GorGasm

Nope, by my workinng it's about 1:1 at 10L/100km, petrol vs diesel when diesel includes RUC. $2.25 for petrol, $1.55 for diesel. If your diesel gets 2L/100km better then diesel is better by between 5-15% Diesel is suited to 2+ Tonne SUVs where petrol use would be over 15L/100km, a diesel can get 10 or under.

N55 is as new as the N57 Our N55 535i can get down to 7L/100km on the open road and averages about 10. Agree the N57 is a little gruntier though. Not going to be a huge cost difference once RUC is added. Depending on budget the F30 328i or F10 528i with the 2.0 turbo could be an option, far newer cars than the E90, and economical. Have seen both at $20k and a few under.

Chinese replacement air bag in the 535i blew up on the way home today. You get what you pay for I guess. I put the best of the two old ones back in to get it back on the road. Now I don't trust the other bag that is in there... The only upside is I am getting pretty fast at swapping out the bags. Battery in my M5 is also toast. Replacing sh*t for no gain is such a drag. Must be time for a Toyota or something.

Excellent, carry on.

$400 wheel nuts but manky old center caps? ?

130i in urban is about 11.5L/100km. My M5 is about 18-19L on the same route. Overall it's about 9-12L/100km, which is worse than my 535i touring which gets 7-11L/100km. I'd go old 130i or newer 116i, maybe even a Nissan Leaf. Still tempted to sell my 130i. $30 grand on a povo BMW isn't an attractive idea to me. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1865293537.htm?rsqid=8ef907f50ac34f89bf04796781f19a4d

How was the Auto Glym de-stinker? Noticeably less stinky? I am about to change all my cleaning product to Auto Glym after having decent success with their Ultra Deep Shine polish/wax.

That interior color is awesome.

Fuel consumption is down nearly 20% since replacing the thermostat, awesome. @$#%@# it has been like that for the last 2 years. Strange that a shop didn't comment on the code in the ECU...

Additional to the obvious risk for the workshop, a lot of them are crazy busy and having to deal with BYO parts is just not worth the hassle when you have a full pipeline of work. The shop will already has it's own processes for parts so having to cater for BYO can be quite an inconvenience, and then it turns to sh*t if the parts are wrong or become faulty. Charging a higher hourly rate wouldn't change the situation, as the shop can make just as much doing a run of the mill job and there's no shortage of those jobs with European cars. The last times I have been to AK BMW and BM Workshop they have been very busy and had a couple of weeks lead time.

Yeah mine would always be visibly below 100 unless it was getting hammered, it now seems to snuggle up close to 100. I also hardly ever had the after run fan. On the run this morning it took about 9 mins to get to temp.

Plenums back on, and everything back together. Fired up with all sorts of codes until I realised I had left the idle control return hose off (oops). VANOS bled. No apparent coolant or oil leaks, phew. All codes cleared now and I think the car is running warmer. Time will tell what impact it (the thermostat) has. Next will be a battery I think as it always has a charge fault after being off for an extended period. Seriously contemplating a set of BC adjustable suspension, must resist...

Today mine was running for something like 5 minutes after shut down. Could be just an anomaly after having a bunch of work done, but will certainly keep an ear on it. Will also report back on time to operating temp.

The oil guage and usage is rather sporadic on mine. Sometimes it will sit around 1.0 for what seems like ages and then over a couple of hundred km it drops to 0.3 and lower. At a guess it would used 1 litre per 2000km. Currently has 10w60. I just replaced my thermostat at it had a stored code in the ECU and on first run it appears to be running warmer already at just under 100C and when I shut it down the after run fan went for quite a long time. I can't remember ever hearing the fan run before. Fingers crossed this has a positive effect on economy.

Castrol or Penrite 10W60, no point dropping to 5W50. I just picked up some Penrite for mine at about 70 bucks a bottle on special. I also need a new battery, I have just been putting off dropping yet another $500 on the car.

Thermostat replaced. Old one appeared OK even if the seal was stuffed. Not sure if there will be an improvement but hopefully the code will clear. Last 3 spark plugs replaced since ECS shipped 7 correct and 3 random spark plugs. Vanos solenoid o-rings replaced, mongrel job. Snapped one of the vanos solenoid screws putting it back in, that was an oh sh*t moment, as they mount upside down with very little space to get at them. Purchased all sorts of things from AES to get the screw out, in the end a 2mm left hand drill bit was the winner with the drill on a wacky angle threatening to snap the bit. Getting that screw out was the biggest relief I've had in the last few years. Just need to put the plenums back on, fill it up with coolant and bleed then back on the road. Please no more dumb worn out sh*t Mr M5, baby 2 is due very soon!

Don't be silly KwS

Bugger, I was sure it was a website bug as I had that with another tyre a while back The Toyo was a bit too good a deal!

Haha I have been thinking the same thing about Toyota/Lexus since my M5 is trying to kill me by paper cut repairs. Toyota Mark X for a cheap option or a recent model IS350F or GS350F, Camry or even Hybrid!

Argh, it's just a bug on Hyper's website. You should contact them and get them to change it to 4x T1S...

Toyo T1S at Hyper is a great deal at the moment @ $185 each.

I know it's a different market these days, but we signed up and had the 1% rate penalty, it only took us a year or so for that to go away as we had capital gains sort it out for us. The 1% difference didn't make us even blink. Also, if 1% additional rate is going to cause you concern now then you really can't afford the mortgage anyway. You should be comfortable being able to afford at least a 3-5% rate increase. I would hate to see you lose on the 135i after putting some time and money in it.

+1 the low equity rate penalty doesn't matter, having a sweet car does matter.

Gotta put another plug in for Penrite HPR5, or Ten tenths 0W40.

Small market and no suppliers. I still agree, it's sh*t not being able to buy anything here.