adro

1 hour ago, Bener said:

Hey @adro and @BozzaFC, did your GROM kits fit behind the stereo or in the boot with the CD changer?

Mines in the front, @hunter has one in his E39 too but don’t know if his experience has been that great? 

+ 1 for the GROM. Bluetooth + AUX + power, fit's nice and tidy. Worth the money in my opinion.

7 minutes ago, hunter said:

I've just ordered a pair of these myself, from eBay in europe. one of mine is smashed and the other doesn't line up and 80% of the hardware is missing so lots of rattles.

New hardware and undertray "wings" on the way....

Cool, if I were to do this again I would line up the  rubber piece on the car first, rather than referencing the original in the garage. 

I got some knockoff trim (not sure what you call this piece?) off ebay yonks ago but never got around to fitting it. Spray painted it black and glued the rubber piece on (see how long that lasts) and installed. The rubber piece doesn't line up perfectly with the bumper but I prefer it to having the smashed piece of undertray.

Car is back on the road. Another receipt for the folder...

Looking at this photo I'm guessing that left broken mount is what they said they needed to weld up.

Went home via VTNZ for a WOF. Got pulled up on the LED halo lights and the headlight adjusters need to be replaced, but it was a pass. I see the notes say the brake hoses need doing soon too.

So nice to have remote locking and stereo controls on the steering wheel again.

Fingers crossed this drum lasts longer than 40,000 km.

1 hour ago, rusteee said:

Yeah they never painted them there, they just stamped it. Found this out when I started questioning them on whether had actually been touched after 2 "rebuilds" had failed, so he showed me stamps and the single weld.

Ah ok that’s good to know. Probably doesn’t need to be done then..

3 hours ago, rusteee said:

Cant believe that 'A' drum! Was supposed to be the new improved strengthened 'A' drum that doesnt smash apart like the old ones.... 

Yeah, interesting eh. The tech reckons the torque converter hasn’t been rebuilt either due to the fact it hasn’t been painted?

7 hours ago, Olaf said:

You won't know yourself with rebuilt trans and torque converter.  replacing cooler lines and cooler as well, in case of debris?

Nearly 7 years on and ~75,000kms on and the Hutt Automatics rebuilt trans in our e46 is shifting beautifully (it's had a fluid change and filter in that time).

Cool, can't wait. No mention of the trans cooler or line replacement at this stage.

2 hours ago, hunter said:

Ouch, hope rebuild sorts it once and for all!

Sounds like the gearbox has done the rounds with rebuilds

What symptoms did it have prior to dying, were they ongoing for a while or more orless immediate -ish?

 

no symptoms really. I felt a shudder every now and again from take off but not often or bad enough to make me worry. At 50-60km/h it would change down a gear...almost like it couldn't make up it's mind what gear it wanted to be in...again, has done it for the 2.5 years I've owned it and never really bothered me...that's why I'm rebuilding the torque converter though. I've never noticed any slipping, or delay in shift or delay when going from drive to reverse etc it's always felt tight ? The failure was immediate. One minute fine, next minute going nowhere.

Update: I towed the car to Jon @ auto38 who advised the box was busted. I towed it home, did some thinking, looked at replacement vehicles, looked at replacement boxes, sort council from multiple forum members, then towed it out to Hutt Automatics for them to drop the box and diagnose further. They have advised this morning that the A drum has failed, likely due to pressure spikes from the pressure regulator/valve body. After further discussions about how the car was driving prior to it failing I've decided to rebuild the torque converter too while it's out. Hopefully it's back on the road in a couple of weeks...

Bumping this. Still looking 

Bump

15 hours ago, rusteee said:

I hope its no major Adrian. Thats the third gearbox in that beast and millionth torque converter which both had been fully rebuilt so be suprising if it was internal. Keen to see what the issue is, hopfully just some bad connection somewhere in the line

Thanks Russell, yeah....that's what I'm hoping for, it's been working like a dream so hopefully not terminal.

11 minutes ago, Eagle said:

 Maybe its got a curse on it

I think after what Russell went through it's not a crazy concept ?

and then it couldn't find a gear. Booked into Auto38 on Tuesday. In the mean time I scanned it myself,  ISTA-D came up with codes 31-EGS: Symptom gear monitoring, 32 -EGS: Symptom gear monitoring 1, 35 -EGS: Symptom gear monitoring 3, 3B EGS: Stall speed and 8- IKE: EGS signal line disturbed. Cleared them, drove it...shifted fine for about 3 mins and then started slipping again in 3rd or 4th and then went back into limp mode, same codes. I've been googling but looks like some serious multimetering is the next step. I'll leave that up to Jon.

Attended the MG & Constructors car club driver training day at Manfield last weekend. What a fun event. First time driving on the track and had an absolute blast.

Cleaned and got a coat of some autoglym quick detailer. Clay bar'd the windscreen and applied 'jet seal' to it along with the lights. Noticed someone has reversed into my front number plate putting it significantly out of shape...probably better than the bumper but still. Will have to pop this off and try straighten it.

Has the thermostat replacement made a difference to the fuel consumption? 

transformed. Looks great!

I'm looking forward to the big reveal!

221188 km

Installed modLight2 module today:

https://modbmw.com/shop/modlight2/

Since I've already spliced the GROM unit into the stereo harness in the dash I opted to splice this into the CD changer loom in the boot, which turns out is way easier/roomy.

I've since added a zip tie to keep it there. It's a bit of a one time program so I'm too concerned about having it mounted upside down.

Features:

Mirrors fold with long press of the key fob, unfold upon unlocking

'Follow me' style lights when locking and unlocking (you can have the thing light up like a disco ball..I have just opted for the default which is park lights on unlock and high beams on lock.)

Custom welcome message which is a bit of a lol.

That's all i've signed up for at the moment, i might change the courtesy indicator to 3 clicks but I'm not fussed. 

Conclusion:

The sunroof and window close function still work with the long press of the key fob and the Grom unit still runs as it should which was a relief.

I'm really happy with this little upgrade. Makes the car feel a touch more modern than it is. I'll upload a video of it working in action soon.

New lens meant car 'test' photos. Teamed up with @mossline to go double trouble.

3 hours ago, BreakMyWindow said:

Only thing that pisses me off about my GROM BT3 in the Touring is that when you turn the car back on after using it, it reverts back to the tuner and the volume is cranked right up. There must be a gain setting to match it with the tuner output ? I'll have to investigate but this only started happening after i installed a business RDS unit so I could get all the NZ radio frequencies.

I'm running business RDS and it defaults to whatever input it was on before it was turned off it.

 I have the unit also behind the HVAC. Not sure what the distance was from the posi taps. Was planning on soldering them in at some point but wanted to make sure everything worked first. Soldering could be an option?

1 hour ago, hunter said:

you guys have any issues with high pitch "whining" from the unit? mine is located behind HVAC, belowe the tape player

i get it at any volume, not really noticable whe the music is playing above quiet - i got a new unit from GROM as the forst was really bad, this ones better but not silent even when no music is playing i can hear it 

 

keen to hear your experiences an placements

I havent noticed any whining.....but the V8 + muffler delete might have something to do with that ? I went to New Plymouth a few weeks ago and the GROM worked perfect...I finally used the USB charge function too. I still haven't hooked up the mic yet, have you? Did it whine before you upgraded the speakers?