Vass

Fun day scavenging at Pick-A-Part today. Pretty chuffed with the boot liner especially, didn't know that was an option for sedans.

Really? Didn't think it was serviceable. Or are those diaphragms now available from somewhere?

Pretty sure the wiring loom and coils are the same as any newer M54 ones, anything after September 2002 I believe. Both my current E46's have the new style plug in coils. You could easily just snip those from Pick-A-Part no issues.

There's currently this slightly crusty one on eBay that looks to be willing to ship to NZ that'd run you around $700. Should still clean up well. Or they're available new from FCP, ECS and Schmiedmann, with the latter being the cheapest at around $1,700 shipped. That's without the plastic covers too so would leave the coils a bit more exposed and look a bit suss. Not something I'm considering dropping that sort of money on any time soon, with far too many other issues in need of addressing first. Cheaper to replace the whole CCV (PCV?) every year or two. But would be interesting to see someone have a go at it.

Also interested. Have low-key been stalking on eBay but haven't come across one that wasn't stupidly expensive. Alternatively, I'm considering getting one of these. Doesn't get rid of the CCV but at least it's a bit more solid being aluminium instead of plastic.

Check out Hyperdrive, they often have some good deals going. PS4's seem to be the top of the range go-to, in terms of value tho not sure if they're the best bang for buck. I'm trying out Dunlop Sport Maxx 50+'s on my 18" set. Haven't gone on the car yet but judging by reviews, seem to be good value, especially at 40% off.

J.Lo in the back, Judith Collins up front

That goddamn front end. f**king why!?

Continued tidying up the daily by making the interior somewhat habitable. Stripped out the seats and gave the carpets and floor mats a good clean with some drill brushes and a Bissell spot cleaner. Some real nasty spills and stains on both but cleaned up rather well. Also gave the leather seats a wee refresh with a deep clean and some moisturiser cream to bring them back to life a bit, as well as ripping out the remnants of some dodgy old aftermarket alarm system that wasn't working anyway. Will get onto destroying my fingertips through stripping the rubberised finish off all the scratched up centre console plastic bits next.

Just got done with the wrenching marathon that was changing the oil pan gasket and some other bits on the daily. What an absolute PITA of a job! Kicked it off Sunday morning, finished 1am that day, continued Monday after work until finally having her back on her wheels at 3am... Even with the subframe dropped down, so little space with all the power steering and trans cooler lines in the way. Quite a few hiccups along the way. The most annoying one being getting the dipstick back in. Cleaned up the oil pan, got the new gasket on, RTV'd the joins on the underside, struggled wiggling the pan in place, started it on a few bolts and then spent half an hour trying to get the right angle for the dipstick to slide into the oil pan with no luck, just too much crap in the way on top. Ended up giving up and dropping the sump back down, cleaning everything up and starting over with the dipstick in place. Bloody frustrating game of tetris. Also changed out the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, engine mounts and alternator. Probably spent half the time cleaning up all the oil that had caked everything up. Not a perfect job but near impossible to get to everything without taking off the intake, which would have gone well beyond the scope of this mission. After a good 4 hours sleep, set off for work in the morning. Car started up fine but got the ABS and brake lights go off on the dash, as they sometimes do with the wheels off the ground for a while. Drove out onto the street, parked up and tried turning the car off and on only for it not to start again... Flat battery. Ran back home to grab the spare, got her running but from the voltage saw that the alternator wasn't kicking in. Figured the new one must have been faulty. Dammit. Pulled into the driveway and started pulling the intake back apart to put the old noisy one back in, only to discover I'd forgotten to plug the alternator cable back in... Classic 3am brain fog. Hopelessly late, finally set off for work only to hear a clunking noise coming from the front. It then hit me I'd also forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts after I'd dropped the car down from the jack stands... Bloody hell After catching up on lost sleep, tidied up some of the loose ends today so hopefully that's the end of my oil leak dramas for a wee while at least. Thank f**k that's over and done with.

What a stunner! Would love one, maybe in a good 10 years time though. Out of interest, what does the sport mode do, with it being a manual? GLWS

Yeah my bad. All of my e46's have been black so it all just blends together, somehow somehow never noticed that it's just bare shell there. Good effort that, cleaned up really well, must have been a hell of a scrub with years worth of road grime ey.

Came close to widening the garage door whilst almost wrecking the sedan today. Tried to drive the front onto the ramps to give it a quick check-over before going for WoF on Thursday. Decided to chuck some planks under the rear wheels as well to make it a bit easier to slide the jack in. Stupidly, put the planks long ways along the car, so when the wheels hit them, they jumped up and got wedged between the wheels and the backs of the side skirts. Stupidly, tried to get out of the situation by giving it a bit more gas. Even more stupidly, did it with the left foot whilst being halfway out the car to see how far up the ramps I was. So of course the car lurched forward, overshot the ramps and ended up with the nose inside the garage. Luckily, through a combination of hitting the brakes a split second later and by then being beached on top of the ramps, managed to stop just in time before breaking my shin in half. Just a wee dent on the driver's door from hitting the frame and a wee bruise to show for it. Got out only to realise what a lucky bastard I am. Could have been absolute disaster had the wheels been facing even a fraction more to the right. Barely 5mm between the door frame and the fender. Just absolute stupidity on my part all around. Lesson learned with just some minor damage and a wee fright. The paint marks on the door hand polished out quite easily and the door itself was already a bit banged up since before I got the car so an extra wee dent doesn't detract much from the aesthetics anyway. On a positive note, switched out the faulty, crusty old washer pump so she should be all set for WoF. Winning.

Token bimmer at the Canterbury Rally. Ya little beauty.

Are you missing all the fender liners or just took them off for cleaning?