . :>)

I'll be interested in the responses to this. I've debated the same question, and held off joining because I figure there's probably more help available on the interweb than the local club. With only a few dozen E3's remaining in NZ, there can't be a great deal of E3-specific knowledge in NZ, even amongst the club members. Is that the case? I encountered this dynamic with the BMW bike club and the prevailing attitude to older bikes. They are tolerated by most and encouraged by a few, with a general lack of interest toward any bike that doesn't appear in the current BMW catalogue . . . .

A few more E32 utes and an e23 limo . . . .

this thread wouldn't be complete without at least one or two gratuitous shots of the E32's grandad . . . .

For your comments to be regarded as humour, there needs to be some elements of irony or similar. Your comments were at best insensitive, and at worst quite offensive IMHO. I don't know the guys involved in this incident and I'm no fan of Holdens, but I was staggered by your post. This could potentially have been a fatality. FWIW sir, no amount of smileys can overcome an ill-considered post . . . .

I must be old . . . . I think that the X6 is just about the most pointless vehicle I've seen. It's neither fish 'nor fowl, and regardless of "the driving experience" it holds no appeal for me. BMW announced it had created a new category with the X6, but I suspect the category previously didn't exist for good reason . . . . Besides, somebody has to offer an alternative view, to offer a counterpoint to the emerging X6 Enthusiasts Club above! A previous vehicle referred to with an "X6" model designation was the Australian Austin Tasman/Kimberley and THAT remains one of the biggest automotive disasters in Ozzie history!

IIRC, the law can allow police to defer the issuing of a Traffic Offence Notice for up to six months at their leisure, presumably to give them adequate time to establish fault in more complex situations.

At the point at which I turned the guy down, no bids had been placed yet. That's why he was pushing me to cancel the auction and sell to him. It was tempting, but I know that I'd be quite upset if someone did that on an auction I was planning to bid on. And yeah, the car is a hoot to drive! Even better, it now has a new WOF & 3 months rego We will miss it, but we have no shortage of other cars and bikes . . . . the M3 will be getting a tidy-up in the next few weeks, and the E3 will hopefully be running by spring.

Hi guys, a pleasant surprise to see the car here! I've been at a conference since Friday last week, and haven't been following the forum. I'm planning to get a WOF today and get the rego up to date for the new owner. It's on exemption, so it should be a minor formality. The car won't be winning a concours event any time soon, but it's tidy, presentable and mechanically sound. Excessive, unecessary use of full throttle results in big grins . . . . this thing is a barrel of fun. We're going to miss it *sigh*. I had a guy keen to buy the car last weekend, and he wanted to check the car out on a hoist. I arranged for him to come down and meet my tame garage guy in Pukekohe. He was impressed with the condition of the floor and chassis (he had been worried about rust), and having driven it already he decided to buy it then and there by offering me cash. He expected me to pull the auction, and got quite irritated when i refused. Others had already viewed the car and expressed genune interest, and I felt it wasn't fair on anyone else following the auction. He hasn't placed a bid yet, and may well have "his nose out of joint" with me! It's already met reserve at a price I'm comfortable with, so it's nice to know it's already sold. If anyone wants to see the car, it'll be in Pukekohe today.

I suspect that you may have the cam timing 180 degrees out. It's surprisingly easy to do. . . . There's a simple check to see if the cam timing is close or not: turn the engine over until the piston in #1 cylinder is at TDC. The valves on either #1 or #6 should be "rocking" i.e. the exhaust valve just closing and the inlet valve just opening. If that's not happening, the cam timing is wrong. The next thing to check is that the valves are actually closing fully. If the cam timing is close, and the valves are fully closing, then you can start looking at the weird options like the headgasket. hope this helps

I have similar plans for mine. I bought the 3.0S a few years ago with only 150,000km on the clock, and the body & interior are very tidy. There's no rust (which is rare for these cars), the original handbooks are in the glovebox, most of the factory ttools are in the bootlid tooltray and the cloth upholstery has no rips or wear marks. An aircon system has been fitted at some stage of its life too! Doubt that it'll work but ya neva know. . . The previous owner had overheated it when a bypass hose split, resulting in a blown headgasket. He carefully dry-stored it for several years before losing interest. I'm pulling the 3 litre engine and auto out, and replacing them with a 3.5 litre and 4 speed manual. After looking for bits, it was actually cheaper to buy a complete running car to steal the gearbox out of, than to buy a gearbox on its own. As a result, a tired E12 525 will make the ultimate sacrifice. It will also donate its flywheel. The remains of the E12 will be offered to anyone interested. i have a full set of five Simmons two-piece 15" rims for the car, although I have half an eye on a set of 17" type 5 rims which may or may not become available sometime in the next year. The Simmons will probably look more "period correct", but who knows . . . . I'm hoping to get the car finished this year. Mind you, I had hoped to get it finished last year too, but life got in the way. Apparently there's less than two dozen E3's left in the country. One of BMW's best kept secrets!

Out of interest, what are your plans for the 2500?

+1! They have a jewel of an engine. You'll enjoy it immensely.

QS, that's a very smart R80/7. That model was arguably the smoothest and sweetest of the airhead range. You obviously take good care of it too. My bike is quite similar to yours, although slightly different in detail. Here's a piccie of mine taken a year or two ago. I've since fitted crashbars similar to yours:

The R1100S is a highly regarded model. I recall riding one some years ago and being quite taken with it. A mate of mine recently bought an injected '98 Duck 900SS, and he's over the moon with it. He's owned a 900SD for over twenty years, but recently realised that he could never ride far from home because he didn't trust it. The SS has changed that, and he's clocked up more miles on it in six months than he's done on the Darmah the entire time he's owned it. Can't honestly say that the 900SS styling spins my wheels, and I'm not sure that i could live with the harsh ride either. Throw in the "she's breaking up!" clutch rattle and the committed riding position and it all just gets too hard for me. I do like the 888 and 916 styling though, and the sound of a Duck in a hurry is definitely appealing. The oilhead BMW GS is a weird breed, tending to give its rider a level of confidence which the bike is not always able to fulfill. The GS makes an amazingly effective roadbike, and is ideal for gravel roads and rough tracks but hopeless offroad where its weight (and sometimes it's tall gearing) defeats it. I'd agree that the airhead GS is a far more capable bike for offroad use, and still OK for highway work. The airhead GS has a strong and loyal following, with specialised internet forums focussed exclusively on them. Surprisingly the older airhead roadbikes are just about as capable on gravel roads with a pair of trials tyres . . . .