Olaf

PPI at Page European or Auto38 advised, for Wellingon-based cars. For Auckland-based cars you could engage Glenn at Bottany Motor Works, or BM Works, or similar. $8k5 for a 325i Touring? He's hopeful IMHO. Paying Wellington tax? Looks tidy enough, it's had a proportion of the main things done for the mileage. It's a complete pain in the ass when people put up photos of a vehicle saying "oh it doesn't come on these wheels, it'll come on some others" - I write them off as time-wasters. Similarly, $6k5 for an average mileage 325i Coupe... it's hopeful, given 330's go for around the same price. 325i's are great, should be reasonably priced. It appears to be a tidy one. The C class is an entirely different experience, not so much chalk and cheese, but at least Currywurst to the BMW's fusion cooking. Have you considered Kyu's 530i Motorsport in the for sale room? It's in your price-range. HTH

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1325558903.htm just 46,000kms $138,000

found this ZF video:

with my 545i nudging its way towards 160k kms, I'm going to have the trans serviced, or at least, the filter and pan, mechatronics sleeve, and fluid replaced. I have the pan and bolts and sleeve, and new fill plug ready to go. I've been looking into fluids. Seems the ZF 6 Speed is sensitive to fluid... The Spec for 6HP26 is: ZF Spec TE-ML 11B Shell M-1375.4 Armed with this knowledge, and wanting to avoid "DexIII" assumption, I've looked at lots of info, written off Redline D6-ATF as it doesn't actually meet the specs, merely states it's a "popular crossover". BMW dealer kindly offered to retail me their Shell fluid at $80/litre. After that Redline prices in NZ looked almost reasonable at $40/litre! Options: There's a Febi oil 34608 which is relatively inexpensive, meets the M-1375.4 and is listed by Febi as being the right thing for 6HP26. Very little additional info, don't even know if it's mineral blend or full synth. A shade under USD10 per litre. BMW's own 83222220445 meets Shell M-1375.4 (USD37/litre) ZF Lifeguard 6 meets ZF Spec TE-ML 11B and Shell M-1375.4, it's price is getting up there (USD25/litre) Pentosin ATF1 is Full Synthetic, meets ZF Spec TE-ML 11B and Shell M-1375.4, and is reasonably priced in USA at about USD15/litre. I'm reading there's no NZ distributor, is this correct? I've also looked at the Penrite site - they have no equivalent, as do Castrol NZ (warning only to use Shell M-1375.4). Total's NZ distributor site listed FLUIDMATIC MV LV, but precious little else, didn't appear to be a stocked item. Fuchs product finder listed ATF4134, though it only appears to have Mercedes certification. Service Refill capacity stated as 9.7 litres. ruled out. Wildcard: Ford Motorcraft Mercon SP. Yep, it's for the Ford ZF 6HP26 (called Ford 6R80)... In the US it's inexpensive, meets the right specs. Dunno if it's full synthetic. Wonder if I should call a Ford Dealer parts department (though one recalls why one does not own a Ford!). Hyundai also runs this trans. Hmm. Proposed service approach: Drain fluid (just draining sounds like it's 4.5 litres). Refill to spec (I understand it's a three-stage thing, with correct trans temps reached, and adaptations reset). Drive for 500kms. Then drain and replace the pan with the new ZF part, sleeve, bolts, refill to spec with fresh fluid. I think 12 litres should be plenty for this adventure. Which Fluid? I think I'll go with Pentosin ATF1 as it meets both ZF's own TE-ML 11B, and Shell's M-1375.4 specs, is fully synthetic, and is reasonably priced. Question 1: Anyone in NZ sell Pentosin ATF1? I don't object to a reasonable margin for freight, tax, and holding stock... if only someone is selling it here. Question 2: Should I talk with a Ford dealer about Motorcraft Mercon S? Question 3: Anything I've missed? I also plan on replacing the diff fluid, and perhaps soon the Engine & Trans mounts, and the Guibo. It's a 14 year old car, needs a bit of upkeep. Your thoughts appreciated.

thankfully it has "exhaust fitted", despite it not being his cup of tea. "Please note I am going to carry out the Transmission service the cost will reflect the work carried out, will have receipt for the work" This appears to be an about-face to his comment "At this point I have no plans or intentions to remedy the issues, if I went down that path I'd be asking more,..." Well I'd hope the cost of the transmission work would be reflected in the receipt... hopefully he doesnt think that spending seven-fiddy at a transmission specialist will be directly proportional to his sell price! At least the lower guides have been done. Those e60 wheels look odd on the e39. As he says, it could work out okay for someone handy with a spanner, engine flush, new water pump, t'stat, and prolly some hoses... *if* the trans is okay. Probably benefit greatly from a good clean inside and out!

drive at least 1000kms I reckon, let it settle a bit before you introduce any further changes. In fact, come on a roadie** next weekend! that should add nearly 500 kms for you! ** yes I know you've already confirmed, this is simply positive reinforcement of the theraputic nature of getting out with a bunch of kindred BMW-appreciating, fuel-burning spirits, and letting your M3 be reassured that it's not going to be sent to the naughty corner or made to wear the automotive equivalent of a red nose, the roof box.

@wtbdeath how's it working out for you, and where'd you buy the Pentosin ATF-1?

This is just a rip-off of "buy my Volvo" by PonyHans! The Suzuki one is pretty cool though.

I think you're nearly there. This is the flip side of the 330i discussion that earned Colin his new @Young Thrash Driver Moniker. The market will always decide where the value lies, and whether your asking price overcomes their objections. It's the assessment of condition, mileage, options, maintenance against price that is essential, and where the prospective buyer perceives balance or great value, cash comes. Good quality maintenance makes the car more desirable though not always worth much more. If I had spare change I'd buy your 530i, it looks like a great example for me as a daily commuter, and I'd not have any significant maintenance for the next year. Hopefully you'll get some reasonable offers soon! PS - it's a WHOLE LOT OF CAR for the money given people spend twice that on an 8 year old Japanese import Toyota/Nissan/Subaru that has at least as much risk. I'd take a late e39 with the M54 every time! Esp. one that looks this cool.

^^ automatic VIP discount <blush>

(be careful though, you might end up with a youtube channel, and a stack of radar detectors!)

oh, don't get me wrong, it'd be good to know where they are... I was left wondering the other evening, it was near dusk, and the unit was just a little ahead of me in traffic. I was thinking it was behind. I missed a light, lost signal... caught up at next light and recognised the red mufti commode I'd spotted a couple of days before. For me, I dislike my cabin "lighting up like a christmas tree" at night when it goes off, hence my stealth mode operation. Helps maintain my night vision etc. Most folks like the visual info provided. These modern detectors with the OLED displays are probably very cool, assuming one can dim the display like dashboard lights. Well, we could do the radar geekfest, you put them both on your dashboard and be the rabbit... I've still got the 995 as well. Be interesting to see about your LiDar false positives too. (I read that most auto-cruise systems are K band not laser).

wheels may - with a little luck - be all good too. wonder if the motor and trans might be okay? loads of potential for a project...

I hadn't thought of that... I just looked at schmeidmann for 10 litres of ATF (ZF Lifeguard 6), same thing (including freight) worked out NZD30 cheaper from FCP! Going to look for a local supplier.

patience, patience.... they're still trying to get from SH16 to the domain! it's still jammed solid, and now there's no light!

that looks tres sharp. get the ///M badge too, Allan. I think your car's earned it.

I'm biased, I think they look f*#king great on mine! And yes, there are no issues whatsoever with 224/45 and 245/40 on the e46 saloon/wagon/coupe. Allan knows what he wants, we talked about 194's a while back. Fair enough to hold out for the Style 97s, and not settle. They'll look great on the 325Ti!

You're very welcome, John. it seems that BELtronics as a brand are disappearing, with Escort being the lead brand for that company. I'm sure there was a long study by management consultants that helped them figure out that the R&D and marketing costs of developing/releasing/maintaining competing products in the market was not efficient despite having greater brand coverage. (No slight on management consultants!). I'd been wondering for some time how they made that pay. When I picked up my 995, it was testing better for long range Ka (main threat in NZ), than the V1 of the time (there have been numerous hardware and firmware updates since then). I was shopping used and on a budget, and the 995 was the best value I could find at the time. Fast forwarding (below the speed limit of course, officer) to last year and a new unit was on the cards. I didn't hesitate to buy BEL again, though had I known they were getting out I'd have scored an Escort Redline instead. Today there are additional options, either built-in GPS, or linking to your cellphone. I'm not sure how effective GPS croudsourced updating is in little ol' NZ, given the tiny market, and the even smaller percentage of detector users buying models with GPS and subscribing or updating live data services. Cool idea though. I'd like to try a V1, though for me the arrows - with my style of use - offer no benefit.

Thanks for the clarification! One move at a time, nice. Subscribed

Looks like a cool game, although somewhat exclusive for those not running e30 and living in Auckland.

yeah IMHO K band is mostly an annoyance. Even my STi Magnum gives sod-all warning of fixed and mobile cameras, and it's unlikely your SR7 goes there (note: that's an assumption on my part, I've not checked), so yeah you might want to configure it off. You should be able to repair or replace the warning LED. Do you have a remote mute button mounted somewhere? That rig probably cost $2k plus install when new.

Hey Stu, back in the day (early 00's) the SR7 was pretty hot stuff. The manual is here (in case you don't have one). It looks like the configuration is very similar to my old BEL Vector 995i. It'll be mostly a case of switching off the stuff you don't need. The detectors by the plate will be your laser detectors, I beleive the radar horn antennas are elsewhere. Here's a pic I nabbed off t'interweb: By the looks of the tests from the time, the SR7 was very capable, and although these days is probably bested for distance and falsing by current 'top performing' dash-mount units it should give you pretty respectable performance for Ka and laser assuming it remains in good working order. Where the SR7 wasn't great was in stealthing tech against SPECTRE radar detector detectors, though this isn't such a big thing in niu zild where detectors are legal. I'm not sure if NZP use SPECTRE or similar. HTH

I remember talking to a bloke who turned his e36 into a mower on the infield, he was trying to understand what went wrong for him; there was a bloke with a very well-sorted dark blue e30 325i touring who was doing power slides in the wet all down the front straight. Tons of seriously cool cars in the carpark, including my not ready for tack abuse alpineweiss e30 325i Touring.

Jon, it would have been 2001. hard to beleive it's nearly 16 years I've gone from Londinium.

I have no problems with laser (lidar), when I've had "lay-zerrrr" alert there's a motorcycle cop or a car at side of road. I did look at V1, had loved the idea of one for years, decided on STi/Redline on basis of low signature for radar detector detector. I agree, there's not a large gap between the top of the top models.