jon dee

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/2982691933?bof=dXFDO9RK Cheers...

On my first adventure bike I got this Ventura "aero system" pack setup that consisted of two separate packs (one larger than the other) that zipped together. They dropped over a standard Ventura pack rack, and actually worked really well. I could get all my camping gear and a few clothes stuffed in there, but I sold that system with the bike and rode with a decent sized backpack on my later more dirt oriented bikes. 800km range is what you need for touring the outback in Ozee. Here in NZ I found that so long as I could squeeze 250km out of a tank I was always within range of the next servo. Might have a problem if you arrived in some small towns after 6:00pm as by then everything was locked up and deserted... except for the local pub as

Been out a few times in the car and around my "test track". This is a backroads circuit that has enough bumps and dips to make sure the new shocks and bushings are settled And I made some measurements today to see what (if any) difference the new shocks have made to the ride height. The chart below compares the factory "normal position" which is measured with around 140kg of added weights on the front seats and a full tank of gas, to my empty car with half a tank of gas before and after the new shocks were fitted. The figures show that the front right has been the big winner, gaining 10mm in height. I don't know if that is due to some difference in the way the car was sitting when I first measured it, or if it really did jump 10mm. Otherwise there has been little or no change. The fact that I am fractionally higher than the "normal" height is probably down to not having any weights to put in the car. Oh, and I have read (on various US forums) that it is not unusual for the front left ride height to be a little higher than the front right. Allegedly this is to compensate for the drivers weight, and in LHD countries this idea could have some credence. But if this were true, then I would expect a vehicle manufactured for a RHD market to be higher on the right hand side. So... internet myth ??? I haven't installed the M3 front LCA kit yet as I want to get used to my new "limo" ride so that I can have a better base for judging the changes due to the M3 bits. Anyone experienced more even wear on the fronts after installing M3 arms ? Cheers...

Looks Capable Big tank is pretty much mandatory for adventure riding. On my red bike I swapped the stock 9 litre tank for a 16 litre and that was just enough to get from Hanmer to Blenheim over Molesworth when I was running late for the ferry. Mind you I had to stop and lean the bike over to get the last drops out otherwise I wouldn't have made it to the servo. I think that's one of the reasons it's called adventure riding Cheers...

Good stuff Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against 4WD's and off-roading. I have watched a lot of Aussi 4WD videos and love the way those guys struggle their vehicles over some seriously ugly tracks. In fact, just about every video shows them on rutted out hills or deep muddy swamp tracks. I've been to Cape York on a bike and seen the where the 4WD's drop into and clamber out of the river crossings, but it is not something that really appeals to me... too much like hard work. There is a feeling of freedom about trail and adventure riding on a bike that just can't be captured in a car or truck. Everything is sharper focus and you have to fully concentrate when off-road, as a moments loss of concentration can result in a face full of dirt !!! I graduated from hare scramble and enduro riding to adventure riding to adventure touring. I met a whole lot of great people and visited a whole lot of wonderful places that I would never seen had it not been for motorcycling. I've sold my bike as it takes a lot longer to heal as you get older, and I think you have to know when to quit. And I have car to play with now Cheers...

Back in the days when I was big into adventure riding I did a lot of organised rides. These rides obtained permission to set routes over DOC land and all kinds of awesome back country properties. They reached places not accessible to the general public, so the tracks were not subject to 4WD abuse like the Maungatapu Saddle and Akatarawa tracks. Of course like everything, it is always the small percentage of fcukwits that spoil it for the huge number of responsible 4WD drivers who don't spend all their time creating mud wallows and trashing the environment. That's life and it ain't going to change any time soon Cheers...

Too many people with 4WD's that don't care what they run over or destroy and just make it harder for anyone to get access. It's the same all over the world and you have to to get a long way from the cities to find any public tracks that are are not rutted to hell by 4WD's. Shame, but that's the way it is Cheers...

That Z must be a time machine judging by the cars you were parked up with at the end of Skippers Oh yeah... if you are hard enough you can tour Ozee on vintage machinery... Cheers...

Yuss... I have done the Ocean Beach to Wainui and Eastborne to Wainui coast rides. Often went from Red Rocks to Oteranga Bay or as far as it was possible to get depending on which gates were open and the state of the tide. Having to wait for the water to withdraw and make a dash across wet pebbles before the next wave swept up to the base of the cliff was part of the deal Not making it meant a long walk home !! Adventure riding / touring is an awesome way to see any country and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity. Cheers...

There were a lot more riding options pre-covid, so for you GS aficionados... somewhere in Chile Cheers...

Action pictures !!! Looks like you had a lot of fun... the South Island has a ton of great tracks to explore, not to mention the country pubs . There are some great rides in the North Island also but getting more difficult to gain access. Used to be able to ride from Ngawi to White Rock around the coast but there are locked gates now. Cheers...

New B3 front struts, strut mounts, pads, rotors and wear sensor all installed. Front pads were well worn and the sensor activated which explains the difficulty I had getting the brake service light to reset All the old dampers were still functioning but showing the effects of 90,000 km of use. Compared to the new units compression force was down to about 50% and gas pressure was also a lot lower. Pretty happy with the results of the refresh. The new dampers have softened how smaller road surface imperfections transmit to the vehicle and reduced the noise that was previously associated with those smaller impacts (road repairs, patches, joins in the seal etc). When combined with some decent tyres (RE003's) the ride is now quieter and more supple. Bumps are still felt but the sharpness is gone from the impacts. I imagine that this is how the car would have felt when it left the factory. Cheers...

Hey Pramod... many thanks for the offer but I managed to get it sorted. Started looking at scanners on the interwebs last night and came across a procedure that someone with the exact same problem used, and it worked Maybe I was using the wrong procedure or was in the wrong menu or something ? But I was able to reset service reminder dates so I must have been close. Anyways front and rear brakes are reset and the red car on a lift has gone,so all good Cheers...

I read through the first dozen page (of 232 !!!) but found nothing relevant, so apologies if this has been done to death already. As part of my suspension refresh on my 335i e92 I have fitted new discs, pads and sensors all round. Don't remember.ever seeing any service lights beforehand, but after I did the rears I tried to reset the rear brake interval using the common technique expounded all over the interweb. Couldn't get a reset and ended up with the - - - - - symbol and a red car on a hoist. Eventually figured that the front wear sensor may have tripped and sure enough when I did the fronts they were down to 3mm and the sensor was well ground down. Fitted the new parts to the front and tried resetting again but both front and rear show the - - - - - symbol, the red car on a hoist remains plus a message on the iDrive screen telling me to get my sorry ass down to BMW for brake servicing. There are no other service faults showing. So to the question... is there anyone (other than the BMW dealer) around Wellington or the Hutt that has a tool that can reset the brake service intervals and clear the red car on a hoist ?? Happy to pay with beers or cash 😀 Cheers...

Only 8% of our roads being repaired this Xmas Does this mean that 92% of our roads are broken ? Reading the above suggests that they are Cheers...

Got the rear shocks, new rotors and pads installed OK... even got the service latch thing under the hand brake lever engaged Now I need to get it disengaged and wonder if there is any more to than setting the blade of a screwdriver against the latch and giving the handle a short sharp rap with a block of wood ?? Can't see any other way of doing it but happy to take advice. EDIT: Two screwdrivers, one across the other for a bit of leverage, and done. So easy I didn't even know it was unlatched until I took a closer look !!! Cheers...

Good call... no reason why I need 1/2" drive for the slider pins, and if I can swing a 3/8" ratchet under the guard I can put off buying a flex head 😀 Only issue is I am halfway into the job, so if it looks like the 3/8" will work I will see if I can grab a single 7mm hex socket locally in the morning. Otherwise I will have to find something else to do for a couple of days while I wait for the courier. Cheers...

Just as well I asked then 😀 I shall purchase a 7mm hex socket and a flex head ratchet so I can actually get at the top pin. While I am in the store should I also be looking for a 9mm hex socket for the front calipers (as I have seen suggested) or will the fronts use the 7mm same at the rear ?? Cheers... PS: On closer examination it looks like there is a pretty good optical illusion created when the light hits the conical chamfer on the end intersecting with the hexagonal tube... makes it look like the sides of the hexagon are curved. Had me confused 😕

But wait.... there's more 😀 Went to remove the rear caliper pins (2008 e92 335i) and tried a 6mm Allen key... too small. So yeah, must be an 8mm but that's too big... WTF ?? Who in their right mind would spec a 7mm Allen ?? I have multiple sets of Allens but none include a 7mm. So hunted down a couple of places that would sell a single 7mm Allen but they are not open until tomorrow. Decided to do a bit of internet browsing to see if there are any other little tricks I should know about changing rotors and pads. An informal survey of several dozen Utube DIY videos and forum posts by people who one might expect to know what's up... and what do I find ?? Of the ones that actually reference the tool about 80% spec it as 7mm Allen and 20% spec it as T45 Torx. Now I happen to have a set of 1/2" drive Torx sockets, so I thought I would take a closer look. After all, come to think of it, Torx fasteners are all over this car, so why would BM use Allens for the pins ?? Not the easiest place to get a good look or even take a pic... below is the best I could do. But a T45 fits snug, and the end of the pin actually looks like the corners are shaped to fit a Torx key, so I'm ready to give it a heave. But first it would be great if someone could confirm beyond doubt that T45 is correct. Cheers...

Decided I needed a bit of hands on learning experience with the e92 so I made a start on changing out the rear shocks. Discovered that my meager collection of hand tools did not have any metric ring +open end spanners that would work for a couple of the items that needed holding or tightening. So I had a dig into the lower strata of my toolbox and discovered these helpful items. What appears to be a 5/8" AF offset ring spanner that was perfect for the 16mm nut on top of the shock and a 5/16" Whitworth (?) open ender that slipped in and held the 15mm spanner flats on the bottom of the shock. I have a decent socket set that was all I really needed for my Corolla, but it looks like its time to go shopping for some new spanners 😉 Cheers...

This is kind of an interesting topic a a quick internet search failed to turn up any authoritative articles that accurately describe, analyse and identify the cause of the various forms of inside shoulder wear on road tyres. There are countless primary school level articles by every man and his canine companion, but nothing from a major tyre company or established testing authority. So in the absence of any hard data in this thread I feel feel fully qualified to put in my best guess I have attached a pic of a rear 255/35-18 from a set of wheels that I sold recently. The tyres came with the wheels and I never used them, so I don't know the actually history. However, looking at them I would say that they came from a car that most likely was lowered but otherwise had good alignment. The tread depth varied 5mm>>4mm>>4mm>>2mm across the width and there were no cords showing. Neither was there any sign of scuffing or coarse graining of the rubber that would indicate excessive toe out or tyre abuse. The wheels came from a South Island car so likely it did more straight line running than a Wellington city car !!! Looking at the pic up top and reading that the alignment had a problem getting the camber in spec suggests that the car may have been lowered ? The tyre looks to have a reasonable amount of wear on it, so combine that with a bit more than stock camber plus a touch of toe out from lowering and you have a recipe for accelerated wear on the inner shoulder. Cheers...

I'm going with an increase in vibration that makes the car less pleasant to drive ? If so, then there are a number of factors at play that could result in an increase in vibration compared to stock catted pipes. The catless pipes may be made from a lighter gauge of material than OEM pipes if they are of the lower cost Chinese variety. Lighter material is less able to attenuate/contain the pressure waves generated by combustion. The cats in the OEM pipes reduce turbulence in the exhaust flow and dampen pressure waves, which help keep the exhaust quiet. What you have installed are effectively two resonators without any internal baffling or sound absorbing material, and if you are unlucky you may get an annoying resonance at certain engine speeds. In addition (as mentioned above) you have eliminated the flexible bellows section from the exhaust system. This will allow lower frequency vibration from the engine to transmit to the exhaust system that is rigidly bolted to the chassis under the drivers seat. So it is possible that this vibration may be felt inside the car. Generally speaking I would expect all of the above to produce "vibration" that more obvious at certain engine/road speeds rather than being constant at all speeds. Otherwise there are the usual suspects of the pipes rubbing against each other or the frame or loose fasteners. Good luck Cheers... PS: For what it's worth, if I ever decided to go to the trouble of installing downpipes I would get the Wagner pipes. No sense in expanding to 3 inch and then squeezing back down to 2.5 inch. Gives a bit more clearance for installation as well.

Got it... same deal as TRD hard rubber bushings on the Corolla. Need any kind of separator for getting the arms out of the car ? And who thought it was a good idea to put the firewall brace over the top of the strut tower ??? Cheers...

Been looking at installing the new control arms, shocks, struts, rotors and pads myself as something to do over Xmas. Looked at a few DIY videos and there doesn't seem to be anything too extreme involved. I have basic tools, jack, jackstands and springs compressors, and I have done the same type of work on my Corolla a few times. So is there anything beyond standard DIY skills required ?? Any traps for young players Cheers...

Nice car If you are rolling on 18" wheels and you get a chance, can you measure from the bottom centre edge of the rim up to the wheel arch directly above. I'd like to see how they compare with mine seeing as visually there does not seem to be that much difference. Maybe you are a few mm lower at the rear but the front looks about the same. Cheers...