KwS

I cant remember when mine was auto, but have you tried entering the last 7 digits of your VIN into RealOEM and seeing if there is a part # available?

I wonder where it was imported from? VIN doesnt tell much, neither does carjam. Not UK, doesnt have MPH on cluster. Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore maybe?

Buy it, and then fix those issues then.

Gotta empty it somehow, might as well be with 320HP

+1, more pictures and a better description or you are going to have some pissed off people wasting their/your time.

Be brave, take the gamble. Almost interested to take it for a drive myself to see what SMG1 is like.

Wow, 13K buy now, UK import with SMG, techno. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-738655311.htm Someone local buy it and we can be M3 buddies!

Haha, dont be offended by a lack of replies. I dont know about others but i tend not to reply to a thread if its just to say "sweet car bro" as thats a waste of time. In saying that, sweet car bro. Looks good on those wheels, but i dont envy having to keep white mesh wheels clean! Looks like its in good condition and had a bit of good work done to it. Much want for your Remus, very nice exhaust.

Would caging the bastard fix the wobbly chassis? Almost seems like a logical next step considering all the work you have done to it.

This. I have a Honda Fit as the daily because its cheap to run, comfortable, heaps of space and the CVT makes it a lot more tolerable to be in for 2 hours every day (and still only covering 50KM a day). I used to drive manuals daily, for years, and since changing to auto for a daily, i wouldnt go back. I also have my M3, which of course is a manual, and for a weekend toy i would want nothing else. And Ron, in terms of your dislike for automatics, you come across as both arrogant and ignorant. Youre probably a real good guy outside of the internet, but on here youre a dick. Its always wank wank wank manual manual manual. Manuals are great, Autos have their place, and i like CVT. Thats all i have to say on the subject. Im out.

I tried that but its small and was really tight. Might try side cutters to lift the tail. Did you drain the res and remove the hoses to fit the clamps, or just put the clamps around the hoses in place?

Ill need to have a nosy at the bottom of my res at some point too, i have the slow occasional drip coming from my system. I hate those oetiker clamps with a vengeance. Thanks for mentioning how to release them.... theres one on my radiator hose that ill need to release before i can put the rad back in. Was going to try cutting the damn clamp off!

Part Zwei. The CRC worked a treat, all the bolts in the oil pump cover came out OK. The cover its self was a real sh*t to get off but some persistence and brute force popped it off. Insides were a bit black but no chunks or sludge. Gave it a wipe down and replaced the seals. Yeah boi, i own a Rolls. Vanos unit all back together Next up was the solenoids. I had done a lot of research on how best to approach this, and the E39 M5 boys have some pretty good info about it (same solenoids). I decided it was best to replace the seals, remove the gauze ring and clean the solenoids. The gauze ring is the brown bit you can see in some of the photos of the solenoids. Its a plastic ring with some gauze filled slots. My gauze rings were fooked. No gauze was missing in places, and the rest was blocked. Used a scalpel to lever it off slightly, and then some pliers to break them and pull them off. I then turned my attention to the cleaning of the innards. Obviously i cant disassemble them, so had to find another way. The best way people tend to use is to flush them with brake clean whilst actuating them. I went with this method. Out came the 9V battery and connector. The solenoid leads are moulded with the polarity on the connector, so just join + to + and - to - and hopefully you should hear the solenoid click. I didnt. It turns out the top solenoid was dead. Nothing at all. A began to flush it by blasting brake clean into the ports, and after a few tries i finally get a faint click from it. Yay! I spray and actuate a few more dozen times until im getting a nice, solid, hearty click every time and then move on to the next one. The lower solenoid wasnt as bad, it clicked first try but was very faint. A thorough cleaning fixed that, although some of the sh*t that came out was pretty nasty. Replaced the seals on both, and put them aside. Replaced the vanos filter. Old one was black and you can see blockage in the gauze. Its cheap and easy to get at so ill replace this again in a thousand km or so. Since the vanos unit was done, i moved onto the anti-rattle kit. You need to replace the splined, helical gear from the intake cam. It wasnt easy, mine was reluctant to move forward enough to pop out until i game it some help. I also noticed it was hard to get into the Beisan tool so i gave the spline a real good scrub and it moves much freer now. Once removed the cause of the rattles was WELL obvious. There should be no axial play (wiggle)..... mine had a ton of movement. Loose as a goose. Pulled it apart with my Supercheap li-ion rattle gun, worked a treat. The innards were dirty, with chunks of something inside it and noticable wear on the end washers. The Beisan kit replaces the outer ring and both end washers. All fitted up with the discarded bits in the background Back in the engine. Pile of spare parts And this is where im at now. The vanos unit is back on, just waiting on the bolts to completely finish the vanos and then i need to reassemble the valve cover and cooling system. Now for the waiting game.

Right, back with some more Vanos fun! So, the other day, stuck bolt came out. This finally meant i could remove the vanos unit and begin the rebuild. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS. THIS IS NOT A STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTION, IT IS MEANT TO COMPLIMENT THE BEISAN INSTRUCTIONS TO FILL THE GAPS AND HIGHLIGHT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 3.2 AND 3.0. PLEASE FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK. First step was to clean up as i left a lot of my destructive tools lying around. Next up was to begin the removal. First you need to remove all the bolts from the front of the vanos unit (two already destroyed and removed), 6 short, 1 long for 7 in total (not the 9 Beisan says). Once this is done, remove the 4 bolts across the vanos bridge, and remove the bridge. Note, all 4 bolts are the same length (not 2 short 2 long like Beisan says) Proceed to carefully slide vanos unit forward a little. Beware of the oil pump driver which is a disk that goes between the vanos unit and the exhaust cam. If dropped, this will take a swift trip to the bottom of the oil pan. Beisan has no picture to show what you are looking for with the driver, so i took a few. The driver is a disk that sits here. Looks like this When removing the vanos unit, my piston got stuck to the shaft that sticks out of the intake cam. I had to use my tack lifter to gently lever it off the helical gear. There is a wee notch in the top of the gear above where the piston is stuck that i found to give just enough room to lever from. Removed! Minor marking from bolt removal Remove piston (push out with finger) Eww gunky. Pull the intake cylinder apart Bag of seals Once removed, ALL parts get a thorough cleaning in a mixture of brake clean and degreaser. The vanos bridge and bolts came up mint. This is another part Beisan was clear about. When you replace the seal on the cylinder and you are refitting to the bore, DO NOT PUSH THE CYLINDER IN. Let is rest, and then use the cover to push it in with the tightening of the screws. If you push the cylinder in you WILL ruin the seal. Rest it like this Put on cover (aligning the indent in the side with the vanos filter next to it). Make sure you remove the oring on the cover as per instructions, first. And slowly wind the screws in, bit by bit and doing them in a star pattern until the cover is seated completely. Remove cover and cylinder should looks like this, Nicely seated. Clean the cylinder cover and renew the seals on that too Another thing Beisan missed is that the cylinder cover has a dowel to align it, and MUST be aligned correctly. Thats that side done. Next up is to remove the oil pump cover. My bolts were really tight, so i soaked in CRC (penetrating oil), cracked then, wound out 3 turns and then put more oil on them and left to soak. Rest time. Will resume after a drink.

Its a love or hate thing i find. I love it, so much smoother than a conventional auto and its easier to keep in the power band. It has its quirks, sure, but so does everything. Plus, being able to put your foot down and having the car hold at peak power whilst accelerating is great fun (as much fun as a 120hp 1.5L iVtec engine can be).

We are a bit more advanced than 2 speed yank autos now though.... Do you even know know what modern autos are up to? I love manuals as much as the next (normal) guy, but i also love having a CVT for my daily. Wouldnt go back to a manual daily.

Cruise and Burnout?

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Cheers guys. One bit of advice i will give, and one thing i have learnt from this stripped bolt.... Always use quality tools. The Hex set i was using was a cheap set from Supercheap. Now i know why it was cheap. Compared to the Bahco 5MM hex socket i purchased to replace the cheap one, the cheap one is sloppy and crap in the bolts. Bahco one is much better quality, much better fit and has better edges. I know its common sense, but its never bothered me in the past. Now im making a list of all my cheap tools, and will be replacing them with higher quality ones. Oh, and never give up.

Right so, JB Weld was useless, nothing more than glorified glue. Didnt really harden, was kinda like a blob of semi-hard paint and the moment i turned the ratchet it just twisted out. I then got angry, so out came the dremel with a cutting disk. I rammed the dremel in the limited space, and began cutting away. got a decent gash in it before i ran out of space. Smashed the living crap out of it with a chisel and instead of aiming to turn it, i aimed to cut the head off, so went hard. Began to get limited by space, again, so decided to change to a grinding stone on the dremel.... and went hard with that. More chiselling and by this point half the bolt was missing, and i could see the gap between the bolt and washer. I decided to try and remove some more metal from it with pliers.... "did that just turn?"..... sure enough, with a mighty twist of the pliers it slightly turned again. Spent the next 5 minutes turning it half a turn at a time, until it finally came out. GREAT SUCCESS. Now that i have that out, nothing stands in the way of removing the unit and FINALLY beginning the rebuild. I still begin this Saturday morning. The culprit.

You have such an irrational hard on for manuals.

Okay, so ive now resorted to one last thing to get the bolt out before i remove the front end of the car to gain access.... JB welding a 5mm hex socket into the bolt. I stuck it in there yesterday and left it to set overnight and its gone pretty solid. Ive just put another layer on tonight and will try to crack the bolt tomorrow evening (about 48 hours to dry the first lot). In the mean time i decided to have a go at the shifter and handbrake boots that i have sitting around. I pulled the knob off, and removed the boots. Im retaining the old knob for now, and will replace it later. The old boots are ugly, hard, grey leather. Not good to look at or feel. The replacement ones are soft, and gloss black. Both have M stitching. My original boots were glued or melted to the frame, so i had to cut them off. Once they were off, it was a simple case of stretching the elastic on the boot around the frame and then wedging it into place. They look good, and i cant wait to get the car out of the garage and into the light.

Click the banner you quoted. Its a free website. My M3 will have higher consumption than most due to the missing O2 sensors. Its still pretty good considering my driving style!

Would wrap the wood grain (prefer dark wood grain), but other than that its a pretty smart looking car. Must go like a rocket too with a casual 500HP. Only questionable thing i see is that it appears to still be pushing that power through a slushbox and not SMG like M5. Wonder what it drives likes (no doubt its been fettled by Alpina).

Have a look here. Everything you need to know is in this document. Any further questions should be directed to your certifier. http://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/standards/LVVTA_STD_Frontal_Impact.pdf