gjm

It won't help, but you certainly have my sympathy. If it's bad for us in our little tin boxes, it's going to be a whole lot worse for you in the Iveco. Has to be playing havoc with economy and timings.

Typically not easy to rebuild - a disposable unit, in effect. I had a long chat with @crunchy about these - it can be done, but parts can be tricky to find and the cost can easily outweigh just buying a new unit.$ I was very fortunate with our car as another forum member had a new (not Chinese! ) unit from the UK that he wasn't going to use, but the ex-BMW price is $2k+. However, don't be blindisded by claims that the turbo gives up after 100k kms. Not true - ours ran well through 400k before starting to show any sort of problem. Servicing is key.

You had a charmed trip! It has often taken longer for me to get from Papatoetoe to Te Kauwhata.

I'm using Hankooks as a budget tyre. They're generally pretty good, just not typically in the same league as good premium brands. For a 225/55r16 99V you can get the Ventus V2 (H457) for well under $200 a corner.

Yup - you can just remove the swirl flaps, but there are several suppliers of blanking plug kits that finish the job. The 'box was running pretty close to it's max torque spec when it left the factory in a 330d. Proper maintenance - as opposed to that (not) specified by BMW will prolong the life but any tuning will often see it get tired in a hurry. Same is true of the 'box in the 320d, although it's not quite so bad. Ecotune do some serious tuning kits for the 320d, but their software limits torque to protect the gearbox.

Need to check swirl flaps. Gearbox can be a weak link. I knew a guy in Norway who had the same engine in a 530d Touring - tuned to well over 300hp (he was aiming for 350) and 700Nm of torque. His gearbox was completely rebuilt by a local (to him) firm and even warrantied for 2 years at the output he was after, so it can be done.

Rant? I should coco. Here we go. NZTA f^ckwittery at it's best. 2pm on a Friday afternoon... First: SH1, looking from Dragway Road towards Hampton Downs: Absolutely no sign of anyone doing any work, or even the presence of a work-type vehicle, anywhere. Next, from the corner at the end of that straight bit, we can see the vehicle Chris ( @Jacko ) referred to: Yes - it was ablaze with orange flashing lights and arrows. It was also the only vehicle on the road. No sign of a single working person. Finally, the southbound straight that goes past the Hampton Downs exit: Further complete and utter absence of any sign of anyone doing any work during the prolonged drive along that stretch. Just over 4km of traffic cone storage. Which will be there all weekend. Then there is the subsequent 6.3km of further single carriageway... OK. Now factor in an overloaded whanau wagon never exceeding 45km/h along the entire trip. Stereotyping? I would be if it hadn't broken down about 50m short of Paddy Road, in the single carriageway section. I was 5 or 6 vehicles back, and we sat there... After several minutes I, and a couple of other drivers got out to see what was going on and all we could see was a silver Toyota Estima apparently parked in the carriageway ahead. Walking up, another guy knocked on the drivers window. The door opened and then reality ceased to exist. I kid you not. This is the stuff parallel universes are made of. "What's going on?" "It stopped. I don't know why," says the Estima driver. "So you've broken down?" "Yes." "And you're going to sit here?" "We've called for a friend to come and help us. He's on his way from Papakura." {Bear in mind that there is no way on this earth anyone from Papkura is going to get to Hampton Downs when the traffic isn't moving.] We get the bonnet open. Probably the first time in a very, very long time. It stinks of burnt toast. There's no visible water or coolant, no oil showing on the dipstick. "Have you thought of pushing your car to the junction ahead?" "Oh. Could you do that? I'd be ever so grateful." [Complete and utter disbelief from me and other people.] "You have some passengers. Could they help?" "I couldn't ask them to do that. It's raining." [Anyone know how to drive an excavator? There's a few up ahead... I think someone had to be restrained at this stage.] Eventually we persuaded the passengers to leave the vehicle. 7 of them. All huge, overweight and of.... Well, I'll let you guess the origin. I swear the Toyota breathed a sigh of relief and lifted about 5" from it's bump stops. We had to tell the driver to take the vehicle out of gear so we could push it. We didn't have much help from the passengers. The driver of the ute in front of me apologised to the rest of us for not being to get to the Estima, or he (apparently) would have used the bars on the front and shoved it firmly into the excavation trench, driver and all. Not a good start to the weekend.

SH1. Pretty much single carriageway from Rangiriri to Pokeno. Roadworks for the expressway... OK. Blocking off one carriageway for a fortnight so they can install metal barriers alongside the carriageway further down (so if you doze off at the wheel, you can bounce back into the traffic, and if you break down, you can't get very far off the road) - ridiculous. Many kms of cones with no sign of anyone working, or even a works vehicle. And then... When you come to the end of the cones (with their 70km speed limit), the speed limit lifts to 100km about 200m further on. So, 2 clear carriageways, a 70km temporary speed limit, and a f^&**G "safety" camera van just before the limit goes up to 100km/h.

I'm thinking of belts, tensioners, filters - things of that size. No diffs, cranks, gearboxes or similar.

When are you thinking of placing the order? I'm flat tack this week, but there are some smaller bits and pieces I've been considering ordering.

This is true. And sadder still are those who, because they believe (something like) climate change is a hoax, advocate continuing down the path of assured destruction that we've been following.

The more I see Z4s, especially the coupe, the more I want one. Actually, i want a Z8, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

Lilium.

Wow. I'm going to dig through stuff that I did at school - 30 years ago - where I wrote something similar, citing a 75-100 year timeline. Perhaps I was even more visionary as I was relating how electricity from solar would become prevalent, although I was discussing possibilities for hydrogen-powered cars as well as electric ones.

Are you thinking of a 4.x V8-powered E34 4WD wagon? Niiice....

E30 tax is ridiculous these days, but Grant makes a good point regarding build costs. A genuinely good, rust-free E30 is a premium item - many have rust in them that the owners don't know about. This one is also NZ new which can count for something. Prepping for race is an expensive business. There's the obvious roll cage and MSNZ certification, but all the little bits add thousands. What a 'Marsh head' is I don't know, but Peter Ball does good work. Not sure it's quite $15k-worth, but there'll certainly be more than that invested in it. Buying it as a built and proven car - one you can get in and drive and develop, rather than struggle with - is also good.

We nearly bought a pale metallic blue 525iX Touring (automatic) a while ago, but the owner decided to keep it. I'd hoped to have a look at the drivetrain but never got the chance. Does the driven front axle run in front of the sump? Or is the sump specific to the iX? Could be a limitation wrt an engine swap.

The engine in the MOIIST car is a TU - it has VANOS: 141kW(189hp)/5900rpm, 250NM(184lb.ft)/4200rpm

I think they were 4.4 (M62) from 2000-2003, then the N62 from 2004-2006. The 4.6 (M62, Alpina-derived) was available from 2001-2003, then the N62 version from 2004-2006. After that the 4.8 became available. From what I've heard, the 4.4 was a bit of a workhorse, and the 4.6 was intended to be more sporty.

Got home early to try and get something done. Felt exhausted - work has been too much this week. So sat and looked at the car instead. Through the rain which started as soon as I got home, just to ensure I wasn't going to get anything sorted.

This can be a good step along the way. It's unfortunate... We all know that we should plan these things, but the time to do them tends to come along very quickly. Perhaps book in with crunchy for a time when he can help? All sorts of benefits to that - price, local supplier, etc.

The new turbo for our 320d came from TurboDynamics in the UK. They charge around £750 for a complete turbo overhaul - that'll be NZ$1400, give or take. I've no axe to grind re the 'Pure' product - don't know it, hadn't heard of it - but the price is starting to look a little to good to be true. The price on the link @HaNs posted seems to be the going rate. (Until @crunchy has time to sort something!)

New turbo for our 320d (from BMW) would be well over NZ$2k, plus $200+ for the installation kit.

Yup. And as Scott says, changing anything isn't easy. Even names/models for cars that appear to have been made up!

Of course - I wasn't being 'funny' about your post. Just highlighting the woeful ineptitude of NZTA.