Olaf

I read that Pelican have been quietly swallowed by the ECS hegemony, who previously acquired Turner Motorsports. I read a blog post by a senior manager from Turner Motorsports recently, something to do with "Why I hate ECS tuning". I couldn't find it, though I was disturbed to find the Facebook group "why I hate ECS Tuning" FCP Euro are still doing right by me after around 12 years. ?

Hi Folks. Yes, as @Eagle Jared points out, my 2004 e60 545i was diagnosed and subsequently sorted. I think e60 V8's are inexpensive because they're unfashionable and don't have a Holden Commodore on the badge! They're an amazing car, and well optioned-up cost around $160-180k new? We're buying them under $20k with deferred maintenance; they're going to need some lurrrvvvvvv. So put on your Barry White (or your Marvin Gaye), settle in, and read a little about my case. ⛑️ oil leaks were all sorted under previous custodian's care. @TermiPeteNZ had already addressed plenty of the maintenance items; I took up the mantle when I bought it, and expected there'd be more to do. I wasn't disappointed. The good thing was it wasn't covering hoses with oil, or ruining the alternator, like it sounds is the case in yours, Geoff @awake On we strolled, taking care of the systems that might be smokey, while catching up on other items. Firstly the PCV diaphragms were were replaced. They're an inexpensive part, on top of each head. They get old and brittle. Secondly, vacuum pump replaced. it was weak, Brakes were not firm enough, and was not scavenging oil as expected. Oil consumption was increasing, and it was 'puffing billy' after sitting at traffic lights.?️ Valve stem seal failure was subsequently diagnosed. Yes, Valve Stem Seal failure an issue with the N62 V8's... though the same seals are used in MANY, MANY BMW engines. Don't be in such a hurry to roll out smugfaces, you M54 owners! Oh, yeah that's me too. Damn. ? Fortunately, I have kept up** maintenance, and the MBI is still valid. Thank you Autosure Extreme. Seriously. Thank you Autosure Extreme. And Page European, here in Wellington. Yes, you may have been following my SS Commodore in German suit thread. 'kept up' maintenance is probably an understatement! ? Now a little about the actual job. Valve Stem seal replacement is a labour-intensive job. The parts are relatively inexpensive; a couple of boxes of seals, a bunch of gaskets. The cost is in the labour. During disassembly the auxilliary water pump crumbled (love that 14 year old BMW plastic); it will likely happen on yours. Around $400 here. Yes, this job is more often done in with the heads in-place. Saves additional cost of head gaskets, bolts, and all that fun. Special tools are available to help with doing the job in-situ. The shop I use hires in the tools when they're needed. Cooling system out. Cams removed, etc etc. Compressed air to hold the valve closed, to allow remove the collet, extract the seal, replace the seal etc. I understand the new valve stem seals are made from a different material. Elring brand were used. I think there's a 'revision' number indicated on the BMW Parts schedule - check it out on in the BMW parts catalogue. It's tight - space-wise - but do-able. Patience required. Need to re-time the Valvetronic setup when the job is done; this is not a backyard job unless you have all the puter stuff. It's quite the jigsaw puzzle to get the shooting match back together. I don't know how much it cost the insurers, I paid for the pump, insurance excess, and cost of Wurth intake cleaner and associated labour with the intake clean. Phew, that's a relief. I knew it'd be a good few grand plus GST, based on what I'd read on the US sites, labour cost, parts estimate, and a guestimate of renting the tools. It would have been around 3 days labour give or take, plus it was in the shop for a couple of weeks; I was in no hurry for the car so preferred they work on it when they wanted to. The old seals were totally flogged-out; your eye-ometer™ is all that's needed to see that. No sealion is going to be happy with those baggy-old worn out items, and nor is your N62 V8! After, all any sea lion wants is a good tight seal, right? ? Outcome: Oil use is down. Puffing Billy effect is gone. Performance is improved. Fuel economy is better. Perhaps the latter two are more attributable to the intake clean? I'm sure vacuum loss wasn't helping things. It hasn't helped dad-jokes in my posts, either! ? I know there are better cars, newer cars, flasher cars. As an allround package, I totally love driving my e60 545i. I'll buy another MBI policy when this one expires. I'm not ready to move this car on yet, and am about to do brakes at all corners, and tension struts at the front, so am planning on keeping it for a while. I can't think of a car I'd rather drive for the purposes I use it for, on my wallet (forget fantasy garage or Lotto wins). If you're fussy on your maintenance like I am, a tough year could cost you $5k. Perhaps this is one of those years for you; hopefully you'll find it less wallet-burning. Whether it's worth doing your vehicle is a value judgement for you to make. I agree with the earlier comment from @Gaz that you want to find a shop that's done it a few times before. They'll know the ins and outs, and can price it accurately, and do the work efficiently. Hopefully that was helpful. I really must finish editing my movie on this job! It'll make ya'll laugh. Cheers Olaf. PS: I mentioned before that Patience is required. Dunno if they were spinning Lloyd Cole in the workshop, but this could have been soothing, particularly toward the rear cylinders. Not my favourite Lloyd Cole song; if you don't know it, you owe yourself to at least listen to the whole of Rattlesnakes. One of the coolest albums of 1984.

You priced a kit of 8? May be worthwhile, they’re all getting old.

Well, that FB 'randomness' has worked as vendor conditioning, to your advantage. Perfect timing for all concerned, enjoy, mate!

join BMW Car Club NZ, you'll get 10% off parts from your BMW dealer, membership has almost paid for itself on the purchase of your grilles, pink triangle, and cargo net. easy!

Awesome! Chris Amon?! You got any more details, such as where/when, and who took the photo? Looks like it's 1973 European Touring Car Championship going by the helmet & livery. Actually I've found the details: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amon,_Chris_-_BMW_3,5_CSL_(1973-07-08_Sp).jpg It's on wikipedia with a CC2.0 Attribution Share-Alike (Germany) license. The Photographer (or image owner) credited is Lothar Spurzem taken 8 July 1973. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10757051

I'm sure that's a line from an obscure The Smiths song that I can't recall ?

168621kms: Simple maintenance to enhance safety and lower driver stress in foul weather. I was about to leave Auckland on Thursday morning for the trip back to Wellington. My old wiper blades were 15 months old, the last Rain-X application had worn through, and the screen was getting smeary. Not good. A little remediation was called for, and I had a new set of blades in the boot. While I gassed up under the generous canopy at BP Drury, I: Thoroghly cleaned, dried, and Rain-X'd the windscreen Replacd the Wiper Blades (genuine BMW) P/N 61610431438 Filled the near-empty washer reservoir with BMW windscreen washer concentrate (yellow), and topped up with water. Fitting e60 Wiper blades: a trap for new players Wiper blades box says (in pictograms) long blade on driver's side. In NZ, the shorter one goes on Driver's side, long blade is for passenger side. Furthermore, you can't fit them the wrong way around, you'll struggle to get the blade onto the connector. As I left BP Drury in the rain at 0700, I nearly broke into song with 'I can see clearly now', such was the clarity... though Mikey Havok had started with The Smiths on BFM. No prizes for guessing which won out.... Gloomy rain, Morrissey's dulcet tones and irony-laden lyrics with Johnny Marr's jangly guitars, heated seats and steering wheel; a perfect winter's morning. Damn, I'd left my Smiths CDs at home, so made do with The Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures, David Bowie's Young Americans, Groove Armada etc, once out of range of Auckland broadcasts. Back on subject, if you've not used Rain-X on your windscreen, you don't know what you're missing. It breaks up rain on contact, beads it up. Much better vision. Overall fuel economy for the return trip to Auckland (including urban running in Auckland): 10.39 litres/100km. The Drury to Wellington City leg 'returned' 9.03 litres/100kms (actual), and there was a bit under 1/8 of a tank remaining when I topped up at the Roadmaster in Wellington town. World's biggest village? It's hardly a city, in reality ? Happy days.

we figured it needed excellent sales photos, some great copy, and a nudge on the price... we've done the photos!

Man, those photos look sharp. I'm not biased. Hopefully you'll get some bites!

buy an e60 M5 for that money, and have change for a trackday coupe!

Something that people often overlook in this instance: An offset ring spanner can also help! Doesn't work in all instances, though you may have a set of offset ring spanners languishing in your workshop...

They've only adjusted the toe - front and rear - and haven't touched the camber. The disturbing thing is that the specs (target ranges) aren't shown, so one wonders what the hell they were adjusting to. $60/80 education, flush it away and go somewhere decent. I'd not let these guys near my vehicle. Offer them the opportunity to refund your money. Getting your steering wheel centred is part of the setup of a basic alignment. Hope that helps. EDIT: they probably didn't do the rear toe, come to think of it. The variation in rear toe may have been a result of adjusting the front. This was a ten minute quick-and-dirty, at best.

thanks mate, that gave me a good belly laugh.

yeah I was paying $60 with Soho (over Vodafone Cable)... then I figured I'd get over myself (after Netflix USA treated me like a non-customer), got a free AppleTV, added Netflix, and bingo $16 a month for the NZ service. Bye bye Sky. I saw a pamphlet in Noel Leeming today, Vodafone touting the great new service TV on demand with a box, but I think it's too little too late. 'SNIP!' Vodafone guy collected my box, surfboard modem, and remote, today. I'll have to figure out where I can get the Discovery Turbo programmes, and see the rest of 'Billions'. My guilty pleasure: Street Outlaws!

diesels - more frequent services, filters more pricey. Compare 530D/535D air filter with 530/545 Air Filter, for a start. I think oil capacity in the diesel is about the same... though recommended change interval is shorter. I'm sure someone more knowlegable than me will pour on some real figures... @*Glenn*, what are your thoughts on real-world servicing costs of a diesel vs petrol, using e60 as the baseline?

search for Edd China on youtube. He's got a new show that appears to do all the stuff he said he didn't like about the new production company was doing to Wheeler Dealers! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ofrdxbm3RijOx6NsMU8Sg

I think your 15.5l/100 for a 335i is incorrect. I did a spreadsheet last year when I was about to buy a diesel, comparing a number of six cylinder petrol BMWs (my e46 325i, 530i and 545i e60), and diesel (e60 530d, 535d)... the diesels won on overall cost (fuel consumtption and RUC only), though only over 15,000kms (from memory), and then the higher servicing costs and higher cost of entry for diesel negated a lot of it. I ran a spread of cost-per-litre into the spreadsheet as well, though I don't think I had bet on the cost of petrol hitting $2.75! Suggest you take extra-urban consumption, rather than range-based, as the source of your data - you get skewed by size of tank. Hope that helps. As it happens, I'm still 'driving for free' in the second year of fuel consumption and servicing on the 545i I bought, compared with the 535D ///M that I almost bought! PS - thank you for your reasoned and polite response to my somewhat sarcastic dig at disabling emission control systems!

Dan, I think you're entering a world of pain. I used to buy Full Multi System TV kit from the US (or, perhaps the Peter Justesen Catalogue still exists in some form, for folks in your type of employ? www.pj.dk ) - and successfully brought back my full multi-system Sony Trinitron and a very good Panasonic HiFi VHS also with full multi system, back in the day... though as you'd appreciate, back then things were more cut-and-dried (simple), and this kit has long since been recycled! These niche sellers (they were in the US - usually around NYC or Texas, and sometimes CA) may still exist, and you might be able to score a TV that is *fully* compatible with NZ operation, and even a full muli-zone BluRay player to go with it. Considerations in the modern world for TV from another region: - Voltage. Will it run on 230VAC? - tuning and TV system (eg you'll need to be able to tune Freeview in NZ! so it'll be PAL and with our particular setup for digital TV) - App Store (coz we're doing more and more on-demand and app-based viewing these days)... so can your (for example) American-market Samsung be directed to pick up local apps from the NZ Samsung store such as NEON, TVNZ, ThreeNow etc? - Cost of freight - unavailability of spares if it needs service. These things become white-elephants, can't sell em, can't give em away, towards the end of their useful life. If you then take into account how your Dad wants to use his TV (eg the hassle of getting a foreign market set to integrate in NZ), perhaps springing a grand to 1200 kiwi for a very good end-of-run 55" Samsung (or similar) down here, with warranty etc, might be the best overall solution. Either way, you'll be a hero. Hope that helps.

Has SECAM been retired, William? There were always THREE standards in the world, previously. PAL, NTSC (never twice the same colour), and SECAM. Not like you to miss your research.

Fixed that for ya: 'Hey yeah, I want to [delete def, egr and dpf] make my car into a toxic emmitter that will kill my neighbours, friends, and family with the products of its tailpipe! Who can I get to make my BMW worse than any VW Diesel ever? I want to disable all of the emissions systems that were so carefully engineered into my BMW at great time and expense, and make it more like a 1970's truck.' ?

nor me, I've just cancelled Sky. 'cutting the cable'.

yeah, I can't take credit for @_ethrty-Andy_'s great work, but thanks for thinking of me @drtimwright! ?

if you guys are looking to match colour and revive leather, I recommend Colorlock system from European Leathercare. I bought one of their leather repair kits, consisting of brush, cleaner, toner (colour), and shield (protectant), also comes with fine sandpaper and coloured filler for deep cracks (haven't had to use that). In addition I bought Elephant Leather Preservative. I've done my Volvo's interior (black leather) twice over last 18 months and it looks almost like new, and doesn't come off on your clothes. Not bad for a 20 year old car that has seen years of family service, and lives outside. https://europeanleathercare.co.nz https://www.colourlockleathercare.co.nz Much better than shoe polish!

rose-tinted glasses? are you on crack? we've just argued the same side of the coin.