Kees

I was thinking that, eventually I would like to. M Tech 2 wheel would be my choice. However, I would need to "un-airbag" convert my car which I will probably do at some point, because I'm not sure I trust my 30 year old dual airbags haha Probably would do more harm than good if they went off.

I would say the seats are a fair bit cheaper than E30 seats, but unsure on the diff. The sports seats I paid $400 for from someone in the E34 community. Was very happy with that price, have seen some black electroc ones in similar condition go for $800, but I was specifically looking for manual ones. The diff I got from Pick-A-Part for a whopping $130 😂 Diffs suitable for 540s generally range between $800 and $1500 depending on how aggressive the ratio is.

Yeah its a bit of a story actually. I passed WOF first try which I was rather happy about as it was the first time the car wasn't going to cost me any money getting a WOF. Literally on the way home from the WOF place my ABS light came on and my radio switched off for around 5 seconds. I thought a fuse or something must not be happy so I checked everything, made sure all the fuses were pressed in properly and then took the car to work that night. Car performed flawlessly. After work I decided I'd take the car for a motorway loop to see if it would play-up because if it did, I'd book it in with my mechanic. Anyway, I started on the shore and went out West. When I got to Avondale I could smell an eggy smell, similar to Rotorua. My stuck-up North Shore self initially thought that was just how Avondale smelt. 😂 However, by the Greenhithe bridge I realised it was definitely my car. I pulled over and smelt literally everything. I thought maybe some of my mates had hidden some food in it as a prank, and with the doors and windows open the smell quickly dissipated. Started driving again and the smell came back even worse, I pulled over again on Constellation Drive because I knew there was something properly wrong with the car. It was at that moment it clicked in my brain - battery in my E34 is under the back seats. As soon as that crossed my mind it all made sense in my brain. I'd been wondering why my plug in FM transmitter had become really interferency! I touch my rear seat cushion and its really warm. F***, my car isn't spec'd with heated rear seats... Pull the seat cushion off with my fire extinguisher ready (not that it would really help an electrical fire), and my battery is hissing and fizzing, with acid coming out the top. At that point, given it was also a Tuesday morning at roughly 1AM, I called the fire department because I didn't really feel like touching battery acid trying to disconnect my battery. It's funny actually - one of the fire men I'm sure a few forum members will know. I think his name was Jerry, and his BMW collection at the time was an: - E46 M3 CSL - 635 CSI - X4M Competition - M235i And he said he owned many, many other BMWs prior to those, which was neat. He also knew my mechanic well as my mechanic had race prepped one of his previous track cars. So to conclude: It's very lucky the battery is under the back seat otherwise I wouldn't have smelt my battery turning inside out, and it could have ended in my E34 becoming a very hot E34 which would have been quite bad.

Since I'm on holiday, I finally have a bit of time to do an update on my E34 540i. To be honest, in 2022, I didn't do much to the car. It took 3 months for it to get a new windscreen so sat around until April. By that point I was occupied with my W8. It passed it's WOF first try in September! - the first time it had done that, and then almost caught fire that night when the alternator regulator failed and charged the battery at 19V. As you can imagine, the battery didn't fare well. So with an alternator rebuild plus a new battery (alternator got so hot it melted itself so had to be rewound), my wallet was quite a bit lighter so didn't drive it a tone, especially as I soon bought the Porsche. However, just before New Years, some parts I wanted came my way so the motivation to get some things done has returned. I went for a routine trip to Pick-A-Part to get a stock exhaust off an NZ New 540i they had just got in. Out of habit I spun the rear wheels to check if it had an LSD... to my surprise, it did! So that was coming home with me! (2.93 Ratio) I also scored some 95' spec leather door cards, and a few other bits and bobs I needed. A pair of manual grey sports seats came up - just what I wanted as seat twist is just painful, AND I got some E34 skirts - off an M5 even! Need to have them colour matched, although its quite cool that they are still the two tone M5 colour. Gave the E34 Sports Seats a decent tidy up: So anyway, I've started dealing with my interior. Wet Vac'd the carpets and installed the new seats. Carpet was pretty grotty but have it looking relatively good. Found a couple 5 cent coins - 1 from the early 80s! Will have the driver's sports seat re-upholstered at some point. Didn't plug anything in because I don't trust the seat heaters on the 30 year old seats, and to my understanding E34s don't have seat occupancy sensors... I then noticed that the electric mirrors wouldn't work, so I realised I had to pull the memory module off my original electric drivers seat and now they work just fine. I also got to the bottom of my weird climate control issues - a connector retainer clip meant one of the module connectors wasn't in properly which caused AC to not work, rear defrost to not work, and the driver to get no air blown at them. Very annoying issues. Also have swapped a couple door cards but still lots to do. Next on the list is: - Exhaust - LSD installed - Need to find M-Tech front springs (if anyone has some PLEASE sell me them!!!) - Side skirts painted and installed - Blower Motor Change - Change Head-Unit to OEM BMW one. - Put some more Ks on it! Hope to have all these done this year. In terms of driving the car, in the last ~6 months its done a trip to Taupo and I also organised an E34 meet in January this year, so it has had a few long runs. E34 day was a great day out, a few forum members attended. I even had the pleasure of driving @Simca's 535iS and @e46v12's BEASTLY E34 "546" Touring.

Yeah I think it should be quite an attractive car once the front bumper is sorted. The wheels are nice to distinguish it from basically every other 1 series you see, must be quite a rare set? I saw they came on a limited edition 130 sold in the UK.

To be fair I've been fanging it heaps. Once a car is warmed up its fair game in my head to take it high in the rev range frequently lol. I'll reset it and drive responsibly and see how it goes.

Ok so its been a week with my 130i. Gave it a much needed clean a few days ago prior to going on holiday and will be doing a paint correction once I get back. This is what I've noticed about the car so far: 1) I'm guessing its probably one of the thirstiest stock hatches you can buy... because I have minimal self control once its warmed up, I'm averaging between 13-15L/100km LOL. 2) The sound system is awesome! 3) The car is very well balanced, handles great. Steering has a nice weight to it, aside from the fuel economy I understand why so many of you daily these! 4) Seats are very comfortable, and the lumbar is great - can have it tight for spirited driving and relaxed on the motorway. 5) I think its been enthusiast owned - found some Poly suspension bushings in the boot. The wheels have grown on me a decent bit, and I think the Le Mans blue looks awesome. Just need to find a front bumper, its a pretty tidy car aside from that bumper! Still undecided on what to do with it - will probably end up selling it in a couple months as I can tick the 130i box so if anyone could be interested in a cheap 130i, let me know!

I had a dream last night that someone on Bimmersport was selling me their supercharged Z3M Coupe for $11,000. Was rather bitter after I woke up and realised that certainly isn't happening. 🤣

Hahaha it’s an absolute mess. My E34 and W8 are stashed in a shed at a family member’s life style property, Boxster is squeezed in my parents garage, my Peugeot and the 130i are currently living on the road but will hopefully migrate into the driveway soon 🤣

Bought this tonight, will post some better pics tomorrow. Was always curious about 130s so thought might as well buy this one seeing as it seemed to be a pretty decent deal (cheap), hopefully it’s not too unreliable. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, might drive for a bit and fix the major cosmetic things (front bumper is rooted) and then hopefully sell on for a little profit, which I’ll use to tidy a few things on my E34. Was also thinking of using it as a track/novice competition type car but wondering if that’s a rabbit hole I should avoid going down haha Has Style 216 wheels which are neat. Otherwise just regular 130i things. LCI, M Sport, Le Mans blue, Auto, etc

Far out what's amazing with this is they show the before and after pictures of cleaning it up. Just shows how a completely flooded car can look normal, thus the risk of buying flood damaged cars. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m5/listing/3992303914?rsqid=9c27dca5372c475d9df90f35fe22d6dd-002

Couple more wet ones: BMW 435D & Audi S3

Not yet, but no doubt there will be a couple!

Spotted this yesterday. Never seen one in person before. Cool looking thing

Thought I would make a thread to display some of the more interesting flooded cars that have/will be coming through the insurance auctions over the next few weeks. Pretty devastating how badly some of them got flooded. NZ New, Z4 Coupe: GTE Mk7 Golf:

Not sure if anyone else has seen this. Bit of a bugger since its NZ New and MANUAL!! Guess there's only 12 now.... https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/130i/23369537

Fully sick E60 M5 at Countdown Albany

I would get this: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/porsche/cayman/listing/3895845085 I know it has the "cheap 911" reputation but go drive one, TRUST ME. My 987 Boxster is the best car I have driven to date. Steering feel, shift throw, flat 6 howl, weight balance etc, its just all bang on point. 987 Cayman would be even better because convertible roof is annoying when it isn't a perfect day AND its just that bit more rigid. To be fair though, roadster on a sunny day is absolutely awesome. Plus that Cayman is poised for value gains being 1) MANUAL and 2) Uncommon colour. If you can deal with having two seats because they are mid engined you get a front boot and a rear boot so there's tons of storage space, and it would also kick ass on a track day, and still be comfy and reliable for daily driver duties. Bonus: they're good on fuel, I get 11s per 100 around town when I boot it places, and in the 7s on long trips. I drove an E90 M3 the other day, and the steering, driving position, interior quality etc is just sub par to the Porsche. I'm sure a few forum members with M3s may contest this but honestly its really hard to beat some of the mid 2000s Porsche products with hydraulic steering, and the goldilocks levels of driving aids (not too much, not too little), and 3 pedals... p.s: I am selling my manual Boxster if you do fancy a Roadster. $20K and its yours.

I bought my square set for $1.5K but they are in original condition so will need refurbishment at some point. Also needed two tyres so were around $2K all up which wasn't too bad I thought. Problem I see with throwing stars: 1) Most E34 owners don't have $7K to spend on wheels. If they can afford the wheels, they probably own an M5 which have them on there already. 2) Because throwing stars are a rare wheel they inherently have some solid BUT its a small market as they only really suit E34s/E31s. HOWEVER, if you do want a set, they are so rare that they are rarely available in NZ which mean you do indeed have to pay up for them and get them from the US. Will be interested to see what these ones go for.

Lol my V10 S8 would do a similar 450km (500 if you were lucky) out of 90L. To be fair, that was probably due to my large lack of self control with the accelerator pedal. I'm sure long distance the torque from a V10 would make economy a bit more reasonable if you were sensible. Can confirm this statement is extremely accurate.

Welcome, awesome spec on the Z3!

Might be the one discussed here? It's a shame Trademe won't load the auction photos but I remember it being a black E61 M5, surely it would be the only black one?

Shocking news. Absolute legend, he will be missed!

You’re the second person in 24 hours who have recommended their stuff. Will have to do shopping!

Awesome, will do, thanks for the help!