adro

Mine cost $120 incl shipping (second hand) so the one from TM if you could get it for $150 which is the starting bid isn’t too far off. 

some more pictures from the local spot. Wet down courtesy of the weather gods. 

I think I remember this being for sale a while ago? 

1 hour ago, leichtbau said:

Big improvement! I think 68's are the lightest 17" wheel BMW ever made.

Thanks, I think so too. 
they are 1kg lighter per wheel at the front than the ones I took off interestingly. 

was tempted to go 18” MV2’s or 194’s like Olaf but have always loved the 68’s on the E46 and wanted to stay 17 with a bit more sidewall for comfort factor. 

115,800km

Tracked down some  style 68's from Weitz. The front left could do with a refurb but it's the daily so not too concerned for now. Front tyres are nothing special but pretty new. Rears might scrape through the next WOF so looking to replace these soon.

Great work as usual! How were the o rings on those coolant pipes above the valley pan? Mine were slime. 

Good score. 
Looks mint. What needs attention? 

Survived the south coast storm last night. Parked the E46 on higher ground as iv spent double what it’s insured for so with a clear driveway I took the E30 out for an errand run today. Shot this on some old glass mounted via multiple adapters to a new mirrorless body. The mirrorless body has focus peaking making the old manual focus lenses more accurate and actually usable. This is the 80mm in the photo but the photo was taken with a 150mm F4 Hasselblad C series lens. With the 35mm crop factor it turns a 150 into an 85mm. Is it better than the 85mm Nikon lens….probably not, but it has a nice softness to it which I think resonates with the romance of E30’s. 

As long as it’s possible for it to be hooked up, that would be enough of a box tick for me. I don’t think it would be a deal breaker considering the rest of the work you have done on the car. 

215,500km

Added 15mm spring pads to the rear. I felt it had a bit of a saggy bum and looked like it had been lowered (aftermarket) and it was also scraping exiting the driveway. It still scrapes if you go to fast but only just. I think it evens out the height nicely and looks more factory. I came across @Olaf's E46 in the parking building today and was doing abit of comparison. Also thanks Richard for adding my spring pads to your FCP order 🙂 .

The style 194's offset look so much stauncher.

PS: the mineral oil is for the E30.

44 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Nice work!

At least you will have the RF unit - I've got the crappy IR / line of sight / pathetic range one.

I'm going to retrofit the IR system in the next month or so.

Thanks, this was abit of a mystery after buying multiple modules and it still not working. My friend Andy did a good write up on that conversion here if you haven’t found it already. 
A big box tick of this car was the 2 remote keys plus the valet and wallet keys even though I knew the remote keys weren’t working on purchase. What I didn’t realise was that there is only the barrel lock on the drivers side. So for getting kids in and out and then having to walk around to the drivers side to physical lock it was abit dangerous…not to mention wanting to put the supermarket shopping in the back in the pouring rain and same deal, no lock barrel on the boot! 

Remote locking fixed. 

I followed this thread https://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/threads/2003-e46-320d-se-tourer-remote-key-problem-fzv.73922/

and sure enough no 12V feed. Followed the cable, bit of tugging and found it was loose. Had to dissect the loom cover to access it as it had obviously broken right in the middle of it. Soldered and heat shrinked. 
Now 12V at the module, still no remote locking. Resynced the key and voila! Happy days. 

https://bmworkshop.co.nz/parts-department/

I got ATE rotors from these guys for my 540. Reasonably priced and overnight shipping that actually arrived overnight. 

dramatic morning light 

215XXXkms

Car was feeling a bit sluggish and had a bit of a rough idle that didn’t feel very BMW (esp with new engine mounts) and it had a delayed throttle response. All liveable but had a feeling something wasn’t quite right. Scanned it and it came up with - Current at 2 or more cylinders and all these DME cylinder activation codes + a misfire code on cylinder 3. 
 

did some googling and found a thread about the same codes on E46 fanatics. Seemed 1 person swapped new coils which fixed it, others mentioned an issue where the older M54 head with the newer style valve cover can have the coils ground to the head giving the ground wire resistor in the loom a weird reading in turn pinging a code. ( I have older style block/head with my original engines intake mani/valve cover/ignition system) 
 

long story short they recommended running coils from the newer engines as they are insulated all the way to the bottom. 
 

old and new:

I found these on FB market place out of an N54 and the guy reckoned they were running fine so as a bit of cheap test I went for it. 

Long story long, they work great. No codes. Throttle feels more responsive and the idle is smooth and the engine feels freer. This might all be placebo but posting this up incase anyone else has got the same codes after an engine swap. 
 

in other news I also swapped the grilles back to chrome as those double slotted ones interfered with the bonnet leaver meaning the grill would kinda pop out when you opened the hood which felt abit ghetto when filling up the washer system at the petrol station.  

Any update on this? 

1 hour ago, leichtbau said:

@adro are your rear tyres on correctly?

I think so? What doesn’t look right to you? 

20 hours ago, E28E30 said:

Definitely have to catch up one day @adro , you’ve done ALL the things I want to do to mine ... one day!

Yeah for sure @E28E30

Clocked up a few km’s this week working in Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa. Gave me a chance to stretch its legs and put it through its paces on some twisty backroads. Compliant and comfortable...these sport seats are a treat. 
 

6 hours ago, Sammo said:

Just binged this thread again - such a beautiful car and brilliant photography - need more!

Thanks. Cars just ticked over 125,000km I think. Isn’t seeing much use as the wagons running great now. Don’t think I have any photos I haven’t already posted so might be time to go shoot some new ones. 

spotted in Wellington eastern suburbs this arvo

and

213xxxkm

Cosmetic update.

35% tints and chrome blackout wrap (satin) done by Wrap Innovations.

Interior trim switched out for the 3D cube version. I sourced this from Weitz. I thought it was plastic but it's actually alloy. I think it adds a richer texture to  the cabin than the previous plastic ones.

I also got the antenna module from Weitz too but that hasn't  fixed my remote key woes.

Next up is some beefier spring pads in the rear and a wheel alignment.

(edited these pics on my phone so the colour is abit weird)

@Driftit was this your one? I remember pondering this when I first started looking. Think they were asking 10k 

Bump. 

Wow, epic work!