HalfJobHarry

You took it in for a WOF, and through a specific action that was INTENTIONAL (and not related to what you took it there for) they have caused adverse effects to your vehicle. This is no different to if they too it upon themselves to respray a wing in a different color.  Matters not that it's an import or you had modifications or whatever, you took it for a WOF. 

If it had even being going in for a service they would have had *some* defense as the service might stipulate they will update software etc etc. 

They need to put it right, or send it / pay for somebody who can put it right. 

Good grief  drop an N52 in. Can't fathom spending that time and money on those engines just waiting for the next silly thing to need doing (valve stems .. and the rest). 

20 hours ago, Jacko said:

Meh, as long as their service continues to be next level, it makes very little difference to NZ anyway. 

 

Ive had good service from ECS as well, but FCP seem to go out of their way to make sh*t right. 

The warranty isn't a big deal for stuff like pads.... but it's really good to know that the big ticket items will be the last time I ever pay out for them... 

Coils, Injectors , that kind of thing. 

Shipping back to the USA is often *LESS* than what a single item in a set costs from a supplier here in NZ. 

17 hours ago, smiddy said:

Yes, many a tyre ( some new) have worn to steel belts, in the short drive to alignment shop after this mod!

Good work Peter.

 

I would recommend this mod as a garage DIY for sure. Hardest part is torquing up the bolts with the wheel hub at the normal driving height. I measured the centre of the hub to wheel arch with weight on the wheels ..and then jacked the hub up to that height to torque everything up. 

12 hours ago, elias said:

had a look at fop euro but its over $1000usd by the time you include the core charge and the shipping and import tax on top of that dont have the money for that atm, although probably worth it with the lifetime warranty, the one from the wrecker is working great and gave me a 3month warranty which is better than nothing I guess... too many things to do on these cars, time to buy a guard roller next

You're right..900 usd is a lot more than I thought they would be. Fortunately the later model part tend not to fail. It's the earlier runs that had a design flaw. 

Sounds like you got a good deal and glad it's all sorted. 

On 4/24/2022 at 5:16 PM, elias said:

Hi sorry man, just saw this now, appreciate the offer though, just replaced mine with one out of an early n55 from a wrecker, cost me $440. Car runs great now though!

On another note, anyone in auckland got a guard roller? And possibly be willing to lend a hand with rolling the rear guards on my 1 series coupe? Happy to supply beer/cash for your efforts, cheers

Glad it's sorted...did you not fancy the FCP Euro lifetime replacement...or couldn't wait for delivery. 

On 2/8/2022 at 11:56 AM, M3AN said:

I am, yes.

I normally call them up and ask when a good time will be for them and then bugger off to Sylvia Park, or wander around tool shops on Carbine Road, for a couple of hours. Although red/masks/covid make that a slightly less appealing proposition at the moment.

My initial total toe after changing to my M3 arms was nearly 18mm 😂😂. I was complimented for getting both sides to 8.8 and 8.7mm though. I put the tie rods back to exactly the thread they were on with the stock arms..so presumably that 18mm change is down to the longer control arms... 

The extra stiffness and super responsive turn in with the new arms feels amazing. I had felt that it was the rear that felt loose powering around a roundabout (at or below 50km/h of course) was slightly loose but that feeling has gone away with the front arms (which I don't fully understand). 

Down side is it makes one feel *very* adventurous and there is strong urge not to step the back end out given how planted the front feels.  

Awesome shop. Top marks for sure, this is a place that knows their stuff, regular priced too , sure you can save $20 going elsewhere but my experience with many places is you're rolling the dice. 

On 2/25/2022 at 4:33 AM, First Timer said:

If I was in Auckland I'd go to Eurosurgen. they can retrofit options and they use their own proprietary coding for import cars. 

For wheel alignment??? 

Eurosurgeon do know their BMW stuff and can certainly save some aggro for many people but I wouldn't go as far as calling doing coding 'proprietary' ...

I never came back on this....a set of extractor drill bits got this out...$15 from Toolshed or whatever its called. 

Good to hear the props for xHP.  I run the stage 3 xHP on my E82 and for the cost / time it was the single biggest improvement I've made. 

I've had BlackVue in two of the cars over the past few years. Not the cheapest but not the most expensive. Image quality is excellent in HD at night even and more than good enough to read the plate from other vehicles.

I fitted both front and rear cameras myself and wired them in with PowerMagic Pros. 

On the subject of EWS. With a blank key ..going under the dash and programming a new key eith an onchip programmer is a 3 minute process. 

With the correct equipment it doesn't take that much longer on the newer CAS vehicles. 

You then break the lock barrel and away you go. 

For these high value high target vehicles. You need layered protection.

An aftermarket GPS tracker with remote fuel kill is essential. Under $500 with fitting. 

Also a steering wheel lock...it won't slow down a pro for too long but every little helps.

This won't have been a random act.

23 hours ago, gofaster said:

Hi Harry. Out of curiosity, what are typical symptoms of the HPFP failing?Cheers, John

The big ones to look out for are misfires but another mode can be a hard start first thing in the morning due to the pressure not building quickly enough in a failing pump.

What's often misunderstood is that it's really only the early production run of HPFPs that "die young"...often well below 100k KM. Even below 50k KM. 

The replacement spec should live a very long life. 

With BMWs easy access to a scanner tool / inpa or even better some way to take logs is essential to ownership as proper diagnosis is vital to prevent massive unnecessary expenditure. 

However as with all things automotive..the symptoms above can be nothing to do with the HPFP. 

I have a spare N54 HPFP that came off my donor engine. Believed to have as much as 100k on it though.

If you've got an earlier N54 then the HPFP will almost certainly fail relatively early. Mine failed at 54k. I understand the replacement units have cured the fault. 

I'll dig out my spare and check if it's one of the later pumps. If not save yourself an arm and a leg and get from FCP Euro. 

So after a month of various maintenance I come to the valve cover gasket. I discover that I somehow already have a snapped bolt for the valve cover...which incredible didn't seem to be leaking in the area. 

Looking at the marks around the hole looks like somebody tried to get it out before and clearly chanced it by somehow sticking the head of the bolt in place.

Anybody in Auckland I can pay to come in and get this out?

2 hours ago, Braydon said:

Picked up my first BMW, and newest car personally, a 2014 M135i, quite nicely spec'd and a very tidy car

Welcome! These are lovely motors. I had one as a company car brand new back in 2014 in the UK . Drove it like it was stolen . 

BMW ownership is a different world to JDM, they need to be treated like princesses in terms of maintenance but they won't let you down and will reward you forever in return. 

When it comes to altering the VO etc, unless you really want to muck around with the bootleg BMW tools on a laptop, I'd highly highly highly recommend Bimmergeeks Protool (works on an android phone or tablet). There is a not insignificant cost $150 ? but it "just works' for coding, VOs etc and their support is fantastic. 

3 minutes ago, M3AN said:

I am, yes.

I normally call them up and ask when a good time will be for them and then bugger off to Sylvia Park, or wander around tool shops on Carbine Road, for a couple of hours. Although red/masks/covid make that a slightly less appealing proposition at the moment.

I'll do that then.  

On 2/3/2022 at 5:26 PM, elias said:

thanks for the reply, can't find m3 control arms in stock anywhere atm, haven't had the pins knocked out yet, not sure if that would make enough of a difference? Would coilers with adjustable front camber plates fix it?

 

Turners seem to get them stocked within a week or two of order. I had mine door to door in under 3 weeks last month (even with fedex being super slow). 

On 2/3/2022 at 3:21 PM, Vass said:

Aye cool! Would be keen to hear more about your experience, how deep you went into it, what you'd do differently if you were to do it again etc. Cheers

 

.

It was a total rebuild down to the bare block, machined, oversized bearings the lot. 

Probably many things I'd do differently , the biggest thing I'm glad I did though was fit an aftermarket oil pump. 

I did not have any issues with torquing the head down. 

I had the supervision of an experienced engine builder as this was my second proper rebuild. 

In hindsight I'd have a clearer goal for the project, given this is an NA engine and I wasn't aiming for vastly increased power the rebuild didn't have much point other than gaining good experience. In later builds I've had a clear goal (like super charging a K20, or hitting 500 WHP with the N54) etc. 

Good fun though. 

Are we still giving the nod to race align? 

Have the M3 front arms on now and need a full align by some proper pros. 

Great to see this project, M54B30 was the second engine I ever rebuilt from my 330i back in 2012/2013. Brings back memories. 

My E82s cooling fan wire was held in place with these and I cannot figure out how to fix it back in place, were these sticky at some point or is some nimble fingered wrapping needed?

FedEx was a nightmare for me over Christmas too. had a 31 day transit from Florida to East Auckland. 2 days from Miami to Auckland, 29 days East Tamaki to my house. 

However, the "good" news is two things I ordered after Christmas arrived in 10 days straight (not a record) but better than the pre Christmas BS. 

I still use ISTA and INPA but the laptop has become tiresome over the years. I bought the full Bimmergeeks protool for Android a while back and haven't really looked back (there is / was a cost in time for re-installing etc so the time saved with ProTool is a bargain).  Works with an OTG connection and the cables I already had. 

Check FCP Euro too.