Dave@nz

Looks like a euro spec M3 it has the extra fuel tank and indicator lights in the front guards and no cruse control x Japan would be my best guess as well. I am not to keen on the extras either not really any special items. What surprises me is how little effort in presentation and cleaning has been made for a 50k classic car.

Use a 4L container drill the cap and fit a long plastic clear hose from bottom of container to car gearbox. Make sure plastic hose is tight fit in cap hole . Install small tap in plastic hose to turn flow on and off. Drill small hole in cap and pressurise container with air gun 5psi should do it. Fluid will flow from container along inside hose to tap, turn tap on fluid flows to gearbox. Dave.

Hi Clive, Based on my experience .03 amp draw is okay, you should see minimum of 13.8v to max around 14.5v charging while engine is revving above 1000rpm. I am not sure on your Trojan guide at all sounds to complicated to me, if intact it was loosing 4 amps per day from no use it would be flat within a few weeks and what that his may be alluding to is with short drives the battery is not recovering the energy lost through the starting process. What I would do is use one of the modern battery chargers the ones which can do calcium and gell batteries and fully charge it let it sit for a day then work out the trojan table over the following days probably come up with a different figure. I suspect you may have to purchase a battery tender you are probably not quite using it enough to keep the battery in tip top order. Dave.

There was a nice l/h drive 2.5 190e last year on trade me. On another note I have also brought 2008 C200 Avant grade and awaiting delivery.

Hi, Has anyone used autotraderimports.com for purchasing used car from Japan auction and shipping to NZ. Just looking for feed back or personal experience. http://www.autotraderimports.com/category/stock/country/others/ Thanks in advance

You have to admit it is in superb near new condition and there are people who would not worry if about it being rh drive most likely retire age who want to enjoy them selves. It was like when restoring it to new condition but at the last minute decided on some tacky colours for the interior, for me the white handbrake boot, steering wheel and gear leaver boot would have to go straight away next would be the white speedo dials all back to original.

I would try using some side cutters, might sound strange but it works well. Use the jaws to bite in to either side of the head while you twist. If that does not work drill the head off.

I Agree with you the drivers solenoid would my first port of call should be able to get a used one reasonably priced to swap it over and try.

Still looking to move this on, it is taking up room in my garage.

Green stripe is correct for front M3 springs 6 main coils and from memory they are in a few models of e30. 31331130043 Rear are M3 only white stripe on all the coils and red stripe on two coils with 3 large main coils. 33539061084 or 33539061510 I am not sure what your rear ones are from, colour codes are not correct for M3. If you clean the spring around the pad contact area should be p/n on it.

Well done Kevin, Great work to be doing this at home bet you saved a bundle by doing it yourself. Quite a complex design and looks like the orings and filter have have a limited life good quality oil and frequent changes would be the thing to do. Dave.

Interesting that 100,000 km figure it is like it has been pre programmed in to everyone "must sell" before or the wheels fall of the wagon, it is more how it has been looked after.

+1 for on the hoist investigate, another thing easterly overlooked is the top mount bush for the shocks. Don’t discount sway bar links and bushes it is even wort disconnecting them for a short drive to see if there is any change.

I am on my second set of Toyo tyres first set were Proxes Ct01 which wore well looked good and overall very happy with. Second set are Proxes 4 which for a 50 series tyre looked like a 70 series they have a lot of side wall showing almost looked to big especially when new, now 6 months old the appearance is better with more of a bulge in the side wall rather than hight, this may only be for my size tyre E36, 225-50-16. Other than that very happy with Toyo tyres especially on price point $200 per cnr, I have RE002 on another vehicle and would not recommend them to hard on the sidewall and not a quite tyre. Dave.

Interesting info from both sides. The plaque shown is from AK05 Euro spec M3, What John is saying if I am correct All Euro spec M3's from sold new in Japan will have: close ratio gear box, aux tank, different fuel gauge, indicators in the guards speedo in km/h. I have seen what look like euro spec M3's with out the close ratio box but have not checked to see what tank is in there, from what you are saying there should be aux tank installed if it is euro spec and some one possibly removed the gearbox or was it customer ordered like that?

Money well spent there bet you are happy with those.

Some wof inspectors and garages don't want to have there name on anything which may reflect badly on them which is understandable it is there livelihood that may not be the case here, if I was in this situation making sure the car is clean and tidy and dress smartly would probably go a long way to grease the wheel so to speak. Good luck with your wof problem.

Hi, I did notice how much carbon in the top end there was and around all the orings etc, have you thought about changing to diesel oils and changing oil every 1000km until basically clean oil draining out then move to 5k changes. There are some really good diesel oils with plenty of options on brands and grades now. Dave.

Looks real nice look after it and keep an eye on where you park up.

Hi, I checked out ebay Germany for resto on my M3 wheel best one I could find is in the link I have not tried to contact them, 2 options either recover your original or exchange from what I could work out plus good feed back. Also options of stitching colour and leather types. Looking at the web site you listed it is very hard to see the quality of the workmanship as there are no detail photos of the steering wheels, looks like a true specialist job to get factory finish and unless you can find someone in NZ who is doing them regularly probably cost a small fortune. http://www.ebay.de/itm/300916390365?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

Interesting about early E36 not having anti theft device, I advised my friend at work when his wife had there skyline sedan stolen to buy an E36 sedan (which he did) instead of the Subaru s/w he was looking at due they are basically theft proof with door lock buttons which don't unlock the door when it is locked if the window is broken and chip in the key. I hope you get your car back or find an ideal replacement with the correct badge up front.

Hard one to give a definite answer to. Mine was sold new in Hiroshima 1987 full euro spec I have the build order details including what month it was built and sold in Japan, I have seen other full euro spec early ones which have been imported from Japan to NZ for sale over the last 10 years. I have met some Aus M3 owners, one has one which is from japan euro spec non dog and has also seen a mixture he commented mine was quite rare full euro spec and with the indicators in the sides of the front guards. From what I can work out more common in the early models of M3 to be full euro spec and from what I have seen over the years from 1988 onwards more common to see non dogleg gearbox ones from Japan. Not sure with out doing a lot of research but suspect it is something to do with the type code mine is 1005, US = 1003 and I suspect somehow that equates to what gearbox you end up with but not sure on that. Nearly forgot to mention the other way to be sure it was built new for the Japanese market like mine under the bonnet there is a plaque on it: chassi number and "Authorised BMW Japan Model" BMW / Munich West Germany and logo.

That is correct for US spec and the majority of Japanese ones but some M3s sold new in Japan were full euro spec.

Hi First of all sorry to read of your loss, I am interested in how this is possible the car won't start with out the transponder key also getting in to it would be a challenge.

If you intend installing dogleg in a E30 M3 as I understand it there is a difference between dogleg gearboxes the cast lugs on each side for rubber mounts to bolt on is where the difference lays. I am not sure with out doing some research certain (635csi and ?) models of BMW had the dogleg with mount lug on one side only. 265-5 is what you need for M3. 262 from 635csi is what you don't want, it can be installed after new centre section is "found" and installed. Dave.