Sammo

Pretty good effort for first BMW mate!

New workplace buddies:

Lachs number one

Yup, as I understand

Thought I had it watchlisted but can't see it anymore, but the Silver Tech 2 with 330km but very clean with loads of work done went for low 40's amonth or two back, I believe. And a Tech 1 was bidded to $38,500 but closed without hitting reserve.

Took car in to get my clutch / driveline vibration looked at properly - has been bothering me a bit for a while and seems to be getting worse (or me becoming more OCD about it). Was assuming a clutch related issue as its mostly through the pedal and goes away as soon as pedal is depressed. Shop reckons it is actually the gearbox - an input shaft bearing? (think thats what they said - there has also been a light rattle at idle in neutral with the clutch out). Still there overnight (safely inside) awaiting the view of an expert who rebuilds a lot of these boxes... Does not sound like a cheap issue 🙁 At least the interior is nice!

Upgraded the work (and play) from home office as I decided the E30 wasn’t enough of a money pit. As close as I’ll get to driving Group A DTM E30 M3!

Think I sold mine for $150, replaced with the rarer Piano black which I paid $300 for. Mine were not as nice, but probably just keep them unless you get good money.

Want: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m/listing/3973307648 Want: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/other/listing/3972570033

Don't worry, she was safe and sound by the time it got gnarly!

Much better photos though!

Would be looking at a manual M235i. Or a manual E82 135i manual / DCT with more to spend on mods etc

Is the discount ending 1 Feb? I better get cracking if so!

Nice man, what did you use to patch the dash? I have a fantastic matte clear finish product used for refinishing leather that leaves a great silky matte soft finish - want to use it on my dash if I ever re-do it at some point (only one crack at this point).

A big thank you to @Cement for sorting the exhaust leak for me today and taking me for a quick blat in the mighty (edition 1 of 1?) VQ37 E46 💪🏽 One less thing on the to-do list!

Might help - damn common spot: https://e30garage.no/product/left-firewall-european-version/

Curbed the missus' front left wheel on the F31.... she had already curbed it so no real drama but have lost my right to moan about her curbing! Is there any way to repair machined metal finished wheels?

Was the motor out to weld in this area? got some rust there too (under glovebox / firewall skin) that I've done a temp patch on but will need doing properly eventually...

This thing is getting so dialled in!

I think you made a great choice - F31 is a great base and 328i is a good mix of performance and economy. I added wireless Carplay / Android Auto to mine which is a cost effective upgrade to bring it into the current decade too.

That would be amazing thank you!

Aside from a bit of drone under low load at 1500-2000 (rarely experienced due to gearing) I’m very happy with the current sound. This is the only part where it goes to a single pipe - presumably adapted to fit the one in two out Remus muffler.

Correct again! Can also detect a tiny rasp / buzz at 3k that was not there previously. One step forward, two steps back haha

Thanks man - summoned up the energy to try again today and you were correct on two counts: I had slightly misaligned the cross member (took off one side to squeeze in the new mount) and noticed a quirk (defect?) with the new mounts: On the side where it mounts to the cross member the metal base was clearly convex (pictures show it below but quite obvious IRL) meaning it wouldn’t sit flush on the cross member and would also try to spin on its base when I tried torquing the lower nuts. Put the old mounts back in and while I can still detect a slight vibration at 1250 and 2000, this is only in neutral with the clutch out and car stationary - it goes away as soon as the clutch is depressed and is not detectable at all while driving. I suspect it may be an existing minor clutch component vibration which was made more obvious with the new mounts and my poor install effort. I did find / create another side issue though - replaced my rear exhaust hanger bushing (rubber figure 8 thing) and think I’ve created a little exhaust leak wrestling with the exhaust to get the rubber on 😑 I assume an exhaust leak looks like this:

Changed out my engine mounts and transmission mounts yesterday (with OEM rubber) and all seemed to go well but on my test drive had a strong vibration at low rpm. Got under car again and saw the exhaust bracket bolts where it connects to trans were loose (presumably from me jacking up the tranny to change the mounts) - this only helped but didn’t solve the problem though… Still have a mild vibration right under my drivers seat at around 1.25k and 2k rpm (it goes away if clutch is depressed). I re-checked the nuts and believe I installed the transmission mounts correctly - only thing is I used different top nuts to what was on beforehand (I used a flange nut with washer as the ones that were on it were some kind of one piece design and partially rounded. I did not torque the top nuts as I could only fit a little 13mm wrench on them so just tightened as much as I could. Any thoughts? I assume as it goes away with the clutch disengaged it indicates it’s driveline related, most likely something I did wrong installing the new mounts... the DIY I followed was similar to the engine mount process - i.e. jack up slowly until you can carefully remove and replace mounts - wondering if I should have removed the brace instead to minimise lifting the tranmission?