rxsumo

back in '72 the list on my 3.0S was $11,100, although mine was brought in the UK, if you were splashing the dosh out back then, you wouldnt have been able to buy the car unless you had some overseas funds.

The money almost sounded reasonable, until you check other "luxury" cars like the 4.2 XJ6 at $9664, and the Jag got leather seats, was generally automatic, and had power windows, none of which were standard on the E3

The familt stables like the Morris Marina cost $3384 for the 1750 and the MK 3 Cortina GT cost S4069

The E34 isnt that problematic, after having owned a manual 535i, I wouldnt go back to one unless it was something special...maybe M5 or an Alpina B10 TT.

We also brought a E34 535i with slightly less kms, for around a third of the buynow of this car (price reflects the condition), and yep its got a trannie issue, but the clutch/torque convertor problems are probably more associated with the age of the box (and the loads put on it ...towing) rather than the outright mileage. I'm guessing that these early cars are now getting to the stage of having an average of 200K+ on the clock.

The big sixes are thirsty to run, although the auto on a trip whips my old manual (18 MPG for the manual vs 25 MPG for the auto according to the trip computer), and it doesnt matter whether its a 2.5 litre engine or a 3.5 litre engine.

My old E3s run similar MPG as the E34.

The good thing with the big sixes is that there is no VANOS, and no cambelts, and so long as you keep the oil filters changed (so the head gear doesnt run out of oil), the engines will "run forever". We recently pulled the bearing caps on a E23 3.5 litre that had been owned by some not so caring guys in Gisborne, and the was virtually no wear at them at 220K.

We brought our "new" E34 as a daily driver "hack", we brought the car because we knew it was NZ new, and the 535 spec for NZ new cars was very good. The price we paid was low enough that a replacement/repaired trans wasnt going to be an issue. I'd be wary of buying a 2nd hand transmission without receipts for work on the transmission, as you are likely to be buying another transmission with the same issues as the one you have in the car.

Based on the owners claim's the car mentioned here would appear to be in very good (mint?) condition, although in today's market may still be a little overpriced. If you were interested in the car I would suggest having the car's transmission checked out by a transmission speciallist, as from what I'm told there are usually warning signs that the clutches are on their way out, and if that was the case then you could have the price renegotiated with the owner.

Hre you keeping the grills? If not - have they got the chrome strip around the edge?

Sorry ...keeping the grills, but they didnt have a chrome edge

I've brought a facelift 520/6, and the only bits I want off it are the removable body panels, and the exterior trim, as spares for my E12 M535.

So up for grabs is the complete running gear, and interior from the car.

The car is showing 184K, and has a blue cloth interior.

The engine has a massively blown headgasket, and barely runs , the auto seems ok. It has a freshly recored radiator.

I'm guessing that the engine may be ok after good washout, and maybe the head might be useful as a spare, apparently the last owner did a head gasket on the car....I'm guessing they didnt torque it down properly or plane the head.

Has 4 really good 14 inch tyres on steel rims (with centre caps), and a towbar.

I intend having a big cleanout around the property at Easter, so if you want bits let me know fairly quickly, as whatever is left after I've got the bits I want off the shell, is heading for the tip/scrap metal man.

Yes to all questions, theres been no interest from TM, although its still gotta few days to run.

Easter is fine, I might tee up one big blitz on the backyard over that weekend, and get rid of a couple of shells

I'm wrecking an early E12 520/4, the 2 litre engine is available.

TradeMe.....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=90313600

The car is a '74 but the head castings show '77. The mileage on the car is 420K, so I'm guessing the engine has been replaced or rebuilt at some stage. The motor starts up fine and seems to be okay (no blue smoke when rev'd), it was in daily use up until 8-12 months ago. The cars still a runner so if you want to check the engine over, can be driven (although the car has no front left on it).

Could be a good engine for your 2002?

Reserve is $100, but if there is no interest, it will head to the scrap metal man like the rest of the car.

I guessing that your "issues" might be common to a number of the later BMW's.

My latest E34 purchase has the same issue, except that we dont have the luxury of full manual selection.

Symptom:

When cold, car will hold 1st gear under load, as in it will attempt to change gear and go back to selecting first. However if you come off load the box will change up into a neutral and first will either need to be selected manually or allow the speed to drop enough that the box follows its programming and selects first.

When the car was in at Pages for a WOF, the boys checked with their Auto repair place and they reckon that the box has a sticky solenoid, that can be freed up. However they did say they would take the trans sump pan off and look for metal fragments, if there were any then the job probably wasnt worth attempting to repair.

One observation that I did make was when I asked the previous owner about the state of the trans, he did remark that he looked after the car by warming the car up for 10 minutes every time he drove it, and he had no problems. The guy wasnt the cleverest person in the street, and I reckon that he had been suckered by the last owner. The car also had a fault */E/S selector switch which had locked the car in * mode, it was only after bashing the switch a few times that I actually got 1 & 2 working. The guy was selling it to get something faster, so I suspect it had been a 2 speed auto for a while, which could have accounted for the sticking 1 - 2 solenoid as they hadnt seen much action for a while.

The buzzing behind the dash, has been "normal" in both of my NZ New Climate Air E34 535s, suspect its the Air Conditioning Systems "parking" their vents and valves. The E34 servo driven heat control, parks in the "open" (or hot) position, so one of the noises will be the motor opening the valve if you have had the air conditioning running cold.

I guessing that your "issues" might be common to a number of the later BMW's.

My latest E34 purchase has the same issue, except that we dont have the luxury of full manual selection.

Symptom:

When cold, car will hold 1st gear under load, as in it will attempt to change gear and go back to selecting first. However if you come off load the box will change up into a neutral and first will either need to be selected manually or allow the speed to drop enough that the box follows its programming and selects first.

When the car was in at Pages for a WOF, the boys checked with their Auto repair place and they reckon that the box has a sticky solenoid, that can be freed up. However they did say they would take the trans sump pan off and look for metal fragments, if there were any then the job probably wasnt worth attempting to repair.

One observation that I did make was when I asked the previous owner about the state of the trans, he did remark that he looked after the car by warming the car up for 10 minutes every time he drove it, and he had no problems. The guy wasnt the cleverest person in the street, and I reckon that he had been suckered by the last owner. The car also had a fault */E/S selector switch which had locked the car in * mode, it was only after bashing the switch a few times that I actually got 1 & 2 working. The guy was selling it to get something faster, so I suspect it had been a 2 speed auto for a while, which could have accounted for the sticking 1 - 2 solenoid as they hadnt seen much action for a while.

The buzzing behind the dash, has been "normal" in both of my NZ New Climate Air E34 535s, suspect its the Air Conditioning Systems "parking" their vents and valves. The E34 servo driven heat control, parks in the "open" (or hot) position, so one of the noises will be the motor opening the valve if you have had the air conditioning running cold.

The wheels are throw away items, they are metrics....the black band gives them away.

With that mileage on the clock I would be wary of paying good coin for the car unless there are some reciepts for engine/trans work.

The engines will do high kms, but if you end up having to put a engine or trannie into the car, it would owe you more than what you would pay for a good E32, and the E32 would probably have a better body

do a google search....there are bulk auto trans technical articles on the 'net...specifically around what happens when you get refer to manual...

I'm looking for a driveshaft for my E12 535i.

According to the parts books online, its the same as a 635, or E12 525, 528.

The dimensions I'm looking for are:

Total length 1500mm, length of front section between the front driveshaft flange and the middle of the centre bearing 610mm.

I've got a E28 one in there at the moment but it is 30mm or so short. If we cant find a driveshaft then we will build up a spacer section for the diff driving flange.

drop me a pm, if you have driveshaft lying around

Pinking is generally caused by the MON count not the RON count.

RON is what is usually displayed at the pump.

I think you are confusing yourself here! Pinking is caused by the OCTANE being too LOW for the cylinder pressure regardless of whether you use a MON or RON measurement [scale]

MON or Motor Octane is a mechanical calculation, whereas RON or Research Octane is a chemical calculation [measured as a percentage against Iso-octane being 100%]

Pump Octane [uSA rating] is a mean average of both MON & RON. New Zealand uses a RON scale

Grant seems to have answered the question. It sounds like a M52/M50 has a knock sensor to retard the engine on low octane fuel. M50's & M52's have 11:1 compression [race-engine compression ratios from yesteryear] on 91 octane the engine would be too far retarded for power.

Additives that are oxygenates sometimes cause the O2 sensor readings too lean out the engine also lowering the power

What I was trying to relay, was the information given to me by the Fuel Company Engineers.

As you have said MON is the mechanical calculation, which is as I understand, is really what is important to the engine. The RON count and the MON count dont necesarily have a linear relationship. So you may have a fuel that meets the minimum RON count of 95, but the MON value may not be high enough to satisfy the needs of some high compression engines.

Pinking is generally caused by the MON count not the RON count.

RON is what is usually displayed at the pump.

The MON value is generally a maximum of 10 point below the RON figure, however it can be quite a bit closer than that.

So depending on who's gas you put in the car, and where that gas was sourced from, you might find that the car will run without pinking, however the horsepower may be down as the Engine Management knocks back the timing.

An example of this was a couple of years back, we were running the Si down south. We had been running on Wellington and Christchurch fuel which I suspect is supplied by BP's Perth plant (or Challenge's Imported fuel), we gassed up Shell in Twizel, and the car started pinking like crazy. We put a couple of bottles of octane booster at Invercargill....no difference. We put up with the pinking until we got back home.

I rung up Shell to advise them of potentially crap gas at Twizel, and ended up speaking to one of the tech's that had done a clubnight for the car club. He checked the sample spec sheets for the gas that was delivered to Twizel, and reckoned that he would have been surprised by the results we had. In his opinion the high compression engine in the Si, would probably want a MON count of 88-90 (Car was designed to run on 100 Octane European Fuel), and the MON count of the gas at Twizel was right on the MON count of 85. He said that this probably explained why the octane booster didnt do squat, as it probably pulled the RN count up but didnt do enough for the MON count.

The other point to consider is that 91 isnt really setup for FI cars, its of a weight that is more suited to carbies, the premium fuel is weighted for best flow through injectors.

My attitude is, to run the best fuel you can in the car. The XR8 and the BMWs, get BP Ultimate as a first preference, and then anybodies 95/96 after that.I wouldnt bother octane booster or any other additives.

Its not one of these is it.....

http://www.quintezz.com/shop.aspx

I found a dutch forum that seemed to imply Dymond Radar Detectors = Quintezz

My quess is that if it has a Laser detector....that will probably work ok, but it will probably be marginal for speed cameras and in car radar.

Try using it, if you get 50-250 metres detection range on a speed camera situated in a Van, then it might be okay....if it doesnt (or it doesnt go off at all), chances are, it wont work with the Stalker units mounted in the Highway Patrol cars

For the project car, I'm looking for a E28 Instrument cluster...probably 535 or 528.

I'm also after a centre console assy, preferably with blue carpet trim. I'm not too fussed on the colour, so long as all the mounts are okay.

May be interested in some E12 panels, if somebody has some rust free doors, and a LF guard.

PM me or email rxsumo@xtra.co.nz.

Your car needs a log book too

The Log Book rule is specifically for InterMarque events, not Clubsport in general.

You can run a couple of times without one, but us grumpy scrutineers will get you eventually.

Personally I wouldnt bother with X-Drilled, you are probably better with slotted.

We run slotted "cheap" front rotors on the 535, and its an option that I wouldnt do again, the DBA rotors on the rear seem more stable, and havent require regrinding within 10K km like the fronts. The Fronts are also quite noisy in operation, and I'm not too sure if this is the rotors, or the fact that they are slotted rotors, running fairly aggresive brake pads.

I would stick to either Geniune/OEM pads or something like Carbon Mettallic, EBC or Hawk if you want reliable stopping under all conditions.

As for rotors either Geniune/OEM, DBA or take your chances with an aftermarket supplier like Repco, BNT and the like.

If you are going to buy a radar detector, go for the V1, make sure it is the NZ mod'ed one with the X Band "removed".

Radar detectors that arent windscreen mounted, generally dont have range of the windscreen mounted units, and the advantage of a windscreen mounted V1 is that its "looking" in both a forward and reverse direction.

Personally (after years of habitual speeding, and having owned Radar Detectors and Jammers since the original Super Snooper), I vary rarely bother with carrying the unit these days. The Stalker unit fitted to most Police cars now, is virtually undetectable in operation, generally the mode of operation that the Highway Patrol Units (marked or mufti) use is the steath mode. What this means is that if there is a roving cop you might see him if he is instant oning a car in front of you, but if you are the only car on the road, chances are the first time the radar detector goes off you are done. Unlike the old Hawk units where you could scrub off up to 11 kmh once the radar detector goes off, the reaction time of the Stalker is that fast that you cant beat it.

The Stalker is a Ka band unit which has a very short beam.....relatively short pickup range (unlike X Band that could detect things in excess of 5 km away), but it also means that you have a relatively short detection range as well.

The V1 does work well with detecting the cameras

Laser Jammers seem to work, but there are a heap less lasers out there, than car mounted units.

But its all a compromise, to cut down on destection ranges you should remove as much of the shiny stuff off the car.

A mate of mine was involved with the testing of the original Hawk units at Ohakea. His Ferrari 400, with black number plates, and pop up headlights was virtually undetectable until he was right on top of the patrol car, whereas his daily drive car, with conventional headlights and white number plates was picked up as it started the test run.

However to beat the camera's you want the black reflective numbers for your number plates...so you either beat the flash cameras, and increase your detectability to conventional radar and the lasers, or you cover as much of the reflective surfaces as you can, and leave yourself exposed to camera flashes.

These days my licence is more important than fast A-B times, if I'm going for a fang, I'll keep it to stretches of roads well and truely off the beaten tracks, or for the track. Intercity work for me now is 100-110 kmh.

With the Hawk units radar detectors would "see" them for miles, and your radar detector would definitely save your licence. With the Stalker you havent got a chance of beating it.

Cheers guys.

I hear what you are saying ducatiss, the verdict is still out on the steering wheel. I wanted to get the original out as it starting to suffer from the NZ UV. The original wheel is a "soft feel" one and the outer material is seperating from the core steel. Id rather keep the original for originality sakes, but I dont want it to get any worse by being on the car.

I'm thinking of a Motolita wheel for it because it really wants to have a larger diameter rim, its just gonna be a while before I can justify the $1000 for the Motolita. As I already had a Momo bosskit for the E3, the wooden wheel was a cheap purchase off TradeMe (especially for a brand new one).

The engine bay is work in progress.

The car hasnt had a full restoration (unlike my RX3), the only work has been to the body exterior, and the seats. The underside, and engine bay havent been touched as this car was built as a driver, rather than a showcar.

The car was a "rough" diamond when we brought it. Unlike most E3's that are starting to have serious structural rust issues (unlong with the E9s), this one had manky paint, rust mainly where the chrome clips were, and seat material that had disintergrated from sun damage. Only one of the doors required any serious repairs (and I suspect it had been replaced before due to accident damage), and we replaced that one. This was a faily good indication on the actual state of the body as the E3's have a poor drainage design which means that the corners at the bottoms of the doors are usually very rusty or full of bog.

In fact, the only better E3, I've seen as a starting point, is the white 2500, that I acquired recently. The 2500 was lucky because it didnt have any body mouldings and hence didnt suffer like the S did.

Theres still heaps of work to do on the car, tidy up the engine bay, replace the clutch, work out if I want to put the 5 speed in, find the $1500 I need for the rest of the wheel arch trims (or have the existing repaired), get the 14 inch alloys painted (and which ones to use, have the carbbies reconditioned.....

Some of the decisions are ....

5 speed or original 4 speed (the 5 speed might make it cheaper to run)

Alpine Stereo (with FM), original British Panasonic AM Cassette Player or Blaupunkt AM Cassette Player

E3/E9 Factory14 x 6inch 5 spoke alloys, BBS Maule 14 x 7 X-Spoke alloys or leave it on the 15 x 7 E34 X-Spokes

Personally I take the safety ratings with a "grain of salt".

The tests usually involve smashing vehicles, in situations, that you might not always face in the real world.

The other factors involve things like the number of airbags etc. While some of these safety features are great, there are things like good interior design and good structure design, that some of the older cars like the BMWs have that is the difference between other cars.

I havent checked the ratings for a while, but an example is my Ute. My current XH, has a higher rating than my last Ute a XF.

The XH is the same unibody, with the exception of the front clip,the interior is basically the same.The XH had as options, drivers airbag, and ABS, is this the difference?. My XH didnt have those options ticked, so in theory, its no different to the XF, but the ratings dont factor that!

You only have to look at the E34, it has the same rating as a Ford Laser, and a worse rating than the EA Falcon series.

At the age of the cars now, the E34, is likely to be more structurally sound (without hidden rust), has better seat mounting, as well as ABS as standard and things like the "reversed" rear seat belts. All stuff that likely to save your life!

What scares me the most is, that the people that these ratings appeal to most, are the people that think that the car is an appliance, and who's buying choice will be based on the colour and it's safety rating. This may be good for new cars, but when it also is covering cars that are over 10 years old, their buying choice may be falsely influenced by incorrect assumptions.

Cheers for the comments.

As for the interior work......

The seats have been rebuilt to as close as original as we could get. Its been fitted with a Momo wheel, and the original Panasonic AM only radio cassette has been replaced with a early Electronic Alpine unit.

The carpets are the original "speckled" carpets and are in good nick, and only one of the door wood trims will need to be replaced/repaired as the timber is starting to delaminate.

After a couple of years in the panel shop, its finally reassembled, and nearly looking complete.

now to find some straight wheel arch trims, replace the clutch, get rid of the oil leaks.................

Is this 535 for sale on trademe by any chance? a silver one?

Yep.

I like to sell it to get the fleet down a bit, but the best real offer has only been $5K, and I rather keep it as daily driver than to sell it for that sort of money.

On our 535 we got Protecta extended warranty, and they arent the nicest people to play with.

Within days of getting the 535 it developed a nasty habit of jumping outta 1st gear. It would only do it once in a while and it usually happened if you were busy with you hands and didnt have the gearstick in hand at the time.....hill starts and the like.

So we whip the car into Page European, and the Protecta man comes and takes the car for a drive, and they cant fault the gearbox. The Protecta line is, we are happy to pull the box out and down, but if nothing is found wrong, then the job is at the client's cost. So let the pissing contest begin....theres nothing wrong with the car (in our opinion), and to hedge our bets, if we are right then. we dont pay for anything! Not having a couple of grand lying around doing nothing (having just put a new set of TRX GTs on the car!), I opted to go with the flow and do nothing, as obviously there wasnt a problem.

Here's the rub!

I drove the car, for 12 months, and decided that I was really getting pissed off with the gearbox launching the gearstick out of first gear, so I booked it in with GearTech in Palmerston North (good gearbox people!), and the gearbox was stripped down.

The only thing found wrong with the box, was a slight amount of movement in a couple of the bearings, however the syncro rings were pretty much shot. Anton (the owner) gave me the good news about nothing much wrong with the box, except for the bearing movement, and the stuffed syncro rings, BUT the worst part was that I had to authorise the syncro ring work, because I had to pay for the parts. The reason was because Protecta had said, that in their opinion the syncro rings had worn only because of the movement within the bearings, as I had left it 12 months since originally having the car looked at it was my fault.

What a bunch of wa#kers...it could have been a stuffed syncro that was preventing first gear engaging properly that actually caused the problem.

I shouldnt complain too much the bill for the bearings was a bucketload more than the syncro rings (they had to use genuine BMW parts and they werent cheap according to Anton).

On one of our other cars, we had a Lumley Policy, and this company was great to deal with.

On our 626, which was only 5 or so years old, they ended up rebuilding the steering rack and the entire diff assy (which was probably due to an previous owner's accident by my guess), and the only drama was when I didnt send in one of my service slips.

They required 10K services, I do 5K services as a matter of course, the car appeared to be over the 10K service point, when by my regime it was late for a 5K service, but once they saw that the car had been serviced within the 10K window, everything was sweet.

Only real advice is to make such that the car's dont go over the service interval required by the policy....even by 1 km, as they will use the out clause not to pay out.

While the electronic systems are supposed to be a good thing....nothing can beat a parts person thats been in the game for a while.

SOme issues I've experienced with BMW parts.....

Out of the 5 or 6 E3s I've owned, only one chassis number is recognised on the BMW parts computer....one actually comes up as an E30 or similar . The accuracy of the parts listings can also be suspect for the slower moving items.

Our local dealer have a couple of hundred dollars worth of moulding retaining clamps, that I watch being ordered, and what we ordered was definitely some chrome plated tiny self tapping screws......turns out somebody had updated the ETK with a supercededpart number which pointed to the wrong part.

The Dealer cant return the parts because the were specially ordered, and it would appear that BMW arent interested in refunding for parts where the ETK is wrong.

On saying that there is definitely issues with the E34 parts catalogue, as my "standard" 535 has bits that cant be found easily.

The battery and mounting fixtures took some arguements, as the 535 like the 540 has a battery under the rear seat, and the real curved ball was the additional battery in the boot, which appearently isnt in the book (or is differcult to find).

It took a couple of days to explain that the car was indeed standard, wasnt an oddball import, and NO it hadnt had an aftermarket power system fitted to the car.