gjm

This morning on SH1 in Huntly, a northbound grey E28 M5. Lovely.

It'd need one of the numbers in the price completely removing before I could consider it, too.

That'll be us.

I am. :-)

Probably not. Correct fitment for an E46 would be a 225/40-18 tyre, and this would need something closer to a +45 offset. That extra 20mm is going to be pushing things.

Where? Is it really, really cheap?

And despite best intentions, and quite possibly being closer to HD than anyone else, I didn't make it. Not a great day on many fronts... Taken most of the day to get a few things sorted. Hopefully there will be another time. Perhaps I can get there for the AMCC meet tomorrow.

Joe Public gets scared of what they think are big km numbers. Glad I didn't.

Another 3-series ute: I've not seen this one - a friend emailed the pic from Pretoria.

Yup - that would be nice. Just $20k more than I could afford at the moment.

I lost interest after the B5. :-)

Give it a couple of months and someone will have bought it.

Funny how none of the reports I've seen make any mention of the Mazda pulling out on the Lambo. It's all been about the potential top speed of the supercar. "The moment a £300k Lamborghini Aventador crashed and became airborne, the 217mph supercar became airborne as flew round a bend, clipping a Mazda" - which had pulled out in front of the oncoming car. That said, the Lambo does appear to have been moving far too fast - Knightsbridge has a pretty much blanket 30mph (maximum, as many parts are 20mph) speed limit; that bit is 30mph. Show off time gone wrong, no doubt, although other reports suggest the driver had been tearing around the area for some time.

I kinda hoped the 'drop sump' bit might suggest draining the oil first! But yes - do this at the same time as an oil and filter change.

My E46 has an orange light that comes on 10 seconds after starting the engine, and goes off again about 10-15 seconds later. This is to tell me that the oil level sender isn't working. In itself, it's not an issue provided you regularly check the oil level in your engine. Y'know, just like the old days? Lol Solution - drop sump, replace sender. Hella p/n 007868031, BMW p/n 1261-1439-810. Of course, yours might be a different orange light.

I can offer interest, but sadly that's about it. (In 1hp, or many more. )

I'll keep an eye on the thread for times and stuff.

I'm 10 minutes up the road and while I don't have anything I'd want to put around the track, I'd like to come along and soak up the atmosphere. I'm pretty good at changing wheels, too.

From our E46 Touring, 4 Style 73 rims, 7x17 et47, rim weight 9.36kg, pcd 5x120, center bore 72.5mm, fitted with Bridgestone Playz tyres, in 205-55/17 (weight unknown!) Centre caps are included. They look like this, but are currently a bit dirtier: No chunks missing from any of the rims: 1 rim has a graze which would be easily sorted, 1 rim has a very minor scuff, the other two are untouched. These are repairs that could be done at home by someone if they wished. Tyres - all are worn. Let's not pretend they are new, ae? The worst is no less than 2mm across the entire width (this is very pessimistic), but the others have more tread, up to 4mm. Wear is even. Not sure what or how it has happened, but there is something that looks like perishing on the outside shoulder of the tyres. I've monitored this and it hasn't got worse, hasn't deteriorated in any way, doesn't appear to affect driving (I've not noticed anything) and passed a WoF without mention. These will fit any E46 (except M3), and other BMWs including the E36. Price... Hmm. Not seen many of these for sale recently. $250 or offers, collected from Te Kauwhata, or I can deliver towards Hamilton. Elsewhere too, if you'll cover my travel. I'd like these gone ASAP!

I'd be keen, but my Touring has roof rails so fitment is different. :-(

I don't know what happened to it, but there was a car near-identical to mine on TM recently. Relisted after it 'sold' for $10k.

A lot later than planned, but I spoke to Shane this morning. Very, very helpful - thanks.

I've also used Coombes in Hamilton - Fabian is a brilliant and very helpful guy. He understands he can't always match another suppliers prices but has a good go at it. And he's been in the business long enough to know what is good and what isn't.

I needed new rear discs for the E46 Touring. Brent at BMWorld was local and very helpful, had a pair of discs and set of pads (used but not very much at all). Sadly saloon rear brake parts don't fit a Touring. Spoke to Paul at Milland who was able to supply very economically. This is in no way a slight to any other dealers and/or forum sponsors, who may have also been able to help - Milland's number was handy and I was in a hurry! Not so much of a hurry that I had to go to Repco, though. Repco, SCA and the like cater for the mass-market. Yesterday I needed a headlight bulb - H7, 12V, 55W. The one that had blown came from Repco (it was stamped on the base) and as luck would have it, we were at Dick Smith in Pukekohe, next door to Repco. Repco did not have a H7 55W bulb on display. Not. A. Single. One. OK, they had lots of H7 55W +30%, white, arctic white, blue, +50% and other variations, but not a single plain, vanilla, ordinary item. (Mismatched bulbs will fail a WoF.) I asked at the counter and after about 5 minutes, and having checked the display themselves, they found one 'out the back'. It was about $5 more than a +30% item. I'm not that fussed - I need one bulb and would have otherwise had to buy a pair. But when standard costs more than a purportedly uprated one, it shows where the market is going if nothing else.

I didn't get in either, despite saying I drove a BMW and was considering a change of car! Good to hear it was a fun day out.