Olaf

lovely vehicle, well done! do keep us posted on the radio/sat-nav conversion. an e60 or e61 is in my future too. regards

yes, for the cost of the car yard, they need to turn over x units with a $5k margin to make costs. They'll balance that with some units with higher $$ return (prolly same margin) and on it goes. I've a friend who's brought in a few cars through IBC, you take on the risk, and save a little money - if it all goes your way. PS - today's the end of the month, today's the day to SEAL THE BEST DEAL. Tomorrow (1 Feb) is a new month, and your salesman is starting again on his rush to meet budget. First car of the month he'll be fighting to retain margin.

jolly good sir. I guess the extra stiffness is magnifying the impact of the bushing wear. Sorry I don't have the tool to assist, looking forward to meeting someone with a well-sorted e46, especially going to stiffer bars. EDIT: I'm sure you've looked around; this DIY press looked cheap and easy to source parts for and make http://www.bimmerdiy.com/diy/e36rtab/

John, have you already done the rear sway bar links and sway bar bushes? If not, recommend you start there. Replacing these has radically tightened up my e46 Touring (152,000kms), I've not noticed the RTABs needing attention since having these components replaced. HTH

I drove a 1967 Falcon in the US that had been in my former sister-in-law's family since new. All of the siblings had learned to drive in it. all ten of them. one had had a fender-bender around 1974. They repaired by chaining it to a lamp-post, and reversing up, replaced the guard from a wreckers, and rattle-canned it the matching bronze-gold colour. I gave it a brake-job in 1988 or 89, found the crumpling, and a broken coil spring on the left front; asked about it, and got the whole story. It was a car you had to lock because it looked so bad, people thought it was abandoned so they'd fill it with trash. Anyway, this form of panel repair was 'Ford (ap)proved', back in the 70's, so I guess these engineers in Nevada have graduated to BMWs now #8 )

listening to Gary Numan. loud.

mate, I'm halfway through series six already. #8 )

watching netflix (US, UK etc) on my TV. sky via cable is getting very little viewing already. (disclosure: Gaz, I've been bingewatching SOA!)

you're very welcome #8 ) yep, they need some TLC as they age, perhaps more than you're average common-or-garden mid-market runner, but as you say, very rewarding. let us know how you get on!

there's so much work involved in selecting suspension on-line. ISTM most of the US forums are guys driving super-smooth roads; UK doesn't feature the kind of shitty metal-on-bitumen seal that features in NZ. The opinions/experiences you read in the forums for road use will need a whole lot of filtering. The benefit of buying locally for your springs/shocks combo will be local knowledge and support; this is wrapped in the price. There may be a forum sponsor/supporter who can listen to your needs, and sell you the right product based on their experience. FWIW for my Volvo, I couldn't find much support locally, and went with H&R Sportsprings with OEM shocks after doing what you've done; trawling forums, filtering conflicting info. What I've learned was, H&R Sportsprings are very firm and controlled, and great for highway and pressing-on. For round town, they're frankly a bit stiff. And although the drop is pretty conservative, they're probably not ideally matched to my OEM shocks; Koni Sports would have been a better bet. So yes, that's for my swedish wagon; I have no reason to expect things would be radically different in character on BMW applications. Vogtlands - for the Volvo - are said to be softer than H&Rs. After my long-winded intro, my learning is: for a car with plenty of local knowledge and support (BMW), in future if I am replacing springs I'll be taking local advice and buying from them.

ahhh! I saw that. looks like it was a tourist delivery jobby. pulled pretty good money for 170kms, leather, reasonably tidy, but just a 2.2l. interesting where they ticked the option sheet for some nice fruit; the seats, manual gearbox, sunroof, PDC, unusual wheels, but no Xenons!

Hi Ian, sorry for the slow response. For the effort of removing your front end suspension assy, or indeed just the rear struts, you don't want to do the job twice. Your bump stops will be knackered. There is no point re-fitting a stuffed bump-stop to new struts. You know all about it if you hit a broken bump-stop - bottoming out. I found - on my e46 rears - the top of the shock was rusted and swollen, the (perished) bump stop was stuck on it, and tore off when we tried to remove it. Bump stops are relatively cheap. Similarly, your dust boots will be hardened and won't prevent dust and grime reaching your strut/shock seals, promoting wear of your new shocks. The front strut bearings - an essential part of macpherson strut assembly - will be knackered, with wear and play. The strut bearings are what allows your strut to turn with the steering. The rear shock mounts frequently fail, and in the long run - particularly in lowered applications - contribute to damage to the body where the shock passes through to the mounts. As a guide, for my recent e46 suspension refresh, the bushes/bearings/bumpstops/dustboots/fasteners came to about 40% of the total budget. The car now rides like new. Seriously, why would you drop the strut, use spring compressors to change springs, disassemble the strut assembly, and then re-install/re-assemble worn-out parts? IMV, do it once, do it right. Most of the fasteners are recommended by BMW as one-time-use. You can choose to re-use... it's false economy, and I don't care to second-guess the BMW engineers for an extra $20. The good news is that most of the bushes/bearings etc are standard parts, regardless of M Sport (though the sway bar bushes may be harder durometer). It's your shocks and springs you want to consider for performance. You can save a few clams on OEM or similar parts, ten bucks here, twenty bucks there... the only thing you gamble with is longevity. For example, five or more OEM or OEM-quality suppliers for Strut bearings, with a variance in price for the part. It's worth noting that a lot of folks have a car with shagged out suspension, consider they need lower/stiffer etc and have never driven the car performing as factory spec in new condition. They might be surprised! good luck with your search. You've a car that was streets ahead of the rest back in the 90's, and was a benchmark in it's class. Taking a Toyota Camry approach to your suspension will be knobbling it's true performance/ride/handling/comfort/safety. Adopt the noodle and beans diet for a couple of months, feed your car the care it needs! #8 ) regards

it's a tough job, someone's got to do it! #8 ) Chris makes the sacrifices so we don't need to #; )

watching "chasing classic cars" on tv.

watching my son and daughter happily playing minecraft together, cooperating and inventing stuff.

indeed, thanks for the update, and all the hard work you do to keep things running. hopefully disabling thermal shutdown protection doesn't put your kit at risk.

abacab

Development vehicle - wow that sounds interesting. Care to share more details of the vehicle?

Table 11-2-2. Approved exhaust emission standards for used petrol-, CNG- and LPG-powered vehicles certified for use on New Zealand roads on or after 3 January 2008 Certified for entry into service Approved vehicle emissions standards Light vehicles Heavy vehicles On or after 1 January 2012 (Note 7) LIGHT VEHICLES: ADR 79/02, or Euro 4, or Japan 05, or US 2004 HEAVY VEHICLES ADR 80/02, or Euro IV, or Japan 05, or US 2004 That's your baseline. If you're not Euro4 compliant, then you need to find the 'get out of jail' loopholes (like SIV). HTH.

hey Will, google is your friend, mate. I searched with a pretty random "vehicle imports new zealand NZTA emissions standards" and got the following string back vehicle imports new zealand NZTA emissions standards which, somewhat interestingly, featured these results: Used Vehicles from Japan Environmental Standards for Vehicles Emissions and Technical bulletin 28 – Exhaust emissions standards compliance Could be challenging. Why not buy a BMW instead? #; ) I'm not biased.

errr awesomesauce with plenty of cheese. thats what makes it a guilty pleasure for me. one wouldn't normally admit to watching something so cheezey. turn brain off, engage SOA, suspend disbelief or expectation of great script or plot, watch plodding "drama" with Harley sounds and occasional gunfights. #8 ) This thread is for any guilty pleasure, not just tv.

keep it clean. 1. Sons of Anarchy on netflix. 2. Wheeler Dealers. 3. boost whistle.

Given it was a rental with about 5000kms on the clock, I'm suggesting 'no, nothing was broken'. If you mean broken, as in 'something was not functioning as designed/built; an element or elements of the system were malfunctioning'. I would not expect a production vehicle that is built and advertised to run on a wide-range of fuels to require re-sets and re-maps; this is the domain or performance modification, as is your case. Interesting that you need to make those resets, though; from what little I've seen of the Haltech ECUs, their flex-fuel sensor tells provides detail of the fuel presented, for the ECU to decide most appropriate map to run. Are they alone in this area of aftermarket ECU tech? cheers

have you driven a VF SV6? They are NO SLUG, and the 300hp V6 was a genuine surprise, free-revving, torquey, and genuinely fabulous in the cut-and-thrust driving to get through traffic for that first 100kms north of Sydney. Furthermore, they're built for Ethanol, up to and including e85. The simple fact is, the Ethanol I put in the tank of the VF transformed it from a quick, smooth, powerfull full-size modern car that was fun to drive, into a slug. Put your biases aside, go drive one at a Holden dealer. After reading for more than 30 years in the Australian motoring press the bullsh%t that the new 'insert new model here' commode was 'nearly as good as an E-class or 5 series', for the first time - in the case of the VF - they're right. I was wondering what they'd done to come up with a transmission control setup that was rarely confused, brakes that were powerful and steering and suspension that genuinely surprised me with its capability and feedback, more BMW-like than any other non-euro that I'd driven. Ethanol could be a great racing fuel where a vehicle is fully setup up for it (fuel lines, filters, flex-fuel sensor, fuel pump, ECU mapping etc); for the rest of us, it's a complete "have", foisted upon us by the corn lobby and greedy fuel companies. Ask any boatie about Ethanol in fuel. They avoid it like the plague.

I used one in the 90's (uniden RD9XL - pretty trick) on my daily commute to upper hutt... was great until they introduced KA band! I also had a newer uniden in the late 90's until some light-fingered asshat stole it from my car. I had gotten out of practice until nearly 4 years ago. After receiving a ticket my response was to buy a radar detector to help inform me when I was about to be targeted, to give me a chance to check my speed. You know how it is, you're cruising responsibly, concentrating on the road and traffic, conversing with your family in the car, and then 'bing' you've crept up to 112 or 114. oooops. Only, with law enforcement in NZ that's "here's a fine, sir" - no conversation. I have a BEL 995, it's very good. Provides reasonable warning for mobile radar, shorter warning for laser, no warning for Vans (I have that turned off). It has provided me with opportunity to check my speed when driving distances; and delivers on that. It's not much chop for instant-on, mode... so I will be upgrading to an sti magnum or an escort redline this year. probably the sti magnum. PS - I really like the audible alerts on the bel and escort detectors. I prefer to run mine in stealth, no lights... so "BlEEEEP BlEEEP BlEEEEP --- Lay-zerrr alert --- is really useful. or "Kay Ay band" #8 )