Vass

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.

Got back from a round trip down south and up the West Coast with the parents last week, clocking up around 2,400km across 6 days. Threw in the old stock rear springs beforehand. Whilst it didn't completely eliminate the rubbing, it isolated it to only the harshest dips in the road when catching them at high speeds, but overall much better and meant I could drive with way less stress and way more confidence. Considering this was the first road trip I've taken the car on with 4 adults and a bootful of luggage on board, I can't really complain about the little rubbing still remaining. This was an outlier of a situation and with 1-2 people on board, I don't think rubbing will be an issue on the stock springs. Some absolutely amazing roads out there and an absolute ideal place to put the car through a proper stress test after the big rebuild. Some small issues aside, the car performed perfectly and effortlessly ate up the km's. Queenstown - Glenorchy is still my favourite bit of road in the country but also enjoyed experiencing the Queenstown - Te Anau and Wanaka - Haast routes for the first time ever. The folks loved their first time in NZ as well, saying it felt like they've been to 5 different countries in the short time here, such was the variety of landscapes behind every new mountain ridge. Good good times.

No, I didn't. Not sure if you need to? The guide I followed claimed they would fill right up once you go on a proper drive and the oil pressure builds up. Bit of lifter tick at first is normal.

Not N47 ones but M54 ones, yes. Not sure if they're the same or similar. Just used vise grips to hold the wee bucket and pull it out of the lifter, then disassemble and clean out. Pretty straightforward.

Bummer man, hopefully no damage done to any of the mods you've fitted and easily transferred over to the new(er) motor. Long road ahead but super rewarding no doubt, keen to keep following the journey. Honestly I'm a bit puzzled and impressed by how you've managed to fund and execute such a build whilst still being a uni student? Only car I could (barely) afford to keep going back in my uni days was an old rustbucket Nissan Primera, and even that was a hand-me-down from the parents 😅 How do you do it?

Yeah interesting that. Just looked it up on that page and it gives E2067140_7 as the 6-cylinder touring part number but then any vendor site seems to lists them without that final digit. Demon Tweeks where I ordered mine from listed those springs as compatible to all chassis types (except the compact maybe, didn't pay that much attention). Just lumped 4 passengers into the car for a day trip to Akaroa, looked at how pressed up into the arches the rear tyres looked even before rolling out of the driveway and decided to take the missus' Outback instead. Would not have been a pleasant experience. I think I'll keep the fronts but throw in the old springs in the rear before setting off on the longer road trip down south in the coming week, might then look to try out the H&R's further down the track. Would have to be next year's project though, have well and truly exhausted my toy allowance for a good while.

Thanks mate! That's a solid bit of analysis there and I reckon the right conclusion. When it's time to change tyres 245's is what I'm going with. Still heaps of life left in the current tyres though so will try and get my money's worth out of them before the switch. I believe the Eibach spring were one-size-fits-all solution for the E46 unfortunately so that might be part of the issue. Obviously with E46-specific Style 68's the rubbing is not an issue as @adro can attest to but with different offset rims and wider tyres I really am pushing my luck. Interesting thing is, the original Touring springs I took out (I've referred to them as Msport springs a number of times now but actually still don't know if they even had separate Msport ones or they're just regular Touring-specific, RealOEM doesn't seem to give me part numbers for springs for some reason) are actually shorter than the new Eibach ones. I guess they might just be that much stiffer...? Good news is I took the car for a good run up to Kaikoura today, a round trip of roughly 400km and with -2.5° camber and the trimming-bashing I'd done, the rubbing is now greatly reduced. Had my ~100kg dad sit in the rear left seat and there was only 4-5 instances where any sort of rubbing occurred, those being over really pronounced rough patches in the road, most other situations where rubbing had occurred previously it now handles without issues. I reckon with just myself or 1 other passenger in the car (which is likely to be the scenario 90% of the time going forward) the rubbing will be very minimal. Will take the wheels off in the next few days and check where the remaining rubbing has migrated to. Might be able to trim back or bash in those areas some more. All in all, another awesome road trip with the folks. Went up to Kaikoura through Mt Lyford and back down along the coast. Had never taken that route up before, a good 30 minute detour but well worth it! Encountered very little traffic along the way, awesome views and delightfully twisty roads throughout, got to put her through her paces nice and proper. Also, to revive the Akebono debate somewhat, don't want to jinx it but I'm very much enjoying them. I do get where you were coming from in regards to the reduced initial bite but I feel like I've adjusted pretty well. You do need to press down quite hard if you want to stop in a hurry but overall I've found the pedal feel to be pretty much linear and predictable. They've handled some spirited driving quite well, no squeaking or fading and the wheels are still nice and clean. Feels like an solid upgrade in every way switching from the old rusty rotors and pads anyway.

Spoke too soon on the rattle front, must not have been VANOS related as it re-emerged again at startup this morning. Pretty much out of ideas as to what else it could be at this point. Weirdly, the rattle either isn't there or isn't noticeable when the car's been sitting in the garage overnight or for a few days, only when it's been parked outside for even a short while. Absolutely no clue. It is only mild and very hard to capture on video so can't even convey it properly. Guess I'll just have to live with it and hope it's not terminal. Took the car for an alignment this morning, went with the closest shop to home this time which happens to be a Bridgestone Tyre Centre barely a km down the road. Oh boy... Brought it in having written down the specs to aim for: -2.5° camber at the rear, 0 toe and just a checkup of the front end. Also wrote down the torque spec for the trailing arm bolts to chassis - 77Nm - to save them the hassle of looking those up. Even left 24mm & 27mm wrenches that I had just bought specifically for the camber arms on the passenger seat. Pick the car up a couple of hours later, tech said he got it pretty close to what I wanted and all seemed to be tracking straight during the test drive. Took a short detour on the way home and noticed a feint clunk coming from the right rear when going over imperfections in the road surface so decided to check things over. Good thing I did. Left camber arm outer jam nut completely loose. Right camber arm inner jam nut completely loose. 5 of the trailing arm bolts needed a good 10-20° to get to 77Nm. The remaining one on the right side trailing arm was completely loose and needed a good 2-3 full turns. Don't think I'm ever getting over my trust issues at this rate. Thank f**k I'm mechanically minded and caught onto it having only driven 2-3km. I seriously shudder to think of how many cars might be out there in everyday use that are absolutely unsafe to drive. Aunty Sharon could be out there happily tooting around, oblivious to the very real possibility of one of the wheels on her trusty Corolla all of a sudden deciding to start pointing sideways at any given moment. Seriously, am I stupid or is this borderline criminal negligence? 2 wheel alignments in a row. WTF is going on!? I've now got a theory as to what happened the first time around when it was BMW, in that instance the loose jam nut was the inner one on the left camber arm - the one with the tricky access due to the exhaust pipes being in the way. When I picked the car up, I remember the fuel economy on the cluster display reading something like 17L/100km so they must have left the car idling the whole time they were working on it for some stupid reason. Then when the time came to tighten everything up, the exhaust pipes would have gotten nice and hot, they wouldn't have wanted to go near there so either just left it or forgot to come back to it. This time around it was simply incompetence/inexperience. Still a bit rattled, I tightened everything up and went back for a chat. Didn't really want anything but felt that this was f**ked up enough that I couldn't just leave it be without speaking up. Explained to the guy what I'd discovered and how this could have ended very badly had I not checked. He was genuinely surprised and offered to check it over again if a had a spare hour. I didn't. He said that he nearly refused to take the job on as he'd never worked on BMW's or cars with a similar trailing arm setup before but then got help from a more experienced mechanic who walked him through the process, checked over and approved his work. The trailing arm bolts he had simply tightened with a rattle gun and tightened the jam nuts by putting his whole body weight on the wrench, mimicking how he'd done it, leaning onto the wrench with both hands. He had quite a puzzled expression when I told him he also had to have a wrench holding the rod in place when doing so. I'm no mechanic but you really don't need to be one to figure out how these things work. "Wheel Alignment Specialists" my ass. Got a call back from them a few hours later offering to give me a good deal on tyres and a voucher for a hot drink or something to make up for it. Thanks. Don't even know what the moral of the story is here. Trust no-one...? Short drive going out to dinner with 3 passengers on board later that night, no sign on rubbing so far but don't want to jinx it. Longer test tomorrow with a day trip to Kaikoura on the cards. See how she goes.

Awesome concept but those rear side windows just look all sorts of wrong. Way too big and out of proportion, makes it look like a hearse. Almost need another pillar to break those up.

Thanks but that's not what I want to hear right now I'm at my last throw of the dice as far as making these springs work at this point. Didn't have rubbing issues on the previous setup. The main differences between old and new are the solid subframe bushes that raise the subframe closer to the body somewhat. Not sure by how much but those are staying regardless. The rims & tyres are new but the old Style 194's were exactly the same offset and with 255/40R17's on them were the same width and diameter as the new 255/35R18's to the millimetre. All that leaves is the new Eibach springs. I'm going for another wheel alignment tomorrow morning, will have them tweak the rear camber to -2.5° (-2.0° is BMW spec and you're allowed to be 0.5° beyond that when going for cert). Having now trimmed the bumpers and arches back a little more and bashed in the inner layer of the guards somewhat, will see if the extra bit of camber will remedy the rubbing. Can't say I'm overly optimistic. If that doesn't solve it then will throw in the old Msport springs in time for cert. Would love to keep matching springs front and rear but it is what it is.

Ordered the 15mm spring pads Thursday, got them in the mail last Tuesday, threw them in on Wednesday. Felt nice and beefy the pads which made me hopeful. Just to be safe, also kept the bottom spring pad doubled up and slightly trimmed back the inner side of the rear bumper and guard lip where they looked to be rubbing against the tyres. Whilst underneath the car I gave everything a quick look over and discovered a jam nut on the left rear camber arm completely loose. Obviously wasn't best pleased, having gone on a 900km road trip the weekend just past in a car that was essentially unsafe to drive. Although no harm done, this just isn't good enough from any professional service, especially with what BMW charged me for an alignment. Access to that particular nut is a bit tricky with the exhaust in the way but I easily managed to get to it with an open ended 27mm wrench at a slight angle and tightened it up. Called BMW up the next day to voice my displeasure. The service rep was very attentive and apologetic, he remembered the car and offered to bring it back in for a checkup. I didn't feel like wasting my time at that point as I'd already tightened the nut myself and the car feeling fine driving into work that morning so declined. He asked if there was anything else they could do to help out so I mentioned that I would need another alignment in a month's time before going for cert so he offered to have that done free of charge, so I have that lined up at least. Anyway, the thicker spring pads looked to have raised the rear by more than the 10mm I was expecting, even looks a bit raked now but did even out the arch gaps front and rear. Drove fine and no rubbing at first, but with 4 people in the car, the suspension settled again and the rubbing returned over bumps and slow right turns, although not as severe as before. More tinkering was required. Trimmed back the bumper and inner lip a tad more, gave the top inner edge of the guard a little bash and gave the camber arms 2 full turns (8 x 1/4 turns). Then took on another little side-mission rebuilding another VANOS unit with new seals but leaving the insides of the pistons alone this time. Dropped the housing off at a machine shop for a wash, cleaned up the rest of the bits, gave the insides of the bores a quick polish following Mr. M539's example and resealed the pistons. VANOS unit bolted up, I went to tighten up the solenoids but discovered there's not enough clearance to get the exhaust one without bashing in the radiator so created another custom tool for the collection - a short handle 32mm spanner. Cleared adaptations and went for a lap around the block. First signs seemed promising. Did only have just the one startup thus far but if that was anything to go by then I might be onto the source of the rattle. Must have crushed the needle bearings inside the pistons when installing the anti-rattle rings. The ABS trifecta lights lit up right after setting off though. Pulled over, reset the steering angle calibration but the trifecta came right back as soon as I started moving. Probably due to my tinkering with the camber arms knocking the toe out of whack and the wheel speed sensors reporting contradicting speeds. The axles didn't feel happy either with a a thump from the rear when pressing down clutch. Didn't expect the extra bit of camber to affect the toe that much but it has rendered the car virtually undriveable for the moment so will still need another alignment in the meantime. Will look to get one booked in first thing in the morning. The throttle felt a bit weird with some random surging in revs going on but probably down to having cleared adaptations and the VANOS seals needing some breaking in. Also got a couple of weird codes I hadn't seen before so parked her up for the night. 5E19 - CAN DME/DDE, engine torque not adjustable D3 [211] - Idle speed control valve, mechanical fault, jammed open Not sure what that's about, hopefully a longer drive sorts it out. Will be happy to have the startup rattle resolved though. Fingers crossed.

I ordered a cheap endoscope off Aliexpress for all of $7 US, the USBc type with a phone app. Only used it just once so far but worked surprisingly well for how ridiculously cheap it was. A great little gadget to have on hand. I'm a sucker for a good deal off Aliexpress in general. Not the highest quality stuff obviously but great for small items you'll only use occasionally. Some other notable ones are a fuel pump lock ring tool, hose pliers, little brushes, pry & pick tools, specialty pliers etc, all for around $10/each or less. Oftentimes see the same stuff rebranded and sold for 3x the price locally. Think I paid $200 for mine around 4-5 years ago. Lifetime replacement though. I've only broken a 3/8 one so far, and that was probably my own stupidity, trying to break loose a bolt that was too big and done up too tight for it. Yeah a bit of a clunky one that. Still has its uses though. Was doing the valve cover yesterday, came in very handy and got into places an impact driver wouldn't have. I got a mate an AEG one as a thanks for helping out with some welding just recently, feels more robust and is more compact with a different battery orientation. Pricy though, both skins and batteries are roughly twice the price of Ryobi. Have had 3 x 4Ah & 1 x 9Ah batteries for around 3 years without issues. Your mileage obviously varies though. I've also got a little collection of custom speciality tools going. Thin 18mm spanner for doing up front sway bar links Short handle 32mm spanner for doing up the front VANOS solenoid without bashing in the radiator Deep wall 32mm socket for the rear subframe mounting studs Starter mounting bracket to test run the engine without the gearbox attached

I'm a sucker for an E30. I'm a sucker for a touring I'm a sucker for a black Bimmer. Ticks all my boxes. Barbara could do with an older sibling. It's not even priced that badly. I'm still a good number of years off from being able to justify owning one though. I just hope that something like this (or this exact one) becomes available again when I get there.

Ohhhh lord, this is dreams! https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/4406638080?bof=K62wTdXG

Might not be pro grade of course but most of my arsenal I've bought from Supercheap, almost exclusively when something's on sale. A big toolkit suitcase when it was 50% off has been getting me 90% of the way there for the past 3-4 years now. Most things Toolpro are lifetime replacement warranty. Had a 3/4 ratchet fail on me, walked into the store and came away with a brand new one 3 minutes later, didn't even ask for a receipt or anything. Latest addition is a set of ratchet spanners when they were on sale for sub-$100 a few months ago. They always have a few days around Christmas/Boxing Day where it's 50% off storewide so always worth a punt. Then I have an assortment of random spanners, deep wall & impact sockets, 3/4 & 1/2 extensions & swivel attachments that I've sourced whenever the situation required it. Good to plan ahead and have everything on hand when you need it of course but then you might be spending hundreds of extra monies on kit you never end up using. Power tool wise I've also jumped into the Ryobi universe, found it to be the best bang for the buck with a very extensive selection of tools available. The electric ratchet has been handy to have in many a situation. The impact wrench paired with a 9Ah battery handles most things thrown at it. I've taken off an M54 crank bolt without issues. Only thing it couldn't handle so far was the 46mm front hub nut. Had to borrow the services of my mate's AEG impact - that thing is an absolute brute (1550Nm tightening torque!), and costs accordingly. Otherwise, I've found Ryobi great for hobbyist use. Probably not tradie standard but if you take reasonable care if the tools and not throw them around needlessly then they'll last. Haven't had anything fail on me so far (knock on wood) and also have a whole lawn care suite so get plenty of use out of the battery collection I've got going.

Could be worth it if you get a whole crash damaged 325/525i as a donor and use it to transplant everything over, and do all the work yourself. Would be quite involved so you'd have to be really keen for a project. If you're buying just an engine and paying a shop to do the work then it'll never be worth it. In either case, unless there's anything that's uniquely desirable about the particular body/chassis, it'll be much cheaper & easier to just sell up and buy a ready made 325i, or better yet a 330i if you can find one. But then what's the fun in that...

Are the undertrays just taken off for the picture or you're not running any at all? Won't be looking as clean and shiny for too long without them.

Feel like I'd only be telling a partial story if I didn't spill the beans on an assortment of mishaps I've had during the wrench-a-thon of the past month. Some might be funny, some educational but all due to lack of mental sharpness from a combination of overwork and undersleep. Starting off light, I already mentioned forgetting to prime the front shocks when first assembling them. What I didn't mention is that when I took the springs off, ran the shocks through their full range of motion 3-4 times and reassembled them again, they came out looking like this: Stared at them for a minute comparing shaft thicknesses (...) with the old B6's before noticing the bump stop-dust boot combo laying on the floor next to the toolkit. Apart they came again. Then of course threw on the dust boots upside down on the rear shocks as well - just took them out the package the way they were facing for shipping and on they went. Luckily, caught both of those things before any of the components went onto the car... unlike the previous owner. Front dust boots had crumbled old bump stops crammed into them, causing the boots to crumple up and jam up against the top of the strut mount and doing sweet f**k all to protect the shaft from the elements. Evidently, the B6's have internal bump stops so all they need is a dust boot. The rear shocks were completely shot, dust boots were put on upside down and one of the strut mount bolts was threaded on barely finger tight, which might explain the clunk I'd been experiencing when switching into reverse. Top notch craftsmanship. As a final task one late night I got onto assembling the front hub knuckles. First one came together pretty well: cup ring - dust shield - wheel bearing - lock ring and voila. Having gotten the knack of it and all the tools laid out, I wanted to quickly throw together the second one and call it a night. Cup ring - wheel bearing - dust sh... f**k. I knocked it all the way down to the base of the shaft before realising what I had done. The old wheel bearings had all come off cleanly in one piece so they don't jam on there too tightly. This new one wasn't as loose though. I managed to gently pry it all the way to the tip until the inner race jammed on and refused to come off the rest of the way. Felt like if I put any more force on it then the wheel bearing would separate, leaving the inner race still attached, which could potentially compromise the bearing and mean shelling out a not insignificant amount for a new one straight away. Called it a night and gathered my thoughts the next morning. Tried a few more things before coming up with the idea of putting on a bearing puller tool backwards and using it as a sort of slide hammer against the surface of the inner race. After a few tries it luckily came off still intact. Lucky escape. Having gotten the hubs, brakes and axles assembled, I chucked on the wheels and dropped the car down for the first time. Next thing was to torque up the inner ends of the camber arms and spring perches to the rear subframe but with the suspension yet to settle and sitting quite high up, I recruited a mate to sit in the boot to bring the rear down closer to actual ride height. I crawled under and positioned myself in place, torque wrench in hand and shouted out for the mate to "jump in". Little did I know that he would take the command too literally... Next thing I hear was a thump followed by a loud OOWWWWW. No idea what possessed him to do what he did but from where he was sitting on the hatch sill, he just rolled himself backwards as if he was scuba diving off the side of a boat and plunked himself straight onto the stud holding down the spare wheel. Right to the middle of his spine, taking out a decent chunk of skin and leaving a nasty gash. Bloody hell dude! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Took a bit of convincing him to at least put a band aid on it, the trooper. Luckily nothing more than a surface level wound and the stud got bent right back into shape as well. Then onto the dumbest and scariest episode. Late Sunday night, having slaved away the whole day tidying up the last niggly bits - putting on brakes, axles, driveshaft, heat shields, exhaust - I was really excited and keen to finally drive the car home. Dropped her down on her wheels, rechecked the fluids, bled the coolant, power steering and doing some final checks, I brought the car up to temp, loaded up as many boxes of old parts and tools that I could grab in a hurry and proceeded to head home. Having barely gotten past my mate's front gate out onto the street, the ABS trifecta lit up. Figured the sensors must have gone out of whack with everything being disconnected and the steering angle sensor needing recalibrating. Pulled over straight away and grabbed my coding computer to jump onto PA Soft. Whilst that was booting up, I casually glanced at the instrument cluster and nearly shat myself. f**k. After all that... had I just cooked it!? f**k. f**k f**k f**k. Clocked the coolant temperature at 112°. I sat there, head in my hands for a good 10 minutes, not knowing what to do. The clock had ticked past 10:30pm so nothing good was going to come from the rest of the night anymore. With the car somewhat cooled down, I decided that driving the 100 meters back into the garage won't hurt much more beyond the damage already done. Still monitoring the temperatures, as soon as I started the car, the temps dropped down to 90° straight away. By the time I rolled into the garage, they'd dropped again down to 78°. Must be an air pocket! Disheartened but somewhat hopeful, jumped in the trusty Swift and sped off home, still trying to unpack what had happened. By the time I got to bed, I might have figured out why the ABS lights had gone off - I took out the rear wheel speed sensors when installing the axles to avoid potentially damaging them and must have forgotten to slide them back into place. Then, already half asleep, I threw myself into another slight state of panic having all of a sudden remembered that I'd forgotten to properly torque up the wheel nuts after putting the car down from the lift, having only rattled them on with an impact wrench at the lowest setting. Turned out the ABS lights may have saved me a bigger disaster. The next (Monday) morning (hooray for Labour Day) I went back and took a good half a day checking over everything I had touched on the car. Sure enough... Reattached those, torqued down the wheels and rechecked all fluids. Also discovered a hose clamp on one of the power steering hoses to the reservoir was completely loose and slowly weeping fluid onto the alternator. Another reason I was glad I hadn't driven all the way home the previous night. Went for a second go at a test drive, keeping an eye on the temperatures throughout. They jumped up and down for a while, up to 107° then down to 90° before settling nicely between 95-99° after a dozen kilometers. Have been monitoring the temperatures every time I've driven it since - having an Android headunit helps, don't even have to hook up an OBD dongle, instead it takes them through CANBUS. Maximum it's gotten to is 101°, where it sits steadily when cruising at 100kph at just over 2.5k RPM on the motorway, then weirdly drops down to as low as 80° when giving it beans, even going uphill. Must be due to increased airflow and higher RPM's pushing the water pump harder. Thinking back to it, I wonder whether the temperatures jumping around like that is just what happens every time without us being aware of it... The only reason my temp needle started going up was because I had coded the buffer to be more sensitive to temperature changes. The maximum I'd caught the temperature at was 112°. With factory coding, the needle would not have even moved beyond dead center in that instance. Think I'd rather be scared than sorry still.

Yeah the top of the touring bumper is cut back to accommodate the hatch. Not sure if there's much of a market for them so wouldn't imagine replacements are easy to come by. Quite like how the M3 style one fits on sedans/tourings. Saw one in the flesh when I was over in Europe a few months ago, would love that on mine.