rxsumo

I've just acquired another tidy parts car, that is really too good to send to the scrap metal man. So if anybody is interested in a project, or potentally a "reshell" bodyshell. The car is complete (as per pictures), so sort out the engine and it should be ready to go. 1979 525a, light metallic green, manual sunroof in really tidy condition, rego lapsed (so dereg'd). It would appear that the car was restored a few years ago, as the body is very good. The doors have been replaced for E28 ones. The rust that I have found is limited to the corners of the bonnet, some minor bubbles on the bottom of the LHF door, and bubbling around the lower part of rear panel, (under the taillights) The LHR door has a fairly minor scrape across it - although the trim is not flash (I might have a spare - E28 rather than E12) Only other item that I can find is the lower part of the radiator support panel seems to be pushed up, although I can't find any recent damage marks so I'm assuming its been like it for a while and the radiator fits. Panel wise I have removed the boot lid and front spoiler and these have been replaced with good standard items from my spares 528 Interior is pretty good, sun damage to the top of the rear seats, and some wear on the front seats. The car currently has a broken 3.5 engine in it. Apparently the head is warped, the bare head is still on the motor. The motor appears to have done very few kms as the frost plugs are still shiny, and you can still see shiny metal on a few of the pistons - however the motor has sat for at least two years, with a small amount of water in number 6 so I'm not too sure if the block can be saved without a rebore. so if you are interested PM me, open to silly offers, if no bites by the end of the weekend its going on TM for $1 reserve. I would have kept the car, if I had the space, but I've already got a tidy SA assembled (hybrid) 528 spares car.

Probably can help here, what colour are the studs...black, chrome or plated (or doesnt it matter) I've got heaps of BMW studs. My inlaws are up the coast - so could drop them off to you or you could pick them up from Waikanae at some stage.

I have a mixed bag of experiences with Mechanical insurance. With my Mazda 626 GT, (which I think was with Lumley) the car developed a noise in the gearbox/diff. Once the diff was pulled down it was discovered that the spider gears were stuffed, and these were all sorted at the local Mazda dealer - it didn't sort the noise - and the car was still in the workshop when we traded it back. However, dealing with the Insurance company was great - no problems getting the car sorted, and no baulking on parts cost. With my E34 535i (was with Autosure - basically the other company), the car developed a problem occassionally dropping out of first gear - typically doing a hill start. The car was driven by the Insurance assessor, and he couldnt fault it, so it was put back on me to have the box repaired - under the " Insurance will pay ONLY if a fault is found" rule, not having a couple of grand lying around at that time, I opted to repair when I could cover the cost of ripping the box out and stripping it down. About nine months later, I had the box stripped down and the only main problem found was a small amount of movement in the bearings, and the syncro ring were badly worn. The insurance company decided that the bearing wear was the problem, and the syncro rings were due to the fact that the box was driven on since the fault was reported - WTF, so I ended up paying an additional $500 on top of the excess for the syncro rings. On reflection it was probably the syncro rings were probably the actual problem - preventing first gear fully engaging. On reading the policy fineprint when working out the coverage on the 535, I would read the policy very carefully, as the coverage can be virtually worthless. There are mileage, year and import status dollar limits - I paid $900 for my policy on the 10 year old, 135K NZ new 535i. With that combination I think the maximum coverage was only $2500 for some of the payouts - which wouldnt have paid for a ECU failure or an engine. I would recommend servicing the car every 5000km, that way you will never miss the 10000km service - you go 1km over the service point - no coverage. If you have a problem, and decide to claim on it - make sure you have the $$$ to go through with the repairs if they say that its on the owner to pay if there is no problem - otherwise they are likely to weasel out of paying for stuff

No, not familar with it, but it looks to be good value for money, however I suspect it won't sell in a hurry at the price he is asking, the market for V8 BMWs probably aint too flash at the moment. The car is a good spec'd car, just check that its had all the usual E34 "issues" fixed, and the air con is working

Ah ...so you are looking at the green one - huh? I was going to have a look at it, as it has lower mileage , and better spec than my current one The slow to change first thing doesnt seem to be an issue, my one is sluggish to change for the first 3 km in the morning....its been like that for a couple of years, with no ill effects. My old 535 had a real issue, when it wouldn't shift out of first when cold, and if you manually shifted it, 2nd had no drive. This turned out to be the fibre clutches in the trans disintregrating - a flush and service sorted it, although the trannie speciallist wouldnt warrenty how long it work work for, it was fine 6 months later when I sold the car. I would suggest that it wouldnt be a problem, but if that is the only issue you might be better to have a trans speciallist have a look to be sure.

Try Spot On in Home Street - Couple of doors down from Page European. They have done all of the work on my daily drivers - good quality work at a fair price. My E34 has just come back from there after having the front bumper repaired/painted. Only issue is that they are a small shop so you might have to wait a couple of weeks to get the car in, because they are always busy.

Actually I don't think AMI can tell you what the the car is worth, a mate of mine went through this a number of years ago. He was hit by a car that failed to give way at a roundabout, his car was hit in the side hard, enough to bend the car completely out of shape. The car had huge sentimental value to him, and he wanted it repaired regardless of cost. The insurance company wanted to write it off at $2K, he challenged them, and they went to $5K, the total bill ended up being just over $10K. My mate accepted the cheque from the insurance company for the $5K stating that it was accepted as partial payment, and then went the owner in the small claims court for the rest. The court awarded him the rest including a top-up for loss of use awarded by the court (my mate didnt ask for it, the Judge thought that 18 months loss of use should be compensated) Basically if the other person was in the wrong you have the right to have the car restored into the condition it was prior to the accident.

In the older motors there is a seperate injector (big bugger) that fires an initial dose of gas to fire the car. I'm not to sure if the E34/E32 still uses this sort of setup.

What colour is the smoke black or blue/white? Is it excess fuel or oil? If its fuel, have you got a dodgy cold start valve, which is flooding, or have you made a mistake with one of the sensors, which is effectively telling the car to continuely fire the cold start,or constantly stay in the cold running mode?

Hi Does anybody have access to the factory CD or "blue book" service manual for the 2nd generation E12. I'm looking for the front and rear spring spec's for the M535i. I'm interested in the details listed in the service manual, as this listing actually has the real information as opposed to the parts manuals that only have the 11 digit part number. I'm looking for this sort of info....stolen off the First Fives forum, but only covers the US models: P/N: 1 112 867 (530i through 1976) relaxed length: 352 (13.858) relaxed pitch: 78.61 ( 3.095) wire gage: 13.5 ( 0.531) diameter: 164.5 ( 6.476) total windings: 5 active windings: 4 colors: blue stripes along entire length of springs plus red, white, or green stripes depending on spring rate. red: 3649 - 3738 N / 372 - 381 kp / 820 - 840 lbs. white: 3747 - 3845 N / 382 - 392 kp / 842 - 864 lbs. green: 3855 - 3955 N / 393 - 402 kp / 866 - 886 lbs. The suspension on my SA M535i has been "monkeyed with" (I'm just replaced the rear Koni's and cut springs,with my Bilsteins and some unknown BMW stock springs), and I'm trying to return it back to a more "original" motorsport spec.

I would suggest that you would declare anything that makes your car different from the basic drive out of the showroom specification. Otherwise, if your car is stolen, and then recovered, and your factory big wheels and bodykit are removed, what chance of getting the bits replaced do you reckon you have? Especially if those accessories were dealer fitted, rather than factory fitted.

Hey, you do know that the discussion thus far is about three insurance companies . IAG = State Insurance = NZI = NAC Vero = AA = Classic Cover AMI In my experience with cars and claims, (and apart from State Insurance), its the assessor that determines what sort of repair you are going to get and how much he (or she), will allow the panel beater to spend. If your panelbeater is not working at capped hourly rate, then the assessor may only allow the money that they could get the job done at a capped rate. This is compounded in the Wellington area from, what I understand, that most of the insurance companies either share or use a contacted company to do their assessments. The only way to avoid the reducing agreed value, is to have the car actually valued, and provide the insurance company with a written valuation. But at $50-$100 per time, that can be expensive if you have a few cars. State have always used 2nd panels, and own (or at least the used to) NZ Cars Parts, specifically to supply the parts for the Insurance work. There used to be "horror stories" of latest release cars, waiting for over 6 months in panel shops, for another car to be written off so that they didnt have to pay for new panels. AMI arent much better, when I frontalled our old MX5, they were going to supply a Taiwanese copy bonnet rather than a geniune one, no big deal huh?, the MX5's run aluminium bonnets, the copy one was steel - fortunately my panel beater gave me the option, of repair or replacement - the repair was an easy repair so we kept the original lightweight bonnet. Personally I use AMI and the Vero Classic Cover, when I finally get off my ass, I will put as many cars through the Classic Cover as I'm able, as the company (the old Joblin Classic Insurance) listens to the panelbeaters, and if the assessor "gets it wrong", will reassess the car themselves to get the right outcome for both parties.

What elements of the handling are you trying to improve? The E34 considering its weight doesnt handle too badly from the start. I would suggest that going over the standard components that wear out would be a good starting point. Checking the front control arms, and replacing the bush that is usually worn out with Nolathane, or with a 750 item, as an example.....

How about the first affordable M car...the E12 M535i? The E9's are pretty cool, the only problem is the rust, the factory assembled E3's were bad enough, the Karmann assembled E9s were shockers.

If its a light blue 3.0Si,it might be my old one. If anybody is looking for a project E3, I have a very good 2500 that I need to get rid of.

Our local tips have a recycling depot, where you can get rid of oil. It says max 20 litres at a time but last time I went there I had probably 100 litres...no problem. Only hassle is that its parto f the waste that they weigh

A "fully loaded" E3 3.0Si "Sunroof" A E9 3.0CSI or a euro market E9 CSL E34 Alpina B10 Bi Turbo E12 M535i (English Market one) That would do me....

I'm looking for a new front bumper for the 540. Would prefer a Calypso Red painted one, preferably off a 540, but will consider what is available. Must be in good condition (otherwise I'll just have my one repaired). PM me or email rxsumo@xtra.co.nz

err...the guys we brought the car off were friends of ours, and surely garages that offer "dodgy" warrants wouldnt issue a warrant on a car that they knew was getting sold, its too likely to expose the fact that might not be issuing kosher warrants. The balljoints are unlike to have failed to the extent they had in the 4 months since the warrant was issued, as the joints were completely U/S.

My 540i was serviced by Auto Care Kilbirnie by it's previous owner. It had a current WOF (issued by Auto Care) with leaking front struts, and absolutely f#*ked front control arm ball joints. That doesnt give me faith that these guys know about bimmers.

Armstrong Prestige on Cambridge Terrace (ex Team European) Porsche/Audi Dealership

For the suspension bits...check out ebay, for the E34 the suspension parts are usually around 50% less than geniune including frieght ex the US.

I've got a spot in a town just to the west of Sydney to watch the race. Its got a couple of big screen TVs, and you get full surround sound. The air conditioning can be a bit variable however

Off topic but...yep LHD is a status thing, although I think there are now more and more RHD euros and yanks. When we first went to Japan, I only saw one RHD euro...a Merc wagon, in the last few years that we have visited its probably 50/50, although the yanks are manly LHD except for the Cadillac's and Chrysler 300Cs. The expressways in Tokyo actually have a LHD toll booth, so that they can take you money on the correct side

Our 540i is used as an around town hack, with a 7km each way commute, so its running cold in the mornings and has the Ngauranga Gorge uphill to contend with in the evenings. It averages around 16 mpg on the OBC, which is about 1 mpg less than our 535i's used to do. The 540i however kicks ass when on the trip, its gets well over 20mpg, something that our 535i manual would never do, and the 535iA would occassionaly do