KwS

Hi I have an issue with my starter motor on my S50B30 and need some ideas. Basically, it's not engaging first time. Turn the key and the starter will whirr into life, but won't engage the flywheel until you release the key (and obviously it doesn't turn over or start because you released the key but you can hear it engage). Turn the key again and it'll start happily. Is this an issue anyone has had before here? Searching didn't give much help, and S50 starters are expensive and rare here so reluctant to just replace it. If I do have to replace it, does an M50 or M52 starter fit and work?

There's one on the first page, but thats all I have as the car hasn't left the garage with them on yet. This is them currently, with all new rubber.

BMW remote keys have a reputation for the rubber buttons wearing out. Thankfully it's not that hard to give them a spruce up. The rubber buttons on the remote go soft and wear out from repeated use and age. This makes them hard to press, ugly and sometimes if they go sticky, unpleasant to touch. Both of the keys that came with the car look the same. The Lock button is just sticky mush that doesn't actually respond unless you mash your finger inside the rubber, and all the diagrams have worn off. Start by accessing the screws on the back of the housing. If it's still there, there will be a small panel covering them that just pops off Remove the screws and the back will come off. This is also a good time to change the batteries if they are low. CR1220 x2. The guts of the remote are a press fit into the housing. Gently dig it out of the housing and put to one side. Now you can see the horror. The mashed up rubber. Also note in the above photo, the black thing at the top of the key with writing on it, that is the EWS transponder chip. These don't tend to be held in with anything, and will take any opportunity to fall out and piss off somewhere hard to find it again. Take it out and put it somewhere safe. Don't lose it or its a new key plus coding. I purchased a couple of these "Replacement Remote Key Fob Case Shell 3 Buttons Fit For Bmw E38 E39 E36 Black" from Ebay. There are some different variations depending on what sort of key you have. The ones I bought have the provision for a red light to flash through the housing. Unfortunately my older style keys don't have the light, it's where the transponder lives, so I had to cut that off the new button pads. This did need further trimming to fit the EWS chip in snuggly. The old button pad is held in by being moulded through small notches in the key housing. You can push the old rubber pads out from the front, but if they are still stuck in there you may need to cut around the edges to help it along. The replacement button pad pushes in from the back of the housing. This took a lot of trimming to fit the transponder chip in, and also to fit a capacitor that sticks out on the circuit board. I had to trim along the orange line to give it space, or it would push the Lock button outwards I reassembled the key, and tested. The buttons are much easier to press now and work reliably. The key looks and feels nicer. The fit isn't perfect, and the buttons don't quite sit flush, but I'm hoping as they wear in a bit it will level out. Over all though, for the $1.09 per button pad, it's a steal and such an easy way to give it new life. Sometimes it's the small things that are the best.

Parts are arriving almost constantly, so it was time to start cracking on fixing my BMW. It's been a month now, since I obtained the M328i, and it's spent 98% of that time in the garage in bits. I've driven it home, to and from work once, and that's as far as its been in my ownership. Unfortunately the list of failures just kept getting bigger for those first couple of weeks, but now I feel I'm almost on top of the list and it isn't growing. Parts from all over the world, mainly The States, have arrived, with more still en route now. I decided to start with work under the car, as I needed to get new tires on the Style 24 wheels, so the car would be up on the QuickJacks, and it made sense. The main work I needed to do was to replace all the bushing in the shifter assembly, as there was far too much play when in gear, and much like Tess, it was like trying to row in a bucket of porridge. This is work I carried out on my first BMW when I had it converted to manual, and they didn't put any bushing in at the time. The shifter shaft seal was also leaking, making a hell of a mess, and accelerating the degradation of rubber bushes etc. The other job whilst there is to replace the drive shaft flex disk, or Giubo (usually pronounced Gwee-Boh, but apparently meant to be pronounced Joo-Boh). I noticed this was badly cracked when I had the car over the pit at work, so ordered a replacement. The drive shaft needs to be dropped to make accessing the shifter bushes easier, so it's a good time to do it. The first step once the car was in the air, was to drop the exhaust mid section. It's not hard to drop, just four flanges to undo, but its damn heavy. It also turns out one of the front flanges has been leaking, because one flange had a crushed flat gasket and lots of sealant, the other flange had no gasket, just gasket goop. With the exhaust section down, there is a heat shield that needs to be removed. It has six screws holding it in. To drop the drive shaft first you must loosen off the nuts holding the center bearing as this will need to be lowered later, and remove the cross brace in the bottom of the above photo. I marked the two flanges with a paint pen to help align them again later, and then went in with the ugga dugga gun to spin off the bolts holding the flanges to the flex disk. These are 18mm nuts and bolts. Turns out I didn't even have an 18mm spanner (most socket and spanner sets skip 18mm as its uncommon), so I had to rush out and buy one. Once all the bolts are out, remove the two nuts holding the center bearing in and then the drive shaft can be lowered out of the way. The Giubo was pretty shocking. It even had chunks missing. Compared to the new one With the shaft out I had access to the shifter assembly. I don't have photos of this in place because it was very messy and a real pain to get out. I had issues getting the rear bushing, and the "bastard" clip out, but there are lots of tutorials online on how to get them out. Once on the bench it was obvious why there was so much play. There were no plastic washers (which take up slack) where the green arrow points, and the ones with the orange arrow were worn paper thin. The main joint usually has a foam insert in it to increase resistance to movement. This had absorbed oil from the leaking selector shaft seal and turned to mush This bush which supports the main shifter arm had gone soft and worn out I stripped all the parts down and gave them a clean. I first replaced the shifter "bearing". The old one had worn and gone brittle. I pressed out the old arm bush and fit the replacement On went the new yellow plastic washers. A new main joint was obtained also. This comes with the new foam insert. This is an updated design that actually does away with the plastic washers on this end of the shift rod. Interestingly it's also made of an alloy and significantly lighter than the old steel one. You can see on the new one there is a built in sleeve that takes up the space where the washers would have been on the old one One tip I will say, is DO NOT REMOVE the retaining clip on the joint. It's a real prick to get back into place, and impossible to put on once the joint is in the car. Instead, slip the ring up the joint so it exposes the hole for the retaining pin. Move the ring to where the green line is. Once the retaining pin is in place, this allows you to easily push the ring back into place to lock the pin in. Before I could refit the shifter assembly, I needed to tackle the horribly leaking selector seal. This is a very common issue, and other than bad access, not a hard job to fix. I gave the area a quick clean to expose the old seal. The rubber was hard as a rock and I couldn't get a screwdriver or a pick into it, so no wonder it was leaking. I ended up using the recommended alternate option, instead of removing the old seal (which was proving hard), drift the old seal further into the bore and then install the new seal in front of it. Use a 15mm deep socket to install the seal, as it's a perfect fit on the seals outer edge. With the seal in, I reinstalled the shifter assembly. A quick test shows its lovely and notchy in its feel, with minimal movement in gear. Can't wait to drive with it. Now I needed to install the new Giubo and reinstall the drive shaft. This is bit of a shitty job, due to limited space for ratchets and spanners, but fairly straight forward. One major thing to keep in mind is to ensure the arrows point toward the flange that the bolt attaches to. You can just make out the small arrow in the below photo. The green arrow is pointing both to it, and in the direction its pointing in. The green line is where the flange should be that the bolt goes through. Once all the bolts are in, all the nuts are on and lightly nipped up, I torqued all the bolts up (per flange. Start with the three bolts on one flange and then do the other three) to the required 115NM. This is a lot of torque when lying on a rolling creeper with limited room! I torqued them all up, and then did a quick pass of all bolts again to make sure they were all locked in nice and tight. Then it was a matter of refitting the center bearing (remembering to preload the center bearing 5mm to the front of the car), rear brace and heat shield. I still need to refit the exhaust, but I'm waiting on new gaskets, which should hopefully show up early next week. As an aside, I also replaced the fuel filter whilst under the car today. It was too hard to get good photos under there of it, so no good guide (and there are heaps out there already), but it's interesting to note the old one was either the original filter, or hadn't been replaced in a long time. There was no obvious date stamp on it, but the label on the filter is old enough that I can't even find a matching photo online. Even if it isn't really that old, no harm in knowing it has a new one in there now. I'm getting closer to having the car back on the road. Unfortunately before I can take it for another hoon I need to remove the valve cover and replace the gasket as I found out the other day it's hemorrhaging oil down the back corner. This means I may as well rebuild the Vanos whilst I'm in there. Yay.

Yeah its one of the guys on here, used to have a lovely Daytona or Techno M3. I have all the seals, tools etc to do the vanos rebuild, and having done it before i know what im in for, I just cant be bothered lol. I need to finish the work im doing under the car first, and then ill actually be able to reach the engine bay. If i buy that one, i'll be stuck with a vanos unit that owes me money, that i too cant sell. Found the rocker cover gasket is hemorrhaging oil down the back corner, which pisses me off, since the head work was done not long ago. I have a new gasket, but was hoping to actually drive the car for a bit before having to replace it.

If she pushes the budget to 6k you can get a Swift Sport for that, and they are a hell of a lot of fun to drive, easy to drive, and brutally reliable. So many of these other cars recommended are terrible options unless you're a sucket for punishment.

Having seen first hand what the Haldex system on an S3 can do, there is no way a FWD could corner quite the same. Dismissing AWD and FWD because "RWD is just better" is ignorant.

Oh and the *GT cars have always been f**k ugly ?

They haven't "lost their way" as such, they just know the target market and where the money is. As mentioned above, most people couldn't care less if it drives the rear wheels, or if the awd system is front biased. It's a status symbol they use to take the kids to school, or for a back road Hoon. Iirc even the ///M cars have been coming out awd for a while? I wonder what percentage they make in total sales.

Harris is good, but neither Rory or Matt worked well with him. He's better on his own. Matt was painful to watch imo, dry humor, weak personality. I want GT to be all just cheap car challenges lol. Loved those segments on TG.

Just as a follow up, i bit the bullet and chose to go for a set of Pirelli Dragon Sport in 225/45R17 and will have them fitted on Wednesday. Hyper had them a lot cheaper than the Eagles, and the reviews for the Pirellis are really good.

Gosh the Senna is one ugly as car, but sh*t its quick. Loved the brake test in it, like dropping an anchor. Typical ex-Top Gear stuff, lots of banter between the lads. Looking forward to the rest of the season. Couldnt give less of a sh*t if the "new" Top Gear was cancelled, they will never get the presenter interaction that Grand Tour has, which is what makes or breaks the show. Rumor has it they dropped Rory too, which was the only presenter that actually seemed passionate about his job.

its not a V6, its a straight 6.

Wellington Mitsubishi was open Saturday mornings when i worked there. Might have changed since Gazley took over.

I don't tend to drive cars too hard but do enjoy the odd spirited drive. Having an ok treadwear rating would be nice too, so that discounted the NS2R that I was looking at lol

48 monthly payments and a pitty pup?

I've sold a lot of cars on tardme, and i'm almost certain not a single person that asked questions on the listing was actually the buyer. Serious buyers always contact me via text or email. I miss the days where you couldn't post questions on a classified, and you would have to get off your ass and contact the seller to ask questions. Now its too easy for time wasters. I totally agree with the reply to WTB with "got one", that sh*t grinds my gears and I see it a lot even on here, and won't bother contacting them even if they have the part....

The reason people here are sensitive to asking questions on tardme, is that no one asking them is actually interested in buying the car, they just want to sabotage the sale. Someone genuinely interested will directly contact the seller, as mentioned above.

If I'm going falken it's only because I can get them in the correct size, I would bother with them smaller.

Yeah that is the idea (and OEM ) staggered setup but hard to get 8.5" style 24 here. 235/40 is the stock size for 7.5" but a pain to get, hence my issue.

Hi. Need some tires for my E36, running a square set of 7.5" Style 24. Have been quoted two options which sound good but I can't choose between them. First is the correct oem size, 235/40R17, and is a Falken Fk452. Reviews are mixed, with the general consensus on forums that they are good tires wet or dry, but those tire review sites seem to indicate wear and wet performance is an issue. The second option is 225/45R17. This is a very common size, but both narrower and taller than the OEM size. This will cause the speedo to be out by about 2kph at 100kph. The tire in this size is a Goodyear eagle F1 directional 5. My understanding is that the eagle is a much better tire, but not in OEM size. These are $30 dearer than the Falkens for all 4, so much of a muchness. Anyone got any solid opinions on this?

Thanks all, looks to be sorted now ?

Also want to get these https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-stereos/other/listing-1909110894.htm?rsqid=30d0745b84f74af6821a77ecedaa0b42 https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-stereos/wiring-kits/listing-1907107545.htm?rsqid=30d0745b84f74af6821a77ecedaa0b42 https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-stereos/wiring-kits/listing-1907112745.htm?rsqid=7deb80ac6a264335997a4b50cd9e4997 And then its basically plug and play

Looks like you could remove just the one, but the rest of the system (including lights and airbags) must still be functional. You'd need to trick the system into thinking the drivers airbag was still there. You also need to change the seat belt to one that doesn't have a pre-tensioner. In theory if you were going to all that effort, you could just change the dash, remove the drivers airbag, remove the airbag light, and claim it never had airbags in the first place. Either way, a replacement E36 airbag wheel in en route.

Yet another issue I wasn't aware of until I had taken ownership of the car and driven away, was that the Airbag warning light was staying on too long, indicating an issue. I'm not sure how or why it wasn't lit on the test drive, maybe we had the car running long enough before I got in to drive it for the light to go away, but it was indicating there was an issue every other time I turned the key. The light would come on with the ignition, as it should, flash, but then stay lit for a good few minutes, before going out. A lit Airbag light is a WOF fail, but for some reason the light does go out, it just takes ages. Anyway, I fired up my old diagnostic laptop, launched INPA and checked for codes in the Airbag system. I had three. Two were related to voltage (low battery) and one was for "Sitzbelegungserkennung Beifahrer". Ah yup, that old chestnut. Translated to English, it means "Seat occupancy recognition front passenger". The occupancy sensor issue is a well known one in the E36 community. It is basically an electrical mat inside the base of the passenger seat, which detects when weight is in the seat and tells the SRS system there is someone sitting there, and in the event of an accident to fire the passenger airbag. If it doesn't detect weight, it thinks no one is there, and wont fire the airbag. The problem is that the mat can get worn or damaged over time, just from regular movement and pressure. Apparently kneeling on the seat base can damage them too (much more concentrated pressure). Once the mat fails, it will trigger the Airbag light and throw an error code. The official way to fix it is to disassemble the seat, remove the old mat and fit a replacement. This is an excessive amount of work for little gain. The unofficial way to do it, is to bypass the mat with a couple of resistors and a diode, which tricks the SRS system into thinking there is always someone in the seat, and to always fire the airbag in an accident. Some people DIY this with really ugly results, but a far tidier way to do it is to buy a proper bypass plug off the likes of eBay. Mine cost about $11 plus shipping from a German seller, a hell of a lot cheaper than the $60+ they are asking for the exact same thing on Trademe. Installation is easy. Disconnect the battery. Wait for a few minutes, then remove the four nuts/bolts that hold down the seat, and tilt it back to access the underside. This is where I discovered my occupancy sensor control unit under the seat wasn't even plugged in... The wires were just floating around on the floor That plug should be in the white socket on the bottom of this unit Regardless, I chose to bypass the mat anyway. It was probably why it had been disconnected, in some misguided attempt to "fix" it. Twist the unit sideways to release it from the seat base, unplug the black connector on the side, plug the bypass into the socket, and reattach the box to the seat base. Done. Easy. Reinstall the seat, reconnect the battery, turn the ignition on and marvel at how the Airbag light is still lit. I don't know if it's the same on all cars, but mine needed the codes to be cleared. I plugged my laptop back in, fired up my freshly updated (and now in English) INPA, and checked for codes. Sure enough there was one for the occupancy sensor. I cleared this, cycled the ignition, the light went straight out. I checked codes again, and nothing. The live data from the system also shows that the "pressure sensor" is OK. Great success. One more thing ticked off the list.