Kees

Yeah I think the same, I saw it at like 1AM this morning at $1.50 with 18 hours left I was like hmmm I think someone has made a listing error here. Car looks to have a genuine 50,000km, carjam shows at last WOF it had 48,000km. Would have bought it myself if I wasn't stuck in level 4 Auckland lol.

Well someone just got an absolute bargain on an E63 M6. Car had done ~50,000km, was NZ New, and was a nice spec with the carbon interior and carbon roof. There was a catch, it had been crashed. However, I am no expert with assessing damaged cars but to me at least the car looked reasonably repairable. The structure doesn't really look to have been damaged in the crash and honestly looked in remarkably good condition. The car still rolled and could be pulled onto a transporter. Even if the body was toast, surely you could get 5K for the S85 especially seeing it has done 50,000km (and lets be honest S85s are never going to be in short demand). Then there's the SMG box, exhaust, interior, undamaged body panels. Surely there's at least 10K in parts right there. AND ALL OF IT SOLD FOR $4210 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/wrecked-cars/listing/3268500009?bof=FPDzf4bj Photos are not mine, they were taken from the Trademe listing.

Lol and its already sold pending payment....

My bad, saw the plate and incorrectly assumed it was NZ NEW 😅

Oh right yeah thought they would be an enthusiast judging by the Pilot Sport 4 tyres on it. Tbh I'm a fan of all E46s so I think its a steal considering its half the price of a coupe, so you could chuck a couple K in to it and get some nice M-sport bits and make it a super tidy example. Kinda what M539 did with his E46.

Yeah such a shame, and it will be listed as "V6 bmw parting out" in about 3 months time on Facebook marketplace. Hopefully someone who is actually an enthusiast gets it because there really aren't many 330 manuals around anymore, but at 5.9K its well within the price range of a teenager fresh on his restricted...

Yeah thats what I was thinking, plus it looks to have been owned by someone who is older judging by the photos and profile so it wouldn't have been thrashed like most other cheaper manual E46s.

Just spotted this for sale on Trademe. Seems like a very good deal to me... Factory 5 Speed Michelin Pilot Sport 4 Tyres Paint seems relatively immaculate too considering the age. Could do with an M-Sport facelift but overall it looks really nice. All for $5.9K Bet this will sell in less than 3 days. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/330i/listing/3265626510?bof=LwadAbAx

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/330i/listing/3265626510?bof=LwadAbAx This seems like a bargain. Factory manual 330i, with PS4 tyres.

My mate got asked if he could do a burnout in his Impreza WRX. Some people are extremely intelligent.... 😂

V6 BMWs are the best and perfect for burnouts as described 😂. Love the "timted windows" and the rainbow air vents. Must be BMW individual options...

Yeah I don't trust stuff from AliExpress, just bought them for the rubber inserts lol. Wouldn't even trust the key blade to not snap in my ignition barrel. They were only $2 each so I bought a few because I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them is mis-shapen at that price, and then I have spares.

As a result of lock-down I finally found the time to do a decent detail and polish on my E34 540iA. I then applied three layers of wax to make the car nice and glossy. Thought this would be a good opportunity to make a post in the showroom to show it off! Car has done over 371,000km so was quite impressed with how nice the paint still looked. Need to get my replacement sunroof painted though.

Yeah I think the spec may have been one of a kind in NZ (it was quite bizarre). It was Topas-Blau with a matching blue interior and woodgrain. It was registered as an "2.2 Z3 M Roadster" but I don't think it had M-Package as the steering wheel was just a regular E46 wheel. And then of course it was manual and was a facelift Z3 on top of that. I would like to buy it back if it ever came to market, seems to have done about 200,000km according to carjam. Plate was AEY825

@E28E30 Oh nice thats very low km for a Mark 5, I drove my mate's stage 1 Mark 5 GTI a few months ago and it felt very solid and responsive given its age. Euro plates will look good on the E30!

@E28E30 Wow! That looks absolutely superb, your paint looks immaculate for 31 years old, especially being red. Very, very nice job! Also are they Monza Shadows on the Golf? The GTI looks really good especially with the euro plates.

@NZ00Z3 Thank you so much that is extremely helpful! Will be looking into the loom of doom today. Was doing some thinking last night and I realised by car does not double unlock itself from the central locking if the boot has been unlocked and then relocked separately. My boot wires are a bit of a mess as the previous owner just taped them to the hinge, so I wouldn't be surprised if a couple wires are pinched, causing the central locking to be a bit weird. I will also check all the fuses today, hopefully its relatively straight forward. If all else fails I'll dust off my old laptop and have a go with INPA. Once again thank you so much for your help! P.S: my grandfather had a 2001 NZ NEW 2.2 Manual Z3 in Topas-Blau that he got with ~20,000km in 2002, would love a Z3 one day! They are great cars and look superb.

@NZ00Z3 Had another try with the key today. Tried a bunch of times and got an interesting result. Two of the times I tried, when performing the final step when pushing a button while the diode is pointed at the clown nose, the car locked itself but did not unlock which is strange, indicating the key is sending a signal, however overall the sync was un-successful. I think this may have to do with my central locking. Some E34s I have seen (including mine), when unlocked go [Unlock], [Lock], [Unlock] and I think that is what is probably upsetting the final part of the procedure. Any further ideas by any chance?

I had previously tried the camera trick and only saw a dull light coming out of the diode, and ended up concluding it was just reflections on the diode. However, last night I pulled the key apart again while I was bored, and I think whatever I did may have helped because I just tried it again and now I can see a clearly purple light coming from the diode. I will have another try pairing it to the car today as maybe its transmitting a stronger signal now? Seeing as the light is like 10x brighter than it was when I tried it before. Hoping that whoever paired it to the car last time had the door shut so it will actually work! When you say point it at the clown nose is that half spherical switch under the mirror that controls when Auto-Dim is on or off? I suspect maybe last time it didn't work as I was pointing the red light at it but not the diode. Hopefully it works this time! Thanks for your help!

Yeah thought that might be the case, it's a shame when people don't look after the key seeing as its a very essential part of the car. Thanks for your help!

Yeah I have got some shells coming from AliExpress which I ordered last night so I can at least have new key rubbers. I'll get some contact cleaner and see if that makes a difference otherwise I'll get a quote from BMW although it won't be cheap. Good to know the membrane is just meant to sit on the board. Thanks so much for the words of wisdom!

Yeah, I have tried it many times to no avail unfortunately.

So I have about as much knowledge about electronics as the Americans have about building a car that can go round a corner. Just wondering if anyone is familiar with the classic style of BMW key found on E32s, E34s, E36s etc. Unfortunately the previous owners had used their nails when pressing the lock and unlock buttons, breaking through the rubber buttons. This has caused some damage to my key. When I press a button the little red light still flashes but I can't connect the key to my car, and when testing it with a radio, the key does not appear to transmit any IR signal as I cannot hear any interference. When I pulled the key apart I found that the membrane containing the button clickers is not actually attached to the circuit board. This leaves me with three conclusions: 1. The IR transmitter in the key is not receiving a signal when pushing the button on the membrane as a result of the membrane only lying on top of the circuit board and not physically being attached (but somehow the red light still flashes) 2. The second and more likely conclusion is the transmitter is toast and that is why no signal is being sent to the car. As a result of the broken buttons I wouldn't be surprised if water has got into the key and killed the transmitter as the LED light doesn't work either, as there was what seemed to be sand sitting on the membrane. 3. The third and least likely of conclusions is that the key has been working the whole time and the last time someone paired it to the car they did so with the door open which then means the next time you pair the key to the car you have to take it to BMW (according to the owner's manual). Therefore, Just seeking some advice as to what I could potentially do to get the key going. Could an electronics specialist solder in a new transmitter and reattach the membrane easily? Or is the key a bit of a lost cause? Would be nice to have a fully functioning key, with a working LED even.

Today I did a machine polish of my E34 540i. Car has done over 370,000km so I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely the original paint managed to come out. All up took about 5 hours including a pre-wash and then application of a ceramic wax after the polishing had been completed. Used a cordless Dewalt polisher which worked very well, and used Turtle Wax Hybrid Black Polish. Usually for hand polishing I stick to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, but went with Turtle Wax this time due to the large amount of Polish dust Ultimate Compound produces which is annoying when you are polishing an entire car. I did do a little side by side comparison between the two polishes on the bonnet and the results seemed identical to me. An added benefit of the Turtle Wax product is it has a dark pigment so for a particularly nasty scratch on the passenger rear door of my car, the scratch was darkened and is less noticeable. Only down-side to polishing the car is the insane amount of rock chips that have been accrued over the 370,000km are now more obvious lol I then coated the car in Turtle Wax Hybrid black wax and will hopefully do another coat of it tomorrow (takes about 24 hours to fully cure). Included is a before and after to display how well the Turtle Wax Polish did, as well as some photos of the car post polish.

The engine is definitely special but in terms of using the car every day I think most people would choose a twin turbo V8 that is more powerful, reliable and economical, especially when its paired with a DCT rather than an SMG and only a 10-15% price difference. V10 all day as a special weekend driver over the F10 though.