bravo

Lol if that's the criteria for a good car, I may as well sell all my cars and just drive the tractor (1960 david brown 60hp). I goes, stops and steers perfectly too.

WTF are you on? Wash your mouth out! e30's pwn.

Nice car dude, and decent photography too! Do people still have that?

The consensus of opinion in the past has been that Jamex are not all that good.

bump. Update: I now want clear fronts (not crystal or smoked) and clear or smoked sides. e36 sides OK.

Damn that scope creep.... Man I know that feeling. Change the air filter, but while you're there... total engine rebuild later... Thats why I reckon Sam's dreaming with what he said for $25k, because if you are doing that, while you're there... you'll do brakes, replace every rubber and consumable item, paint, interior, the whole nine yards.

Got home late last night, but couldn't wait to throw these in anyway. Ripped into the job and discovered that my front spring seats were different sizes - wtf? Must not have noticed when I first put the H&R's in as I did them one side at a time and this time I pulled everything off at once so I could de-grease and paint everything before it went back on. So that meant a mad mission in fading daylight out to my parents place to nab a strut off my wrecked 320i to get matching spring pad. I've never worked so fast - 30 mins to jack up the car, remove the strut, and get out of there. Anyway, long story short I was test driving the car around midnight - didn't get a chance to go for a long drive (too tired, was still up for work at 6.30 this morning) but I live on the worst sealed road in NZ - potholed, lumpy, off-camber, broken-up chip, slumps, humps, manhole covers sticking up, weird changes of grade, narrow bridges, etc. Normally its a 80km/h run and I'd lose half of my fillings. Last night was a different story. The car soaked up all of this, and handled like a different vehicle. 100km/h felt like I was crawling. Will definitely be taking it for a proper spin after work today. Chris - Fronts were $500ea including the revalve. I have no idea if that is a sharp price or not. I didn't shop around as I already had Suspension Tech doing all the rest, and it wasn't worth mucking around chasing prices for the sake of a few $, and a lot of wasted time (not to mention the possibility of getting ones that couldn't accept the valving I wanted). Revalving is about $50 a shock, so that would make them $450 ea. Rebuilding and revalving the rears was $180 ea. I got my powerflex bushes from Dynamic Race Parts. e30 part numbers and prices for all bushes are as follows: Control arm - PFF5-301 ( 2 per car ) $48.00 + GST each x 2 = $96.00 + GST = $108.00 Front 19mm sway bar - PFF5-302-19 ( 2 per car ) $39.00 + GST each x 2 = $78.00 + GST = $87.75 Subframe - PFR5-305 (2 per car ) $81.00 + GST each x 2 = $162.00 + GST = $182.25 Trailing arm - PFR5-306 ( 4 per car- 2 x inner 2 x outer) $57.00 + GST each x 4 = $228.00 + GST = $256.50 Rear 12mm sway bar - PFR5-308-12 ( 2 per car ) $39.00 + GST each x 2 = $78.00 + GST = $87.50 Diff mount - PFR5-300 ( 1 per car ) $60.00 + GST = $67.50 I didn't get the subframe, trailing arm or diff bushes this time around. $300 of bushes was enough for one go. So all up I spent: Shocks: $1392.87 incl. freight both ways Tophat mounts: $243.84 incl freight Bushes: $288.50 incl. freight New fasteners (self locking nuts): $4.70 So Grand Total= $1929.91. And worth every penny.

Yeah Right!

Alot of the same things. Interesting how much people think they can modify an e30 for $25 k (Sam). You wouldn't even get close mate. Not doing it properly anyhow. Love how some people are thinking outside the box and choosing Alipnas etc. Never even thought of those!

What are they, and why. Pics please! You can choose modified examples as long as the entire package would still be $25k or less. Why $25k? Well once you hit $30k the options open up too much. Mine (for now): Any tastefully modified e30 - because e30's rock and they look hot, and they are so fun to drive, and really easy to modify e46 330i motorsport (manual) - fast, good looking, modern, and can be made to look awesome in standard motorsport trim just by adding some sweet wheels. e39 f/l 540i motorsport - as above but with a v8, and in black with the f/l treatment and a blacked kidney, these things look tough. e36 m3 evo - bang for buck - over 200kw in what some regard as the best handling saloon car in the world for pretty reasonable money. a mint 2002 with some simple mods - nothing beats a hot 2002.

I'd advise taking the car to a BMW specialist for a pre-purchase inspection. These are fantastic cars, but we've heard the horror stories time and again - most of which could have been avoided by getting a pre-purchase inspection by a BMW specialist. Its cheap insurance. Don't get a VTNZ or AA or VIP/VIS inspection as they only check the overall condition - they don't know the vehicles like the specialists do. Either way good luck with the purchase. I love the e39 540i's Rate in my top 3 affordable BMWs (alongside e30 m325i, and e46 330i).

Alot of the OEM ones are like this due to the fact the cars are rarely as straight as when they came out of the factory, and the clips are rarely new.

lol

Early xmas prezzies for myself: Details: Had my rear Bilstein Sports reconditioned, internal bumpstops shortened, and revalved to suit my lowered setup (Chris at Suspension Tech). Purchased brand new Bilstein Sports for the front and had them revalved and the internal bumpstops shortened. New Powerflex CA bushes (purple urethane) New Powerflex sway bar bushes (purple urethae front and rear) New OEM strut top bearing mounts (the old ones had sagged by almost 10mm which means the car will now be a touch higher, but handle/ride better. Have installed the bushes, and will install the rest tonight - was waiting on new gland nut seals for the front struts which I got today. Should improve ride and handling no end. Hopefully the added stiffness and longer travel (shortened bumpstops) will improve harshness of ride, and new rubber and urethane improve handling. Will let you know how it goes. See for sale thread for my old Bilstein Sport inserts. Will take any reasonable offer as they are no use to me now. What's next? Some minor cosmetic improvements, and now the handling is under control, some (hopefully significant) performance gains. Thanks to Keith Hartley H&R (SUSPENSION) for putting me in touch with Chris @ Suspension tech. Thanks to Chris for the expert opinion, and honest/candid advice.

Mint e30, and very cool story. If you keep the car mint, and hand it down in years to come it will be one of those mint classics with a great history. Being manual, it will hold its value (even appreciate) if cosseted and well maintained. Wee tip: Try to use paragraphs, punctuation and Capital letters at the beginning of sentences. It makes your posts heaps easier to read. Good luck with the car, she's a beauty!

Engine degreaser and a hose.

Buy any old POS e39 and get the cheapest set of chromes you can, remove the springs, done.

Plastic or fibreglass? Comes with clips for fitting? 2-door or 4-door?

Forrest - yeah I tried that, hence my question - One of the wires must be corroded somewhere and so not completing the circuit. Thanks Graeme. Will try that.

How do prices for urethane bushes compare between the Nolthane BNT ones and powerflex?

I have a shitload of photos of dozens of members cars, but none of them are high res.

As little as $7 at carjam.co.nz also.

I haven't run brake pad warning sensors for years. I know exactly how much wear I have left, and the connectors for the sensors were damaged when I got the car so I was going to have to wire in new connectors to hook up the sensors anyway. As part of my latest round of work on the car I'd like to get rid of the darn light once and for all, but still have it come on on start up. The usual solution is to short the two wires together on both sensors (Left front, Right rear), but the cables must be damaged somewhere as this doesn't work. Anyone know where the cables go so I can short them as close to the cluster or fusebox etc as possible and remove the cables more or less entirely? I can follow them back to the loom, but don't want to undo the loom to trace them back. Cheers.

I don't think so Nathan. Sweet buy for a manual! I paid almost that much for a clean 325i Auto only a couple of years ago, and it wasn't as clean as yours appears to be.

Glad you got it sorted. I was going to suggest you contact Autolign - they have all sorts of suspension and steering links available. One would have been bound to have done the job.