KwS

The seats would look lush in a black interior, but the rest of that red is terrible.

Burn it. That interior doesnt deserve to survive.

I looked into it when i did mine, and didnt find many, if any, people that had actually done it. What i did work out though is that yes the cam needs to be removed as the sprocket doesnt have enough clearance in the head to be removed in place, unlike the B32 which apparently does. I didnt bother and tbh it didnt matter as all my rattle was coming from the helical shaft. The procedure for the B32 is here, http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/euro_s50_double_vanos_rattle_procedure.htm and from what i could tell it would be similar for the B30 IF you had the space to work with, but you dont.

bloody small, the standard hex is 4mm

Oh yeah i can see why you want to replace it, but atm you have a couple of options. Find a way to make it work, or buy a new one. If in finding a way to make it work you make it worse, youre buying a new one anyway lol. My best thought so far is an easy out. Its probably a terrible idea.

is it hollow? Could you so something horrible like drill a small hole and use a small easy out to hold it?

That might be it, i dont recall applying much counter pressure at all, just enough to hold it in place. I seem to remember gently tapping the spanner with my palm to shock it off instead of applying pressure. Regardless, its broken now so nit much help. i dont recall, but is it possible to assemble the shaft and piston on the bench and put it into the vanos unit as one piece? Can you hold the back of the shaft whilst its in the piston?

this part here, (i had wound the nut off a couple of turns before the first photo)

the shafts have different PN between B30 and B32 which means they could be different. how, i wouldnt know. All you need to do is hold the shaft whilst you tighten the nut. The nut is a very low torque setting anyway, so it wouldnt take much, and the nut is deformed so its kinda like a locking nut. If you could cut a + in the end you could hold it with a screwdriver i guess. Not much room though. I do find it confusing as to how your nut was so tight, mine came off with minimal effort. Only other times ive heard of this is when people were trying to turn it the wrong way to undo.

looks like the rpm sensor can be bypassed? http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/885452/

cant salvage the rpm relay from the old compressor?

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zsmjsXOKNakJ:www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1026957297.htm+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz e: it was a 528i not 525i like i thought, but regardless... https://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=dgm496

and those are the pictures of the 525i.... wtf.

Completely draining a battery is not good for it, its probably stuffed now, although half an hour driving wouldnt be long enough to charge any battery that was dead flat to a point where it could be left sitting for 5 days. Take it out of the car and try borrow a decent high amp charger and see if it can revive it.

I did wonder, your listing seems pretty honest and up front to me. Just sounds like a wanker. No surprises, it is Timaru after all.

Seems dodgy but i cant even report it because i dont even know what is dodgy, its all farked!

he also makes an interesting comment about coops 530i, sounds like either he viewed the car and it had more issues than listed or he is spinning sh*t.

ok i see now, the one he lists as a 540i was a blue 525i motorsport with a beige leather interior. He's obviously trying to skirt having to pay for two listing once the blue one sold, to sell another car. I see what you mean about the listing for the green one too, it is the same wording as the blue one had. I dont know what he is playing at.

They are required to be WOF certified, which means they have to be A-Grade certified or equivalent (and with multiple years experience). Most of them are ex mechanics. VTNZ locations are all different though, some are actually decent. Regardless, BM Workshop or the likes would be the best bet.

VTNZ passed my old E36 that had badly flogged lower arm bushes and front balljoints. They also passed my Prelude which had its front crossmember lower than 100mm and no cert. I dont have much faith in their inspections.

its no big deal, just ask for receipts for the work and make sure it matches the car.

all cars should be held to the same standards, as outlined in the VIRM (vehicle inspection requirements manual), age is irrelevant. A brand specific specialist is still best practice imo, they know of the common faults to pick up on and make sure your car is actually safe (unlike VTNZ which sometimes just fails miserably at everything).

Looks like an exceptionally tidy car, but really.... This is well in E46 M3 money.... so no, i wouldnt look at this car. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1029346107.htm

iirc the t-bar style was pre-facelift and the more normal looking one was facelift.

Sounds like you're after a genuine bar, or at least an aftermarket euro bar. Looks like the original bar was made by Oris, http://www.etk.cc/bmw/EN/search/selectCar/E38/Lim/BMW+728i/ECE/03/03_1016/ Westfalia also make similar bars.