Olaf

IM'd you, thanks

Stay in touch Josh, tell us what BMW you pick up when you get settled... will you be within the ULEZ in Londinium and moonlighting taking out cameras, or somewhere more civilised? All different adventures in UK. Might as well get something fun that you want to bring back with you when it's time to return... look into those 'bringing it back as part of your household' rules to check out. As you'll probably remember... the winters aren't *that* bad - it's those three months that turns many UK residents bloody miserable that's the challenge.

Pretty sure I was served an excellent Negroni in here... just can't remember where, and the lighting was easier on the eyes...

Bon Voyage! Are you returning, or does Blighty have the shackles on you? Did you find a buyer for your e53?

Still missing it from time to time - a great all-rounder. e60 545i. my pic, Nikon D4 with Nikkor 70-200 2.8 FL/E + B+W Kassemann pol. Click on the image to open it - it's worth it.

Heya @Mad_Max Geordie, I'd like to give the rear light assy's a warm dry home as spares for mine, very happy to bung you cost of a couple of slabs and freight, assuming you can spare the time. I'm still in Wellington. cheers Olaf

Welcome. Enjoy, a real M car that'll be well-spicy.

BMW will not reward you for continuing neglect! they need care and maintenance. If you prefer a cheaper car that will stand abuse, find a Camry, they'll take 30 years with just occasional care.

I remember looking at e91s in Auckland back when I bought my e46 Touring in 2012 - the dealer said it was a coding change only to get the radio from Japanese to NZ/Europe bands. HTH edit - sorry that was non-CCC and iDrive so not much help to you.

one of the images I put on TradeMe in late January 2024

Great to see you're back on the road Alan, nice work! Mine's still languishing in nice dry storage... hopefully this year...

This thread provided a good record of all of the maintenance decisions and work carried out. Pretty sure I produced a spreadsheet. The vehicle drove exceptionally well and reflected the thousands and thousands of dollars I'd spent on it during seven years of ownership. It's now being sold on behalf, I guess the agent doesn't have the info. I'm not offering any info on the current listing - not my sale, I'm just a former owner. And, following previous owner @TermiPeteNZ between the two of us (respectively) we pumped in a lot of money and love to turn this car around from a bit neglected to seriously good. And as many folks said on driving it (at the time) - 'drives like when these were new'. 🙂

I've put a post at the (open) end with all the different manufacturers of rubber bushings and mounts that I used to date on my e30. Hope that helps.

I went through my parts list to harvest all the main rubber manufacturers. Note that as at April 2025 some of these parts are no longer available from the manufacturer I previously sourced: Front Suspension and Steering: Strut Mounts - Sachs Front Bump Stops - Rein Coil Spring Shims - mixture of Genuine BMW and Lemforder Front Swaybar Links - Meyle HD Lower Control Arms: Lemforder LCA Bushing kit (e36 solid) - Febi Tie rods - TRW OEM Steering Rack Bellows - Rein Tie Rod lock plate - gen BMW Drivetrain: Front Wheel Bearings: SKF Engine Mount - Febi Gearbox Mount - Corteco Shift Bushings - all Genuine BMW except the one at the back which was delrin from USA - not recommended. Diff Bush - Corteco Guibo - Corteco Rear Wheel Bearings - FAG Rear Suspension: Subframe Mounts - Meyle (FWIW I'd not use Meyle in future - Meyle HD is still great stuff). Rear shock upper mounts - Meyle HD RTAB set - Lemforder Coil Spring Shims - mixture of Genuine BMW and Lemforder ARB Bushes - Genuine BMW Rear ARB droplinks - Lemforder Hope that helps.

this used to be @Contrails car, always well cared-for based on many posts on here. Great to see it back out circulating.

I bought almost everything from FCP Euro. They were a mix of Lemforder, Febi, all sorts. Plenty of info on my build thread.

I did my entire e30 with RUBBER. It's firm without rattling my fillings, supple when it needs to be. I think I did e36 front TABs from memory. There are many providers of OEM and aftermarket in rubber. Unless you're going racing on track, stick with rubber is my recommendation.

Wow, it's up for sale again. thanks for the heads-up @str8_6 it's still looking tidy. A lot of car for the money, the owner's put ~19k on it in ~14 months. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/545i/listing/5262801469

and there's another at $10k - Estoril Blue iS https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/x5/listing/4791168661

your VIN gets you this page on REALOEM: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DT62-EUR-05-2002-E39-BMW-530i&diagId=31_0255 Your mdecoder VIN Decode indicates no special suspension https://www.mdecoder.com/decode/wbadt62090ck17096 your front shock part number is 31311096858 which corresponds with what you pulled. Sure does. that certainly sachs bigtime. The Bilstein Touring equivalent also suggests it's a straightforward fit for sports and standard based on BMW part number equivalents. (From Spareto site) Bummer. See how it goes when you get the spring compressor on them.

what year is your car, whats the VIN, and what part number (BMW part number) did you buy.

Come on guys. back in the mid-80's when an Alpine Cassette head unit was king, they were running around NZD750 before you added a graphic and an amp or two. A Nakamichi was more like a grand or $1200 - and god did they sound good. Here's a 7273 from 1985 - if you had this, some amps and decent speakers you were - worried every time you parked your car! (stolen without permission - tried to link. Thanks to http://magnitola.org/attachments/golovnye-ustroistva/1272233d1553761180-Magnitola-Avtozvuk-img_0086.jpg ... And in '89/90 and a good CD deck was a grand - yes A Thousand Dollars with an amp, installed... and it skipped on bumps on the way to the mountain, needed an external amp just like yer Nak tape deck did. The TD1200 - OMG. $900 for a Blaupunkt in today's dollars? Not a lot, really. The phone in your pocket is probably worth more than two grand. Then there's the KMM-BT408. The Kenwood mechless decks actually sounds good if you feed em WAV files. Cost buttons, really, to boot. Just a thought @deedub - those guys doing bluetooth conversions on old gear probably charge more than you're expecting because they need to make sure it works for you for a good while.

wow. if you're going make a gram account for your car, print up stickers... surely you'd want to have some decent photos? Jesus wept. https://www.instagram.com/the_s1l3nt_tesla/

kids of today, not an honest elbow through the glass.

Kenwood KMM-BT408 mechless. It's the updated version of the 305 I have in my e30. Small, clean look, tons of integration with your phone, three sets of pre-outs and all sorts of configs for time delay, eq etc etc. Even configure what the pre-outs are doing. Amber lighting: check. Configure your own preferred shade. Plays your carefully ripped WAV files from USB too. Or just play Spotify from your phone if you favour convenience. Install the included mic, set up bluetooth with your phone - bingo full handsfree. It'll even take a second phone at the same time. I bought one for my e46, not yet installed. If you want steering wheel integration you'll need a babelfish to take the canbus and talk to the Kenwood. https://www.qualitycaraudio.co.nz/kenwood-kmm-bt408-bluetooth-usb-nz-tuners-3x-pre-outs-car-stereo?search=KMM-BT408