zero

No hoses came off - just a terrible photo as Mount Vesuvius erupted.

trans cooler is separate.

My car is just a dumb n46 with a broken mirror and dirty wheels but I love this car - its my baby. And I don't have $5k to drop on another car. When I had this car only a short time Glenn said to me to not get emotionally attached to it but it was too late, even then.

I have the trans in the parts car connected to the m54b25, but the n46b20 engine uses a different trans. If I simply just swap out the trans on my car (no engine conversion) then I need to buy a trans. I dont need to buy another trans cooler though, as I can steal the one off the parts car. I will have to remove and clean so many parts on my n46 as the sludge will be everywhere. I will have to put a radiator flush through too, to get all the sludge out of the water galleys in the engine.

My parts car has the same trans cooler if I go that route - then I just need to buy and swap the transmissions.

Thanks. Cant go manual as wife can only drive an auto. I would love to go m54b30 but just cant afford to buy another engine. The brakes are identical on both cars, as is the rear axle carrier. I think the diffs are the same except for the ratio? Here is the realoem on both cars; My 2004 318i black wagon; http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select?vin=PR00173 2001 325i parts wagon; http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select?vin=eg15996

Thats a really cheap price.

Yea, no dipstick on the trans. I was going to replace the fluid this year anyways as part of preventative maintenance, but never got that far.

The mayo on the oil cap and in the radiator look different to me. I think they are different substances but I'm no mechanic. Car is not driven hard at all, and wasnt when it happened, but of course all possibilities have to be investigated, so thanks for the head gasket suggestion.

Thanks for everyones concern - its been a pretty sh*t day to be honest. I spoke to Glenn just after it happened, and if it is trans cooler, then the transmission will eventually fail anyway from having water in it. I have a m54b25 and auto in my parts car (also a e46 wagon) - wondering if its better to swap this in than mucking about with transmission etc? I rebuilt an n46 cylinder head, ready to swap with my current one which has worn valve stem seals, but if I have to swap transmissions too, it doesnt feel like its worth the extra hassle/expense. Can anyone say how easy/hard and cheap/expensive it is to swap the m54 into a car that originally had an n46? I have all the parts in the parts car, except for some of the loom - do i need to swap looms too, or just add to what is in the n46 car? Just weighing up my options at the moment.

Dipstick is clean, and looking through the oil cap hole is clean, oil cap had a little bit of mayonaise on it.

Again, as the numbers are so low its hard to measure, until we have longer term data. Over time (decades) the road deaths rate has been trending down, but this is because of numerous factors.

I was driving along today when I saw the temp gauge at the nearly three quarters mark, luckily I was right near my destination so pulled straight into the driveway. I stopped the motor, but kept the fan going and put the heater on full hot. Oil was pouring past the radiator (!) cap and all over the engine and the driveway. sorry my cellphone pics are so bad; Car is my 2004 e46 wagon with the n46 (I know, I know) motor and auto trans which has done about 135k. Just prior to me buying the car two years ago the engine oil cooler was replaced under warranty. I've maintained it well (much better than the previous owner), with new ccv, new seals and orings, new radiator and tank, new waterpump, new spark plugs and belts, new hoses, rebuilt the vacuum pump, cleaned the thottle body and maf, regular oil changes with castrol edge 5w30 etc. Any ideas?

looks great. Hows the ute project going?

It is the long term trend that is important. Comparing one year to the next is not going to tell us much because, as you say, the selections are so small.

Total numbers dont tell the whole story as there are many more people on the road the last few years due to the population increasing, and the economy improved since the recession. Percentage would be good, but these totals will only be indicators as there are other variables too like weather etc. Interesting though....

I would say a big part of the decision was political, as the opposition parties had been calling for a lower limit for a very long time, and National was being accused of (and rightly so) of being lobbied by the hospitality industry. National will have wanted to blunt that particular attack, which is probably why they took so long to do it. Even after having all the evidence, they still went and conducted another study which meant they could delay the inevitable for another two years.

Most didn't even read the data, as was evident by some of the posts in that thread. Yes, statistics and facts can be manipulated, but it doesn't mean you ignore every single fact or statistic if it disagrees with your mantra. Fact analysis and statistic analysis will always reveal how accurate they are. You are a cynic and I get that, but it doesn't change that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around.

What kind of music do you listen to? A smaller sub will generally give more punch, and be more musical. I prefer single sub setups over double or multiple sub setups to avoid phasing issues.

I'm not saying you should use the same brand speakers and amp. I'm saying for the best result you should use the same brand and series (different series sound different) of speakers front to back, just like you would left to right. And if using more than one amp, use the same and series for best results. For example you wouldn't use a different sounding speaker and amp for the left channel than the ones on the right.

Its not necessary, but does definitely create a better sound. The sound signature is important if you are going for sound quality. Amps have their own sound signature too, and its important that they match too if using more than one amp. But I agree on amplifier power - in the home and the car systems I have built I generally go for twice the amplifier rms, than the speaker rms. This gives more of a 'controlled' sound.

Your one was produced on the 26th of January 1996, if that helps.

I know you can fail wof on an unsecured battery.

Theres your first mistake

Go to Glenn first to make sure this is the problem, otherwise you are throwing money at guesswork. Seriously, it will save you alot of money.