jon dee

Today TradeMe wrote... This is the kind of positive reinforcement we all need Cheers...

"Aero style" or "turbofan" wheels... been used for yonks on certain fast factory cars. I believe they are supposed to reduce drag and improve airflow over the brakes. And yeah, rivet on widebody kits do look a bit/lot ghetto, but they make sense on a race car where being able to replace damaged guards quickly is a a big plus. And I believe the grey car is a race car. Cheers...

Such things tend to run in cycles. A period when colours are a sign of individuality and rebellion, followed by a period when bright colours are considered ostentatious and conforming to the conservative majority of middle class is the norm. Just now we are entering a phase where "look at me" colours are becoming acceptable once again. Grey imports was a very apt term for upmarket cars like BMW and Mercedes twenty years ago. Now blue, red orange and green etc are becoming more common. Ultimately everyone is entitled to like what they like, and I for one am happy to see more than just plain white or silver/grey cars on the road. Bring on the orange, pink and green... the red white and blue Thanks to the advent of the vinyl wrap you can experiment and go back to stock when you get tired of the comments !! Cheers...

That orange colour seems to be quite popular at the moment with modified cars.... I actually quite like it so long as the car is "not over the top" and trying to put too many styling features onto the car Cheers...

Don't know your car or how its fuel system works, but did you brim the fuel tank up until fuel came up the neck of the tank ? On some vehicles that can lead to a bit of fuel getting pushed out when the fuel heats up from the engine running, or just from the day warming up. Disregard this post if the tank was less than full. Cheers...

Like the concept, interior and engine bay. But for the money I would have preferred to have the body kit moulded in rather than "riveted" on. The duck tail boot spoiler could have a bit of shape as the straight line does not really blend with the otherwise curvaceous body And one of my personal peeves... gold is not a neutral colour in my book and I don't think that those wheels are a good colour match for that car. I like this concept better.... Cheers...

Flashed the MHD Adjust Throttle Sensitivity option with the setting at 50% of scale. Went for a short drive in Sports mode and noticed some glitches in the shifting... like the DME and TCU weren't synched correctly. Going to give that a bit of time to see if the adaptions sort that out (I am not a big believer in resetting adaptions as a first course of action). Then I switched to Manual mode and yes, changes certainly seem to be crisper than before I'd like to do a bit more driving before experimenting with higher settings. Today I had a lot of trouble getting my generic D-CAN cable to make a solid connection between my tablet and the DME. Must have taken half an hour and about 20 attempts before it would play ball.... Need to find a better way. Cheers...

If you look closely at the in-car vid you can see his left leg twitching Pretty sure he is flat shifting as when you listen to him talking in the full vid he talks about missed shifts and having a problem with a broken shift fork. Either way, I always vote for DIY cars that get the front wheels off the ground ... old school cool Got the update downloaded and ready to flash, but realised it has been a long time since I used manual mode. Now I have to go for a bit of a drive before I flash the tune so I can get a better idea of the current MHD/xHP shifting to make a comparison with the new shift speed tweak. I think I will try 50% first up. Cheers...

Looks like a rather determined effort to get some swirl going to improved combustion Cheers...

Fretting corrosion will produce "powdered rust" in a dry environment. In a wet or oily environment it will make rust coloured mud. However for fretting corrosion to occur in that tapped hole the bolt would have had to be loose enough to allow some small relative motion between the male and female threads. Like loose enough that the load would come off the thread after a combustion stroke and then and then be re-applied with the next combustion stroke. Seems unlikely though as I would have expected the head gasket to have blown if the head was lifting that much. Try finger threading a head bolt into several of those tapped holes and see if the dry one feels a bit looser than the others. Cheers...

With this upgrade will my manual mode be faster than this guy jamming gears ? 1985 Ford LTD 302.mp4 Not bad for an old 5.0 litre N.A. with a manual gearbox Runs 6-1/2 seconds and 103 mph in the 1/8 mile... sounds mean !!!! Cheers...

That's not a crack... THIS is a CRACK !!! Understood to be from a 328xi on runflats. I'm lead to believe that when something like this happens, runflats may actually hold the wheel together for long enough to get the vehicle off the road to safety. But I sure wouldn't want to be the one testing the truth of that conjecture at 100kph Cheers...

That's how it appears to be working. I'm reasonably familiar with how forums handle posts, but I don't recall ever coming across one that didn't go to the latest post when using the link in the right hand column. Yes, clicking on the forum heading does give the option of selecting which page you wish to open as is usual. And remembering the last post read and going there is a nice feature once you realise what is going on. So all good... I've been schooled Cheers...

Desktop PC... go to forums index page and click on the latest topic posting showing in the right hand column. Never used to have this issue but now it happens a lot. Today it opened the first post on the second page of a 2-page thread. Cheers...

Yes... the 296 wheels fitted to the Z4 were the subject of a successful class action in the USA whereby BMW agreed to replace or reimburse owners who had wheels fail during the warranty period. It doesn't take much searching on the internet to find that there are many forum threads detailing the problems that countless BMW owners have had with cracked wheels. It is not just the Z4... without digging deep I found that 6-series, 3-series and 1-series forums have all reported problems... primarily with 19" wheels, but also to a lesser extent with 20" and 18" wheels. Now before we all change to 16" wheels and 60-series tyres to alleviate anxiety and paranoia, it has to be said that in the normal course of events many wheels and tyres will be damaged from hitting potholes, kerbs and objects lying in the roadway. Some drivers will then complain that the wheel "cracked" when it should not have, and maybe that would have been true in the days of smaller wheels and taller tyres. But now that the fashion is for wide, tall wheels and short tyre sidewalls, the inevitable result is a wheel/tyre combination that is more easily damaged by seemingly minor impacts. The use of runflats will be a factor as well. As can be expected, BMW will try and defend itself from spurious claims of "defective wheels" by turning down claims where there is evidence of mechanical damage. However, when there are thousands of owners all reporting the same type of failure within the warranty period, and there is no evidence of contributing mechanical damage, it is reasonable to infer that there is a wheel design or construction flaw to blame. Not all owners have problems, and not all wheel designs have problems. And neither is cracking of 19" and larger wheels confined to BMW... almost all vehicle manufacturers have the same problem to some extent. I think that any time a tyre on your vehicle starts loosing air and the cause is not obvious, the wheel should be checked for cracking. And when getting new tyres fitted the tyre shop should be asked to carefully check each wheel for hairline cracks, especially on the inner edge of the wheel. That should keep you safe. Cheers...

From what I have read that would seem to be the correct. In a lot of cases small cracks are only picked up when the wheel is off the car and the tyre is removed for a puncture repair or replacement. That provides an opportunity to inspect the bead seating area for hairline cracks that would cause a slow leak. Larger cracks are usually the result of an obvious impact that deforms the rim, damages the tyre, and may even break pieces out of the rim. Picture of a crack in a 19" type 296 wheel from a Z4. This type of crack is often found on the inside lip and therefore very difficult to spot while the wheel is on the car. The likely cause is fatigue cracking due to deflection of the inner rim as there is little support from the spokes. Low profile runflat tyres are suspected of contributing to this type of cracking because of their stiffer sidewalls. Hairline cracks should not be ignored as they will continue to propagate with use. Small hairline cracks may be repairable but larger open cracks will usually be considered not repairable... depends on who you ask and what repair facilities they have. Cheers...

Recently I chanced upon a website that had an article about a class action against BMW regarding allegedly faulty factory wheels fitted to Z4 models. That caught my attention and I did a bit of digging to see how common or widespread this might be... and it seems that it is a known thing with certain BMW factory wheels on certain models of cars and SUV's. Surprised me as I always thought that factory wheels would be stronger and safer than aftermarket wheels from unknown manufacturers. What doesn't surprise me is that the problems with BMW wheels seem to be more common with wide, 19 inch and larger wheels, fitted with 35 or 30 series tyres. This is a combination that is well known for damaging rims and tyres. I am using 18" wheels by choice, as I have read enough about bent rims on other forums to persuade me against going to 19" wheels It may be that cast wheels are more prone to cracking and not as strong as forged wheels, but since all the BMW factory wheels appear to be cast, those are the wheels I am asking about. So, a couple of questions... (a) Is it necessary to inspect my wheels regularly for cracking ? and... (b) How many people have had, or know of others who have had problems with cracked rims ? Specifically I am interested in cases where there was no heavy impact on the wheel (e.g. deep pothole, kerb etc) and the tyre itself was not damaged. Hit me !!! Cheers...

Why does the site open the post at the #1 original 10 year old post and not at the latest post added ?? This can lead the easily confused reader (like myself) into responding to a years old post that has had its day and died a natural death. Current topics don't have this problem and (nearly) always open at the latest post. Cheers...

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/sve-oletha-full-bmw-experience-distilled-single-car Cheers...

I don't think that anyone is going to argue against having modified vehicles inspected to ensure that they adhere to decent design and engineering standards. Pretty much everyone who is into cars has come across dodgy workmanship and mods that make them cringe. So yes, by all means try and keep unsafe vehicles off the road. However, the point that I am trying to make is that LVVTA simply refused to even look at approving a quality product designed by an experienced suspension engineer and made by an OEM supplier of suspension components to several major vehicle manufacturers. Rather than use their own in house resources and experience to evaluate the product for safety, they totally opted out by saying if you want to bring it into the country it is up to you or your supplier to convince us that it meets our standards. To do that samples would have to be supplied for destructive testing, manufacturers test certificates would need to be provided for the steel used, heat treatment and metallurgy etc. No other country in the world asked for this level of information, and as the sales potential for the product in NZ was low, the manufacturers simply were not interested in humoring the over zealous demands from LVVTA. And here is the kicker... it is OK to use the product in question on a race car where it would be subject to far more abuse than on a road car. The problem as I see it is that LVVTA is hiding behind a wall of petty regulations to try and protect itself from liability issues. Good for them but bad news for anyone modifying a vehicle using quality components and sound engineering practices. I believe this attitude is a rub off from big brother NZTA who is currently managing to piss off large sections of the road transport industry with their arrogant attitude, lack of clear direction, lack of consultation and general incompetence. But that, dear readers, is a story for another day

Interesting. I had the misfortune to have some dealings with LVVTA a few years ago. From this I learned that LVVTA will not accept a product in NZ even though that same product is manufactured by a reputable company, sold worldwide, and accepted without question in (for example) the USA and Australia. It seems that LVVTA in the negative fashion typical of NZ regulatory authorities, is happy to ban brand new product made with the latest materials and CNC techniques, while approving local equivalents cobbled up from 30 year old components salvaged from wrecks. I wonder why a pissant little country like NZ has to set the bar higher than than every one else ? Why do we feel the need to micro manage and regulate every tiny detail by simply saying... "its a safety matter"... as if that eliminates the need for any further justification ? We already have OSH determined to eliminate industrial accidents by levying huge fine on companies to show how much authority they have. It is as if they believe that they can eliminate risk by regulating it out of existence. They are adding crushing costs to virtually every industry... and it is no wonder that manufacturing is going offshore. Soon we will be a nation of shopkeepers selling imported goods plastic souvenirs to tourists, that is if anyone can actually get into the country through the MIQ system. It's all very depressing... I think we are rapidly approaching the point when we will actually need a Ministry for Compulsory Fun !!! Cheers...

IS47 is the offset Cheers...

Easiest way to figure it out would be to pull one of the wheels off and take a look at what is stamped on the inside. If they are genuine BMW wheels the details will be there. Cheers...

Never had a vibration problem to contend with, but looking around I see that the Ultima Yellow is supposedly 15 times as vibration resistant as some other not very resistant battery It's a spiral wound AGM design which no doubt would be more vibration resistant than your average flooded lead-acid battery. Otherwise some kind of resilient mounting between the battery box and the frame to absorb the high frequency/high G-force vibes would be the go... seems that is what BM thought anyways. Cheers...