gjm

I knew there was something different, but (without having checked) thought the sedan and touring bars were the same, but the coupe one was different. I'll keep looking for a touring bar, or modify/design/make one from the E36 one I have here.

I found the TM guy when looking for a 'bar for our Touring. I thought they were the same (sedan and touring) but he assures me that's not the case. Whatever. Didn't seem too fussed about selling the 'bar on it's own when I'd asked.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/bmw/gear-boxes/auction-774881770.htm I've no connection to the trader.

Got tied up with doing a whole load of stuff over the weekend and missed this. :-( Did see some nice-looking cars on trailers heading south at one point, though.

Tried that, although I have so far only lifted one side at a time. Time to get the whole front in the air.

No pulling that I recall, just the steering wheel juddering: juddering probably describes the feeling better than vibrating. It does it above about 70km/h, does it for a few minutes, then stops. All fine before and after. Disconcerting. And very puzzling. And I want to fix it!

I'll recheck the tyres, but I agree - I'd expect something more consistent if that was the issue.

Actually, very, very intermittent. A few weeks ago we were driving (quite gently) when the steering began to vibrate quite badly. It was a sudden onset - no deterioration or similar. Just a sudden significant vibration, bad enough that it felt almost like th front of the car was shaking. Slowing to around 50km/h meant the vibration appeared to go away. Above that it came on, and while the severity doesn't vary significantly with speed, it is bad enough that I wouldn't try to 'drive through it'. We stopped, I got out and checked wheel nuts (a similar previous experience, years ago, could be traced to a loose wheel) lifted and spun tyres, shook the wheels... No obvious issue. Back on the road, problem persisted and then... It was gone. Completely. Back to normal smooth as silk driving. I assumed I'd picked up a stone or something and while I did think about it, didn't worry unduly. ... Several thousand kms later... ... Yesterday, it happened again. It is quite a violent vibration. The steering wheel visibly moves, and you can feel it through the seats. Reduce speed, drive gently... And it was gone a few minutes later. OK - note to self: this needs more investigation. Write off next weekend. But this morning it happened again. (So the investigation is more urgent!) However, it has been impossible, so far, to replicate the issue. It 'just happens', then 'just stops'. If it happens again, we're going to try the IT 'reboot it' solution - stop, switch off car, remove key from ignition, restart car - just to check that doesn't resolve the problem. Thoughts so far: a misshapen tyre (although I'd expect a much more persistent issue if that was the case), CBA bushings (again, I wouldn't expect the vibration to seemingly turn on and off, and these were done a couple of years ago), or sticking brake caliper (most reasonable and likely-seeming candidate at the moment). Any thoughts? Recommendations for somewhere that will do caliper refurb?

$8250 sounds (to me) like a lot if it's not in at leat good condition. Give Bellars a call. See what they have to say - looks like they've seen it fairly recently.

I don't know if this is Jon's sort of thing, but JKSE in Newtown have a very good reputation.

SnapOn and BluePoint are pretty much the same thing, but with a significant price difference. Heard good things about Koken, but haven't used any. Stahlwille spanners are the absolute business (imho), but you may need to buy in from Germany to get decent prices. They are typically slimmer than most, but so well made they are less likely to cause problems. I have a couple of sets of 'Halfords Professional' spanners which are really nice to use. Very similar to early Kamasa kit. (Halfords are like a UK version of Repco.)

I was going to ask the same! Seriously - I'm interested.

And here we see why I posted what I did in #15. It's not just NZ. It's a confusion of indetermination world wide. In some countries the terms 'lane splitting' and 'filtering' are used interchangeably, but in some they mean different things. (I don't know if that's the case in NZ.) In some countries one law applies to motorcycles, and another to pedal cycles. I think it is the differentiation between passing a vehicle while remaining within the same marked lane, or moving out of the lane and into an adjacent one, but I don't know which of these would be deemed inappropriate or dangerous. The question of stationery or moving traffic also plays a part, and then there is the question of what constitutes 'slow moving' traffic, or traffic moving slowly enough for lane splitting (or filtering) to be legally permissible. (Note: I didn't say safe!) I'll research it properly sometime. Perhaps NZ law does make it explicitly clear and I've just not read the right bit, yet. Given the inability of so many road users to read and obey a sign stating 'Keep left unless passing', there must be a case for ensuring any rules for road use are as clear as possible. As a motorcyclist I ride as safely as possible, and treat every other road user as though they are out to kill me. I give them as much space as I possibly can, using the full width of the carriageway if necessary. After all - it makes no difference whatsoever if I'm right or wrong in the event of an accident: I'm always going to come off worst.

... And then there is a seemingly different set of laws that apply to motorcyclists. I've not quite got to the bottom of what is legal, illegal, allowed, frowned on, or what you can get away with when on a bike without attracting unwanted attention. I believe it to be legal to pass a vehicle on the left, using the left lane on a multi-lane highway. Given the number of people indiscriminately using the right hand lane at 85km/h, this is perhaps just as well. (And not all of them respond to flashed headlights...) It comes back to the same discussion that's been had here and elsewhere. Better driver education is needed.

The right hand lane thing confounds me. Many roads have signs explicitly saying to keep left, but still there are a huge number of drivers who this obviously doesn't apply to.

I like it!

Kyu - you appear to be trying to help resolve the issue. This is good. He doesn't appear to be being helpful. Be aware that some people, despite not being 'i phone technician' are not beyond swapping components and claiming something received is faulty. Do you have detail of the IMEI number? It may become relevant. I had exactly this with a Dell laptop - the buyer swapped the motherboard and claimed receipt of a faulty device. Fortunately I had lots of specific tech info and photographs...

I've heard some people say that... I used them and haven't had any issues. Good tyre. 452s are directional, not that that should cause any additional noise issues.

Koni Sport yellow for the Merc - $576 for a set of four. (Plus gst, duty, customs, shipping...) Does that price include local (US) sales tax? I have some serious head scratching to do. I'd need springs too, and had been considering a Yellow Speed Racing set up. Need to check that the ones I'd looked at are comparable to Koni yellows.

Combined is quoted as 37mpg (in the UK) = 7.63 litres per 100km.

Has exactly the same (quoted) economy as the Polo 1.6 auto we have here. Hmm.

Yup. Still seems odd... OK, they don't fit. Surprising perhaps, but not impossible. The buyer would like to recoup his outlay. Fair enough. So list them back on here at the 'good' price with an explanation. Don't list them on TM for a significant profit - that's not playing the game nicely. Julian - you're being very nice about this. I think the rest of us are annoyed on your behalf.

I had a really good look for the ISV at the weekend. I think it is under the inlet manifold, making it a nightmare to get to from above or below. I've got as far as possibly being able to touch it - I don't really want to remove the inlet manifold. I took the plastic cover off the side of the throttle body too: _ There is no sign of any method of adjusting idle, base or otherwise, on this TB. I think there is a motor in the side of the throttle body which is designed to rotate the large beige cog to open the throttle at idle or when cold. The first picture shows a connector (secured by two torx screws) above the throat: this takes a moulded 4 (or 6) pin plug, and I'd expect receives an input from the ISV via an ECU. There's no easy way to disassemble the gearing on the side of the TB as the silver cam-shaped piece on the top is peened to the shaft. Still runs well when I put it back together, so I've not broken anything irrepairably (yet). So that's as far as I've got with the tickover issue. The hesitation while driving... Could this be due to a vacuum building up in the fuel tank? I need to pay more attention when driving to see if that's the case. Full tank/half tank, and so on. It certainly only seems to happen after driving for a while, which (I'm guessing) may have allowed a vacuum to build up.

The newer cars (like our E46) have it beaten for power and torque, but that's the benefit of 10 years' development including hybrid turbos and more advanced ECUs. The E34 525tds has an 80 litre tank, the E46 holds 64 litres.

Something like this, or a Mercedes 300TD. I'm quite patient, really.