Sammo

Little longevity update: Been done 3 months now and about 2500km and no issues at all, thats with plenty of sunshine and beach trips too (i.e. damp, salty bums). Only difference is drivers seat has lost most of the nice, super matte finish, not sure if thats oils or wear, but... so far, so good.

Thanks, yeah, that's what I hoped , I'm guessing Demon tweeks and FCP Euro don't sell enough to NZ customers ($60k pa?) to collect GST at the point of sale. Had several things through from FCP recently without getting stung.

Exciting, before the exchange rates gets even worse, I bought a bunch of parts today, mainly to do a suspension refresh. I want to lower the car a little, mainly in the front and tighten up the steering and handling - its not too bad but I know it could be a whole lot better than what I presume is 150,000km old Msport suspension. From Demontweeks: AP / ST Suspensions (same part number) Suspension kit of shortened 'sport' shocks and matched lowering springs. Decided on these after a bit of humming and ha-ing as the drop seems perfect (40mm/20mm or for Msport, 25mm front, 5mm rear) great price(!!!) and they answered all my questions online quickly - AP is a less known brand in BMW circles but is TUV certified and made by KW alongside the ST brand (KW sales rep advised its the same part as the higher priced ST suspension kit). I was thinking of BC Gold coilovers (local support) but decided against them due to cert cost, not actually wanting to lower or adjust the car much and potential ride issues(?) with pillowball mounts and 8kg spring rates. From FCP Euro : Meyle HD Front control arm bushings Meyle HD Rear trailing arm bushings Lemforder Strut mounts Meyle HD Shock mounts Strut and shock mount reinforcement plates Front and rear Sway bar bushings BMW steering coupler / steering Guibo (heard this can be great for tightening up sloppy / loose steering), Mahle fuel filter BMW window rubber for one that is perished. And if I read the new import laws correctly, as both orders were under $1000 I should not get stung with GST at the border ? Now I need to figure out is how, or more realistically, who to install as most of its beyond my capabilities / facilities ?

Beautiful car, tastefully done and good price IMO, GLWS.

You have excellent taste ?

Photos are definately 60% better. Looks great.

Sounds about right IMO. Saw another on Facebook marketplace that I almost bought last year for $10k - really nice jet black factory manual with certed coilovers and 18" schnitzer type 3s. Nice car. Was asking $15k, after buying for $10k 6 months ago...

Seems the amount of people chancing their arms on these is increasing... This one is worse than the recent guy trying to sell a silver auto with 40kms for $21,500. $16k for 130kms, some questionable cosmetic mods and no maintenance to speak of. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2566248312.htm?rsqid=5c8e9d47e50742ebb814a3e5edaada4a-001 Wonder if the market will eventually start picking up for nice non-m' E46's with M3's getting spendier by the day?

Great choice, e90 LCI Msport's look great and nice colour too

Tackled the valve cover gasket today, after seeing oil on my spark plug threads a few weeks back when I changed those. Also noticed some oil leaking on the exhaust heat shield, creating a nice burning smell... Went very smoothly, being the most 'invasive' job I've done under the hood of a car to date (newbie to this stuff) and the old gasket was very hard and brittle, especially around the plug seals. Got the BMW gasket from FCP euro with the 15 fastner seals as well and torqued in a star pattern to 10nm.

Yup, you were right. A week after this post got the telltale burning oil smell and saw it was leaking onto the exhaust heat shield. Sprung for the BMW gasket and replaced yesterday, was particularly brittle on the plug seals. New plugs had a little oil on the threads already, so cleaned them up and everything else.

Double Damn! Your facelift E46 is lovely (both are) - the style 193's have a very tidy offset for the 46 and nice modern look on the facelift. Very nice ? Much planned for them?

Cheers! yeah, its a nice colour combo, bold enough but not too loud IMO

Ahhh right - yeah, have clients at Spark, NZME and Bauer so am often around that area

Nice, whereabouts? Thanks - yeah, try to keep it clean which helps too!

Thanks mate! Pretty happy with it right now but can't wait to get the suspension sorted and then make it a little noisier in the next few months

Always wanted one of these ?

Get a NA 6 cylinder ?

Jeeeez, almost as bad as the very low km E46 330ci for $21,500. A silver auto, no less...

Thanks mate, yeah, car definitely felt better with the new plugs in. Will tackle the valve cover gasket in a few weeks then check the plugs again a month later. Been freaking myself out googling valve stem seals the past half hour ?

So was giving my 330ci some love this weekend (oil, filter, plugs). This is the first time I've changed the oil and plugs on this car, so not sure of its history. Anyways, when I pulled the Spark plugs, several had a decent amount of oil on the threads (one particularly so) and most were a bit wet and sooty. The ignition coil boots however had no oil at all, even the one connected to the oiliest plug. A bit of googling has me thinking it could be the Valce cover gasket leaking, but given the coil rubber boots were dry, I'm not sure. Car showed a few misfire codes several weeks ago (P1342, P1346, P0300) but after I cleared them they have not come back. Car had been feeling a little sluggish, nothing obvious but is running great now with the new plugs and no codes - if its a leak I imagine it will be a matter of time before the issue manifests again. Pics below, including the plug wells. Car has been using a fair bit of oil (2 litres in 4000km) but that isn't unusual for an M54 from what I've read.

Update, Airbag light from the seat swap sorted ? Dropped car this morning at BMW (the huge, brand new Continental dealership on Wairau Road) for the latest Takata airbag recall. They replaced the passenger airbag but drivers airbag is on backorder so will need to get that done at later date. Fantastic service I must say, gave my car a vacuum and hand wash and even got a call from one of the techs working on it who was extremely complimentary and wanted to buy it ? Cleared the totally unrelated airbag light as I'd hoped as well ?

Hmmm, think the E36 had a similar tan - Modena I beleive? considered that as well.

Update, dropped car this morning at BMW (huge brand new Continental dealership on Wairau Road). They replaced the passenger airbag but drivers airbag is on backorder so will need to get that done at later date. Fantastic service I must say, gave my car a vacuum and hand wash (was pretty clean anyway) and even got a call from one of the techs who was extremely complimentary and wanted to buy my car ? Cleared my unrelated airbag light as well ?

Very odd - appears to be, but I also saw this article late last year with BMW NZ indicating it only impacted AU cars: https://www.driven.co.nz/news/news/bmw-nz-confirms-local-3-series-models-not-affected-by-takata-recall/ Contrasting with the guy from BMW who called me this morning, proactively, (I half completed an online form in the weekend) looking to book me in ASAP for potentially both front airbags... although I've only had the car since August 2019, I have not received any letters. The driven article states “The Takata safety recall is limited to certain BMW E46 3 Series built between November 1997 and June 2000. These vehicles were built for the Australian market only.” Mine is a June 2001 build, imported from Japan in 2006... At least once done, my 20 year old car will have brand new airbags!