jon dee

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/audi/a8/listing/3540075340?bof=7KAtLON5 Seems like it should sell for at least $6-7k.... anyone know how you get to Milton ? Cheers...

I can't speak for BMW's but as far as I know most cars use the battery light to indicate if the battery is being charged while the engine is running. So turn the car on and the light is on... start the car and once the engine is running the light goes off. If you have your multimeter handy, check the voltage between the battery terminals when the engine is running. 12V or near and the battery is not charging... 13.5V or above and it is charging. Second thing... does your alternator have an internal regulator or an external regulator ? If it is external, did the new alternator come with a new regulator or did you reuse the old regulator ? Cheers...

Sanity Check: There is no denying that Euros have a certain cachet that makes an owner feel he/she is driving some thing special. However, I would say that the vast majority of people who buy cars in the $10-15k range are just looking for a reliable runabout that will last a few years without needing a bunch of repairs. By this definition, buying a high km Euro is not a sensible decision for the average punter. Enthusiasts, home mechanics and other masochists are another matter Cheers...

In the case of old Euros I think the lure is getting so much car for so little money Roll the dice and if you are lucky you get a good one. But like all forms of gambling, you shouldn't be a player if you can't afford to lose. From an engineering point of view I think the competition to extract ever higher outputs per litre of engine capacity comes at a price. Older Euros will commonly extract 100 hp/litre whereas older American cars with basic pushrod technology would extract 50-60 hp/litre. The current competition between manufacturers to market ever more powerful cars requires new and more expensive materials, more complex and fragile mechanical details, and more computer intervention to control engine operating and driving parameters. The car buying public has become the manufacturers testbed. Witness endless recalls to fix manufacturing faults and law suits by individuals involved in accidents due to design or product defects. But no manufacturer can afford to be left behind, so they will continue to adopt new and often unnecessary technology to protect their market share. And buyers will queue to buy the latest model I like my E92 and enjoy driving it. However, I shall probably be looking at a pre-CANbus Japanese V8 for my next runabout... if I can afford to buy gas !!! Cheers...

Is this not the reason why old Euros sell for 10cents on the dollar ? For the unwary, the price of learning that lesson can be high !!! Cheers...

Yesterday All my troubles seemed so far away Now it looks as though they’re here to stay Oh, I believe in yesterday Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be There’s a shadow hanging over me Oh, yesterday came suddenly Don't worry son... Honest John's Car Sales use and recommended this product... Cheers...

If I was a guessing man (and obviously I'm not) then I would guess that you have a dry lip seal in there somewhere. If you can find it, running a couple of drops of engine oil on the shaft and into the seal rubbing surface should make the sound go away. Cheers... PS: are you running a sweep on this

If you put the rotor on and turn the axle slowly by hand, do you feel any vibration ? Not roughness, more like the vibration you get when you slowly open a squeaking door for the ghost house effect. Does one axle feel tighter/stiffer to rotate than the other ? Cheers...

I find it strange that anyone could take this facetious comment seriously ? Although, this forum does seems to be pretty much devoid of a sense of humour !!!! Cheers...

I like it that the thieves unplugged everything rather than just cutting the wires as they did when stealing my stuff. Cheers...

"Each individual has his or her own perception of reality. " My reality is the increase in violent crime within NZ society as a whole, and the inability of the police to control that increase. Your reality is focused on one relatively minor specific aspect of anti-social behavior; one which the police are having some success in curbing. However, that success cannot be extrapolated across the whole spectrum of offences committed by organised criminal groups. Gangs are proliferating and gradually ramping up the seriousness of their offending as they seek to secure exclusive rights to sell drugs in their "patch". A major drug seizure now and then makes good press, but I have to ask myself how long have these guys been in the drugs business if they have fancy cars and fat bank accounts ?? How many lives have they ruined before being caught ?? And just as Nature abhors a vacuum, new players will step in to fill the gap left by the drug importers. So yeah, I may have strayed a bit off the "boy racers" topic, but there are more important issues out there that need to be aired. And where better to do that than a forum frequented by well educated, socially aware car enthusiasts Cheers...

Close but no prize. Armed police go about their daily duties with a holstered gun on their utility belt. That way they are able to defend themselves when ambushed by armed thugs. Cheers...

I'm going to assume that the cars and bank account weren't armed and did not put up much of a fight ?? Cheers...

I'm sorry... it appears you haven't grasped the point I was making. But points for trying anyway Cheers...

Just to round out this particular rant, here is an excerpt from an email conversation I had with a friend in the US... That was a long time ago in Detroit, but since NZ is grimly determined to emulate the social decay process perfected in the US, you can consider this to be good advice for Auckland going forward Cheers...

Sign of the times brother. Police only respond to crimes against property if the offenders are still at the scene and there is a chance that they can be caught red handed. Otherwise they just take a few details for statistical purposes and advise you to call your insurance company. I guess that with the increase in violent crime they just don't have the resources to attend to property crimes where the offenders have long gone and the chances of catching them (other than by accident) are slim to nothing. Household security and alarms are big business these days for that reason. Cheers...

Truth !!! Gangs are one of the symptoms of a far more insidious and deep seated problem within our society. One that is beyond the scope of this Quick Rant thread, and to use medical terminology, it is a late stage terminal disease. One could consider it to be the societal equivalent of necrotizing fasciitis... a society destroying itself through the rapid proliferation of unrestrained antisocial behavior. Unfortunately, the elected individuals who are empowered to make the changes that could lead to a cure are effectively paralysed by the proliferation of a profession that benefits from the breakdown of society. There is a commonly held belief that if we pass enough laws covering every aspect of human behavior, all our problems will be solved. The evidence that this strategy does not work is in the news headlines every day. So in the absence of any realistic chance of a cure, excising the lesions will help postpone the inevitable result. Sorry about that Cheers...

Shoe polish is usually available in various shades of brown... either as "nugget" in the flat tins or jars of creme. I'd get as close as possible to the original colour. Try and get as much dirt/dust off as you can with a dry brush first, and then go to town applying nugget with a brush or creme with a piece of soft rag. Cheers...

The report I read indicated that was the case, and in fact I made no reference to it. We appear to have disparate view points on the issues that I am attempting to highlight. If we consider the incident with the bikers... I believe the initial report said that the driver stopped his car and got out following a minor traffic accident involving one of the bikes. My bad in being influenced by media headlines. None the less, the end result was that the man was severely beaten. Your view is that eventually some person or persons will be identified and arrested for for their part in the assault. My view is that in a decent society gang/mob incidents such as this should not occur. We have a legal system that bends over backwards to protect the rights of criminals. The police are restrained from being proactive in suppressing the activities of criminal gangs, only being called in after the shooting/beating/stabbing has occurred. So what about the rights of the victims ?? Do they not have the right to go about their legitimate activities without being assaulted or murdered ?? What we have is the equivalent of a rugby game where the opposing sides have to abide by different sets of rules. One side can wear steel cap boots, kick, gouge and maim, while the other must wear sandshoes and play with one arm tied behind their backs. If a body has cancer it has to be cut out to save the body. Criminal gangs are a cancer on society. It is as simple as that. Cheers...

I guess you are cool with this then ?? Let the bad guys keep their guns and the Police unarmed ?? Just saying... Cheers...

Seriously ^^^^ ??? Customs and border control were onto that because of information received from overseas. I didn't read anything about shootouts with mobsters or fierce hand to hand battles. The police were just there to handle the arrests and do the paperwork. Tell me about how many of those bikers got arrested after dragging that guy from his car and beating him close to death. There is a societal problem here in NZ whereby certain groups have discovered that if they get a mob together they can can pretty much do as they like with minimal risk of arrest or incarceration. The so called boy racers are chicken sh*t when compared to the hardcore criminals that are starting to compete for the domination of the drug trade in NZ. We are talking about armed thugs who think nothing of shooting at police. Don't minimise the problem by focusing on a simple annoyance like boy racers... tactics as outlined in previous posts are available to deal with this issue. Boy racers without cars are just boys There are larger issues that are mainly confined to the criminal underworld and cause a huge amount of harm and suffering in our society as a whole. Despite all their PR and corporate spin to try and convince the public that they are just a friendly bunch of club members helping old ladies across the street, there is no place in our society for patched criminal gangs. Read this exercise in futility.. Think about this for a moment... does anyone REALLY think that a gang member or criminal is going to (a) apply for a gun licence, or (b) give a single solitary f**k about this stupid piece of legislation ??? This will give you a clue as to who is hamstringing the police when it comes to them getting stuck into cleaning up criminal gangs. Cheers...

If it is so successful, how come the news media is reporting more and more instances of anti-social and illegal group activities with little or no reporting of the prosecution and conviction of the law breakers ?? Is this the Trump solution... if there are no prosecutions there are no crimes committed ?? The police do what they can under the policy of appeasement that is forced on them by their masters. But until they are given the power to go after law breakers and root out the gangsters and drug runners they are simply toothless tigers picking up the pieces after the criminals have fled. Cheers...

Recent events have clearly demonstrated that once a mob forms the authorities have no way of dealing with them. It doesn't matter if they wear patches, rides motorcycles, march with placards or illegally occupy land. A mob can do whatever they like with impunity. The government may react by passing new laws, but if they cannot be enforced, that serves no useful purpose. The inability of our law enforcement to deal with mobs coupled with the reluctance of the courts to imprison, has opened the door for all forms of organised crime. NZ is seen as an easy target for drug runners, scammers, smugglers, thieves and assorted thugs and scum that other countries are happy to export. The NZ Police are by far the largest gang in this country, have all the necessary arms and equipment to enforce the law. But they are are inhibited by bleeding heart liberals who have never suffered a home invasion or been subjected to a random act of violence by someone off their face on meth. The Police don't shoot anyone who doesn't put themselves in a situation where they deserve to get shot. The current "licenced to kill" campaign reads like an anti-police disinformation spiel sponsored by organised crime, and brings no credit to its authors. Let's get real. Sending one Police car with two officers to try and disperse a mob of "car enthusiasts" high on alcohol, drugs and tyre smoke is like trying to put out a house fire by pissing on it. The government has to grow some balls and empower the Police to do whatever is necessary to control and eliminate mob behavior before it is too late. Cheers... PS: If you are going to rant... GO HARD !!!!

Thanks smiddy Yeah, the E92 is a nice road car and I decided against any mods that would detract from it being just that. I didn't want it to make more noise or ride any stiffer, as there are better options if you want a race car. I had the VRSF DCI cone filters on it for a while but went back to the OEM filter setup as DCI makes the engine bay look untidy and IMHO offers very little benefit except at the top of the rev range. However, carbon buildup on the intake valves is a known problem. and I did install an external catchcan setup to try and capture oil vapour before it reaches the valves. Now ALL the PCV fumes are routed to the catchcan which for convenience I located behind the left headlight. Instead of buying an expensive US kit to get a "PCV plug" I bought a cheap replacement PCV valve and cap, and filled the valve with epoxy. The most expensive part of the job was buying the proper oil resistant hose. The whole catchcan install is done without cutting or drilling and is completely reversible if the new owner wants to remove it. Checked the can the other day after about 500km of mixed city and highway driving. There was a thin film of oil over the bottom of the can and about two drops of oil collected. Either the engine has very little blowby or the catchcan doesn't work. It did collect a couple of cc of water in the cold weather, so I think that it is doing a job Cheers...