Olaf

well bugger me. we've been back in niu zild for what, 13 years. our own little bit paradise. house (mortgage), kids, even scraped together coin enough to get a modern replacement for the e30 touring I had to sell leaving blighty. yesterday morning, the minister for war headed down to the car with our offspring in tow, while I fumbled with shoelaces and alarmed and locked the house. got to the street, admiring the beautiful orientblau metallic, and the faces of my family. only, my significant other is not looking as cheerful. "notice anything different about the car?" she asks me hmmm. "errrrr, there's some birdshit on the bonnet" "no" "errr I dunno" "look at the mirrors" "eh? what... where are the mirrors?" yes folks, some miserable twunt stole the door mirrors from our e46 overnight. BROKE them off, rooting the brackets. not to be outdone, the cut all of the wires. Fekkers. thoughts of 'paradise' abandoned; we're actually living in a third world country, where idiots are thieving parts from 13 year old cars. There must be Karma. I imagine the NZ Herald... "Dateline Wellington. Man arrived in the early hours of this morning at Wellington Hospital A&E, with funny gait. Doctors later removed car mirror that had been rectally inserted. When interviewed by this reporter, the man claimed he had no recollection of how the mirror - or the boot marks on his posterior - got there. Medical staff were suppressing their guffaws. Police said they were steeling themselves to look in to the matter, but were waiting until breakfast had settled." So, can anyone explain: is there a new market for e46 mirrors? A black market? Modders - are they great on e36's or Familias? I just don't get it. I know they're (my touring mirrors) are only for the sedan and wagon; the coupe and convertible have different units; the Ti are unique; the M3 different again. I figured they're pricey. Called insurance, filed police report. If anyone can help me understand what someone would use my beautiful, orientblau, now-broken, e46 touring mirrors for? Answers on a postcard please. Meanwhile, if this scumbag needs more mirrors, I have a spare 850 door mirror in my workshop. I'd be very happy to 'introduce' the two of them. Perhaps he'd make the papers. 'wearing' a mirror might give him a new perspective. Choose a more useful direction in life. Hmmm, direction. It's not like we can see what's around us when we change direction, at the moment. Did I say earlier, this person must be a right koont. Off to a couple of insurance co nominated repairers tomorrow, to get this underway. Our insurer was great. /rant Olaf

nothing like a chip on both shoulders to keep in balance! Bob was clearly smart enough to have excellent accountants, if he was paying less tax whilst building a property empire, compared with a specialist retailer/health professional. as any good accountant will tell you, it's about tax minimisation, not avoidance. You talk about "hiding", when sharp businessmen and women are in fact utilising opportunities available *within the law*. The law applies to all... regards

I ran an e30 325i Touring for a while back in 2001, it was a fun car. Capable, comfortable, reasonably quick to boot. You should have some good fun getting this ship shape.

another lefty nonsense idea. I've heard so much piffle in the media in the last 8 months about "those who earn more should pay more tax". Guess what?! Those who earn more *do* pay more tax. This would be another unfair twisted taxation scheme.

yeah, and they were 2.0l NA. even the Volvo 855 was 2.0 NA. awesome.

I bought the colourlock system, really impressed with the results on my volvo. http://www.colourlockleathercare.co.nz/

yep - I was early 30's, full NCB from NZ (driving 15 years), 3 years in Mexico full NCB, insurance in UK quoted 2,400 quid on a 2,500 Saab 900 or 9000. I purchased an old Vauxhall and ran it for 18mths to get a history, then bought e30 325i touring that cost less than 100 quid extra to insure (under 500 quid per annum by that stage). that was around the turn of the century; I understand it's all much more pricey these days. in short, if you've no history your risk is deemed as high and they charge you accordingly. buy a cheap 4cyl hatchback and put in your time to build a history. there's lots more to spend your coin on in UK than wasting it on huge insurance premiums! Or, get a job that includes company car as a perk, then you're sorted. Plenty of perm jobs come with a car in uk. HTH

oh yeah, the mid-late 90's BTCC was nuts. largely very average repmobiles driven to within millimetres. toyots, nissans, vauxhalls, fords, audis, volvos etc. Quite a contrast to DTM.

nice work. gives me a w00dy, for sure.

this should provide some entertainment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3zgzK6zBms

I spotted same car some weeks ago on way home from work. momentary e30 touring pining for my old 325i.

MyUS.com works brilliantly for me. the only thing approaching 'out of the ordinary' is when I ordered a kitchen knife; they took a little longer to process, to ensure it was allowed into NZ under customs rules. Great service. Nothing amature such as changing addresses and fogetting to mention!

GPS on your dashboard gives you a speedo in your line of sight #8 )

it's in the catalogue at supercheap http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online-store/products/Permatex-Ultra-Grey-RTV-Silicone-Gasket-Maker-Rigid-High-Torque-99G.aspx?pid=5359#Recommendations maybe there's a supercheap branch close to 'rednecksville', so you don't have to go to Pukekohe? Given I'm south of the Bombays, where's rednecksville anyway - is it Henderson?

ooooh you guys gonna have fun. as with any partnership, be sure you are both in agreement what your exit strategy is - before you start! bringing it down? H&R Sportsprings should do the trick: Looks like OEM Sachs and Bilstein struts are around the same prices... one assumes you're not saddled with a self-levelling system in the rear to delete, or electronic controlled dampers? cheers

Permatex usually available from Supercheap IIRC, so the Ultra Grey (sounds like a description of my haircolour!) should not be too much of a mission to track down.

you might find that simply getting it back to OEM in the suspension department will sort out the wallow-y-ness. Read back on the road tests from '87-'89 - ISTR the e32 was renowned for tidy handling, with excellent ride and comfort to boot. It was one of the cars the australian car comics that when a new falcodore would come out, would usually be compared with in the road test. Usually a large amount of license was employed - or a large line or two of white powder probably. One only had to drive the VP Commode on its release, it certainly wasn't anything near the 5er/e300/7er of the time, contrary to the encouraging reviews in the comics had you believe! It's not too late mate - you could buy a hyundai accent!

+1 any more info on this, or you gonna throw parts at it and hope?

I've been taking the same approach for years. Buying a car towards the end of its depreciation curve and maintaining it well leaves you with a manageable reliable *car*. not an asset. when people are saying "it's not worth it" when faced with a large repair bill against the notional value of their car, they're confusing it as 'putting money into an asset'. Cars - on the whole - are liabilities, not assets! As with Andy's approach above, the $1000 chunks works for me. I've been spending about $1k/year on my 855-T5 for the past 8 years. I paid around $9k for it, it's worth about... well, whatever anyone would pay for it. It's reliable and fun to drive, and I've learned plenty working on it. Paid for some jobs, done others myself with my mate on his driveway. One year it's not mechanical but turns out to be a set of tyres and an alignment. It's a grand a year ongoing, basically. You're lucky, the car has cost you nothing. As Andy illustrates above, you've got nothing to lose in catching up on that deferred maintenance - if it's a solid car to start with. Perhaps spending a case of beer with Andy looking it over and drawing up your battle plan will help you establish your budget. If you're importing parts yourself, I use FCPEuro.com as the prices and quality is good, along with the service. You might be able to carve up purchases into orders that squeeze in under the GST/Duty thresholds as well, with careful purchasing. Do your basics, get the engine maintenance stuff addressed. Belts, filters, fluids (cooling, engine oil, diff oil, power steering fluid)... mounts, cooling (pump, hoses). all those gaskets you mentioned - with a mate, and taking your time, it's labour intensive though not rocket science. Do it with a mate, break down the jobs into 'work packages' so you're not overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, build your confidence as you go, enjoy a couple of beers with each job. Does the timing chain and guides need replacing - check against the specs. now the trans - the service is easy. Buy your ATF in a 20 litre pack; it's way cheaper that way. At this point you should have a car that's relatively sorted for reliability from the basics. (hopefully your heater core and valves are okay). Next you're into stop and go. How are the brakes? How is she steering and handling? You're probably sold on driving and owning a quality german engineered car over a japanese or korean beater. Do remember - nothing is free - if you play, you pay. you may be $1000 in (and $150 in beer tax) by the time you get to the end of the trans service... what else would you be driving for $1200? As Andy says, it's not necessarily the *right* way to do it; it's one way of doing it that works for some of us. YMMV.

here's an interesting blog post about diagnosing vacuum leaks, using OBD scanner and a can... that's certainly on-topic, and easy to understand... http://blog.fcpeuro.com/2014/12/19/lean-faultsvacuum-leak-diagnosis-using-an-obd-ii-scanner/

Hey Tim, I did say in the first instance - to get the codes. That is, scan it to see what code it's throwing. As for FCP Euro - 2 front O2 sensors and 2 rears - Bosch OEM. USD269.80. $10 loyalty discount. Freight to NZ - USD28.21 via USPS. Checked out duty on whatsmyduty.org - close to the NZD60 threshold, but not over. FWIW I bought my oxygen sensor wrench from Trade Tools - it/s 3/8 drive http://tradetools.co.nz/products/3031140 I should close with: Get the codes and diagnosis! cheers

epic.

yes, +1. You need the codes. And a diagnosis from someone in the know. As others have said, more likely a vacuum leak; could well be time for your PCV system service. If it is your O2 Sensors, here's a more reasonably priced selection https://www.fcpeuro.com/BMW-parts/530i/Oxygen-Sensor?year=2003&e=180&m=20&page=1 though as noted, a duff O2 is unlikely to cause a misfire... here's a video illustrating how much fun you can have changing out your O2. http://youtu.be/f70FrWhpUsc cheers PS - I jut did an O2 on my ovlov, using an O2 socket made the job easy - $20 well spent.

Hmmm, you got both types of music - V8 *and* The Stone Roses w00t

maybe I'm odd, had thought about buying this - really liked that it had a period yet decent head unit in there! It's looking good.