Hazzy

On 2/5/2024 at 4:04 PM, Bruski said:

Has anyone tried Cove for car insurance?  Shopping around after receiving the same shock - from Tower = up from something like 640 to 880 on the family shopping trolley is outrageous.  And that is after raising the excess last year post a fairly hefty increase in 2023.  Cove came out the cheapest.  All the others were close to or a lot more than Tower.  Cove seemed one of those 'too good to be true, probably is' moments.

I've got my insurance on the my Prado with Cove and haven't had any issues with them yet. Although I haven't had to make any claims so hard to know up until that point. I think I have claimed some stone chips in the glass with them which was pretty easy. They have some annoying exclusions though like any business use negates your cover and a few others. They're quite finnicky on named drivers as well, e.g anyone using the car once a month is considered regular use . They are pretty open about these but best to look through and make sure you're all good with them.

MAS has been good as well, I didn't have any increase on my premium on my last renewal and they have been easy to deal with in the past. But again haven't made any major claims with them so hard to know. I'll likely move the prado over the MAS if the premium is the similar to cove, my first year with Cove gave me one month free which made it more competitive.

57 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Even if you found one it would likely be in worse condition. Always going to loose to insurance with these type of cars if you have anything that better than average.

Yeah can't really put a price on the stupid amount of hours spent on it.

59 minutes ago, TonyT said:

If it's an agreed value policy then set the value at a figure you agree with. I always adjust mine each year, precisely because their estimate doesn't gel with the market. AA insurance wont bat an eyelid if you want to insure for more than they suggest.

I basically just set it to the max amount they were willing to insure it for without going to any extra effort which was close enough.
So for mine it isn’t super far off the actual value since it's an auto, the main problem I would have is that I wouldn’t be able to find a replacement for the car at all since the tourings aren’t very common.

My car insurance with MAS actually went down this year and the agreed value stayed the same which was a nice surprise.

The agreed value on mine is $7500 which probably isn't enough to replace it like for like since 330i wagons are pretty rare but is as good as I am going to get for an E46.

On 1/24/2024 at 11:57 AM, Eagle said:

Rear sure looks sacked out in some of those shots. Weight in rear? Terrain? or both?

Definitely because of weight in the rear, had my tools right in the back so I could get to them which wouldn't be helping, then a bunch of other stuff weighing it down. Usually it's ride height is a bit more sensible than that. I did grab a set of touring specific M-Sport springs from the parts car so might put them in at some point to see if they're any different to the convertible ones I am currently using.

Made it back to Queenstown without any real issues a couple weeks back. Car is working mint after the steering pump replacement feels a lot better than it did previously. I didn't really notice a difference in steering weight between the LF-20 and LF-30 surprisingly. Fuel economy was a bit average due to my bike being on the roof but is what it is. Made full use of the touring by cramming a bunch into it.

G21 Wagon in the carpark, nice colour. 

Got 50% of the glossy trim on, great for showing people what a difference it makes lol. Getting the trim off the parts car was actually pretty easy, even that last panel that is known to be a pain.

On my car however that part that Sreten in his E46 series struggled with had me struggling as well. I Got it off but the trim piece was a mangled mess at the end of it, I'm glad the glossy ones came off easily.

I'll do the rest when I am back in Queenstown. Pretty big improvement though even people who haven't noticed any of the other things I did seem to think the glossy looks a lot better.

Anyway got it all packed up and drove to Wellington yesterday, then ferry back to the south today. Wagon utility coming into it's own here.

New power steering pump is in as of last night. Has made a massive difference, the perpetual groaning it was making has vanished and the whole thing feels a lot better. Makes the car far more civilised. I also replaced the ignition coils for some reason. No idea if it made a difference or not probably a waste of money but meh. PrEveNtaTivE mAiNteNanCe.

Pretty obvious where the new door is. It honestly is a lot less noticeable in person than photos for some reason. Still, better than the creaky door with the dent. Can always get it repainted if I really wanted. Hopefully someone drives into this door at some point so I can get another respray lol. Still have those glossy window trim things to go on but I can finish that off later if need be.

Not the most mint E46 wagon out there but still looking pretty good I reckon.

Touring part out continues,  @Vass were any of these the parts you were after?

A slight side project of replacing the shocks in my mum's passat caused a bit of a delay but hopefully should get everything done before I head south again. Learnt about the existence of XZN/True square spline fasteners at 10:30pm, thanks VAG...

Got to use my $50 spring compressor again, only reason I even offered to do it. Also got the bench grinder out to make a homemade strut spreader which reduced the amount swearing needed to get the things back in again.

Anyway, cars looking a lot better with the M-Sport bits.

Unfortunately the black shadowline trim from partscar is in a pretty bad condition so I will just stick with the chrome for now until I get a chance to repaint it or whatever. I'm thinking that I will still put the glossy window trim on that matches the power folding mirrors though since thats all in pretty good shape. I've also replaced the passenger side door which had a nasty dent in it, that also happened to fix the god awful noise that door was making whenever I opened it.

I've also swapped the power steering pump from the LF-20 to the LF-30, hopefully that fixes the loud noises it's been making. I will possibly swap the rack over to the purple tag at a later date once I've got a new PS reservoir.

𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒛𝒆

I can definitely see a slight difference in the shade of silver between the partscar bits and the OG car but in person it's pretty hard to tell and realistically it'll probably only be me who notices (and everyone on this forum). At least it's less noticeable than the gnarly dent.

5 hours ago, Vass said:

Not to push you into further scope creep, but I'd be tempted to do a full facelift conversion 😏 Shouldn't be too involved, just straight swapping parts unless the headlights are different type (halogen vs xenon). Can get a good quality brand new corner light + fender indicator set from Spareto for roughly $50...

I did consider that as an option but the condition of the bonnet and fenders is worse than mine so just gunna keep it as is. Plus I don't mind the pre facelift look kind of gotten used to it. I think I prefer to the prefacelift lights but prefer to the post facelift hood if that makes sense.

 My ideal choice would to be to swap the front end of a coupe to give it the M3 look, maybe chuck an S54 in it at the same time...

5 hours ago, Eagle said:

Purple tag is a must, may have to adapt your turn in as its so precise when the rest of your steering\suspension up to scratch.

I am curious what the LF20 feels like with the purple tag rack. My E46 is a bit light in the steering. 

Yeah have heard that the LF30's are a bit lighter. Unfortunately I think my LF20 has one foot in the grave so won't be able to test the difference unfortunately.

My current rack has the yellow tag rack I think not sure how that compares to purple. Some threads seem to reckon yellow > purple then others purple > yellow so who knows. I could swap just the pump over first then see how that compares, then potentially do the purple later. Not sure if my rack is in the best condition either though and it looks like the purple tag in the parts car was swapped over at some point.

One thing to note is that I have the CMP solid coupling in at the moment which helped quite a lot with my steering looseness, although it can be a bit harsh on longer drives I've found, (e.g Queenstown to Auckland...). That could also be because my power steering pump being a bit dodgy though.

Parts car has finally been removed from the garage, just need to take that shadowline trim off, front passenger door and some other bits then I can try get rid of it. Also robbed it of the rear touring M-Sport springs so it's got some blocks of wood in there instead.

EDIT

Trimmed the numberplate as @Vass suggested, definitely looks way cleaner. Currently the numberplate is attached with a bunch of VHB tape but I will replace that some screws when I get back to Queenstown since there's a bunch of screws at work.

3 hours ago, balancerider said:

@Vass the euro plinth from the original car will fit?

@Hazzy i reckon it would look even better with the clear  (‘euro’ ) corner lights from the parts car

Unfortunately the parts car is a facelift model so won't be able to steal any lights from it. Also the corner light is flooded on one side so not so keen on that.

I don't think the euro plinth from my current car would fit on the M-Sport properly having had a look at it next to the M-Sport ones I've got. Having seen what Vass did with his seems like the cleanest way to go since I don't want to give the thieves at Kiwiplates $300 for a euro plate.

In other news steering system has been repossessed from the parts car, semi tempted to put this into mine whilst I'm up here since I haven't got anywhere to work on the car in Queenstown at the moment.

This topic is definitely turning more into project than showroom haha.

Photo of it not on jackstands lol.

4 hours ago, Vass said:

Ahh nice! An Msport touring parts car is an epic find, especially in the same colour. Will need to snap one up myself if I ever see one but haven't come across any for a few years now despite constantly keeping a lookout. Never seen a touring at the local Pick-A-Part either.

Some of the touring-specific bits like the plastic boot trims, hatch surrounds and rear seats could be worth keeping as they're damn hard to come by. The shadowline trims are absolute unobtanium.

LF-20's have a tendency of shearing the shaft but LF-30's are supposedly pretty robust. I took mine apart, went to a local seal supplier, sized up all the necessary O-rings, cleaned and resealed it. Not as daunting a task as I originally thought it might be, I think there was 6-7 different O-rings in there. I still have a whole heap left over, I would have gotten several of each size and several size options for each O-ring just to be sure so should be enough for another reseal. You're welcome to grab them on your way back down if you wish. 

As boring as silver is it definitely has it's upsides when it comes to finding parts. I found the parts car on marketplace up north and got my dad to trailer it back to his, cost me $1000 which isn't too bad considering how much all these parts would cost on their own and how hard they are to find. Gotta get to work getting all the black interior bits since I need to redo my headliner at some point. Scope creep keeps expanding...

3 hours ago, Eagle said:

As above they are pretty robust and you rarely hear of them failing. As long as the power steering oil has been changed at points be they would probably go forever only needed seal replacement. Current one has done 320,000km and my old E39 had ~290,000km on it with the original pump. A new OE FZT (LUK replacement) one is around $600-700. 

Sounds like I should take that Lf-30 since I've got it sitting in there anyway and mine really doesn't seem super healthy.

Might have to take you up on that offer for those O-rings, was looking at this kit. Let me know if you need any touring bits since I'm taking it apart anyway. 

28 minutes ago, Vass said:

You drove all the way to Auckland for that? Gotta admire the effort 😄 Looks well good! Don't forget to trim off the bottom edge of the rego plate holder, will tidy it right up, especially on a silver car. 

Bit jelly of those vents... Mine are all shagged and held together with zip ties. Tempted to get a whole new set along with the arch liners when I've got a good few hundy burning a hole in my pocket. Bloody hard to find used Msport ones in good condition.

Yep haha, I've had an M-Sport parts car sitting in my dad's garage for a while so needed to get it done at some point, plus family is up here so was going to be here for Christmas anyway, then I've got some stuff to bring back so in my head totally worth it...

Was quite happy to see that the vents were in good condition. A parts car is probably the way to go for this stuff can't imagine what it would cost getting everything individually. Hopefully I can sell some of the parts from the parts car (e.g Wheels, towbar, etc) to make it a bit more cost neutral.

Next stage of the job is swapping over the gloss black window trim things and sorting out the rear bumper.

I am tempted to take the power steering pump as well since my current one might be on the way out. Although part of me is thinking that I should just fork out for a new one rather than taking a higher milage unit from the parts car. My car has the LF-20 and pretty sure the parts car has the LF-30 which might be an upgrade.

Drove up to Auckland from Queenstown to put on some new bumpers/sideskirts/vents etc. The parts aren't all mint but neither was my current bumper so bit of a lateral move really. Still, looks a lot better than the stock ones mine has.

Even got the M-Sport vents so everything fits nice and flush. 

Hey guys, anyone got one one of these they would be able to sell?

https://protuning.com/en/64125-genuine-m-sport-rear-bumper-diffuser-for-bmw-e46-m-sport

Finally installed fresh RTAB's on it. I was going to go with Moog camry spherical bearing but gave up on getting them in with the tool I had. Also got my control arms fixed and warrant sorted out. I love suspension work it brings great joy...

Control arms and FCAB's. The FCAB's were actually fine but since I was getting everything replaced through FCP Euro I switched them out anyway. The FCP thing did save me a little bit but the shipping definitely adds up. The exchange rate really did help me either.

The issue with the tool is that they hadn't machined the top flat so I couldn't flip it around to properly align it. After a few goes trying to get them in I decided to just stick with the OEM RTAB's with limiters since I had some lying around from ages ago. The tool worked fine for getting those back in.

Set the preload on the rubber RTAB's to the same angle that they were originally.

Haven't driven it much since then as it needs an alignment but from my drive around the block it I can tell that it is definitely feeling a lot more solid on the rear so should be good once that alignment is done. I am now going to refrain from driving on unsealed roads and use the Prado for that...

Have now finished with my E46 RTAB tool, if anyone else needs to borrow it can probably ship it to them or pick up from Queenstown.

Bought these to install on my car but didn't end up getting them in since my tool wasn't well suited to the install.

The best way to do it  would be going at it with a shop press rather than trying to get them on whilst on the car, would probably work better with a proper set of bearing cups though.

The bearings themselves have got pretty good reviews on E46fanatics. I bought an install kit as well from there which is included and helps get it into the correct depth and includes bushings to fit the stock bolts and a flap wheel to remove rust on the flange in the control arm. More info here on installing them and the install kit. Good cheap way of getting spherical RTAB's without forking out $400 on some of the other options (CMP, Turner, etc). 

Looking for $160 including shipping.

16 minutes ago, M3AN said:

That looks pretty solid and heavy duty, hopefully does the job. Just make sure you pack that thrust bearing and the main threads with lots of grease.

 

Yep thats the plan. It didn't actually come with the thrust bearing but I figured adding one wouldn't hurt.

Well it was good while it lasted. 

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On 10/21/2022 at 11:06 AM, Spinner99 said:

Yep - I have this cup set I used to do the rear bushings on my E46 Touring a few years ago.  I'm assuming that's the car you want it for?  It weighs about 5kg (for shipping purposes)

Damn would of been keen for that. Is it just for the RTAB or does it do the other bushings as well?

Ended up biting the bullet and buying my own one so will see how that goes for now. Cheers for the offer though hopefully someone else might be able to use them in the future.

18 hours ago, Mad_Max said:

Hsve got this set if it's any use? Happy for you to borrow if it'll do the job. I'll be in Alex tomorrow night and I think Frankton Sunday, probably around lunchtime. Will confirm later.

Thanks for the offer! Not sure if they will work though since I have the original OEM RTAB with the flange which makes it tricky to get out for with the round cups I think. 

Looking to buy/rent E46 RTAB tool. Got some monoball RTAB's on the way and want to reduce my suffering.

13 hours ago, Eagle said:

Maybe both?. Id certainly put Meyle HD and Lemforder ahead of TRW for arms. Im running Meyle HD as they have replaceable ball joints.

Yeah probably the way to go if I was going to do it again. 

Anyone have a RTAB removal tool I could potentially rent off them for a few days? Looking at doing my RTABS before getting an alignment.