darkwolf

I'm with clic. 1998 BMW 540i. I'm but they still insured me. I'm 22, restricted licence, 15 demerits from a loss of licence . I'm fully insured for 16k with an excess of $2250, glass buy out with a/m headlights, tail lights and wheels for ~$1000 / year. Can't say fairer than that. 0800 CAR LOVE. Won't hurt to try them on.

Definately keep the warranty co in the loop. If for no other reason than to know where you stand with everything. You don't want to end up paying two warranty excesses. I've dealt with my warranty people 3 times thus far. I'm with AA. They've been pretty good each time. Only had to pay two excesses too.

From my work with computers in the past. Flashing is one of those things that should only be done if necessary as it makes the chip completely unusable in the event of failure part way through. I would say (but unfortunately I don't know how you'd prove it) that the flashing of the chip caused the failure. Either way you look at it they're cornered. If the idle problem is there after a new chip, then they haven't fixed the problem which is what you took it to them to fix before the chip got fired. If it goes away, they were right but you're still down $400, which sucks. If the idle problem is still there and they try to make you claim again, it means the chip was fine before they broke it. I'm pretty certain your warranty company will be savvy on the goings on anyway.

See the problem with those tests is that any body with a logical mind will identify the funeral as a common meeting place. And to meet that person again the conditions should be met the same. So it's really just a test of logical thinking, incorrectly diagnosed as "psychopathic". My excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I've got those in 19s and they hate pot holes, but my god do they look good on a 5 series...

I was stuck so many times. I had to face off the M3 CSL against the E39 M5 (if any one has one of these, I'd give my left or right one - but not both). Then the M1 against the E39. And I had to be respectful to the machine that started it all. But then - it was meant to be italian so the M5 won out, but only just. And then E39 M5 vs E60 M5. I hate these things. And then going through the list of that got beaten, the e90 M3, couldn't believe that got bested at the second stage. Pure torture, especially when things like a z4 got through to round 3.

Yeah but I mean if you were driving it would you be looking at the other people waving? I'd be looking to the nearest twisties

Oh. Sweet then. Now my mind can go to rest for a while. Thanks.

I'm guessing this is to do with the door locks and heater running off the same fuse. But would be cool if the door locks did have an inbuilt heater - you know to stop them freezing over.

Yeah they showed me the part. I'm concerned that I may not have understood exactly what he replaced. An air flow meter to me in very small too, about the size of my thumb again. This part wasn't it was as big as my hand. It was mainly about .5" thick and about 6" x 6" wide.

As always - the background: I own a 1998 540i with a M62B44. Would sell her my soul if she'd take it but she breaks my heart in half sometimes. I was driving back from Hamilton after the V8s. As I drove through Bulls, I noticed that at lower RPM (almost under no load) it would squeal like a stuck pig and blow oil. Managed to nurse it to my repair shop (Courtesy Ford in Levin - for reasons I won't go into in this post). Anyway initially I heard from the girl at reception that it was an intake valve causing this. I was extremely worried, as I would have had another 15 of these little buggers to eventually do the same thing if that was the case. Turns out that wasn't right - so I apologize to all of you out there that I might have told to check your intake valves. I wasn't in a fit state to think straight. I have come to find out that it was the PCV valve. Which was all fine and dandy. Must've been as the squealing has stopped and I've been keeping a close eye on the oil which has been fine. It was a 3-4 hour job which is consistent with what I was told when I looked into fixing the Mazda (turns out the Mazda's was at the front on the transverse mounted V6 - took about an hour.) What I want to know is: I replaced the PCV valve on my Mazda MS-6 which was a 1.8l V6, and it was a little thing about the size of my thumb. What I was shown was a big black plastic thing about the size of my hand span - maybe bigger. Have I missed something, on my engine does the PCV valve come as part of another unit? Is there something about V engines and not liking them? Should I be worried now that its fixed i.e. is it likely to have done any extra damage to other components that I should worry about? Is it common? I should probably mention I had a heater hose let go around the area the valve was removed from, which may or may not have been a contributing factor. Or the careless little so&sos who broke my radiator bleed valve (and thought I wouldn't notice) when fixing my heater problem may have caused damage to it too.

Just reading this it would be epic if swine flu suddenly took hold. This thread just seems to be baiting it. Seriously though I'm not stressed. There was a bigger influenza break out a couple of years ago and the media said 1/10th of sweet f a about it. But when you give it a fancy name the media loves it. I could go on about the effect of the media on the current "recession" but I won't. Most of you would fall asleep... or just skip over it anyway.

Lady525, as a suggestion, seeing as the car is lowered anyway (unless the mags are playing tricks with my eyes) why not go to an 18" or a 17" wheel to allow you more rubber and thus the added benefits of: Pot hole tolerance. Comfort Cheaper tyres (eg a 19" goodyear asymmetric $500+) Better handling too. I've currently got 19s on mine and while I absolutely love the look of them, I'm getting really sick of the cost of tyres, the lack of pot hole tolerance, the fact that my 540i feels like its running on cutties (I mean I have sports suspension - if I wanted firm I could turn it on). I hate them so bad I'm seriously pricing up some new 17s. Plus I'm possibly looking at going wider at the back cos I can

Saw one in Hamilton a fortnight ago. I almost crashed - they shouldn't be allowed they are distracting to other drivers

Jim Tavare is awesome. Has anyone else seen him on last comic standing?

Welcome. Don't shine the leather too much or passengers in the back seat make a hell of a noise sliding from one side to the other... Don't ask me how I know...

That cherry black is sweet. Which ever way you go, keep it shiny. Otherwise it just looks like you couldn't afford to get it done properly. Read - Matte paint looks like it should be on your house.

My 1998 540i is currently in getting an intake valve replaced. Failure sucks big time. You haven't noticed any oil out the exhaust or squealing from the engine when it happens?

I was told it was a knock sensor on my celica (very similar description). (Can you hear a change in tone when it happens? Turned out to be spark plug leads.

In the 6 months I've owned my 540i: $1350 wheels and tyres. $250 on warranty for heater hose splitting at the back of the engine. $300+ Service (just done on monday still awaiting invoice) $250 on warranty for intake valve failure (happened on monday - as I was driving in to book my service) $202.50 to repair a broken wheel from pot holes $38.99 Headlight bulbs (god damn birds) $2391.49 TOTAL or $398.58/month This excludes registration, WOF, petrol etc. Petrol I'd estimate at about $500-600/month So about $1,000 a month isn't really very good. I bought the car for only a bit more than I'm looking at spending every year on my car. If I didn't love driving this car as much as I do I'd have sold it. I'm seriously thinking about it now but I just can't bring myself to do it.

They were probably trying to help you out. Re tyremate. How have they gone under. I only ask as if it is in insolvency proceedings (VA, Liqiudations, Receivership) you might be trying to ice skate up hill to get much back, as you'll be recorded (at best) as an unsecured creditor. ATM (if this is the right company) they haven't registered with the companies office as such : Companies Office You could possibly use the details listed here to contact the director/shareholder but bear in mind if the company is put into liquidation you could find that you must repay your deposit back to the liquidator under Section 292 of the Companies Act 1993 (Voidable Transactions). I think there are other situations where transactions may be voidable but I suggest you have a search through the companies act 1992 to find more. You may have a case against the director if he took the deposit from you while the company was insolvent. If you would like any more information flick me a PM and I'll let you know more.

People go on about Toyota Reliability. Its so true... on the right car. My 1989 corona cost me $2k needed a new clutch not long after I bought it (once the car heated up the clutch was gone - down to the rivets in fact). But other than that has been gold. My 1989 celica on the other hand - I bought it for $350 to take the engine out and put in the Corona which had done 312,000KMs and was still going strong, but figured the more powerful engine would be fun. Driving the celica home I just couldn't bring myself to rip the car apart when it had only done 136,000KMs. So I started driving the celica. Over the last 2 months I owned it I started spending $200 a fortnight replacing parts. I started by replacing the tyres ($800) then the shocks ($800), then got a wheel alignment and then a fortnight later the top hat on the right front strut let go. So replaced that ($350) and got another wheel alignment done. But it was all worth it in the end... I decided if I was spending that on repairing an old car I'd buy a new (newish anyway) car. I bought my first BMW 1998 BMW 540i. I then had to replace the tyres, while on the hoist getting my last two tyres put on the car, the heater hose at the back of the engine split. I then had to pay the excess for that to be repaired, while the replaced that they broke my bleed valve on the top of the radiator - but didn't tell me. Just under a week later (by 2 hours actually) my car told me to check my coolant level. I popped the bonnet and was greeted by a lovely fountain from the top of the radiator. Repaired that and then went over a pot hole and bent one of my wheels. So I currently have the spare wheel on so I can get the wheel repaired. Old cars aren't the problem. Cars are in general. But I don't mind. If I wasn't spending money on my car I'd be spending it some other way. So why not have something I can oggle at when ever I want?

Absolutely agree. I mean you can put 215 on a 7.5" rim if you really want to. Why go through so much extra effort to fit a 10"? Just my 2c. Call me a fuddy duddy.

Though from the position (if she is in fact a trap) you could be in with even more of a grin.

I was going to ask if the M3 GT-R was able to be used as a work around for this rule? I'm assuming it can as it would seem a lot of work to have done only to find the proper research hadn't been done to begin with.