Sammo

Fun weekend car... or daily plus a bit of fun in weekends? For weekend I'd be looking to a nice E36 328 manual coupe with a few dollars left over sorting suspension. Daily plus weekend, a manual E46 is the route I went and love it. As M3AN says, the 130i is a hoot as well and prices on those are rock bottom at the moment.

Nice! Somehow I owe them despite being soley a PAYE salary man....

Interesting, always thought it was just the under bonnet insulation. Beautiful car, regardless.

A good looking 325i manual sedan popped up with a kit and ACS wheels for similar money. Actually, yesterday a bunch of older manual BMWs popped up on TM....

Beautiful car for sure, if it was manual ? Less sure about comments that Clubsport suspension being 15mm lower than Msport / Clubs port exhaust and '20kg' of sound insulation ?

Demontweeks now appears to agree that parcel force has lost my struts and springs so now I need to figure out whats next... Looks like Speed Factor are starting to carry the same product range (AP Suspension) so will at least be able to get locally for small premium. Or tempted to spend a few more $$$ and go for a basic coilover like XYZ or BC.... ?

Haha thanks man! In my dreams ? That car was actually my initial inspiration - I follow him on Instagram...

E92 looks great, and love an R32, those have aged so well IMO.

Still no scans since 10th of April for my suspension, enquiry has not lead anywhere yet. To rub salt in the wound, Spark also charged me $27 for a 30 minute call to Demontweeks customer service line.. Also been waiting 3 weeks for Supercheap to deliver my MTF and diff oil after first package went walkabout. The shitlist is getting bigger ?

Quite pricey actually, I switched my (driver and passenger) seat bases on mine which helped a little, upper (inflating) side bolsters were fine though https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/Interior/Seats/Seat_Foam/

Mine were fine aside the finish when I recoloured mine but you saw can purchase new foam supports for bolsters etc. Not sure if that would be any more cost effective than a local upholsterer however.

Everything I've ordered via FCP using their fed ex shipping (quite reasonably priced) has arrived in a week with no GST (orders under $1k) That was all through March and April too ?

Not sure, got a leather steering wheel wrap, ordered late March from Ali Express China - arrived in less than 3 weeks if I recall - was pleasantly surprised.

Looks fantastic with the Style 23's - one of the best wheel-chassis combo's IMO - clean as a whistle. I quite like the more yellow beams on an older car too.

Thanks, agree; will change the fluids and if that doesn't help get it looked at.

Have had this nasty whine (kind of like a rattly supercharger) in lower gears under heavy load above 3k rpm for some time, seems like it has been getting worse. Nothing in neutral, easiest heard when the windows are up, sounds like it is coming from in front of me. Sadly sounds worse than it does in the videos, ugly noise. Just put on new tensioners and pulleys (which were toast) but no improvement. Next port of call is to change the MTF and diff oil and then guess I'll be taking it to a pro. Pretty sure gearbox is ZF310 (car was manual swapped prior to my ownership and has ZF stamped on the box housing). VID_20200508_145156.mp4 VID_20200508_145236.mp4

Replaced my AC and drive belt tensioners and pulleys and idler pulley today - really easy little job. Old pulleys were toast and the E46 mechanical tensioners come all-together hence doing them all.

Yeah, fully expect delays, but c'mon with this. Actually just had a poly steering coupler shipped to my Youshop address arrive in their warehouse today and realised they charge GST on the US to US shipping charge as well? Struggle to see how that attracts NZ GST....

Very! it's killing me as everything else has been coming except the thing I want most ?

Anyone made any orders from Demontweeks in the past month or so? Ordered shocks and springs from them on 21st March and while it was dispatched a week later, (not in stock I guess) Parcel Force appear to have since lost it (no scans since 10th April) but are just rolling out the 'Covid-19 delays' line... Since that order I've had 3 different FCP Euro orders arrive from the states in under a week each, Ebay and Aliexpress orders from China and another package from the UK (Vanos seals) arrive in under two weeks from order. Seems to be a Parcel force issue rather than Demontweeks (who are taking forever to respond each time) but especially frustrating as I have had my shock and strut mounts and reinforcement plates sitting here waiting to go for 5+ weeks.... Tempted to escalate to Visa and just get some coilovers or something locally ?

Manual, 2.5, leather, good colour = looking like a bargain IMO. If it was a coupe....?

Cool little car, kind of makes more sense as a 2 door given the back seat in these!

Great daily, and fun little cars - N52 is supposed to be a very reliable motor too. R32 looks serious - those cars have aged so well ?

Didn't notice a significant change when I replaced it but at $50 and given its age certainly won't have hurt!

Two new tensioners and pulleys and new idler pulley arrived yesterday - couldn't beleive how much smoother and damped they are - will put on in the weekend. Car definately feels better with the Vanos seals, just smoother and a bit stronger - particulary taking off from stop, almost feels like the clutch engagement point improved - never was able to take off without a fair amount of thottle before - its smooth as now.