bravo

Only the M3 AFAIK. M40 318i is SOHC. I don't know about the aftermarket cam option. Post up some pics including of the engine bay if you are unsure of whether you are looking at a genuine IS.

In my parents home (the one due to have some smart wiring installed) there are touch-sensitive light switches with infra-red remotes. This is a good idea as you can switch or dim the lights from your bed without installing separate switches, and the brass touch panel near the door looks cool in a star-trek kind of way. All the remotes are interchangeable and have a range of around 10m. As kids we used to sneak into the hall and "zap" each other's lights on by remote in the middle of the night and be well back in bed before the poor bugger who copped it was awake enough to discover who'd done it. The only downside (as my younger brother found out) was that repetitive shooting of the touch panel with a BB gun eventually kills the panel. As far as smart wiring goes I'd imagine that a central control panel with individual switches in each room to control lights and say a main remote would be the go. This means that no matter what you can still go back to the main control panel to change settings, you don't have to always carry a remote just to go to the bathroom to turn the light on, and you can still control everything from the couch/bed/wherever if you want by the main remote. Plus internet access so if for instance your alarm goes off - you'll get a txt on your mobile. You go to the nearest internet terminal, log-in to your house and you can see live feeds from your cameras, lock doors, control lights, close gates, whatever. Or you can spy on your kids and make sure they are behaving, or you can cancel the oven from switching the chicken on automatically at 4pm because you've just been invited to dinner with friends and don't want to have to rush home and switch it off. etc etc.

The high beam on my 325 has a crack and last week a stone smashed the lowbeam on the 320 both LHS. So anyone with a LHS headlight set ellipsoids please let me know what you want for them. (don't have to be smiley's but def want ellipsoids) I don't expect to pay the earth for them either.

That's because we're all sick of losing the damn remote!

OLD Search?

Gay - I think you are trapped. They may simply want to use the time to find a replacement. Do the time and the new job will be all the sweeter.

Saw it on Sunday around 11am man - went to come say hi and you'd already boosted. Looks better than you described. How come you didn't come round for a show-off session? Interested in the wheels - msn me.

Liquid Leather - Available in NZ or import?

And I presume that either a) your car does not have the power-window cut-off switch, or b ) you have already checked this??? It is a switch located on the centre console ahead of the window switches - there are often two - one disables rear windows only, the other all windows. Yuo may have simply bumped this switch?? or perhaps the wires have fallen off? May be a simple fix. K.I.S.S. principle.

I've seen plenty of electric wondowed pre f/ls

Done - interested in the results as my father's company installs this stuff. He is getting the family home converted quite soon. WIll be interesting to see what it is like.

Make sur you inherit the 525 fora future 2.7 rebuild then. a really tidy '88 is worth somewhere around $4k+ depending on options and actual condition and the market it is being sold in - prices don't start to jump till you hit the late '91/'92's with the m50 engines. That said there is some fool asking $11500 for a really tidy but stock/auto 20 or 525i in a recent Classic Car (Ferrari GTO on the cover). What about boring out and stroking to make a 2.5L - would cost about the same and you'd get a m20b25 essentially but with a history you know (rather than buying someone elses problems)

Look down the side just below the bottom corner of the seat back. On each side there are small metal tabs held on by 10mm bolts. Sometimes there is a small flap of vinyl covering them which might be why you can't see them. Once they're undone the back slides upwards (remove headrests first and use gentle but firm force). What sound setup you gonna be running?

Idiots! Gosh! The signal from the CD/mp3 changer is an audio stream - already decoded by the cd changer - not a raw data stream directly off the CD - have a look at your retailer - some CD changers are mp3 capable and others aren't - wonder why that is??? And if you can tell the difference between CD and high-bit-rate mp3 over factory bmw speakers with the usual road noise then you have ears like the chick on the JVC ad. Unless you have a competition level SQL setup or have very low-bit-rate mp3 files, you won't be able to tell the difference - I'll stake a beer on it.

Talking out your arse Carl! The cd changer is the device that decodes the information before sending to the headunit - you need an mp3 capable changer. I don't know what year bmw supports mp3 in the changer, but aftermarket mp3 capable cd changers start at a little under $300.

If you READ that page, the author found that to start the car the neutral wire had to be jumpered, but for cruise control to work the circuit had to be broken so the cruise control computer thought the car was in gear. This would mean installing a switch on the "neutral/park" circuit to do this to allow the car to start, then flick the switch to allow cruise control to work, then flick back once stopped to restart the car - in other words a total f**king disaster. In a manual vehicle, presumably the "neutral/park" circuit is jumpered or disabled within the ecu or ecu harness and the cruise control computer left to it's own devices. Don't worry about it - i'll figure it out and do a write-up - I just thought someone may ahve done it already - obviously not.

Yeah - I've seen that - an on/off switch for my cruise control to bypass the neutral switch and create an immobilser of sorts is an inelegant solution. I want it to be as-factory if possible. Thanks anyway.

Who's done one on a car with cruise control? Apart from the microswitch you have to hook up to the clutch pedal, how do you trick the cruise control computer into thinking the car is in gear whilst jumpering the auto position cables to make the car think it is in neutral/park so it will start? I havn't tried to do it yet and I am sure it is easy, but if someone has done it already it will save me the hassle of figuring it out.

PYLE of crap - but well priced. It so happens you get what you pay for - ie, less cost = more dead pixels, burnout, failure. That said, at that price who cares?

what's your mafia name? Typed in sven007 = Mama's Boy Gino : Sorry bro, I know the look you're going for, but its just hilarious the way you describe it. Oh, and you never see mafioso types on the news in cars sporting chromes - always black/silver luxury vehicles lowered and tinted, but otherwise standard trim.

go to nzicemag.co.nz forums. PM a guy called 'cheese' He sells/leases coffee machines to offices etc. He'd be able to help you with your research and is in the right industry. Get some sort of partnership going even??? I don't know him personally, but seems like a friendly chap.

Mine did the same. I found that it was the starter on the way out. However - a tune up so that it started easier fixed the problem for awhile until the starter finally gave in. I think it happens when they get hot from too much turning over.

That's the biggest (and ugliest IMO) eyebrow I've ever seen! There is the odd car in NZ sporting an eyebrow. Order one over the net from the UK seems to be a popular option for getting hold of them.

When your headlights are off, so are your fogs, they don't come on unless the headlights are on, therefore they are fogs. The total number of lamps is not specified - only the maximum number of each type. You can have two dipped beam, two main beam, two fog, two running, two cornering (different to indicators) two "position indicator lamps" making a total 10 forward facing white lamps if you want EXCEPT that the running lamps cannot be on while the headlights are on and the fogs can not be used in clear day or night conditions.

This comes up quite often on here. Every time either myself or someone else reaches for their handy copy of the WOF regulations and patiently copies it into the post. Here is a cut and paste from an article written by the AA on the issue. I blatantly ignore this law and run my fogs on with my headlamps. Rear fogs however are the devil - I followed a friends e30 with them on for some distance and was tempted to rear end him to put the bright littel buggers out. I am not as offended by fog lamps during the day or night, so no problem morally there for me. And in case you are wondering the lamps on e30's at least are fog lamps not driving lights.