Daniel

I'd be pretty excited if that was on the way to me, too... Nice one.

2001 BMW 530i 530I M Sport | Trade Me Motors

I wouldn't be paying his asking price. Needs new head unit, dash pixel repair, and nasty crack in the bumper.

3 private owners since imported in 2012. According the guy, the last private owner had it 4 years and the one before him, for 5. Current owner is a smalltime RMVT who buys from dealers and onsells both privately and to other dealers.

I suspect that it's been very well looked after for some of it's life, but that the last owner was negligent or lost interest when he decided he was going to trade it in. Still deciding between PPI and walk away.

Leaning towards walking.

Thank you for the responses, much appreciated. Coolant check was performed when completely cold.

There's no service history, but I had budgeted for the cooling system overhaul  
3pedals your breakdown is great, cheers. Based on that, it seems likely to me that:

it has a faulty sensor and coolant has been overfilled in response.
or
it has a leaky HG.

I highly doubt any recent maintenance, and can therefore pretty confidently rule out improper bleeding.

Now I just need to decide on a PPI or walk away. Still confused about why the warning would occur only after turning the car off and not during driving, but I have a better understanding of the situation now. Thanks all

Hi team,

I'm in the market for a car, and I've just looked at an 01 E39 530i. 

As I was unscrewing the cap to check coolant level, it started overflowing, and I could feel the bobber being eager to be free from constraint. The amount that overflowed wasn't significant. The guy said he had driven it for an hour, part of the trip being a large windy hill (this was yesterday). I suspected that a little pressure buildup wasn't too strange.

Anyway, I took her for a drive and there were no warning lights or anything, temperature sat where it was supposed to be. In fact, she drove beautifully. On turning the car off, it then told me to check the coolant level... It seems strange to me, as, if there was an actual problem it would tell me that during driving, right?

My question is, is this easily explainable? I understand that the answer is likely to be "get it checked out" but I thought I'd ask here first anyway. Probably should have taken photos for reference, but I didn't. TIA.

18 years on, and the facelift E39 is still one of the best looking sedans ever made, too (imo). 

That price is for today only as well... wonder what it will be tomorrow.

As others have pointed out, it's priced rather highly for what it is.
 

For example, this 06 NZ new 330i has an asking price of $10k.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2179838804.htm 
Granted it has a lot more kilometers, but like he said;

On 6/13/2019 at 6:48 PM, balancerider said:

Lowest km option in a car of that age potentially not the best choice either, I'd prefer one with average miles and a lower price especially if suspension / cooling system parts have been replaced.

And for $9k you could consider this 05 import which seems to be M Sport...
https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2157869663.htm
If you look into this one, I'd record the VIN and run it through a decoder to check whether it does have sport suspension.


For the same-ish money as the 08 330 you were looking at, you might be tempted by some 335s...


06 M Sport with service history since it was imported https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2180104206.htm?rsqid=eebf1e025d7e488698f6267701fdfb29-011

This 08 M Sport has been on the market for more than 6 months, so it's likely you could get him to $13k or even $12k.  https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1824923484.htm?rsqid=9179d3ae76404168b7356c096c6b1bbe-004
 

I also wouldn't worry about the interior trim colouring too much; it's fairly cheap to have them wrapped to a colour more suited to you. HTH.

You could get a non-OEM cord to plug in the back for like $10 shipped off Ebay.

I'm sure you already know to check that your radio is compatible.

I recently bought a cord off Ebay for my 03 Head Unit, but it just will not work.
Some sources say they might not work with "Tape" HUs (really?) so you may want to look into that as well if applicable

Welcome to the forum!

Not sure what you want exactly, but try this:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731460

It's a helpful guide that was linked somewhere by another E60 owner on this forum.
I found the pdf file at the bottom of the first post very informative when looking at an E61.

Welcome to the forum

Here's a helpful link:

My Pioneer unit was $135 shipped, so a pretty good price. Admittedly it does not have BT; after I had decided to buy an aftermarket stereo, the Pioneer brand and variable colour were my must haves.

The cost of items in the link above (granted 6/7 years ago) totalled 50 USD and 140 pounds. Today you can buy a good Pioneer BT Unit for less than $200 NZD. I couldn't seem to find any packages compatible for the OEM stereo for retrofit Iphone compatability for less than $200 (the cheaper ones required aux/usb input). 

In future I'll buy an amplifier for the speakers; then I'll reconsider re-installing the OE unit and a module for aux/usb/BT.

For now, I'll consider incoming phone-calls while driving an unnecessary interruption of my favorite past-time  

Well, I was surprised to learn that buying an aftermarket headunit was a lot cheaper than installing an Ipod interface.

So I purchased a Pioneer DEH-X2950UI HU and shallow mounting Pioneer speakers.
Does anyone know if I would need a round or square pin wiring harness?
 

In regards to speakers, I'm thinking either this package 
https://www.hyperdrive.co.nz/product/car-audio-packages/149/prime-6-component-coax-package/1147517/detail  

or this one 
https://www.hyperdrive.co.nz/product/car-audio-packages/149/type-s-6-5-comp-coax-package/1198166/detail

seem like good, relatively cheap options. I like that the alpine set are a shallow design, but on the other hand I'm sure someone at Abtec or some such could make quick work of the RF set too.


 

@zero I like the idea of having it secured to the actual door, although that's definitely well out of scope for me!
I'm curious what sound deadening material you used? 


 

Cheers for the responses. Various forums have listed 5.25, 6, and 6.5 as possible replacements. I think I'll have to try pull them out and measure them myself at this point.

Does anyone know where I could buy an OE CD business Head Unit?
 

23 minutes ago, Gabe79 said:

If you paid close to $4500 for it and end up spending even up to $2k more on it, it was still a good buy. $2k, if you're doing the work yourself, gets you very far with these too.

+1.

5 hours ago, TermiPeteNZ said:

+1 on this. E39 Motorsport Tourings are also pretty uncommon.

It includes Bluetooth and radar detector too!

+1.

Very nice!

I might be a bit of an a**hole about people providing competent customer service, but if I was you, I would not be letting the issue sit. I'd be finding out what I need to do to have Mr Mechanic pay for all of Glenn's work and any future work needed (repairing wheels etc). 

Not to mention they didn't provide you with the products you requested and they probably charged for. As people have already said, human error is acceptable. This cowboy gave you a sorry? Not good enough imo. Nowhere near good enough.

 

Hey guys,
Old audio posts shows there are some knowledgeable people here... this is good for me as I haven't really got the faintest. 

Situation:
My NZ new e46 sedan has the factory stereo - 2 speakers rear tray, 2 front door, 2 tweeters - tape head unit & stacker in boot.

Issue:
The head unit and left rear speaker are the only things that work.

What I want:
New speakers
I/Phone connectivity
Must retain steering wheel controls

I would prefer to keep the head unit or swap it for a factory CD one and get that Dice unit thing in place of the stacker. I know from other posts that this might be a restraint on quality of sound. I'd consider a reasonably priced aftermarket unit if it would make a night/day difference?

I plan to shop around for the components myself, and probably have it all installed professionally. I'm pretty sure I need 6.5 inch speakers for both front and rear and then two 1 inch tweeters. Unfortunately I'm having trouble making head or tail of forum postings and you-tube videos, so I still don't know whether I should be looking for coaxial, component, or 2/3 way setups?

I'm not looking to go all out or spend alot, I just want a good solid stereo with I/phone connectivity. Suggestions welcome, thanks 

any update @SmithyInWelly? I'm also browsing for installers...

I believe you can't import cars manufactured before 2005 (from Japan anyway).

This page might help: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/importing-a-vehicle/

Thanks guys. Just picked her up from Page Euro:

ITEMS NOTED
1- RADIATOR LEAKING
2- OIL LEVEL SENSOR FAULT
3- L/FRONT WINDOW REGULATOR FAULTY
4- A/C COMPRESSOR NOISY
5- R/FRONT LIFTING PAD RUBBER MISSING
6- SLIGHT OIL WEEPAGE FROM VANOS OIL FEED HOSE

So the only pressing thing is it needs a new radiator within the next three months.
He quoted that for parts and labour at $750.00 which seems fair to me.

Overall he was surprised with the condition and said it was obvious money was spent to keep her in good shape.

I'm pretty happy with that.

I had assumed you could take an eligible vehicle to an approved dealer and buy MBI from them.

I was wrong; Autosure said the car has to be purchased from said dealer.

That's true, but you can buy it through an approved dealer. Answering my own above question:

Essential Cover is for cars with a max age of 16 years, and extreme is 12 years.

May I ask when you bought the MBI? I assume around a year and a half if you bought it same time as the vehicle. I looked at Autosure myself but thought it was only from about 2005 and up for Euros. Could have missed something though..

So, I've been looking at and researching various different cars for some time. I wanted something "oldish" (but still quick) so that I could learn about doing general maintenance things myself, and maybe some upgrades in future.

I always liked BMWs, and the more I read about the much loved e46, the more I wanted one. I was quite keen on coupes for awhile, but figured 4 doors would be more practical as I plan on owning it for some time.

So I bought this:

She's a NZ new, 2003 330i M Sport, barely run in with 181 kms. Came with all the BMW booklets (about 7 different ones) and a pretty comprehensive service history since new, mostly from BMW Dealers and European Specialists.

There were even some receipts and inspection doc.s from a couple of owners previous, showing it's been around the country a bit. Unfortunately it was a $1 dollar reserve auction as a trade-in from a dealer, so I didn't have much time to organise a proper PPI myself. Regardless, I took it for a good test drive and there was only a window regulator and a slight steering creak (only at start) that I noticed as things needing attention. 

It does need a little cleaning up in some areas, but for the most part it's surprisingly clean and straight, and drives like it's done a lot less travel. Everything seems to be stock standard instead of the shoes, which I think are style 127s?

Anyway, I'll have it looked at by a specialist in the near future to identify any big problem areas. For now though, I'm really stoked with my purchase, and am looking forward to begin practicing some DIY here and there.

Most importantly, I really am impressed with the way it drives and handles... it's alot of fun!