Vass

Don't see these on there too often. NZ new, later model and looks very tidy apart from the front end damage. Will probably fetch a pretty penny still. Parts car anyone? https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/m325i2/23222393

A bunch of this stuff and more are still available. Also about to rip into another partout project, a green 2002 320i e46. Will do a proper garage cleanup over Christmas and will be updating the post as parts start to come off. Feel free to message for any E46 bits you might be after. Cheers

Keen to hear what stood out to you guys. Really loved the lengths he went with the interior. He hasn't done a full M54 rebuild yet but apart from that I haven't picked up many glaring oversights. Granted, most of his E46 content I would have last watched a good while ago now, probably worth a revisit. One bit from his more recent videos that grazed my ears was when he claimed the torque spec on the trailing arm brackets to chassis being 100Nm when it's actually 77Nm, but that's just me being a nitpicky nerd and it being fresh in the memory having just done that job recently. Have picked up a few helpful tidbits from his videos that I've added to my wishlist: OFH metal oil return valve - have a pair of these now sitting on the shelf. Remember my valve having a slight groove eaten into the plastic. Wish I'd known about this part being available when halfway through the rebuild. Xenon refurb kit - looks worth taking on at some point. Gauge.S - don't need it but really want it for reasons unknown.

Ohhh I've been thinking of getting one, that might have just sold me on it

Ohh I'm sure most of his projects go far and beyond what I've put in. The sums appear much smaller when viewed in Euros as opposed to NZD

Yeah, the camber arms are the only thing on it now that would make it fail a WoF. I could have done without them but going for cert was the intention anyway so that was a "might as well" move. Insurance is the only real reason I did it for. Currently it's still considered a bone stock 325i and I'm being overcharged and undercovered. Wonder if any insurer would go with a $30k agreed value?

Another nerdy thing I did was to throw together another spreadsheet and finally tally up the full financial damage this endeavor has inflicted. And boy, was I in for a shocker. You don't notice it as much when gradually buying up parts but it was a pretty sobering moment when I hit Enter on the =SUM(...) command in excel. Here's the final tallies: $1,640 - DONOR CAR $1,940 - ENGINE INTERNALS (gaskets, bearings, chains, guides, VANOS seals etc.) $1,420 - ENGINE EXTERNALS (CCV, DISA, coils, sparks, seals, gaskets, engine mounts, belt pulleys, tensioner etc.) $970 - SENSORS (every single engine sensor) $360 - FUEL SYSTEM (fuel pump, filter, seals, lock rings) $860 - COOLING SYSTEM (radiator, T-stat, water pump, hoses etc.) $5,900 - GEARBOX (conversion, clutch & flywheel, slave & master, detent & shift pin repair, shifter, bushes etc.) $800 - STEERING (tie rods, pump reseal, hoses, coupler etc.) $1,430 - FRONT AXLE (control arms, bushes, wheel bearings, strut brace etc.) $1,940 - REAR AXLE (wheel bearings, reinforcement kit, bushes, camber arms etc.) $1,400 - SUSPENSION (shocks, springs, mounts, bump stops, reinforcement plates etc.) $1,880 - WHEELS (rims & tyres) $690 - BRAKES (caliper repair kits, brake hoses, pads etc.) $290 - DRIVETRAIN (guibo, CSB, diff seals etc.) $200 - EXHAUST (hangers, gaskets, nuts etc.) $910 - HVAC (AC compressor, condenser, heater valve, hoses etc.) $4,870 - SERVICES (machine shop, welding work, wheel alignments, AC regas, WoF & cert) All up, that's around $27.5k, which is scary enough in itself. But then that doesn't include the following items that sort of don't contribute to the value of the project: $1,100+ - CONSUMABLES (paint, oil & other fluids, filters, small clips, random nuts, bolts, crush washers, O-rings) $660 - SPECIALTY TOOLS (timing tool kit, detent punch kit, coding/scanning cables, piston ring pliers & compressor etc.) $1,160 - OTHER (head unit, trim bits, indicator lights, bulbs, hood & boot struts etc.) And the main whopper: $3,430 - SHIPPING (across 29 separate parts orders over the past 2 years) Factor in the purchase price of the car and I'm $40k deep in this thing. Could have had an M3 hahah. Wouldn't trade it though. Have made it my own whilst learning so much along the way. Can never know what life will bring but as things stand I've no intentions of ever selling it so hopefully spread out across a good number of years to come, the costs will start making more sense as time goes on. And as things stand, I've got a brand new 20-year old car to enjoy. No ragrets.

Tackling the cert process was next on the list. First, got a fresh wheel alignment at the dealership, free of charge due to the previous mishap. Then, successfully failed WoF. Car passed otherwise but had to ask for them to fail me on the modifications as per cert requirements. And finally, the nail-biting part of taking it in for the cert inspection. Actually didn't go as bad as I'd feared. Made an effort to prepare as best I could - compiled a fat stack of receipts for all the parts and services I could find and also made a ~40 page booklet (mostly pictures) of the work done throughout the project. Definitely made the process much smoother. The inspector was impressed and very complimentary of the work I'd done, saying his job would be much easier if all clients came as well prepared, which was nice to hear. But then still had to fail me on a couple of minor bits. First, he wanted more info on the adjustable camber arms - info I had provided in the booklet that he didn't notice initially. Pointed it out, he took a photo copy of it and that was that. The other point was the thread engagement of the front wheel bolts. Minimum requirement is 6.5 turns of thread engagement, mine only got 6. The rear wheels were fine. Quite a weird one that with pretty much all components - wheel hubs, rotors, rims, bolts - being OE. Potentially could have argued my way out of it but felt it easier to just do what was asked for. I thought that maybe the E90 had slightly longer wheel bolts but having looked up the part numbers it turned out that the bolts on nearly every modern-ish BMW were the same, apart from the SUV's. Ended up going to Mag & Turbo who found me some bolts that were roughly 3mm longer than stock, giving me "8 turns of engagement". At just $5 a piece, $50 later I was all sorted. The dumb thing about it is that even with the wheel off, the bolts start to protrude out the other side of the front wheel hubs at 6 turns in so that's pretty much all the engagement you're going to get, no matter how long the bolts. But what do I know. Went in for a recheck on Friday, got the wheel bolts checked over and approved, paperwork signed, tag put on and off I drove with a stupid grin across my face. The one silly part about it was when I went back to the WoF place to see if they'd be happy to issue a new WoF despite the tag not being live yet. Friday was apparently the last day LVV were updating their database this year so I'd have to wait for middle of January at best for it to be online. Gave the WoF guy the paperwork, he called up the cert inspector, verified that the cert had been approved, then he called up some other dude and decided he didn't want to risk it. Bit annoying as it'll be more than 28 days before the tag goes live so I'll have to pay for a whole new WoF recheck but that's just the time of the year I guess. Technically, WoF is still valid until beginning of February so I'll just drive around with all the paperwork on board until then. I was under the impression that certification only picks up the bits that go past the modification threshold requiring cert - in my case that's the increase in engine displacement, modification to the brake pedal, 330i brake conversion and adjustable rear camber arms. But in fact he picked up everything else as well - slightly lowered suspension, solid subframe bushes, solid steering coupler, front strut brace, even the RACP reinforcement. Not an issue as it all passed but I was surprised those things get noted down as technically you wouldn't need cert if those were the only modifications. The other annoying thing is the wheels. Even if I went back to Style 68's or some other stock rims then technically it should be a WoF fail since the car was certified on the Style 193's. Bit absurd that but that's the weird cert system that we have - even if all you're doing are minor modifications, once you go for cert the car is then considered a modified vehicle and is basically treated like a hot rod that was built from scratch, so every little thing needs recertification. If I ever were to change wheels then I'd need to go for a recheck, they'd have to road and brake test the car on the new wheels at a cost of roughly $600. Whether that would actually be a thing you'd fail a WoF for in reality would I guess be down to the inspector's discretion.

Tinkered with some of the electrical gremlins I mentioned previously. First took apart the ignition switch. Blew out the dust, sprayed it throughout with some contact cleaner spray, cleaned the contacts with some strips of cardboard soaked in solvent, sprayed it all down again and reassembled regreasing all the contact surfaces. Pretty straightforward job. Trickiest part is taking it apart whilst trying not to break any of the plastic clips. Have only driven it a handful of times since but so far so good, no signs of the no crank issue but time will tell if that's fixed it. Then took apart the lights to check for any obvious issues. Main thing I noticed is that the problematic driver's side light must have been worked on at some point already. The date label on the igniter read 03.03.18 (at least I assume that's the date) and had a generic no-brand bulb with just 4300K written on it. The passenger side read 03.04.03 and had a Phillps bulb that I assume is original. So that's great. To start with, I just switched the bulbs over. Both lights now lit up but the driver's side took a good 5 seconds longer, so I assume the issue isn't the bulbs. Pretty weird that the driver's side light looks to have new igniter leads but is still acting up. Would be good to know why those were replaced in the first place. Left it there for now. I guess the first step will be to get new matching bulbs at the very least, then poke further. Will keep a look out for a cheap set of xenons for sale to poke around in as don't really want to risk messing up the only set I have. Then maybe further down the line go with an upgrade kit as seen in one of M539's videos.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133430315/speed-cameras-to-quadruple-nationally-as-nz-transport-agency-waka-kotahi-takes-over-operations Hahahahhh

Yeah it's pretty stupid ey. Took me a while to put 2 & 2 together but if the bolts start to protrude at 6 turns in then even with longer bolts you won't get more than 6 turns of thread engagement. OE hubs so this is how it would have rolled out of the factory. Good enough for BMW but not for cert, apparently. But I'll keep my mouth shut on that one.

Thanks for the suggestions and offers of help fellas! Hopefully have gotten it sorted. Popped by Mag & Turbo and they found me some bolts that are just a few mm longer, at $5/each. Silver in colour but I can live with that. I count 7.5 turns now. Booked in to get those checked over and get tag put on this Friday. Hopefully that's the last of the hassle 🤞

Cheers, might take you up on it. Might check with the cert guy how he feels about shortening bolts first though... Just had a bit of a play with it. The bolts do only want to go up to 6-and-a-bit turns with the wheel on. With the wheel off they go up to 11 turns before the tapered part bottoms out on the rotor. At 6 turns the bolt starts to poke out form the other side of the wheel hub, but does not hit the collar of the dust shield behind even when bottomed out on the rotor at 11 turns and the wheel is still able to spin freely, so there is a bit of wiggle room. Measured with a vernier - 1 turn is roughly 1.6mm so all I really need are bolts that are 2-3mm longer than stock.

Weird that. Will see how I go. Called them up after collecting the car today, told the fella the situation, he gave me his name, told me to come round the back when I'm there and he'd help find what works. Fingers crossed. Cheers, will give it a go if the above doesn't work out ✌️

Back on the topic of actual ranting... Took the touring in for cert today. All went pretty well, no issues with engine, gearbox swap, reinforcement work or suspension. Dude was very complimentary, said he loved everything I'd done and wished all clients were like me etc... But then still had to fail me on front wheel bolt stud engagement. 6.5 turns is the minimum. Mine only got 6. 0.5 turn out. What's that, like 1mm? Stock rotors. Stock hubs. Stock (albeit E90) wheels. Stock wheel bolts (same part number as E90 and pretty much every other modern BMW out there). Friday is the last day they can enter info to the LVV database this year so have to figure something out in a hurry if I want to drive it over the Christmas break. Will pop by Mag & Turbo and rummage through their piles of bolts to see if there's some that are just a tad longer, but of course not too long as to not bottom out. Could have gone worse I guess but bloody hell... To fail on something as minute seems pretty ludicrous. Happy days.

Damn, that's a very reasonable price and awesome spec. Love those wheels too. If only I didn't have a wedding to fund... Got into the E46 scene originally wanting a convertible, still on a top-down high from living in Aussie. Settled for a black Msport coupe at the time, have had a black Msport wagon and a black Msport sedan since then but never got the one I originally intended. One day... Best of luck with the sale, someone will have themselves a sweet deal.

Tee hee

Now up on Marketplace. Didn't realise it was Chch based until now. Not in a position to buy myself but happy to go have a look for whoever is interested.

If, as you say, it is a 320i and is running on 5 cylinders then that's a substantial upgrade since they only came with 4 from factory... Smartarsery aside, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the N46 engine that this would have come with is one of the worst things BMW has come up with in recent history. Some mechanics are known to flat out refuse to work on them due to how problematic they are. They're plagued with issues and are very rarely worth saving. Especially if you're paying someone else to do the work instead of DIY. And especially if that someone is BMW. You'll end up with a bill that's multiples of what the car is worth. Did you pay them for the work of replacing the valvetronic motor out of pocket or was it some sort of recall/insurance arrangement? Did they offer you any feedback as to what the faults might be before proceeding with the work? From what I know the timing chains stretching is one of the many known issues on the N46 so I would think it weird if they didn't offer to change those out "whilst they're in there". That could be considered as an oversight and used as an argument against having to pay twice for labour I guess. But then again, I wouldn't be taking a car like that to BMW for engine work in the first place. As for the cam cover "being too hot to touch", I wouldn't take that as much of an indicator of anything. BMW engines jut run hot in general. Mine runs just fine but even the plastic top covers are too hot to touch after a regular commute.

Also, before the cruise I set out to finally ceramic coat the wheels, a mission I didn't manage to get around to right after the suspension refresh. Naturally, I underestimated the severity of the task and overestimated my abilities. Despite having only done around 3,000km and objectively not even being that dirty, took forever getting them perfectly clean before applying the coating. A bit of elbow grease on the plastic scraper rubbing off remnants of the old balancing weights, several cycles of regular washes followed by a good few hours on the clay bar getting after the niggly tar spots and... 5 hours later I had finished on one wheel. Madness. If only I had money left over to pay someone else to do it. Will need a good long weekend to get the rest of them over the line. Mission for the Christmas break maybe.

Had another fun run up to Kaikoura this past Sunday with a group of colleagues. The bimmer was by far the least exotic of the bunch and might have looked a bit out of place among a group of V8's & restored classics but great fun to drive none the less. Was great fun listening to the Mustangs roar in the twisties and keeping up with the Aston on the straights. The 240z was the highlight for me. Fully restored fellow straight-6 and looking absolutely immaculate. Awesome writeup on the project if anyone cares to know. As expected, without any passengers on board there was no sign of rubbing from the rear. Car felt nice and planted throughout and unsurprisingly felt more nimble than the previous time on the same route without the added weight of other humans on board. The no-crank gremlin reared its head just once along the way but started up after a few turns of the key. Will need to have that addressed sooner rather than later. Alignment & WoF next week, then cert the week after. Hoping for some smooth sailing.

Looking good! Hope you'll snap out of the 91 octane habit once the new engine is in though

No, those are originals still. Should have a few spares lying around but might throw in some new ones with the next parts order if they're not extortionately expensive. Only just cropped up this issue so haven't really done much on it yet. Weirdly, the leather Msport seats in my old 325ci felt much better than these alcantara ones. Would have thought they'd be the same apart from the covers but those felt way more plush and didn't screw my back up nearly as much. I'll need to dig through your build threads to see what all is involved in getting aftermarket seats installed. Would those technically require cert at all? Aftermarket seat rails and all? Haven't looked into it properly yet. I'm quietly holding out hope for some decent E63 M6 seats becoming available at some point, those look to be the best straight swap plug-and-play solution out there. Hella rare though and asking for silly money whenever they do come up though.

Some niggly issues still present and a new one that's popped up: Experienced a weird no crank, no start issue for the first time ever. Old man wanted to try his hand at driving on the wrong side of the road at some point in the roadie so I let him jump behind the wheel. Stalled it the first time, forgetting to take the hand brake off. Then stalled it the second time straight when he couldn't quite get the feel of the clutch pedal right. The third time the car flat out refused to crank. Cycled the key a few times without any luck. Tried taking the key out and putting back in, locking-unlocking doors etc. I ended up jumping back behind the wheel and after a few more cycles the she started right up. Happened a few more times since then - will start the first time sometimes but will then intermittently refuse to do anything on other occasions. Have done a bit of Google'ing and looks like the culprit might be the ignition switch so will take it apart and clean it out in the near future the problem becomes worse. Apparently, other symptoms of a bad ignition switch can include electric side mirrors and headlights, fog lights, turn signals not working, which is interesting. Potentially related to the above, I've decided to get a brand new starter with my next parts order. Not sure what else to turn to to eliminate the rattle but that might be one of the last rolls of the dice. I did have a mate take it apart, check the brushes, clean and relube the insides when I did the engine rebuild but I suspect it might have taken on some damage when I briefly had it misaligned whilst hunting for the leak from the back of the block. Bit involved of a task but worth having a new one for some longevity. Not even fazed by the task of removing the intake manifold at this point anymore. Will also give me a chance to have a look at the ICV again and check what that D3 [211] code is all about. Been having an intermittent issue of the driver's side HID headlight not wanting to turn on. Sometimes it'll just take an extra minute for it to light up, sometimes it'll need a smack, others it'll work perfectly fine. I suspect it'll be something to do with the ballast or a loose connection as if it was a bulb then it probably wouldn't turn on at all. Will need to go on a mission of swapping components over to opposite sides to figure out what the culprit is exactly. Could even be the ignition switch, apparently, who knows... The seats... Quite like the look of the Msport alcantaras but damn they're really uncomfortable on longer trips. I got used to them after a couple of days but the backrest is just way too firm and eats into the lower and mid-back too much for comfort. I keep having to slide around trying to find a comfortable position and still end up with a sore back by the end of the day. Will need to take on the mission of cleaning up the X5 seats I still have sitting in the garage at some point and trying them out. Retrofitting heated seat wiring could be another cool DIY project as well.

Yeah pretty useful, especially for blowing out dirt & dust, used it quite a bit when rebuilding my engine and still do occasionally on smaller cleanup jobs. The one I've got is just about the most basic one you can get, this one from TopmaQ that I managed to snap up used for like $100 off TradeMe. It's small, loud and not powerful enough for any serious tools beyond just blowing compressed air or inflating bike tyres but what it does it does well enough. I'd definitely go with a bigger one if I had a bigger garage but I'd say it's worth having on hand even if it's just the smallest one. I reckon the SCA/Repco ones will be just fine for weekend use in a home garage.