kingkarl

Nah you're onto it. Yeah those specs are pretty vague. I looked at the online manual and found this page:

I've had a think about it and the DVC that's on the way is perfect really. The 2 ohm load will have the amp producing 250RMS which is the subs max anyway. 4 ohm @ 300 W is 50 above the subs recommendation so its spot on @ 2 ohm bridged. That is one impressive sub! I can easily see how this car audio thing becomes like an addiction. So much cool sh*t to buy and so many options to set it up how you want. As Matt said above, the copper looks so sharp. That man has a talent for turning inane bits into master crafts. The final result of this is insane: Cheers mate, the pioneer is in the post and I think it's what I'm after. I appreciate your help

Sweet so it probably wont make too much difference if I stick with the DVC? Mate, your tip on those bostons could well be the biggest bargain I've ever scored! I'm super excited to get them in there. Thanks I went for this. Was $170 @ repco. The cheap sony I put in my old car 5 odd years back was very well made (button feel), extremely easy to use and reasonably good looking. The red/white of the sony wont look too out of place with BMW dash lights I hope. There were other headunits that fit better colour wise but their buttons felt like complete garbage and the design/button layout was less intuitive to me.

Are they really worth that much? I know there are probably people out there whose wallets match the desire to get them, but honestly? $10k+ to have "BMW" on the front of your car seems a little crazy. To each their own though

Wow cheers, I would have completely overlooked this otherwise. Unfortunately I bought that 4ohm DVC this morning. This is how I was thinking of running it: I'm guessing that's a no go? At 8 ohms the power will be a little low? Any idea how much power I'd be running through the sub given the amp specs of: Specifications • Total Max Power: 1200W • RMS Power: 4ch Configuration: 4 x 100W (4ohm) 4 x 150W (2ohm) 4 x 125W (1ohm) 2ch Configuration: 2 x 300W (4ohm) 2 x 250W (2ohm) This 2 ohm DVC sub is ideally what I need isn't it? If so I'll send it the 4ohm back tuesday and exchange it. That should work well with the components wired the same as top?

OK cool, work has a lot of insulation/sealant type products that will come in handy for sealing things off. I think I'll get this sub and box unless anyone has a better suggestion for similar money. It might not be the best or loudest but will do what I want of it I'm sure. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-stereo...n-582556197.htm http://www.jonvy.co.nz/index.php?route=pro...;product_id=168 The box volume is within 270mls of rockford fosgates' reccomendation so should go well.

OK I'll definitely follow your advice on the set up front. I'll see if I can fit the tweeters in the factory housing on the dash, if not then they'll probably sit on the A pillars. Great info on subs. I listen to a massive variety of sh*t, evenly split between all genres. Classic rock, rap/hip hop, electronic, acoustic... you name it. I think I'll go for a 12" for a balance. I guess all subs are pretty much the muchness under $200? I've purcahsed two sets of the bostons you recommended. All up was $308 - pretty outstanding price if they're as good as they are made out!! I also swapped my el cheapo headunit for a slightly less el cheapo 2 RCA unit today. Only cost $70 more and will save me a world of hassle and give way more control. Plus the new one has iphone/android compatibility. No idea what that actually entails but I guess its some type of bluetooth connectivity sh*t. The factory fronts go in the kick panels. These ones below have been custom made over top of the factory location as an example. I'm hoping this will be an OK spot for them acoustically. I went with 5.25" because I wanted them to fit as close to factory as possible. All great info cheers Rogan. I'll keep all of this in mind when installing the gear in a couple of weeks. I'm crossing my fingers the factory locations work without too much modification/difficulty. Please brace yourself for a question or two when I get stuck!

Those speakers look crazy good. Will probably buy them tonight, and even with shipping/exchange rate they'll be under $200 a set. Seeing as though they're such good value, might as well stretch for those as the back ones too. That does make sense and I would like to retain full function. I'll see if I can return the HU to repco today. Good suggestion By installing the speakers properly do you mean fine tuning their locations/angles etc? Is it wrong to assume the amp will improve the quality of the speakers? Or is it just not that noticeable in which case forget the 4 channel amp and go for a mono? I just want semi decent power, relatively good clarity but most of all a nice even sound... not too much bass, not too much mid/high. And the ability to occasionally crank the sub hard for when my piss***t friends are in the mood to be spastics. Which is why I'm thinking a 2 RCA headunit is the way to go Thanks for all the help lads. This is saving me so much confusion and indecision!

OK, cheers. Better; http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=583057069 ?

Mint, thanks for the info mate! I've just read somewhere that using the headunit speaker outs as inputs for the amplifier will give a lower quality sound/more interference. I'm presuming that's total bullshit or of concern only for audiophiles? Otherwise why would amp manufacturers even give the option right?

I'm replacing the factory system in my car and have the following planned: - Components up front, undecided between these Rockfords and these Pioneers. My budget is around $200, what is better for similar money? Must be 5.25" - Coaxials for the back, again 5.25". I've been told not to worry much about these. Running components in the back would presumably make things much more complicated on the install and amp selection fronts. My budget around $100 if anyone has a suggestion. If not I'll buy whatever semi decent lower range stuff repco has on sale. These will be run off the head unit. -Sub, not fussed about this either, will probably go for a boxed ready to go jobbie. I don't need anything ridiculously loud. -AMP - obviously I want something that can run both the components and the sub well. Will this fusion serve me well? OR am I better off to run two seperate amps, one for the sub and one for the speakers? Is this doable with just the one pair of RCA out? Preferably I'd like to avoid this route due to increased wiring difficulty. I'm relatively new to all this so forgive the dumb questions. I bought a $100 sony headunit with RCA sub/rear out. It only has the one pair of RCA out. Can I wire it so that i have control over the level of the just the sub at the head unit? Or if I adjust the level of the sub via the headunit will that also adjust the level of the components given they're run off the one input signal? With a 4 channel amp can I bridge the 2 channels not used for the speakers to give the sub a bit extra power? If anyone has done something similar in an e34 I'd appreciate any advice. I've searched the overseas forums but there's not a lot of specific advice/problems people have run into.

Thank you. That has made my day. Why is there a muffler for a passenger seat and why did they think it was a good idea to take a photo of that? bahaha

Back in the day you were mentally ill if you bought anything other than an iPhone. Android 4.0 onwards changed all that. Androids can be as simple or as customized as you like. The massive gorgeous screens on them make them 10x easier to use than any iPhone and the open/customizable nature of them allows you to make the phone you actually want. Not what some patronizing twat at apple tells you you need. There's a reason this iteration of droids is the first to outsell iPhones. My second hand $500 One X dicks all over my mates $1100 iPhone 5. And if you can use an iPhone you can use an android. No one needs to change to android but you'll probably be glad you did. That's just my thoughts but you're much better off listening to "E90 M3". This is what he does. Google Swiftkey flow too

HTC Butterfly - purely because it looks so damn good. Agree on the S4 being a gimmicky waste of time. Also on nexus 4 being the best phone out there. I'll save the coin and stick with my HTC One X until we see a major leap forward. This next generation is just an evolution rather than revolution.

Damn that's badass

Thanks Mark. The sticker is definitely a strange one. I need to service the electric windows so will check behind the doorcards then. As far as cooling maintenance is a coolant flush + replacement thermostat sufficient? I think the thermostat may be on the way out as the temp guage was well below its midpoint on the trip back from Welly. Other than its cold shifting from 1st to 2nd I'm actually very impressed with the auto box. Fingers crossed it does last a while yet. I've had a look at your e34 showroom thread. Amazing car you have and the meticulous care you take of it is very impressive. Cheers Charles, I've redone the pics. Good to know it's a common issue. The bloke selling the car made sure it was very warm before I arrived for the test drive ha. In all honesty I would have still bought the car had I known about the faults I've discovered since buying it. Nice colour on that e30 of yours too

Hmmm, whatever the case may be they popped off fine with a carefully placed screwdriver. I've chucked a few more pics up in the showroom forum

Not many on this forum rack up almost 1,000 posts without ever owning a BMW but somehow I managed. I guess that's testament to my love of these cars, excessive amounts of spare time as a teenager and an embarrassingly small bank account for as long as I can remember. University is now behind me and because I've moved away from Wellington owning a semi decent car is feasible. I initially anticipated saving up longer for an e39 but this bad boy came up for what I thought was a ridiculous price so I couldn't help myself. (e34s are better looking anyway right? ). God I'm glad I live in a country where old BMWs are so cheap. Anyway enough of my life story. The car is bog standard, and with relatively few options but the ones it has are important to me (wheels and steering wheel mainly). Best of all it came with Potenzas with plenty of life left, albeit relatively old ones. The downside to that is I don't think I can ever go back to running cheap tyres. Mechanically it's pretty good except for the jatco box that jerks like a m***erf**ker when cold. I do love the sound and smoothness of that straight 6. The steering is crap at the moment. Lots of play and a nasty shimmy past 90km/h but that's getting sorted on Wednesday hopefully. Whoever has worked on this car most recently should be shot. EVERY bolt I have touched so far has been way way way over torqued. Most notably the sump plug was smashed to bits when I went to remove it. Bless those clever German engineers who idiot proof them to fail before the thread on the sump does. Undoing the wheel nuts required world's strongest man levels of bravado. Well that was until the old man showed me the bar extension trick - probably should have thought of that before slightly rounding the heads on one of the nuts. I'm too retarted to tell for certain if the rear shocks are shot but I think they might be. You clever lads may be able to tell from the pics, bearing in mind its on standard shocks/springs. Front end is slammed as **** Something I found unusual and potentially worrying is a "diamantschwarz metallic" sticker on the front right strut tower which correct me if I'm wrong is a black colour. Accident/repaint maybe??? On that note I have no engine bay pics because I havent got around to cleaning it up and we've all seen an M50 anyway. I stretched its legs on a trip down to Wellington this weekend and it cruised flawlessly. The ride, comfy seats and smooth (when warm) box made it a pleasure to drive all day and I wasn't near suicidal at the end of the journey like I would have been driving my old Toyota. Gas mileage was great too at 10.5l/100km with 4 passengers and their gear. The rear end didn't enjoy the beer run it had to suffer through with 400kg of humans, 15 boxes of beer and 60kg of ice but the underside survived in tact. Clear front indicators are in the post which should improve the front end look big time along with a new boot roundel Thanks for your interest and for those that have helped me with info already and will no doubt do in future.

This is stupid but is there a trick to removing centrecaps? My wheels are like these: I don't want to pry them off in case I break a clip or something.

This is stupid but is there a trick to removing centrecaps? My wheels are like these: I don't want to pry them off in case I break a clip or something. Thanks

Nah, it's standard with an immobilizer (i think). Has to come in from Germany

Thanks Brent. I'm going to be after a whole bunch of sh*t pretty soon so will get a list together and do it through you all in one hit. I sussed a sump plug today so she's back in action. Cheers, Karl

Thanks, yeah coombes johnston had one for me. For some reason I didn't think they'd carry any 20+ year old parts. Gave the car a wash and wax tonight, looks real nice. Will throw some pictures up tomorrow. Loving driving/looking/thinking about the beast at the moment. I'm headed to wellington this weekend, should be a good test of its reliability. It only came with one key and to get a spare will cost $180~ - so about what I expected.

As per title, it was over tightened last time it was done up so came out in two bits. Also after a replacement right side licence plate light. The whole assembly is buggered (again no idea how someone managed that) 0274977188

^Ha, hi Ben! I tried to change the oil in it today, but some mong tightened the drain plug up too tight last time the put it in so it came out in two bits. Repco doesn't have the right part unfortunately. Where's my best bet to find a replacement one?