gjm

If I had any money, I'd be all over this. GLWS.

The new forum software doesn't support Tapatalk - it adapts to whatever browser is being used and optimises accordingly. See here and subsequent posts.

There's a significant problem. NZ traffic law allows people to legally cause an obstruction on the road, even if the Road Code recommends keeping left unless overtaking. I had a situation similar to this today, where I was the one joining a road, requiring (me to filter in. Big - BIG - gap in the queue of traffic I was joining, probably 40m or so. I moved to a position where I would filter in and the next thing I know a white Mazda coupe has accelerated and closed the gap to.... Exactly where I was going to join. The driver sat alongside me. Didn't attempt to get ahead of me - he'd closed a 30m or so gap simply to stop me joining the queue of traffic. I slowed, and filtered in behind them. The "Why?" of this is an unanswered question, although we could perhaps take into account the seriously reclined seat, the baseball cap on backwards and the slouch against the door while holding the wheel with one hand driving position. It's road user attitude that needs to change. And the attitude of policing where anyone exceeding the speed limit is an instant criminal, but dodgy driving (under the speed limit) is fine.

While under there, I noticed the rear 'box on the exhaust is starting show signs of old age, especially at the input to the 'box. Is it worth taking it off, cleaning down and repainting, or is it likely to fail even if I do that?

Feckin' eejit drivers doing 85-90km/h in the outside lane of a dual carriageway with nothing inside them. Not that they'd catch it anyway... And doing it while eating an ice cream! And the police traffic cop who passed her on the inside, didn't bat an eyelid, and pulled someone (not me!) over for doing just under 110km/h... Priorities. Wrong.

Changed the diff oil this morning. Damn, those plugs were tight! Used Castrol Syntrax 75W90. The BMW-supplied product is SAF-XO Synthetic Oil, which is 75W90. Sweet. The oil that came out actually looked a lot cleaner than I expected, and there was about the right amount. It did seem thinner than I'd expected, certainly thinner than the 75W90 I put in. And there was a small gravel chipping that came out too. The capacity is 1.1L which is so close to 'fill it 'til it comes out of the fill hole' as to be insignificant.

Changed the diff oil in Miss M's E36.

There's a problem with the lock in the drivers door too... Probably due to wear. I can lock it, sometimes, and sometimes it'll lock the other doors too. But when you get behind the wheel you sometimes find the immobiliser hasn't deactivated! It's just 'character', right?

The other thing about the early MX-5 was that despite having been caned day in and day out, they didn't break. Look after it, and it looked after you.

Dinosaurs, that's what they are. This is the new way!

Lol! We did that at work, when I was in the UK. With a website for Her Majesty's Government. It was supposed to be a test site, and the live one would be hosted from the DC, but somehow the DNS got messed up and the doggy POS on the desktop ended up being the live server.

Keep praying it's not the heater matrix... I didn't find any damp inside the car, but I could smell coolant so hopefully that'll not be your problem.

Just once, though, eh?

Closest I've got to a RS6 is the B7 RS4 Avant. 4.2 V8 with an 8000rpm redline. The S65 is awesome. So easy to drive. And if you get bored, it's so easy to tune, too. 600hp can become up to 1000hp, but the torque stays limited to 1200Nm to save the drivetrain from destruction. Apparently it can be beefed up to withstand 1600Nm, which the engine is happy to deliver.

Not driven the fast Audi... Did have a drive in a 10-year-old Mercedes S65 recently. OMFG... 600hp and limited to 'just' 1000Nm. Sure it's fast (funny, that!), but it's the comfort and the ease with which it drives slowly that made it even more astonishing.

The new software adapts better to detected browsers, meaning Tapatalk isn't needed.

Ta.

The 'Other European Cars' sub-forum should resolve to http://bimmersport.co.nz/forum/32-other-european-cars/, but for some reason redirects to http://www.eurosport.org.nz/.

Check the coolant level regularly and ensure it's not overfilled. It could be accumulated condensation in the exhaust as a result of sitting for a while in cold weather.

Oil typically causes black or blue smoke, so this is probably a water (coolant) related issue. Are you losing coolant? Has the engine overheated at all? Where does the temperature needle normally sit? Looks like moisture is being burned off. Check cylinder compression or preferably get a leakdown test done... Could be head gasket related, or (hopefully not) a tiny crack in the cylinder head.

Another not-TradeMe, but another great build. https://www.mecum.com/lots/CA0816-244391/1979-bmw-320i-resto-mod/

Ask Andy - Ethrty320. He was breaking one (or more) E36s.

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/56139-sold-17x85-et13-acs-type-2-reps/

Saw that on the conversion I did. I'll see if I can find the details. It's fixable.