Vass

Replaced sway bar links.

Also this... 

32 minutes ago, gjm said:

That's Ole Hille selling another car. Heaven knows where he finds them.

He's had a succession of 4x4s, at least several of which weren't quite as represented.

No idea who he is but looking at the listings and the videos under the Youtube account that the walkaround is listed, it is a mightily impressive collection of vehicles.

$110k for a Ford Bronco tho. Best of luck to him.

All these E30's coming out the woodwork. How tasty are those seats tho!?

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/320i/listing/3323766879?bof=lS6OGzsf

Look at this wee beauty. Off the road since 2002. Shame it's not too highly spec'd but will make a mint wee project for someone

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/320i/listing/3319488368?bof=gYggpUFS

Not TradeMe but close enough.

Interesting this, can't remember seeing a non-M SMG in NZ. Looks tidy enough.

https://www.turners.co.nz/Cars/Used-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/3-series/22106859

Anyone know what sort of box this would come with and how easy it is to convert these to manual? Might be worth a punt.

Sold for $7.5k. Think both parties left feeling happy. Good on them. 

Drove this earlier today. Seemed to go alright, although only got it up to 60km/h in town. Clutch felt like slipping a bit when taking off from standstill but might have just been down to my not having driven manual in a fair while. Everything seemed as it should, bit of wear and tear but overall decent condition for its age. Some service history but still some common points left to address. Interesting thing is that it was originally sold new in South Africa and imported to NZ a year later. Apparently tracked once by previous owner. Young fella that bought it can't insure under his name as hasn't had licence long enough. Not sure if he bought it just to resell or genuinely didn't know.

Was looking to manual & b30 swap my 325 auto but not sure if worth it at that price just for engine & box. Some other fella was apparently looking to make a track project. Would be a shame as it's tidy enough to live on as a road car. 

Heya,

Wee bit of an update in the midst of all this wheel chat

So after the whole weekend of tearing the front end and half the engine apart, spilling fluids all over the place, countless frustrations, glasses of wine and trips back and forth to Supercheap, finally the first new parts have gone back on the car in the form of the CCV system and all the hoses. Still some ways to go but feeling absolutely pumped to have broken the back of it to move onto the reassembly. Just chipping away at it in the evenings after work and will dig in properly over the weekend, hoping (somewhat optimistically) to get her back up and running before Christmas. Still got the VANOS to rebuild, thermostat, water pump, all new belts, pulleys, tensioners, radiator hoses etc to go on along with fresh fluids and spark plugs, with a top of cleaning inbetween it all. Exciting times, hope I haven't made a mess of anything in the process

Will hopefully have more good news just around the corner.

Cheers

16 minutes ago, TermiPeteNZ said:

Welcome Vass - lovely E46 and great pics  

Have to disagree re the Style 68s - I really like the design ... what are you thinking of putting on in their place?

As @JonRP says the Chch branch of the BMW Car Club is firing up again with @Paul Bradfield leading the charge. Get involved!

Pete from Welly

Thanks! 

Not sure which specific ones yet, angling for some 18's. Quite like the look of the ZHP's, was keen on ones but turned out to be a shoddy set. Just keeping an eye out really, don't want to spend a stupid amount.

68's will do for now, have plenty of tread left on the tyres so not in much of a hurry. Need to take care of the mechanics of it first anyway. Wondering if it's worth getting spacers for the meantime though, they sit stupidly deep inside the arch, doesn't look right. 20mm rear and 10/12mm front should be optimal from what I've read? 

15 hours ago, Cab said:

There's a bluetooth kit you can get from the warehouse for about $35 that plugs into your cigarette lighter spot. They're awesome I have one in my M3 and it it means you get to keep your factory head unit.

https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/tech.inc-bluetooth-fm-transmitter/R2279211.html

 

 

Yeah, I've got something similar, and it's annoying the hell out of me. The sound quality is crap, you get constant humming in the background and for some reason it stays on when I turn off the car. I thought it'd cut the power after a while but I've come back the next morning and the display was still lit up and working, so I started taking it out the cigarette lighter plug every time I park up.

I really like the minimalism of this solution, unfortunately my unit is too old to support AUX input, so I'm just waiting until one becomes available at the wrecker's or something.

On 11/23/2019 at 5:47 AM, JonRP said:

Welcome Vass, great to see another novice in this excellent friendly knowledgeable Bimmer group!

Brilliant comprehensive 1st post, please keep them coming.  Recent purchase e46 project Milliy 2 weeks & 1500 ks later I'm still smiling.  It was a hard decision between 330 or smaller brother 325, specifications selected on my example from factory made it easier.

Are you interested in a catch up if we can get a few dedicated local enthusiasts together in Canterbury?  I also joined the BMW Car Club NZ which I've found helpful, it's looking to re-establish in Christchurch after several years of no activity.

Also, do you mind please confirming if the parts purchase off shore is a better decision with wider selection rather than locally in NZ?  I'm not mechanically hands on but happy to pay for mechanical expertise. 

Happy motoring over this glorious summer like weekend.

Regards Jon

Hey,

Yeah, wouldn't mind a catch-up, see what other folks are up to as I've not really got much to show for my efforts at this point.

In regards to parts, I haven't gotten round to installing anything yet, discovered I'm still missing some bits & bobs for the work I'm planning to undertake so have put it off until they get here.

But from what I've gathered, FCP Euro seems to be a solid place to get stuff. The site is laid out really well, they've got pictures and reviews for nearly all items, and even have put together kits for some of the more common jobs, which was awesome when ordering as they include all sorts of smaller gaskets & O-rings that would have been very easy to miss if I'd have had to put the shopping list together myself. Plus what I've found is the shops here mostly carry Genuine BMW parts, which are understandably more expensive. FCP carries both genuine and OEM & OE parts, so you can choose which components you are willing to take a risk on. For example, for radiator hoses I didn't see a reason to go all out genuine, as it's mostly rubber anyway, so I went with all Rein parts, who is a reputable OEM supplier, the particular hoses had great reviews and were roughly a third of the price of genuine, so even with shipping that came out to a massive win. Shipping also only takes a week, at least has done so far. Basically I just roughly compare the prices for each purchase and see which option comes out to be the better deal. If it's genuine parts, then it's sometimes even cheaper from local suppliers, but FCP is a great place to turn to for a wider selection of OEM components.

9 minutes ago, BozzaFC said:

You should replace that nasty (probably faded) m badge on the back with a nice 325ci badge too. 

Thinking of just debadging it altogether. If it ever gets to the point where the whole car goes for a respray, I'd probably get rid of the emblems as well  

Hi there,

New member here, Christchurch based, first ever BMW and a realization of a dream of sorts. Been on the lookout for a good honest straight-6 3-series for a while and ended up snapping up this tidy 2003 (2002/05 produced) 325ci, full leather M Sport. Have been in love with it since, but definitely needs a decent amount of love to get up to standard. Came with comprehensive service history up to about 4 years ago, but didn't get any records from the previous owner, who'd had it for 3-4 years and having now spent some time under the hood, I see that a lot of preventative maintenance is long overdue, which I will be trying to address in the coming weeks and months.

This is the first car that I've owned that I'm in the position to keep long term, and being an unapologetic perfectionist that I am, I really want to take as good a care of it as possible, with close to no expenses spared. I haven't done any major mechanical work on cars up to this point, but am generally good with tools and with the increasing amount of resources widely available on places such as this board and YouTube, I reckon the E46 is a perfect platform to learn, and I'm really keen to start going deeper down the rabbit hole.

So far I've replaced the valve cover gasket and both front headlights and indicators, with the old ones being absolutely molested in order to facilitate some cheap sh*t LED "angel eyes", which is a whole catastrophic story for another day.

I yesterday received my 3 big packages from FCP Euro with close to $2k worth of maintenance parts and am also waiting on a VANOS rebuild kit to arrive in order to get properly stuck in.

The immediate plan:

• Cooling system refresh (expansion tank, auto trans thermostat, all radiator hoses)
• Oil filter housing gasket
• Replace auxiliary and clutch fan with electric fan (as seen on the manual models)
• Replace all belts, pulleys, tensioners and water pump
• Rebuild VANOS with new seals, bearing washers, gaskets and give it a good clean (was a bit shocked by the state of it whilst changing the valve cover gasket, but didn't want to take it apart without having the necessary parts on hand)

Further down the line:

• Replace CCV/PCV system
• DISA valve
• Whatever other issues will inevitably crop up in the process

Lower priority objectives:

• Get some kind of AUX solution sorted (current CD player is not AUX compatible but don't quite feel like abandoning the original look yet, waiting on a compatible head unit to become available, although patience is wearing thin with the current FM transmitter approach)
• Re-glue the A, C and possibly B pillars
• Doing up the paintwork - see how far a decent cut & polish would get me
• Other aesthetic stuff like getting the banged up front bumper resprayed, black out grilles and replace faded hood emblem
• Get a set of 18" wheels on to fill the fenders a little better, not a huge fan of the current style 68's

That's about it for now. Wasn't sure whether to post it here or in the Projects section, but seeing as I'm mostly going to be addressing maintenance items and not any serious mods or rebuilds, I thought I'd just say hello and have the thread moved later on if need be.

But anyway, happy to be part of the Bimmer fam, looking forward to getting stuck in and learning from folks on here! Will try not to repeat problems addressed in older topics, but would definitely welcome all tips, advice, warnings, cautions and criticisms

Cheers