Olaf

@treone nah I've given notice on my rented garage, and getting rid of storage next will free up ~$550-600/month. With a prevailing wind I should have the e30 project back on track this year...

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12 Feb 2024. 188659kms I pulled it from the garage and drove it yesterday to get to the Brit & Euro Car Day 2024 at Trentham. It ran beautifully. 1. Final items before sale WoF. Flew through it's WoF. Aircon Re-gas. Completed, comments were 'added dye, it was half full. Working well'. I'm sure that a couple of years with little use didn't help the seals keep the refrigerant in. Added Rego. Easy at VTNZ, expires 31 Aug 2024. 2. Sold. With luck the new keeper may continue this thread... and even join the BMW Car Club of NZ. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I'll miss this car. On the upside, may have a new friend 🙂.

Listed in the For Sale room, and on TradeMe.

I had a peek for Highway Radar in the Apple App Store - couldn't find it. Anyone got a link or more details? @E63 thanks for the info R3 on sale, beats waiting for the exch rate to improve. Think I'll buy one.

IMHO you're on the right track. I recall reading about this on a UK site... although it lacks the specific coding detail you seek, \ take a read down to the section "OTHER USEFUL BMW AUDIO INFORMATION AND UPGRADE OPTIONS." - outlines the disadvantages of Base Audio and it's attendant equalisation, and possible approaches. Hope that helps. https://www.audiofile-incar.co.uk/audio-upgrades/bmw-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-and-x-series Also, anything that @Neal doesnt know about high quality integration with BMW audio systems probably isn't worth knowing! He may be able to suggest something.

You doubt I can hear the difference, you're welcome to your opinion. To recap: You've doubted I can reliably hear the difference. And that in a moving car it couldn't happen. I've responded to the points you made, noted that I'm older and my hearing is degrading, and furnished my experience. You've raised choice of DAC - I've said that's irrelevant - to this discussion. You've suggested my opinion would change if I read audiophile discussions, inferring I don't understand. I read the audio comics for years, and indulged in internet discussion. You present a straw man about hearing degradation and perception differences between the sexes. You disagree, though you misquote me - I have not said WAV is necessary - I've said it's better, and questioned why throw data away when disc space is cheap. At every point I've expressed - all based on my experiences - you've simply attempted to cast shadow. You claim my argument is silly and condescending; what has yours been? I've only presented my experience, that clearly does not align with your opinion. You've gotten personal.

My ears super-good for a 50 year old? No! The point is, I'm listening and responding to music. My hearing has been measured and is worsening. I can still tell sh*t from clay! Hint: It's not about frequency response. It's not about soundstage or other artifacts of the US High End Hifi Press. Just listen to the music. Or don't. As for SACD, I could never understand why - for the forty-odd albums available at launch, why you'd bother. Well-implemented Red Book CD Players sounded better; most "SACD Fanboys" had never experienced good Red Book CD, or a decent turntable. WAV is uncompressed audio. FLAC is lossless audio via the algorithm - but the file size is compressed. The general consensus you refer to is formed by folks that can't tell the difference between two violas and a cello, and sit on the edge of their seats straining to hear the difference in "the soundstage", and probably never attend live concerts, have no frame of reference. Don't listen to the consensus, listen to your ears!

Even the rear privacy screen works, it's really swish... touch of a button in the driver's door 😊. It's got the Logic 7 sound system, pretty good. Heated (Sports multifunction) Steering Wheel even!

it's certainly going to go like a cut cat! I hope you'll leave the 318 badge on the tailgate! 😀

good point, cheers.

09 Jan 2024. 188500kms Having got through Xmas, it was time to get back to this car. On saturday morning I pulled it from the garage (started first time, settled into a beautiful idle. 1. Went to BMW Car Club cars and coffee meet. This car is a superb camera platform. Park on side of road, get out and shoot pictures 😀. Easy access to the cavernous trunk to select weapon of choice. Always great variety at a BMWCCNZ meet-up! unwashed e60 in it's natural habitat, yesterday 2. Washed and photographed for Sale Listing. AutoGlym shampoo. Wash, rinse. Wheels with AutoGlym Clean Wheels and AutoGlym Wheel Brush. Rinse, dry with speed towel. Easy. Oh, and disgusting Meguiars Trye stuff that refuses to finish. The Auto Glym stuff is much nicer, though this needs to be used up first. It's probably an envionmental disaster in a plastic bottle, makes the tyres look spangly though. I did some running around in it during the afternoon, collecting daughter's friends and generally performing 'Dad Taxi' duties. It's using less fuel and idles better, moves off from the traffic lights more smoothly since that actuator was replaced. Waited for sun to get low enough for soft light. Shot images, edited. Looking good eh? Scrubs up nicely with minimal effort. Now time to compose ad copy, and list.

No need to pull the head, surely? If you've removed the crank to do your big ends, drop the piston&rod assy out the bottom and presto.

I have reliably demonstrated I can hear the difference between FLAC and WAV on many home systems. So I use WAV. People argue that FLAC is best "because tagging and artwork". When I ask if they've bothered to listen to the differences, the room goes quiet. I tag and put artwork on my WAV rips, so the usability difference is NIL. I agree - the car is a sh*t place to listen to music. However, Neal has gone to extraordinary lengths to make his car a great place to listen to music. I'd venture that you'd easily hear the difference between 320k MP3 and FLAC, and probably difference to WAV in his car. Hell, in my X3 stock factory system I can hear the difference between Bluetooth from my phone - 320k Spotify and 'uncompressed' Tidal, then compared the compressed crap BMW stores on the HDD (yecch, unlistenable), and WAV from a USB stick (unquestionably better). I don't think my X3 will cope with FLAC.. If the source is downsampled rips, it's a case of garbage in, garbage out. No end of optimisation, amplification, manipulation of the file, or speaker technology can make up for a poor input signal, whether in a home, venue, or car. I'm in my 50's, taken good care of my hearing, and it's starting to decline - it's still easy to hear where the music is slaughtered by the tech, on simple equipment. You need only open your ears. This has nothing to do with which DAC to choose.

GIGO! Garbage In, Garbage Out. How much data did you throw away when you ripped your CD collection? If you ripped to FLAC, at least you can re-convert to WAV with dBpoweramp music converter.

you know what to do.

Pretty sure I don't count as 'old days', though have been here a while. Great to see the place continues to evolve. 3-Pedals/Ron was - and remains - a serious loss to this community. A bunch of us in Welly all met on here and restarted the local BMW Car Club NZ chapter in Wellington, which continues to build after 6 years. There's plenty of value here, and agree better - generally - than bookface.

A diesel generator, or a very large excavator then 😄

Lossless audio? Disc space is now very cheap, stick with uncompressed WAV - still the best sounding file format (and - coincidentally - lowest processing overhead) for people that listen to music!

Interesting question, @Kiwi_BMW. I think it's worth every cent of $10k, given what it is and how well it's been maintained. Though given the current state of the market, I'd list for $6k and take strong offers. $5k5 for Bimmersport and BMW Club members. Pay the asking price, and I'll top up the tank with Waitomo 95, and include a set of monoblock rims and a couple of oil filters I have in the cupboard. I'll pick up from the Ferry, Airport, or bus. Are you keen? I think eventually faithful e39 drivers will get to try a well-maintained e60 with active steering and dynamic drive, and realise that the all the years of development those clever German engineers put into the e60, utilising swathes more aluminium and acheiving a 50:50 weight distribution, the 333hp N62B44 V8, the e60 is a superior drive. They'll be very pleased to have purchased before the classic aspect drives e60 up.

Next items list: Replacement diff (e46 medium case) 3.46 (including the two small bushes, input and output seals, fill and drain bungs, oil, rear cover sealant) Replacement starter motor PCV system service (it's been a good 9 years or so since last done - do it while the starter motor is replaced Accessory drive service (pulleys, tensioners, serp belts) ARB bushes front and rear, rear shells (they're rusting) Endlinks front and rear Clean and rust paint the surface rust on rear subframe Replacement rear muffler, including hardware new sunroof seal new speakers in front Maybe install that Msport steering wheel with the stereo integration - need post-Takata airbag. keeping it well-maintained.

LIDAR is pretty much instant-on. The interesting thing is that while the officer is scoping something they're looking in a scope with a narrow view. If they're expecting speed they'll train it on the outside lane, and blip the button on a plate if it looks as though it's going fast. Make of that what you will. Around Wellington I haven't encountered as much LIDAR as in Auckland. So I'd be more concerned about Ka and mobile Camera radar. WAZE will alert you to Fixed Camera if you're driving urban and don't know it well. Overall - and your use-case may be different - I've previously used the STI for daily commute of around 85km for a couple of years, no tickets and good warning. Buying today I'd go for an R7 or R8 with custom firmware. Ka range most important, anti-falsing, good warning for mobile camera radar, and laser - in that order of priority. Open road driving Ka is my number one priority. YMMV. HTH

Theres a guy in NZ that does custom firmware for a few of the Unidens, they beat pretty much everything. I've been meaning to sort one, awaiting the dismal state of the NZD to improve. So I've been waiting about FOUR YEARS. Meanwhile my BEL STI still works very well on Ka. It tells me about X, though for the ones that matter - only when I'm about on top of them. Will I reassign the STi to vert and 45 degree mount when I get a Uniden? I doubt it. EDIT: Instant-on has been around since forever, it's not a recent development. You're essentially relying on Ka being operated a few kms down the road either stationary or oncoming, and you're picking that up. If there's nobody moving rapidly a kilometre or so ahead of you, you could be pinged. It comes down to your technique/caution with coupling road conditions, traffic, and your own speed. If there's not a lot of traffic around and you insist at cruising 20-30-40 kms above the limit you're ripe for being pinged. Yesterday I was driving on a deserted country road in the middle of nowhere, very surprised to get a Ka ping must have been about 2km (1 km clear in front of me, and a km around the next corner), I had a moment to check my speed (95) ... then around the corner as I was half way up the straight was line of five cars oncoming with a police car following and noisily straffing all vehicles in front. My old detector still works. Had I been doing 120, I'd still have had time to hit the picks and check my speed. If they'd have been instant-on, I might have been pinged - doing 95 as I was, but no warning.

" I just assume they do it in high risk areas, and it's hard to envisage any high risk on such a straight and flat road." It is clear that most droids making decisions on roading (such as city councils) don't take a risk management or actuarial or even a staistical approach. It was a largekly straight flat road. It was easy to execute safe overtakes. Used appropriately, a decent RADAR detector should reduce the liklihood of you contributing to the consolidated fund, or a police officer's quota.

all depends on your use case, and how much you're willing to forgive Wolfsberg for intentionally misleading and gassing humans... 😎 They're both a nice drive. Your $6k discount is directly attributable to Dieselgate!